Reboot Britain

How is policymaking changing? Increasingly data and judgement can be crowdsourced. As interactive tools make conversation more open and easy, how is public understanding of complex issues being facilitated? Let's take a look at how the web-standards of usability and accessibility are meeting good design to make these issues more tangible. Come to this session to help ensure that design and usability are priorities for policymakers.

An action plan to tackle the digital divide

As the relationship between the mainstream media and politicians becomes ever more poisonous, and as political bloggers explode what compacts remain between journalists and MPS, is there a way that the blogosphere can promote decency in political communications and honesty and fairness from the media? In Northern Ireland, Slugger O'Toole has sought to create a new space that is both nimble and analytical while also striving for a standard of decency in public engagement. How can the rest of the UK establish a similar entity? Maybe you can help.

Matthew Taylor asks: do we have a "

Most volunteer and community projects start off informally as groups of people who share an interest. This is fine until they reach a size where they need to start voting on decisions or need a constitution so they can open a bank account. At this point they're confronted by a bewildering choice of legal structures and a load of bureaucracy to get an organisation set up. We think people have got more important things to worry about. One Click Orgs is building a website where you can automatically create a legal structure and electronic voting system for your group. The platform will maintain a record of group decisions, log how members have voted and provide automatic tools to modify the constitution as the group's needs evolve. Come and see it explained.

As local news titles close and community-run websites step into the gap, is there is a new way for local government to converse with the public at a grassroots level? Join this session to take a good look at how these sites help the public to address neighbourhood problems. And let's probe whether online neighbourhood communities create new excluded groups - is there an argument that they're diminishing democracy?

Tim Davies has identified 50 small hurdles that prevent public bodies from unlocking their knowledge and opening themselves up to more conversational, interactive processes. Take a look at the 50 here.

At this session, take part in the creation of an interactive charter that will create a momentum to remove these obstacles and promote a more open and transparent policy-making.

As new tools and processes raise an expectation of interactivity from local government, they provide councils with a new opportunity to communicate their work and change the way they are perceived. At this practical session fronted by a panel of local government politician, let's explore what is it that the public truly want from councils - how do they ensure the experience and perception of government matches the performance statistics? At the end of the hour, we'll have a 12 point plan for change in local government: a manifesto for change that will be opened up to the wider local government sector after the event.