The latest from Poetic Republichttp://www.poeticrepublic.com/news/Can a creative writing competition (the MAG poetry competition) solve one of the central problems of e-democracy? First of all, if we're a little shaky on what the term e-democracy means (probably most of us) we can clear this up by reviewing (selectively) the discussion topics at the Future-Democracy '09 conference, 25th November 2009, London, UK. The keynote speech by Will Straw, Editor, Left Foot Forward, focussed on blogs. In a nutshell, anyone can set up a blog and become a kind of self-styled online newspaper. The process has taken off more in the USA than in the UK, probably because the USA has no real national newspapers, unlike the UK situation. In the USA, this leaves more space for the small players to move into. Anyway, bloggers can actually create and break news. Next up was a speaker from Italy, Guglielmo Celata, who talked about a remarkable website Openpolis which collects information on about 130,000 politicians in Italy and makes it available to the public in an easy to search format. For Guglielmo, the central notions of e-democracy are openness and transparency. The session on engaging young people in e-democracy saw Tom Lodziak talk about the UK Youth Parliament and Becky Allen from the Hansard Society talk about Heads Up. Both websites aim at generating discussion from young people about current issues. The Heads Up initiative focuses on having a defined outout - a set of ideas and conclusions that can be fed into government policy-making forums. Jo Woolf talked about Channel 4's Battlefront which is a site promoting young people's campaigns. The morning finished with Catherine Howe, Operations Director, Public-i, talking about the challenge of bringing the sheer volume of discussion (noise) that Social Media (Facebook and Twitter) can generate into a useful output. For the moment the social web resembles the Wild West and a Facebook group with 1million members doesn't constitute a refined decision-making process that will drive society forward. The afternoon was organised into a series of concomitant workshops. You couldn't go to everything. The highlight here (from a press perspective) was probably the workshop on the future of electronic petitions. The UK government is making e-petitions compulsory for all local councils in the UK. I opted out of this session but fortunately the good people at the BBC were vigilant and covered this in full BBC coverage of e-petitions. So, what are the key threads running through e-democracy? And where does the MAG poetry competition fit in? The first key thread is transparency. The web is increasing transparency. More information is becoming available and this information is being rapidly disseminated to anyone who is in a position to absord rapidly disseminated information. This process is going ahead whether people like it or not. In this context the MAG poetry competition sits confortably but this isn't the rub. The second key thread, that comes up over and over, is participation. The web is giving more and more people the opportunity to have a voice. But the problem for e-democracy is that few, if any, mechanisms exist to translate these voices into a source of constructive decision-making. E-petitions certainly represent one way forward. In this second context, the MAG poetry competition has developed its own unique mechanism to convert the opinions of the participating poets into an effective decision - the choice of winner. Interestingly this is achieved without discussion. There is no online debate over which poem is the best poem. The 2010 MAG poetry competition incorporates further innovation in that participants will be able to leave comments during the judging process - but these comments will only be published after the winners have been announced. Whether this has wider implications for e-democracy time will tell. E-democracy, however, looks to be having an impact on poetry competitions. Thank you to Dan Jellinek, Event Chair, Future Democracy 09 for putting together such a varied and fascinating group of speakers which stimulated so many thoughts and ideas.   Peter Hartey Organizer, MAG Poetry Prize                                                                                                                     http://www.poeticrepublic.com/news/8/poetry-competitions-and-e-democracy-in-the-uk/Sun, 7 February 2010 14:46:16 GMTSee homepage for details.http://www.poeticrepublic.com/news/6/francesca-mcmahon-wins-mag-poetry-prize-2009/Mon, 10 August 2009 09:33:38 BSTMAG's emergency response project for Gaza is contributing to the post-conflict reconstruction efforts by ensuring as safe an environment as possible for the local population and development agencies.Latest activities (7-13 February)MAG staff undertook nine tasks during the week including assessment of schools, buildings and agricultural landIn Gaza City a Hellfire Nitro tank was removed after a report was received from OxfamUNRWA reported an item at Tal el Hawa School on assessment MAG's Technical staff identified wedges of smoke generating incendiary (white phosphorous) projectiles. These were immediately removed and stored safelyA reconnaissance visit was completed before removing the nose cone of an air dropped High Explosive (HE) bomb. After which the MAG technical team verified the absence of a nose fuse on the bomb, which indicated that it is safe to transport. The technical team also completed a visual search around the building on request of the owner during which no further items were identifiedAn item of UXO was identified after MAG responded to a request from ICRC The item is approximately six metres below the surface and in an orange grove. The location was marked and the item will moved at a later date when appropriate equipment is availableMAG Technical staff conducted a number of assessments in and around several houses and buildings, verifying that they were safe to enter with no contamination by UXOArrangements for a MAG office and staff accommodation were completed and an office has been establishedThe following MAG personnel are now working on the project:Technical Director who is the Operations Manager for the projectSeven UXO techniciansOne qualified paramedicProgramme OfficerOne Community Liaison Manager and one UXO technician are also due to arrive in Jerusalem on 15 February MAG would like to express its gratitude to the following donors for supporting to the Gaza emergency response project: Department for International Development (UK); United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).The above is taken directly from the MAG website. To find out more about MAG's work please visit their website:www.maginternational.org http://www.poeticrepublic.com/news/5/mag-responds-to-gaza-crisis/Fri, 13 February 2009 20:02:04 GMTYes, we were just blown away to be awarded Manchester Evening News "Site of the Week" just in time for Christmas. An unexpected present! Poetry had another Christmas present in the UK with two versions of the Leonard Cohen song "Hallelujah" fighting for the Christmas number one position in the charts. Predictably the X Factor winner Alexandra Burke hit the top position leaving the classic Jeff Buckley version in second place. Leonard Cohen's own version was also in the charts at position 36.It is interesting to note that Leonard Cohen says he wrote over eighty verses for the song before arriving at the final five verses. It reminds me of a poetry workshop given by David Harsent at the Poetry School in London where he was keen to point out that "all writing is about re-writing."Posted By Peter Harteyhttp://www.poeticrepublic.com/news/4/awarded-asite-of-the-weeka-/Mon, 29 December 2008 23:03:40 GMTYes, MAG (Mines Advisory Group) is holding an online Celebrity Shoe Auction. Shoes from Tony Blair, Dame Shirley Bassey, Greg Rusedski, Barbara Bach, Jarvis Cocker, Ian Hislop, Geri Halliwell, Lulu, Theo Walcott and many more... Check out... there must be some poetry somewhere amongst all these shoes! http://www.poeticrepublic.com/news/3/celebrity-shoes/Sat, 29 November 2008 15:00:23 GMTPOETRY COMPETITION IN AID OF LANDMINE CHARITY With landmines still threatening the lives and security of thousands around the world, a UK-based poetry group is looking to use creative writing as a way of raising funds for life-saving humanitarian work. Peter Hartey, who pioneered the Manchester poetry forum ‘Poetic Republic', has launched an ambitious online poetry competition with proceeds going to the aid of the UK landmine charity, MAG (Mines Advisory Group). The competition will enable aspiring and established poets from across the globe to submit their on-line entries for the MAG Poetry Prize with proceeds going towards clearance and development work in countries affected by landmines and unexploded ordnance. The prize fund accumulates at the rate of £2 per entry up to a maximum of £10,000.  This knockout competition will be run in a unique way with poets themselves judging the entries of their fellow participants rather than a panel of judges. "The winning poems will not reflect the taste of one or two individuals but rather the wider group" said competition organizer Peter Hartey.  "This is truly an online poetry contest that harnesses the huge judging potential that the pool of entrants represents," says Peter. "Whilst it is a "competition", more importantly, it's a fun and creative way for people to learn from their fellow poets." "Landmines still kill and maim thousands of people across the globe," said MAG Chief Executive Lou McGrath. "We are extremely impressed with the efforts of Peter and Poetic Republic and grateful for these much needed funds for our clearance work." The closing date for the competition is 30th April 2009.   MAG is a neutral and impartial humanitarian organisation clearing the remnants of conflict for the benefit of communities worldwide. MAG is co-laureate of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize, awarded for its work with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), which culminated in the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty - the international agreement that bans antipersonnel landmines.  Poetic Republic is a Manchester based not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the promotion of the poetic arts and humanitarian causes.    http://www.poeticrepublic.com/news/2/press-release/Thu, 20 November 2008 20:14:02 GMTPoetic Republic was launched in the Committee Room of Manchester's striking neoclassical circular Central Library on Wednesday 9th July at 6.00pm. 12 of Manchester's finest poets read/performed - including a Canadian and an Australian poet! A great presentation was given by the Head of Operations from the humanitarian organisation MAG (Mines Advisory Group). The event was timed to be included as part of the Not Part Of Festival 2008, with the actual launch of the site to follow shortly after...http://www.poeticrepublic.com/news/1/launch-event-9th-july-2008/Fri, 17 October 2008 16:05:42 BST