Yoosk?

Yoosk? is an interactive website support by the recently announced Innovation Fund awards. This site is a part-forum/part-blog that has links with the mainstream media as well as celebrities and politicians. Does not seem spectacularly different at first sight; but some very innovative features emerge on closer study! A site to bookmark, visit and use! The following is from the Yoosk? website:

What is Yoosk?

Yoosk is an interactive interview magazine which enables you to participate in the news gathering process by putting your questions to politicians & celebrities.

Six ways to do it

1.Put your questions directly to public figures

2.Get votes for them by mailing & bookmarking

3.Vote for other users’ questions

4.View answers & say what you think of them

5.Join a community of news enthusiasts

6.Submit your own ideas for interview features

Editors, reporters and bloggers
Use our software to set up your own Yoosk
Use our widget to collect your users’ questions

Public figures
Get closer to constituents, fans and customers
Answer their questions directly to webcam

Innovation Fund Projects announced

freedigitalphotos.net

The Building Democracy website recently announced this year’s successful Innovation Fund projects:

We’re very pleased to announce this year’s Innovation Fund projects. They are:

• Yoosk- An online question time linking the public with local and central government. Run by Thumbsize Ltd. – see www.yoosk.com.
• UK Feedback – An online forum for feedback about public services.
• LocalEyes – A web-based consultation took to enable groups to have their say in local decision making. Run by The Shire Initiative – see www.localeyes.org.
• All Hansard on TheyWorkForYou.com – Adding pre-2001 Hansard data to www.TheyWorkForYou.com, and building exploratory tools. Run by MySociety.
• PolicySlam- Inclusive debating events to get the public and policy makers interacting. Run by nef.
• Tagwagon- Using a converted campervan to take technology direct to local communities to record and map their opinions. Run by Bold Creative.
• Young Assets – A credit incentive system for engaging hard to reach young people in local politics. Run by Spice Innovations.
• Empowering the Blind Citizen – Providing e-training and tools to enable blind and partially sighted people to participate in e-democracy. Run by Screenreader.net.
• Cambridge Parliament High Support Needs Committee – Establishing a committee to represent the views of over 1,000 people with high support needs in Cambridgeshire. Run by Speaking Up.

We’re very excited about the projects and hope you are too so we’ll be using the Building Democracy site to keep you updated with the progress of projects throughout the year.

Following up on BCN’s earlier article.

Grants for new ideas on getting people involved in democracy

£150,000 is available to develop projects that help people discuss public issues and influence the Government and its policies.

But the Innovation Fund on Building Democracy is different from most funding programmes in that ideas are expected to be raised for public discussion first. The discussion on the website should provide an opportunity for others to develop the ideas into better proposals.

The first ideas floated on the website include proposals for web forums, a magazine, a travelling office and community radio.

Applications have to be submitted by 26th September.