Online Candidate Debate

[Viking12]

Although this is specifically for District 54, I thought this is a very interesting experiment in democracy that may interest some of you..

Next week the four candidates in the 54th District (which includes the university campus and most of the city) will begin an online debate that will extend several weeks into October.

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, all interested citizens will be able to participate in this debate—both by proposing topics and questions to be covered and by commenting on the responses that the candidates make. In keeping with the tradition of the secret ballot, citizen input can be provided anonymously (although you can also attach a name if you wish).

The debate, jointly sponsored by the Oshkosh Community News Network, the Oshkosh League of Women Voters and the Oshkosh Public Library, is a new way of fostering civic engagement, and I’m hoping that all of you will participate and encourage others, particularly students, to participate.

The debate will begin with opening statements posted by Sept. 15, and I will provide the URL for the debate site early next week. (It’s currently being used by the candidates on a test basis.)

Right now, you are invited to visit the Citizens Forum Web site. This is the place where the debate sponsors are collecting input about questions to be discussed, and it’s the place where citizens will be able to offer comments as the debate progresses.

The Citizens Forum can be found at: http://www.oshkoshnews.org/citizensforum/index.html.

The press release about the debate itself can be found at: http://www.oshkoshnews.org/oshblog/2004/09/candidates-to-debate-on-line.html

This is a new thing, and I suspect that many citizens will feel some initial awkwardness about taking part. On the other hand, the technology makes this pretty painless, and I’m hoping that if you can take a few minutes to explore the site you’ll see how easy it is to use.

Over the last few days, I have heard a lot of encouraging talk about the need to engage with the local community, to encourage active citizenship, to broaden our students’ knowledge of the world and to break the conspiracy of silence that keeps many of us from speaking out on issues that matter to us.

This online debate and Citizens Forum are concrete ways to address all of these matters, and I invite all of you to make use of them.

Sincerely,

Miles Maguire
On behalf of the members of the Oshkosh Community News Network (www.oshkoshnews.org)