If you are interested in analyzing online political discourse, the use of open source in e-democracy, or effective models for online facilitation, check out http://e-democracy.org/uk We have a new 50 page draft guide available which helps explain the model. We are interested in working with researchers on cost/benefit analysis related to different e-democracy options for local authorities. If you have X resources you can get Y from A number of online consultations or Z from fewer consultation and one Issues Forum. As far as I can tell, there isn't much research that helps practitioners or funders better focus their scarce resources for the largest e-democracy value. Cheers, Steven Clift P.S. Live in Brighton? http://www.e-democracy.org/brighton-hove/ Newham: http://www.e-democracy.org/newham/ Steven Clift - http://publicus.net - Reply to: clift@publicus.net Join DoWire: http://dowire.org E-Democracy: http://e-democracy.org