Today’s Byte is probably of most interest to folks in MN – but it’s an idea that could be replicated elsewhere.

E-Democracy (http://www.e-democracy.org) is a Minnesota nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that promotes online civic discourse by providing space for online discussion.

This year E-Democracy is sponsoring an online debate among the MN gubernatorial candidates. We did this in 1998 (the year Jesse Ventura won in MN) but haven’t done an online debate since. (I am a longtime E-Democracy volunteer.) As of yesterday, all of the major candidates just agreed to participate. So we’re pretty excited.

Citizens are invited to submit questions e-debates@e-democracy.org. For more information you can visit the E-Democracy web site (http://www.e-democracy.org/wiki/Minnesota_Gubernatorial_E-Debate_2006).

The online debate is sponsored by the Blandin Foundation as part of their Next Generation Broadband conference (http://www.blandinfoundation.com/bbsummit/).  In the spirit of full disclosure I should let you guys know that I am helping with the conference. So, if you plan to come I’ll see you in Alexandria MN in October.