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Ella Taylor-Smith

Ella joined the International Teledemocracy Centre in September, 2001.

Ella Taylor-Smith

The EU funded project HuWY: Hub Websites for Youth Participation is now complete. HuWY supports young people to influence policies related to the Internet, using distributed discussions. The HuWY project started in January 2009 and ran for 28 months. Ella led the proposal and consortium, as Edinburgh Napier are the coordinating partner, with 9 other partners, from 4 countries: Estonia, Germany, Republic of Ireland and the UK. http://www.huwy.eu/ | HUWY on IIDI, including publications and project reports | More HUWY links on this site.

The WEB.DEP project - Western Balkans Democratic Participation finished in Spring 2009, with Edinburgh Napier working on the final evaluation report. The project's primary aim was to establish a communication and information management network, hosted by the National News Agencies of the Western Balkan countries. ITC's role within the project focused on 2 aspects: specifying and monitoring e-participation aspects of the network and evaluation.

Ella is active in a number of participation networks (digital and otherwise). In 2009, she organised the ESRC-funded eParticipation Scotland Baseline Workshop.

Ella's previous responsibilities (2001 -6) included development of a suite of e-democracy tools for Highland Youth Voice (a youth parliament for the Highland region of Scotland). These tools take the form of a website, including an online policy debating forum, a content management system for news and information and an e-voting section, which was used to elect new HYV members in Autumn 2002 and 2004.

Ella has also worked with the University's Secretariat to provide e-voting systems to support elections to Napier's Academic Board.

Ella's first degree is in Fine Art (M.A.), studied at Edinburgh University and Edinburgh College of Art. She majored in sculpture and printmaking and wrote "American Minimalist Sculpture and the Search for the Definition of Art" as her first dissertation. After completing her first degree, Ella worked as a chef until February 2000 when she came to Napier to study.

Ella worked for ITC on the "What sort of Scotland do we want to live in?" e-consultation as part of her dissertation: "Usability and Community in a Dynamic e-Democracy Website.", completing an MSc in Multimedia Technology (Napier University, Edinburgh).

Ella maintains this website and should be contacted if you have any problems with it.

See also Ella's profile on the Institute for Informatics and Digital Innovation website

Note that some publications can be found under Ella's maiden name: Ella Smith.

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