on-line forums: a strategy for community engagement nancy averill, director of research ann dale,...
TRANSCRIPT
on-line forums:
a strategy for community engagement
Nancy Averill, Director of ResearchAnn Dale, Trudeau Fellow CRC in Sustainable Community DevelopmentProfessor, Royal Roads University
Why is dialogue so important?
• messy, wicked problems• no-one is an expert • beyond any one sector, jurisdiction to solve• interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary• lost capacity for ‘shared meaning’in
communities
6-year RRU Research Program
1. Can the Internet be used for substantive dialogue?
2. Can the Internet be used to enhance literacy?
3. Can the Internet be used to inform public policy?
Public ForumsResearch SalonsE-Dialogues
• E-dialogue Research
• Social Capital & Sustainable Development
Electronic Library and Publishing
• Non-timber Forest Products
What is an e-Dialogue?
• synchronous (real-time) conversations• bringing the best minds together on-line• interdisciplinary space• deliberative dialogue with e-audiences• actively moderated• living archive
www.e-Dialogues.ca
• research e-Dialogues • student-led e-Dialogues• professional e-Dialogues• Scientists for the Future• Post-Kyoto Public Forum variant, Post-
Kyoto Forum
Level of EngagementTotal visits to e-Dialogues website
14000
10000
8000
6000
4000
2000
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
Level of Engagementgeographical outreach
Canada, USA, Mexico, Australia, UK, USA Military, Holland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, South Africa
Level of Interactivity
Level of e-Dialogue Interactivity (NWMO)
e-Dialogue Risk, Uncertainty and the Management of Nuclear Waste
Decision-Making under Conditions of Risk and Uncertainty
# of experts 6 (including moderator) 5 (including moderator)
# of posts 125 74
Average post per expert 20.8 14.8
Average pace post every 58 sec post every 1 min, 37 sec
What worked?• engaged, meaningful dialogue• critical reflection• capacity for more lateral thinking• data collection method for students• living archive• continuing visits to the site• evidence of ongoing dialogue and new connections
What didn’t work?
• age barrier (typing, reading on-line)• public conversation• engagement of public policy community • new dominance patterns
Questions?
• level of diversity captured• e-format and frankness• privacy legislation impacts• real-time versus any-time• dominance and conflict• tyranny of expertise
Benefits of On-Line Engagement
• independent of place• cost-effective interdisciplinary dialogue• scale-free networks• inclusivity and diversity• enlargement of the public sphere• potential to re-engage youth
The Future
• e-research collaboratives• potential e-peer review• new e-communities of practice• deliberative polling and deliberative democracy
Three e-spaces exist, e-dialogues. research salons and public forums. All three are designed to work in different ways but all contribute to the research agenda of knowledge diffusion; literacy around critical public policy issues, in particular sustainable development; and e-life-long learning. All three spaces work synergistically together towards public engagement (or mobilization) and are designed to work iteratively back and forth, in possible combination with multi-media events, such as round tables, multistakeholder processes, television and radio. All are complimentary and in concert contribute to creating a new kind of civic research and literacy using leading-edge internet communications technologies (ICTs).