online public consultation and civic engagement
DESCRIPTION
Paper presented at: To blog or not blog? Government and Citizen e-Participation May 2009 - Learnings from Federal Government trials and international experiences, by Jim Macnamara, Professor of Public Communication and Director Australian Centre for Public Communication, University of Technology, Sydney. May 2009TRANSCRIPT
Online public consultation and civic engagement
Learnings from Federal Government Trials and International Experiences
Jim Macnamara PhD, FPRIA, FAMI, CPM, FAMEC
Professor of Public Communication &Director, Australian Centre for Public Communication
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Terms
E-government Government 2.0 E-democracy E-citizenship Digital democracy Teledemocracy Cyberdemocracy
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Terms
E-government• Primarily the online delivery of services
E-democracy• “The use of Web technologies to engage citizens in
debate, discussion, consultation and online voting” (Kearns, 2002, p. 11)
• Online submissions
• Online voting
• Online public consultation
• Online civic engagement in democratic processes
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E-government: E-democracy
Initiatives underway internationally• US – Clinton adminstration 1993-97. Mainly services
FirstGov site Sept 2002 – now www.usa.gov
• Canada – bilingual site opened Dec 1995. Now Government of Canada or Gouvernement du Canada http://canada.gc.ca
• UK – a long history of development www.gateway.gov.uk – registration of services www.govtalk.gov.uk – for accessing govt documents www.petitions.pm.gov.uk – petitions www.number10.gov.uk site http://petitions.number10.gov.uk www.direct.gov.uk launched Mar 2004 Directionlessgov – www.directionlessgov.com
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E-government: E-democracy
New Zealand• www.e.govt.nz
UK Cabinet Power of Information Task Force (UK Cabinet, 2009)
• 3,000 government Web sites – aim to reduce to 1,000
• Review report 2007; final report 2009 Australia (federally)
• One of the first to publish Hansard
• Webcast Parliamentary proceedings
• National Office of the Information Economy (NOIE) established in 1997
• Office of Government Online 2000
• Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) replaced NOIE in 2004
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O E-government: E-democracy - Australia Future Challenges for E-Government (AGIMO
2004)
• Noted an “international trend towards online service delivery and greater citizen interaction”
• Most focus on service delivery
Better Practice Checklist on Online Policy Consultation (AGIMO 2004)
Election of the Rudd government (Kevin07) new focus
Consulting with Government – Online (AGIMO, June 2008)
Minister Tanner announced online consultation trials July 2008
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O Federal Online Consultation Trials Three (3) online consultation trials launched
Dec 2008 – Mar 2009
• Department of Broadband and Digital Economy blog to discuss digital economy
• Department of Employment and Work Relations forum for teachers/educators on early education
• Attorney-General’s Department consultation site
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10 Key learnings
1. Planning is key Planning must address
• Clear intent and objectives
• Choose the right platform to suit objectives
• Moderation policy (light touch important)
• Resources
• Evaluation
Planning should involve three key parties• Senior policy officers – high-level support
• IT/Web technical staff – technically strong and secure
• Communication staff – must be communicative
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10 Key Learnings
2. Controversial issues can hijack consultation• Minister Conroy’s announcement of proposed internet
filtering (‘Clean Feed’) sent DBDE blog into meltdown
• AG’s site targeted by long-running campaign for an Australian Bill of Rights
• DEWR forum launched amid collapse of the nation’s largest childcare provider, ABC Learning Centres
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“Prominent Australian bloggers have lashed the Federal Government over its first attempt at public consultation via a blog, which has already been hijacked by critics of its plan to censor the internet.”
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Online consultation
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10 Key Learnings
3. Time frame – fast response required• A challenge in Public Service environment
• Guidelines and fast-tracking required
4. Resources• Dedicated staff required to handle large volume of
blog posts, comments, e-mails, etc
5. Culture• Public Service culture presents some challenges
• ‘Champions’ required to change PS culture (UK)
• PS staff also need protection from political blame (UK)
6. Design and navigation• Citizens should not have to know how government
works to find things (UK)
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10 Key Learnings
7. Language• Citizens should be able to talk in their language
• Policy on slang, swearing, humour, parody, etc
• Flexibility (Macnamara, 2008)
• Voting, seconding, favourites, etc
8. Can be government-hosted or third party – “managed e-citizenship” or “autonomous e-citizenship” (Stephen Coleman, 2008)
• Government sites can be intimidating, remote, unknown
• “Fish where the fish are” – eg. GetUp, NetMums
• Probably need a combination of both
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10 Key Learnings
9. Specialist sense making tools and processes required – for both government and citizensFor Government For CitizensMonitoring (listening) Background reading
(sidebars)
Stock responses, placeholders
Categorising
Data/text mining Simple voting, supporting
Categorising Editors (summaries)
Argumentation software* Argumentation software** MIT Deliberatorium (formerly Collaboratorium) (Klein 2007)
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Key Learnings
10. While controversial issues present challenges to open environments, day-to-day consultation and engagement within communities of interest/practice is well suited to online• Museums (eg. War Memorial)
• Arts and cultural organisations
• Austrade
• Basic taxation questions (ATO)
Public consultation and civic engagement required/desirable beyond major policy making
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References
Coleman, S. (2008). Doing IT for themselves: Management versus autonomy in youth e-citizenship. In W. Bennett, Civic life online: Learning how digital media can engage youth (pp. 189-206). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Department of Finance and Deregulation. (2008). E-democracy community of practice. Retrieved February 1, 2009 from http://www.finance.gov.au/e-government/better-practice-and-collaboration/cop/e-democracy.html
Hirst, M., & Harrison, J.( 2007). Communication and new media: From broadcast to narrowcast. South Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
Kearnes, I. (2002). Code red: Progressive politics in the digital age. London: Institute for Public Policy Research.
Klein, M. (2007). The MIT Collaboratorium: Enabling effective large-scale deliberation for complex problems. MIT Sloan School of Management Working Paper 4679-08, 31 December. Retrievefd November 7, 2008 from http://ssrn.com/abstract=1085295
Macnamara, J. (2008). Internet media and the public sphere: The 2007 Australian e-electioneering experience, Media International Australia, no. 29, November, pp. 7-19.
UK Cabinet Office. (2009). Power of Information Task Force Report, February. Retrieved April 28, 2009 from http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/reports/power_of_information.aspx