deliverable - wegovnow · the objective is to develop a greater understanding of stakeholder needs...

Project co-funded by the European Commission within H2020-EURO-2014-2015/H2020-EURO-6-2015

Dissemination Level

PU Public

PP Restricted to other programme participants (including the Commission Services

RE Restricted to a group specified by the consortium (including the Commission Services

CO Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commission Services) x

Towards We-Government: Collective and participative

approaches for addressing local policy challenges

Grant Agreement number: 693514

Deliverable

D2.1

Plan for engagement of users / target

groups

D2.1 Engagement Plan

2

Author List

Organisation Name Contact Information

Mapping for Change Louise Francis [email protected]

Status, Abstract, Keywords, Statement of originality

Dissemination level: Confidential, only for members of the consortium

(including the Commission Services)

Contractual date of delivery: 30 Apr 2016

Actual date of delivery: 6 September 2016 (revised 31 May 2017)

Work Package: WP2 Stakeholder engagement & local trials

Type: Report

Approval Status: Final

Version: 1.1

Abstract

The document provides a framework for the engagement work to be carried out within

WeGovNow. The objective is to develop a greater understanding of stakeholder needs and

to develop mechanisms that increase the level and quality of involvement in community

life and the decisions governing them. Research & development activities will be

undertaken at the project’s three validation sites in the London borough of Southwark

(UK), City of Turin and San Dona di Pave (Italy). This includes appropriate engagement of

communities and other stakeholders who form an integral part of the research carried out

in this project and who will be actively involved in the development of WeGovNow tools

and methods. An initial generic plan for engagement is presented as part of this

deliverable, to be fine-tuned und further detailed as work progresses during the various

stages of the project.

Keywords

Community engagement, engagement methods, participative development, citizen

participation, use cases, target groups, neighbourhood development, stakeholders

Statement of originality

The information in this document reflects only the author’s views and the European

Community is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained

therein. The information in this document is provided as is and no guarantee or warranty

is given that the information is fit for any particular purpose. The user thereof uses the

information at its sole risk and liability.


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Contents

1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 6

2 Conceptual Approach Towards Engagement Within WeGovNow ....................................... 8

2.1 What Do We Mean By Engagement? ............................................................................. 8

2.2 Who Are We Seeking to Engage? ................................................................................... 9

3 Methodological Framework ................................................................................................ 10

4 Engagement Strategy .......................................................................................................... 13

4.1 Engagement Objectives ............................................................................................... 14

4.2 Stakeholder Mapping ................................................................................................... 18

4.3 Recruitment ................................................................................................................. 19

4.3.1 Local Audiences .................................................................................................. 19

4.3.2 National and City Wide Audiences ..................................................................... 21

4.4 Action Planning ............................................................................................................ 21

4.5 Engagement Process .................................................................................................... 21

5 Pilot Validation Sites ........................................................................................................... 24

5.1 Turin ............................................................................................................................. 24

5.1.1 Background ......................................................................................................... 24

5.1.2 Current Engagement Approaches ...................................................................... 26

5.1.3 Existing Technology Usage ................................................................................. 27

5.1.4 Initial Focus of Use Case Development Work – Dora Park ................................. 27

5.2 Turin Engagement Plan ................................................................................................ 28

5.2.1 General Engagement Objectives ........................................................................ 29

5.2.2 Engagement Activities ........................................................................................ 30

5.2.3 Key Stakeholder Groups Envisaged to Be Involved ............................................ 31

5.2.4 Expected Engagement Results............................................................................ 38

5.3 San Dona di Piave ......................................................................................................... 39

5.3.1 Background ......................................................................................................... 39



5.3.4 Initial Focus of Use Case Development Work .................................................... 41

5.4 San Dona di Piave Engagement Plan ............................................................................ 42

5.4.1 General Objectives ............................................................................................. 42


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5.4.4 Target Audience .................................................................................................. 53


5.5 Southwark .................................................................................................................... 54

5.5.1 Background ......................................................................................................... 55



5.5.2 Initial Focus of Use Case Development Work .................................................... 57

5.6 Southwark Engagement Plan ....................................................................................... 59

5.6.1 General Objectives ............................................................................................. 59



5.6.4 Target Audience .................................................................................................. 72


6 Quantitative Results ............................................................................................................ 73

7 Next Steps ........................................................................................................................... 73


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Executive Summary

This deliverable seeks to provide a framework for the engagement work to be carried out as

part of Work Package 2 (WP2) within the WeGovNow project. The objective is to develop a

greater understanding of stakeholder needs and to develop mechanisms that increase the

level and quality of involvement in community life and the decisions governing them.WP2

covers the research & development activities to be undertaken at the project’s three

validation sites in the London borough of Southwark (UK), City of Turin and San Dona di

Pave (Italy). This includes appropriate engagement of communities and other stakeholders

who form an integral part of the research carried out in this project and who will be actively

involved in the development of WeGovNow tools and methods. Specifically, WP2 will

explore in what way and under what circumstances the WeGovNow approach can help in:

identifying new cultural and societal challenges in public policies,

transforming public administrations processes,

improving effectiveness and efficiency of public administrations and

reducing the administrative burden on citizens;

WP2 will also develop use cases (D2.2) driven by the needs of the target audiences.

Engaging with target groups will assist the project to define scenarios around the need for

and use of certain tools and features (e.g. for visualisation of local issues, sending requests

for volunteer assistance or for receiving alerts via SMS) for achieving certain kinds of

outcomes (e.g. awareness, political agenda setting, collective action at local level). WP2 also

prepares and conducts local trials under both test and day-to-day conditions to ensure new

tools are fit for purpose.

An initial generic plan for engagement is presented as part of this deliverable. However,

further detailing will be required as work progresses during the various stages of the project

(e.g. use case development, local validation trial planning and so on) and as the learning

from earlier activities is acquired. This report is thus expected to become a ‘living’

document.

The document is divided into six sections which first introduce the underlying context within

which the WeGovNow project is framed. It then goes on to outline the conceptual approach

to engagement to build a common understanding for activities carried out within the

project. Section three introduces the methodological framework which is followed by the

engagement strategy that will be deployed in section four. Section five provides details of

each of the pilot cities and the preliminary thematic areas within which the trial sites will be

initiated. This is followed by the next steps to be undertaken in WP2.


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1 Introduction

Emerging technologies have the potential to transform the delivery of public services by

making improvements in efficiency, effectiveness, enhancing service provision to citizens

and businesses, and by promoting participation and democracy. Increasing the capacity of

citizens, businesses and other organisations to be pro-active in society through the use of

new technological tools and collaborative processes further provides an opportunity for

public services to be tailored to meet the needs of civil society. However, despite the fact

that interest in e-government has blossomed over the past 10 years the resultant e-

government services have come under fire for their failure to deliver. This is due, in part, to

a reluctance of citizens to engage via digital medians, the lack of citizen involvement in the

design process, which is further compounded by the complexities associated with

maintaining integrated agencies to develop services, and concerns associated with data

sharing and privacy issues1.

The development and design of any new e-government ICT solution needs to ascertain and

understand the user needs and incorporate end-user requirements and expectations if user

satisfaction is to be attained. As such, engagement of potential end-users in the early design

and development phase is crucial. Actively engaging users to trial potential solutions in both

test and real-world settings provide an opportunity to ensure that new functionality and

features are fit for purpose.

Public services and businesses are increasingly keen to garner insights and information from

citizens, service users and customers. Administrations are also increasingly aware of the

need to provide easy access to public information that meets the accessibility needs of

various user groups, to improve transparency and public trust, and allow for effective

involvement of citizens and businesses in policy-making processes. This can be achieved, in

part, by engaging local civil society in the co-production of citizen-centred services and in

the co-development of strategic approaches to sustainable community development.

The WeGovNow project seeks to address these fields for action and progress the current

state of the art by further developing existing technological solutions and integrating them

within a unified engagement platform. This platform will allow people to voice local

concerns and explore ways to address these through collaborative action. Through the

platform, citizens can find solutions to overcome resource shortages affecting existing public

service provision, debate topics of a strategic nature, and develop and vote upon concrete

suggestions for local policy action.

WeGovNow’s approach towards the co-creation of information, knowledge and

collaborative problem solving will actively involve civic society stakeholders through a new

type of digital engagement platform and through complementary off-line engagement

methods and tools. Adopting a two-tier approach will increase the inclusion of members of

the community who may lack the means and/or motivation to use digital technologies for

1 Sæbø, Ø., Flak, L. S., & Sein, M. K. (2011). Understanding the dynamics in e-Participation initiatives: Looking

through the genre and stakeholder lenses. Government Information Quarterly, 28(3), 416-425.


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getting involved in the project and thus reduces the risk of further digital exclusion (e.g. in

terms of capacity building).

To successfully encourage engagement with the WeGovNow platform, the various elements

with which users will interact need to be both engaging and ‘user-friendly’. By establishing a

methodological framework that applies participatory approaches, the project seeks to

ensure such requirements are met. More specifically, a participatory approach to the

development of an integrated system, as championed by Mumford (1991)2, will facilitate

good design of the final integrated product. This has been recognised as fundamental and

has been emphasised in the revised international standard 'Ergonomics of human-system

interaction, Part 210: Human-centred design for interactive systems' (ISO 9241-210). The

standard describes 6 key principles of human-centred design:

The design is based upon an explicit understanding of users, tasks and environments.

Users are involved throughout design and development.

The design is driven and refined by user-centred evaluation.

The process is iterative.

The design addresses the whole user experience.

The design team includes multidisciplinary skills and perspectives.

These principles encapsulate the approach proposed by the project. Furthermore, the

platform will need to take into account user diversity (gender, age, disability etc.) and

different user perspectives (e.g. citizens, civic society organisations, businesses, public

administration, policy-makers etc.) by adopting a user-centred design (UCD) approach

throughout, to optimise acceptability and uptake of the digitally enabled services. UCD is a

framework for hardware and software development that emerged in the mid-1980s and

since became one of the guiding principles for designing usable technologies. It is both a

philosophy of design which can apply to digital as well as non-digital products, and also a

framework for application development. Involving users and citizens in the [re]design of

WeGovNow tools and processes are a critical feature of the project’s approach.

Development of the engagement platform will be realised by applying Agile Development

methods (see D1.1 for details) that will result in the release of three stable prototypes

across the project. Agile development methods emphasise the importance of iterative and

incremental development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration

between cross-functional teams. The prototypes will be trialled in both a test setting and

under business as usual conditions. As such, engagement of end users and stakeholders will

need to consider several factors which include:

How to engage users/stakeholders within the iterative service/platform development

process.

2 Mumford, E. (1991) “Participation in systems design – What can it offer?” In: Shackel, B. & Richardson, S.,

eds. Human Factors for Informatics Usability. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991, pp. 267-290.


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How to recruit and engage users/stakeholders for piloting of stable prototype solutions

under real world conditions.

How to engage users/stakeholders beyond piloting for scaling-up

This highlights the need for a strategic engagement plan that will enable the project team to

obtain input from different stakeholders throughout the iterative process. End-user

engagement will be carried out to elicit technological requirements for the integrated

platform (Work package 3); offer potential problem definitions and benefits/solutions

identification (WP2); to test and validate the efficacy of the platform and its integrated

components and maximise exploration of new potential fields of application. It is important

to note that participation and engagement in the context of WeGovNow seeks to go beyond

that of simply providing input into the design and testing of technical solutions offered. By

engaging citizens the project also seeks to explore the potential for social innovation for

identified local problems that oppose top-down policy responses.

The key research questions within the context of WP2 are:

Which type of engagement methods elicit the best level of participation, in terms of

numbers and length of engagement?

What motivates people to participate in the co-creation of ideas and services for

public sector delivery underpinning this work?

2 Conceptual Approach Towards Engagement Within WeGovNow

2.1 What Do We Mean By Engagement?

It is important to agree on what we mean by certain terms as there are a variety of

definitions in use, whereby terms such as engagement, involvement, consultation and

participation are often used interchangeably. Establishing a common understanding will

enable all levels of activity undertaken within the project to be carried out in such a way

that will allow for them to be replicated and thus evaluated for their effectiveness.

Citizen engagement can be defined as the active participation of citizens, in partnership with

government, in decision and policy making processes (OECD, 2001)3. This definition is

rooted in the notion that citizen engagement practices reside within formal institutional

democratic structures. However, it fails to encapsulate engagement activities that are

informal or less structured. The application of this definition in the context of WeGovNow

would limit the potential of exploring more diverse forms of engagement and potential

3 OECD. 2001. Citizens as Partners: Information, Consultation and Public Participation, Paris: OECD


9

problem solving and idea generation and therefore a broader understanding of citizen

engagement is needed.

Citizen engagement, or participation, involves some form of voluntary action by citizens.

This may take diverse forms from signing a petition to taking part in a demonstration.

Whether we talk about engagement, involvement or participation, these terms are always

used to refer to engagement in something and therefore have some specific context.

Invariably, the context falls under one of two domains; engagement in state affairs

(democratic processes, or structures and institutions of democracy), or activities related to

the community and other informal associations or networks, such as participation in a

sports club or faith group. Engagement in the former of these can be considered civic

participation and the latter social participation. The actions, tools and processes to be

undertaken and developed within WeGovNow look to encompass both forms and as such

citizen engagement takes on a broader definition.

Engagement in the context of WeGovNow is thus expanded further and is used as an

umbrella term to cover an array of community engagement approaches and practices. On

one end of the spectrum these may encompass limited amounts of engagement

(‘information’ and ‘consultation’) that might be applied for the purpose of dissemination

activities and towards the other end of spectrum engagement will seek to enable

‘development’, ‘participation’ and ultimately ‘empowerment’ of those concerned. Coupled

with the different levels of engagement is the need to identify and recruit key local

stakeholders and gain their involvement in project-related activities. Work package 2

focuses on these local stakeholders whilst engagement of the wider community at the

national, EU and international level is discussed separately in Work Package 5.

2.2 Who Are We Seeking to Engage?

As emphasised in the previous section engagement takes place within a specific context but

is also targeted at particular entities, groups of people or organisations and the like;

otherwise referred to as stakeholders. An effective engagement strategy will seek to

understand who these stakeholders are, when they should be engaged and for what

purpose. Section 4 outlines the approach to addressing this within the WeGovNow project.

Stakeholder theory offers some insight here. Originally proposed by Edward Freeman4 as a

practical, effective, and ethically responsible way of managing private companies,

stakeholder theory, although originating from the business world, has since been adopted

by a number of different disciplines spanning the fields of information systems to health

care management. There are conceptual elements that can readily be applied within the

context of e-government projects. For example, stakeholder theory encourages the

identification of stakeholders. It also seeks to differentiate between stakeholders, develop

stakeholder typologies, and investigate relationships between stakeholders. These analyses

4 Freeman, R. E. (1984) Strategic management: A stakeholder approach. Boston: Pitman


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prove beneficial in understanding who the various actors are, developing appropriate

engagement strategies and factoring for different levels of influence in delivering an e-

government project.

3 Methodological Framework

Within WeGovNow, different engagement methods will be applied during the design and

development, and trial and validation phases with the aim to build and sustain

communication and involvement with different target groups as deemed necessary by a

specific project phase [this is outlined in more detail in section 4]. Identifying which target

groups should be involved at the various stages of the project will form part of this process.

The starting point for planning engagement will be to consider the nature of the

“community” to be engaged, for example, the demographic characteristics of user groups or

the different domains of stakeholders and service providers, to ensure that efforts are

appropriately targeted, inclusive and designed to motivate people to participate in project

activities. Israel et al., 20055 describe community as a ‘unit of identity’ defined by ‘a sense

of identification with and emotional connections to others through common symbol systems,

values and norms; shared interests; and commitments to meeting mutual needs’.

Communities may be geographically bounded, as in the WeGovNow pilot study areas, but

may also be geographically dispersed, as in the case of the virtual communities of interest.

Engagement mechanisms within WeGovNow will be determined to include communities of

place, interest and identity (such as faith, culture, and ethnicity).

A broad profile of the communities within each of the pilot sites is provided in section 5.

This will be extended by carrying out stakeholder mapping exercises in order to obtain a

good understanding of the networks of interest and expertise in the area and will help

identify potential champions and audiences for different phases of the project.

Engagement mechanisms, (generically) or engagement initiatives or exercises (specifically)

should address the following questions in the planning stage:

Who – target audience

What – primary objectives

Where – should the initiative take place

When - timing

Why – should people participate

How – method of engagement

By whom – responsibility

To address these questions WeGovNow will follow the basic principles outlined in Exhibit 1.

5 Israel, B.A., Eng, E., Schulz, A., & Parker, E. (eds.) (2005) Methods in Community-based Participatory

Research for Health. San Francisco: Jossey Bass


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For the purposes of this Engagement Plan stakeholders are defined as all individuals, groups

or organisations that have an interest in or maybe affected by the delivery or outcomes of

WeGovNow products and processes; this includes providers, partners, beneficiaries, and any

other interested parties.


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Exhibit 1: Basic engagement principles

WHO

Target audience

Wider public Public Authorities

Local residents Business community

Civil Society organisations/NGOs

WHAT

Key objective

Project introduction and updates; encourage citizen participation in specific project phases (user requirements, testing...) and in local government decision making processes; utilisation of the pilot services under real world conditions

Input into the design of solutions that can increase civic participation in decision making; get wider citizen input into public services provision; utilisation of the pilot services under real world conditions

Input into the design of technology and processes that can help residents participate in local decision making and collaborative idea generation; utilisation of the pilot services under real world conditions

Provide potential software for integration with WeGoVNow platform; collaborative idea generation; utilisation of the pilot services under real world conditions

Input into the design of technology and processes that can help citizens and NGOs collaborate on re-designing public services; utilisation of the pilot services under real world conditions

WHERE City wide Administrative offices Community facilities in pilot site locations

City wide City wide

WHEN

Timing

Scheduled through phase 1-3 Scheduled through phase 1-3

Scheduled through phase 1-3 Scheduled through phase 2-3 Scheduled through phase 1-3

WHY

Desired outcomes

Increasing citizens’ participation in trialling and uptake of technology; improving citizens’ participation in local governance;

Tailored system requirements; use of WeGovNow solutions in business as usual; new public service delivery offers; recommendations to local policies

Tailored system requirements; use of WeGovNow solutions in daily living; building connections and increasing uptake of technology; improving citizens’ participation in local governance; increasing collaborations in public service delivery

Showing the project’s new developments in the field in order to increase market potential for WeGovNow solutions

Tailored system requirements; use of WeGovNow solutions in business as usual; making the project extensively known; building connections and increasing uptake of technology

HOW

Engagement mechanism

Website, social networks, community meetings

Thematic presentations; workshops; interviews; focus groups

Community meetings; thematic presentation; workshops; interviews; focus groups

Website; Brochure; thematic presentations

Website; thematic presentation; workshops, interviews, focus groups

BY WHOM

Responsibility for the engage-ment activity

Pilot Site Manager/ Public Authorities/Pilot City partners


Pilot Site Manager/ Public Authorities/Pilot City partners/Local NGOs

Pilot Site Manager/ Public Authorities/Pilot City partners and Technical project partners



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4 Engagement Strategy

WeGovNow will involve the development and integration of a new digital platform whilst

also seeking to empower citizens to become actively engaged in services of public interest

and related policy development. Furthermore, WeGovNow will strive to enable effective

involvement of civic society stakeholders in the collaborative production of services.

Therefore, different engagement methods aimed at different objectives and target groups

will be applied. These are outlined in more detail in the context of each pilot city in section 5

The project seeks to carry out engagement activities to a standard that is consistent across

the cities and is both effective and efficient. With this in mind, the engagement strategy will

adopt some basic principles to ensure:

Activities are oriented towards the needs of the audience, fit for purpose using

appropriate language and information levels;

The level of commitment required and purpose of engagement is clearly articulated;

Various recruitment methods: written text including flyers and posters; electronic and

web-based tools; and oral presentations at community meetings are applied;

Leverage of existing resources, relationships, and networks;

Interaction with and links to other relevant projects and initiatives;

People are involved at the earliest opportunity for the given project phase;

Participants receive feedback;

Participant should not be out of pocket

Engagement within the context of WeGovNow will be developed and designed on

consideration of three determinants that will underpin all work undertaken:

Thematic foci - throughout the project lifecycle engagement activities will be designed

in relation to specific project phase, such as system requirements generation,

testing/validation of prototypes, events initiation, utilisation of the pilot services under

real world conditions;

Means of engagement - different methods are envisaged for various phases throughout

the project, e.g. focus groups for the purposes of initial use case

development, sessions with individual users for prototype testing in laboratory settings,

mapping parties for data collection and piloting services, initiation of local development

initiatives; use of social media to increase the uptake and use of services;

Types of users/stakeholders - throughout the project lifecycle involvement will vary,

e.g. individual citizens, representatives of civil society organizations and staff of

municipal organizations/administrations, representatives of local businesses and so on.

Preparation for engagement activities whilst factoring in these three aspects will be planned

and undertaken in stages so as to ensure the purpose and goals are clearly outlined,

relevant stakeholders identified, appropriate methods used and ultimately evaluated for

their success. These steps are summarised in Exhibit 2.


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Exhibit 2: Steps to be undertaken in planning engagement activities

4.1 Engagement Objectives

Throughout the two project phases; design and development and trial and evaluation

different processes/techniques and instruments will be applied to enable different levels of

engagement. Each Pilot Validation Site will have specific engagement objectives for their

local context. However, more generally these are designed to:

Inform – this centres on providing information about the project, communicating project

activities and events and updating the various stakeholders outlined in Exhibit 3 about the

services being developed. This is covered in more detail in the dissemination work package

(D5.1 and D5.2)

Consult - consultation with target groups in the context of WeGovNow will be undertaken

to get specific feedback on system design, to elicit input from the community as to their

local concerns and to understand and identify the need for change in the context of

different services offered or being developed.

Involve – stakeholder involvement will seek to obtain input into the design and

development of tailored system requirements and use of the WeGovNow platform and

relevant processes required for service delivery so as to help residents participate in local

decision making and collaborative idea generation.

Collaborate - Different community members, non-profit organisations, public entities and

other actors will be invited to work with developers and public service providers to help

define the scope of the services being developed. End users will be prompted to provide


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feedback on both the functionality and usability of the WeGovNow platform and the

associated service.

Empower –Through the use of the WeGovNow platform, the capacity of citizens, businesses

and other organisations to be pro-active in the community, access information about

services and ways to get involved will increase.

The engagement goals and objectives will be identified for each planned activity and are

outlined more generally in Exhibit 4Exhibit 3. Appropriate instruments will be applied across

the different WeGovNow project phases based on the target group, objectives and level of

involvement sought. Exhibit 4 provides an overview of the WeGovNow project stages and

provides a preliminary list of engagement methods that will be deployed to address specific

thematic objectives (as detailed earlier in this section).


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Exhibit 3: Matching of the stakeholders to main engagement objectives and project phases


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Exhibit 4: Matching of Main Engagement Methods to Project Phases

Project phase:

Objective Stakeholders

Engagement method/technique

Activity

Design and development phase

Requirements elicitation

All relevant to the service scenarios outlined in D2.2

User workshops and scenario planning (20 - 40 participants per workshop)

Presentation of capabilities generally provided by the technical platform envisaged to become available from WeGovNow

Generation of ideas on how to utilise the technical capabilities to be provided by WeGovNow through scenario planning

Requirements for WeGovNow technical platform & collaboration processes to be enabled

Representatives of organisations; administrations Strategic key informant

interviews

Identification of strategic / structural framework conditions and restraints

Generation of ideas on how to utilise the technical capabilities to be provided by WeGovNow

Requirements on WeGovNow technical platform & collaboration processes to be enabled

Design and development phase

Platform development & Technical prototype testing

Representatives of residents; NGOs; Public Administration

User workshop/ working group sessions/ field tests

Presentation of capabilities provided by the WeGovNow prototype

Collation of user feedback on prototype versions of WeGovNow technical platform components

Trial and evaluation phase

Pilot operation

Public

Public events; open space events; interactive displays/exhibitions; targeted online message boards; social media; magazines, newsletters…

Presentation of capabilities generally provided by the pilot system WeGovNow in the given local context

Support in utilising available WeGovNow platform components

Provision of training material

Representatives of residents; NGOs, business

Community champions/animators capacity building and support

Events initiation

Mobilisation and involvement of local people in piloting actions


Targeted end-users (e.g. youth clubs, schools, friends of parks associations…)

Community mapping events/sessions

Presentation of capabilities generally provided by the pilot system WeGovNow in the given local context


Action research

Support local people to carry out their own research into the needs/experiences and opportunity identification in their community


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Project phase:

Objective Stakeholders

Engagement method/technique

Activity

Key informant interviews

Collation of feedback on experiences gained with WeGovNow solutions under day to day conditions

User workshops ( 5- 20 participants per workshop);

participatory evaluation


Stakeholder assessment of the performance of the platform and achievements of the collaborative processes

Opinion surveys/


4.2 Stakeholder Mapping

Different stakeholder groups will have a role to play in the success of WeGovNow in both

the short and long term effectiveness and sustainability of project outputs. Given the

importance of their role within the project a key task will be to identify the different

stakeholders, their roles (NGOs, citizens/customers, elected representatives…); interests

(organisational issues, digital inclusion…); values (financial, social, political); benefits sought

from WeGovNow and potential adoption by conducting a stakeholder analysis. This can be

carried out within the overarching remit of WeGovNow but also in planning specific

engagement activities, use cases and project phases. Furthermore, the results from a

stakeholder analysis will serve to assist in the delivery of tasks in other work packages such

as the iterative requirements elicitation (WP3) and final evaluation and analysis (WP4)

There are a number of techniques and tools that exist to conduct such an analysis. The

simplest example is a high level stakeholder map that lists the key stakeholders in any

project. Further analysis can be carried out to look at relationships and varying levels of

influence. Stakeholders typologies are an approach that might, for example, be used to

identify and differentiate on the basis of ‘salience’. Salience recognises that not all

stakeholders are equal, and that there is discrimination in the extent to which the requests

of different stakeholders are acknowledged on the basis of the relative power, legitimacy

and urgency of such requests of different stakeholders6. Power relates to how much

influence an organisation can bring to the project to help it achieve its objectives. Influence

could be affected through funding, statutory regulation or other forms of more informal

lobbying or persuasion. Interest relates to how much of a stake or concern an organisation

or group may have in the outcomes being worked towards. Conducting a power-interest

6 Mitchell, R. K., Agle, B. R., & Wood, D. J. (1997). Toward a theory of stakeholder identification and salience:

Defining the principle of who and what really counts. Academy of management review, 22(4), 853-886.


19

matrix would enable an assessment of these factors for the relevant stakeholders and help

develop an understanding of the key stakeholders, what their relationship is, or is likely to

be, and a plan for how to work with them most effectively.

Prior to undertaking a stakeholder mapping exercise some broad stakeholder groups

relevant to WeGovNow can be identified as follows:

Local Authority/Municipality

General public

Business

Non-profit organisations

Local residents

Policy-makers

4.3 Recruitment

WeGovNow requires the active involvement of a range of actors for various project phases.

The most important issue here is the effective recruitment of volunteers. These activities of

necessity must take place from the outset of the project, in order to ensure that participants

are recruited as required, in particular given the relatively long time-span required to recruit

members of the general public. The research questions for these participatory activities

revolve around the motivation of the participants as well as any changes that occur as a

result of taking part in project and a key goal is to evaluate a range of different engagement

tactics for recruiting participants in WeGovNow.

4.3.1 Local Audiences

In the community, information channels offer a good starting point as they provide initial

contact information for locally based interest and target groups. Exploring neighbourhoods

and informal interviews with residents will reveal local information networks; posters, local

information brochures, leaflets and advertisements in local newspapers are all examples of

Direct Methods of finding and making contact with local audiences. In addition, local

authority partners will have listings of individuals, organisations and business they have

engaged previously.

Direct Methods are most appropriate for identifying user groups and community based

organisations, grassroots initiatives and community and voluntary sector organisations

delivering services locally, as well as the wider general public and residents in

neighbourhoods. Once initial contact is made in the community then the snowball effect

comes into play as more contacts are accrued through consultations via workshops, focus

groups and one to one interviews. This process enables new groups to be included as they

become visible and can be included in later iterations of the research cycle.


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In addition it is important to seek out and include individuals who may be most in need,

those who perhaps lack the capacity and / or confidence to engage with, and play an active

role, in designing, delivering and using WeGovNow opportunities. Contact with community

activists and development workers, who may have and built up long-term trust and

engagement within the community, may have the capacity to work with researchers to

overcome barriers to inclusion.

Virtual Methods such as desk top research, web searches and engagement via web, blogs

and social networks are also powerful tools for locating target groups. Contact information

for Central and Local Authority Services is most easily accessed via the various service

directories of the Local Authority website, whereas less formal organisations, NGO’s and

activist groups are more likely to use a range of web based tools, such as Twitter and

Facebook Pages in their communications and information networks.

Direct and virtual methods are used to map against the stakeholder analysis and identify

stakeholder representatives, through desk top research further user and stakeholder

organisations will be identified and contacted also making use of the snowball effect, new

groups will be coming on board throughout the project allowing for further iterations of the

research cycle.

Exhibit 5: Summary of Direct and Virtual Methods for Identifying Local Audiences

Target Groups Primary Sources Secondary Sources

Community and User Groups

Communities and Neighbourhoods

Grassroots initiatives

Youth clubs

Wider general public

Direct Methods

Local community information networks

Community activists and development workers

Existing databases and contact information from user groups, discussions and one to one interviews

Virtual Methods

Desk top research, information gathered via websites, blogs, social networking, online forums

Stakeholders and Service Providers

Activists and NGO’s

CVS Organisations

Policy makers

Public sector administrators

Event organisers and associations

Local businesses

Transport & Public Health Administrators

Schools

Universities

Virtual Methods

Desk top research, information gathered via websites, blogs, social networking, online forums

Direct Methods

Local community information networks

Community activists and development workers

Existing databases and contact information from user groups, workshops, discussions and one to one interviews


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4.3.2 National and City Wide Audiences

The contribution of national and city wide organisations to the Engagement Plan is not

necessarily to involve them directly in local engagement activities, but rather to invite them

to participate and contribute to the discussion around WeGovNow and act as potential

channels for publicising and disseminating information about the project. Dissemination

material for this purpose will be developed under WP5 and distributed. Organisations with

a national focus frequently have databases of contacts and affiliated organisations and

many act through networks of local branches and as such can be valuable in recruiting

participants. National and city wide service providers frequently constitute advisory groups.

Virtual methods are the primary route to identifying and contacting user and stakeholder

organisations and established forums provide opportunities to disseminate information and

promote WeGovNow in national and / or city wide arenas.

Local user groups and other NGO’s can be valuable sources of information with regard to

national organisations as they frequently have first-hand experience of them as “umbrella”

organisations and can identify potentially active and sympathetic organisations. The aim is

to identify national organisations with databases and community networks to extend the

reach of the project.

4.4 Action Planning

The five step engagement plan outlined at the beginning of this chapter culminates in an

action plan to determine actions needed for subsequent project phases. Effective

engagement during the development of action plans can help build support for

commitments with a wider set of actors to rely on for successful implementation. The action

plan should list what steps must be taken in order to achieve specific project goals. The

purpose of an action plan is to clarify what resources are required to reach the goal,

formulate a timeline for when specific tasks need to be completed and determine what

resources are required.

4.5 Engagement Process

The engagement process (provides a generic framework for the Engagement Plan, with a

primary focus on direct methods of engagement. The model is deliberately flexible so that

different participants may follow or participate in different pathways and at different

stages, for example, with some minor adjustments it is applicable for both end user and

stakeholder audiences. The model also aims to illustrate the cyclical and iterative framing of

co-design, agile development and participatory research. Each of the key elements is

outlined below and indicates the primary target for engagement i.e. external (yellow box) or

internal (green box) stakeholders.


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Exhibit 6: WeGovNow Engagement Process


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Introduction to project and existing applications

The first stage involves introducing the project, its aims and objectives, the local and

broader European policy setting and time frame. Pre-existing applications to be integrated

within the WeGovNow engagement platform are introduced and demonstrated.

Co-design initiation, discussion, scenario & user story development

Activities facilitating an open discussion about initiatives and programmes that might be

relevant to WeGovNow are explored for the identification of specific needs and priorities.

Understanding the current practices and ways in which end users interact with local

authorities and access information (for example, mobile phone apps, local authority and

service provider websites) should also be explored -identifying where potential gaps or

deficiencies might be.

Based on relevant initiatives discussed a series of scenarios are developed that could make

use of features within the WeGovNow platform. The focus is on describing what users are

trying to achieve in the scenario and an existing platform, combination of platforms or

features from any of them can be included in the description to suggest which might be

used to collect, share or visualise information in the scenario. User stories based on the

discussions and scenarios are created.

Sandbox trials, Pre- application testing & feedback

The next step in the process can either lead to time spent exploring the existing tools

provided in the sandbox or deployment of one in a local pre-trial based on use case

scenarios identified in the previous stage. Both are designed to provide further input into

the overall needs and requirements of the integrated platform and offer an opportunity to

gain hands-on experience with online functionalities in order to find out what works in

particular contexts.

Consolidation of scenarios and user requirements/elicitation

Here requirements are extracted from the discussions and feedback from other stages and

user stories are compiled, consolidated and prioritised in close coordination with the

developers. Assessment of prioritised user stories and requirements are made and

conversion of user prioritised stories into use cases and features/functionality for the

developers with responsibility for the application or features in question.

Selection & [Re] Development of functionality/features

Functionality is selected for development within a sprint cycle as applied within an agile

development process in which end user representatives will also take a key role.

Platform Prototype testing & feedback

Activities designed to enable testing of the WeGovNow platform under day-to-day

conditions and obtaining feedback to feed into further steps in the iterative process.


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5 Pilot Validation Sites

WeGovNow tools and process will be trialed and activated in 3 locations, each quite

different in size, demographic make-up and in the public administration’s current use of

technology to engage local citizens. In the following sections a brief description of each pilot

site is given with an overview of the public administration’s current approach to citizen

engagement, use of technology and preliminary ideas for trialing the WeGovNow platform.

5.1 Turin

Turin has a population of around 892,276 comprising predominantly Europeans. Residents

of African origin make up the second largest ethnic group (~ 35, 000) and Asiatic the third

(15000). It’s an ageing population with 30% aged between 61-108; 20% between 31-45.

There is a roughly equal split between male (47.5%) and female (52.4%)

The metropolitan area of the City (with 315 municipality) is an area that has diversified its

economic base, leading to new manufacturing and service-based sectors, while not giving up

the historical industrial soul, with specialisation in the automotive, mechanical, aerospace,

and ICT sectors. To the changes in the socio-economic structure today contributes a foreign

component increasingly integrated and present in significant proportion also in the business

system.

5.1.1 Background

Torino is transforming from an industrial city to a centre of innovation and culture,

positioning itself as a capital of innovation in Italy and ambitiously in Europe. Torino was the

first city in Italy to define a strategic plan of 45 actions, “SMILE–Smart Mobility, Inclusion,

Life&Health and Energy”, co-participated by 350 public and private organizations. As a

result, Torino has seen the launch of innovative initiatives by its citizens, such as the first

Italian FabLab (makers-space), Arduino labs (open-hardware). Adopting these successful

models to trigger innovation, a set of integrated initiatives to promote citizen-driven

innovation have been identified:

TSI-FaciliTO, to sustain social innovative start-ups;

Open Incet, a centre for open innovation to valorise ideas engaging the community;

the Smart Living Labs initiative to encourage innovative Public Private Partnerships.

The Administration supports these initiatives adopting a participatory ecosystemic approach

and embraces the model of open innovation, with the view that a multiple-helix approach

can better face the complex urban problems.

To this aim, in 2013 Torino Social Innovation has been launched to build an open innovative

participation platform of public/private partners that supports bottom-up processes of

urban/social innovation. Cities are facing new social challenges due to economic,

environmental and demographic changes. However, cities have an enormous potential as


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innovation collectors because of the strong concentration of competences, highly-educated

people, resources and networks. Therefore, cities need to develop new models for

sustainable, intelligent and inclusive growth.

TSI is an ecosystem policy composed by a set of strategies and instruments to support new

enterprises that are able to address social needs in different fields (e.g. education,

employment, mobility, health, inclusion) and to create a blended value for society, both

social and economic.

The aim is to support social entrepreneurs, their creativity, their digital competences and

their perception for social improvements.

The main objectives of TSI are:

1. Fostering the culture and the awareness of social innovation.

2. Supporting the development of creative communities.

3. Sustaining new forms of sharing economy.

4. Simplifying the development of business projects for an economy that is more

dynamic, inclusive and sustainable.

This partnership involves the Municipality of Torino and until now another 40 organisations,

with the aim of creating an open ecosystem of actors and stimulating synergies among them

and is the added value of TSI. It works as an open platform, a multi-stakeholder system, with

different competences in research, entrepreneurship, and policies for social innovators.

Public and private organisations join this open platform integrating their services (e.g., office

space, advice, finance, training and so on) in favor of developing a culture of social

innovations in our city.

It’s also important to mention that in a drive to regenerate deprived urban areas the Special

Periphery Projects were launched in December 1997 by the City of Torino, together with the

Housing Agency, the City Districts and non-profit organisations. It represents a specific part

of an overall strategic plan aimed at transforming and promoting a city wide sustainable

development. A “Neighbourhood Unit” was then activated within the city administration to

act transversally, cutting across the different departments and with a multidisciplinary

approach and staff. Promoting local development in neglected and decaying areas is a

difficult task. An innovative attitude in designing policies and intervention was introduced,

centred on integrating different measures: promotion of economic activities and

entrepreneurship, urban design and renewal, social work and cultural actions and -

moreover - a significant involvement of inhabitants and local actors.

The Neighbourhood Plan consists of the different areas of intervention: one of them is a

local development plan in the area called “Parco_DORA- Spina 3” where a consistent urban

development initiative has been implemented in a former railway area and “accompanied”

by Committee Parco Dora, a public-private local development agency.


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WeGovNow offers the municipality a way in which to make participation in urban redevelopment processes easier for citizens and a means with which to collect information from citizens. The municipality wants to reinforce networking activities through this process and to test new forms of collective decision making. It is hoped that this will see the emergence of new local communities in the context of Parco Dora and support the co-design/management of public spaces and services as this area develops further.

In doing so, the City of Turin can become more efficient and develop more inclusive policies,

in response to citizens’ needs by getting them involved and encouraging more citizen

ownership. From the perspective of citizens WeGovNow can be seen as an enabling

technology to reinforce their role as active local actors and as an instrument to facilitate

community building.

5.1.2 Current Engagement Approaches

At the local level, the Urban Regeneration Department has been promoting since 2001

resident participation in decision-making, networking of existing stakeholders, building of

social boards and local development agencies. These kinds of tools make it possible to

realise regeneration actions from contingencies and to start up self-managed processes

(from the local stakeholders) and are therefore sustainable over time.

Turin is one of the cities in Europe which is investing in developing new methods to manage

‘the commons’, for instance through the enforcement of a Regulation on common goods

(Regulation for the Care and Regeneration of Urban Commons) approved in January 2016.

The Regulation governs the forms of collaboration among citizens and the City of Turin for

the care and regeneration of urban commons and allows “active citizens” to carry out

interventions of care and regeneration of urban commons as single or through social

organizations. The implementation of the Regulation on the urban commons will be driven

in Turin by the implementation of “pacts of collaboration” (Partnership agreements)

between residents or associations and local authority based in most of the cases on the

reuse of abandoned urban spaces and structures.

The pilot area for testing the WeGovNow platform and components is Dora Park, a borough

within the IV district that represents one of the most significant portions of post-industrial

Turin. Dora Park Committee worked in this area from 2006 to 2015 accompanying the

transformation of the Spina 3. This Committee was a public body, founded by the City of

Torino (Urban Regeneration and Development Department) to promote and implement

actions and projects in the social and cultural fields, with the aim of mobilizing resources

and opportunities in the area, enhancing the features and stimulating the growth of

awareness in citizens to the issues of their neighborhood. All these initiatives have been

defined, promoted and implemented through collaboration with institutional actors,

associations and citizens, contributing to the redevelopment and promotion of the area

(quadruple helix approach).


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5.1.3 Existing Technology Usage

There are several initiatives in Torino with different purposes where First Life, one of the

technologies to be provided within the WeGovNow engagement platform, is currently in

use:

TeenCarTO: Supported by Comune di Torino, it involves hundreds of high school

students in producing an interactive map of the city from the perspective of teenagers,

comprising aspects important to their daily lives.

Crowdmapping Mirafiori Sud: First Life is used in this initiative where the local

administration and residents of the borough “Mirafiori Sud” in connected. Citizens can

report problems to the local Council via the map. The Council handles reports via an

online workflow integrated with the social network and the map is updated when the

problem is solved.

Mapping the Ecoborgo: The partnership with the non-profit organization Ecoborgo

Campidoglio, active in the borough “Borgovecchio Campidoglio”, sees First Life being

used by an active community to support their bottom-up local initiatives and self-

organization of citizens who take care of their artistic and environmental resources.

Mirafiori Social Green: From 2016 First Life will be used to facilitate the coordination

among associations and groups involved in the project “Mirafiori Social Green” intended

to organize social streets, food recovery initiatives, informal exchange of services and

goods, waste reduction actions, environmental protection labs and the restoration of

common resources.

5.1.4 Initial Focus of Use Case Development Work – Dora Park

The pilot area for testing the WeGovNow platform and tools is Dora Park, the new urban

park located in borough SPINA 3 which comprises IV districts that represents one of the

most significant portions of the post-industrial Turin. Some of the historic industries were

located in the area and whose ruins, such as the Michelin plant, are still visible and clearly

characterize the new Dora Park and this part of the city. The park is surrounded by new

buildings such as a new church Santo Volto, new residential buildings, new shopping

centers, a Museum of Environment and business centres.

The park is the result of an international competition on the basis of masterplans by Jean-

Pierre Buffi and Andreas Kipar. Covering an area of 45 acres the park straddles the river and

exhibits the reuse of materials, structures and routes from its past industrial architecture. A

nature area and public park form some of the different sites and the new section of tunnel

in the heart of the park is used for leisure with facilities including a skate park that was

installed to give young people a vital hub of youth culture and is managed by a Youth

Association called “Event Five Association”.


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The stripping hangar hosts cultural events gathering thousands of people for cultural or

religious activities. The old Michelin worker canteen, which overlooks the park, became the

Museum for Environment. Dora Park opened in 2011 but some areas were only opened to

the public at the beginning of the year. The Ex Valdocco in the north of the park is due to be

renovated in 2018/2019.

All these initiatives have been defined, promoted and implemented through collaboration

with institutional actors, associations and citizens, contributing to the redevelopment and to

the promotion of the area.

The idea is to use the know-how of the former Dora Park Committee (which was closed in

2016) for community engagement activities: because since 2006 until 2016 the Dora Park

Committee carried out a systematic collection and inventory of documentary and

iconographic material concerning the industrial history of the area and transformation

processes, through the use of diverse sources such as archives, institutions, texts, citizen’s

eyewitness accounts and institutional and private actors involved.

Population

The total population is around 8,764 (base year 2012); 7,500 are new residents that live around Parco Dora, with 43% of population under the age of 34.

A snapshot of main features

Points of strength Points of weakness

New urban park in a borough which is characterized by the lack of public spaces

New sporting association have shown interested to make activities in the park

Inspiring place to make cultural events

A park is attended by youngsters.

Lack of economic activities

Shortage of services designed to face different population needs

No fully exploitation of its potentials

High cost for maintenance

5.2 Turin Engagement Plan

The following section outlines the key engagement objectives, activities and expected

results to be undertaken by the Municipality of Turin.

The Turin City Council in January 2016 approved a specific “Regulation for the Care and

Regeneration of Urban Commons”, which governs the forms of collaboration among

citizens and the City of Turin for the care and regeneration of urban commons and allows


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“active citizens” to carry out interventions of care and regeneration of urban commons as

single or through social organizations.

The Regulation The implementation of the Regulation on the urban commons will be driven

in Turin by the implementation of “pacts of collaboration” (Partnership agreements)

between residents or associations and local authority based in most of the cases on the

reuse of abandoned urban spaces and structures.

This could provide a regulatory support tool and encourage citizens to take ownership and

manage basic service provisions related to the public space.

The first pact of collaboration should be signed by the City of Torino and Innesto

Association, which is developing a project on “social gardening” in Hortus Conclusus, a

green area inside a former industrial building located in Dora Park.

Within this context, the WeGovNow approach and the use of innovative ICT platforms could

help:

1. in promoting the Regulation for the Care and Regeneration of Urban Commons,

improving the participation of residents;

2. in supporting the implementation of several pacts of collaboration;

3. in collecting data and information about the pacts of collaboration, in order to

monitor and evaluate the results of the different partnerships.

At the same time The City of Turin needs to test new models of Co-design new services and

activities, involving local communities and different Departments of the Municipality,

supporting ongoing projects managed by other Departments of the City of Torino.

Therefore, it’s crucial to update instruments used by the administration to communicate

with residents and to have timely feedback on what happens in strategic urban areas, to

identify emerging needs at the local level, to facilitate the aggregation of local residents to

achieve common objectives and to establish new forms of co-designing. Engagement in the

context of Parco Dora will be stimulated to develop existing communities, emerging

communities, co-design activities, co-decision processes, to promote relations between

users to identify potential or needs to be faced.

5.2.1 General Engagement Objectives

The community engagement objectives of the Municipality of Turin are to:

• Increase the transparency of public decisions

• Get a deeper understanding of citizen’s needs and increase citizen’s participation in

decision making processes and in the management of public spaces

• Collect data, information, suggestions, and feedback


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• Raise awareness about the WeGovNow platform

• Elicit input from a range of end users to obtain user requirements for the applications

offered

• Test the early prototype and the final platform

• Involve various stakeholders in the day-to-day utilisation of the WeGovNow platform

• Support the monitoring and evaluation of each project scenario and its management

• Encourage stakeholders to evaluate the efficacy of the WeGovNow platform and services

offered

• To test and evaluate new models of:

1. Co-design new services and activities;

2. Co-managing public spaces.

5.2.2 Engagement Activities

To achieve the objectives outlined above the Municipality of Turin has defined the following

separate key engagement activities:

• Stakeholder Mapping – to define stakeholders to be engaged, analyse them by impact

and influence and identify community leaders with whom to define a more detailed

engagement strategy tailored to the different audiences.

• Key stakeholder Interviews – to consult with and involve administrative officers, NGOs

etc. to obtain specific requirements for the WeGovNow technical platform &

collaboration processes to be enabled by the new services and to see the area from the

perspective of stakeholders and identify emerging needs at local level.

• Technical Meetings – with administrative officers to involve them in discussions on how

the WeGovNow platform can improve service delivery.

• Focus groups - with administrative officers and NGOs to involve them in discussions on

each specific scenarios.

• Participatory events such as community meetings/workshops, community mapping,

transect walks, OST… – to collect local needs and suggestions, to inform local residents of

the current capabilities generally provided by the WeGovNow platform; encourage

feedback to ascertain whether this aligns with their local concerns in the context of

different services; to engage as many citizens as possible and to encourage them to

engage with the online platform directly.

• Thematic Workshops (interactive sessions based on the requests received from

stakeholders during participatory events) – with the aim to maximize participant

interaction and discuss their needs.


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• Youth-centred workshops – to empower young people to define the scope of services

and local actions, and therefore system requirements that are relevant for them.

• Surveys - to consult with the wider public about the service and efficacy of the

WeGovNow platform (trial & evaluation)

• Mapping parties – to present the capabilities provided by the WeGovNow pilot system in

the given local context and encourage wider involvement in day-to-day service utilisation

• Communication events and Promotion events/demonstration – to widen the uptake

and use of the platform.

5.2.3 Key Stakeholder Groups Envisaged to Be Involved

With the focus on Parco Dora and around the thematic clusters outlined in section 4 the stakeholders initially envisaged are detailed in Exhibit 7. Furthermore, specific engagement activities to be undertaken with different target groups across the different project phases are outlined in Exhibit 8.


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Exhibit 7: Stakeholder groups to be involved: Engagement Activities

Stakeholder type Contact / outreach channel Project phase Engagement Activities

Public Sector

Development, European Funds, Innovation and Smart City Dpt.

Urban Regeneration and Development Dpt.

Public green and municipal buildings Dpt.

Culture, Education and Youth Dpt.

Information System Dpt.

District 4 and 5

Design and development Requirements elicitation

Take part in workshops, events and, in general, engagement activities, providing input and suggestions in relation to a specific Scenario;

Test the early prototype and provide input for the developers on proposed technical/functional requirements to improve the system;

Influence the design of the service in terms of specific user requirements;

Take responsibility for providing input for the technical/functional requirements

Trial and evaluation

Take part in workshops, events and, in general, engagement activities, providing inputs and suggestions in relation to a specific Scenario;

Provide feedback on the usefulness of the platform and ultimately use the service being offered via the WGN platform and provide feedback on its usefulness;

Provide the administrative support for any queries arising during the trial and validation phase.


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Business

(Dora Shopping Mall

Ipercoop supermarket

Environment Park

Sport shop Giannone


Work as a contact point for offline engagement activities, promoting and communicating the project

Trial and evaluation Provide feedback on the usefulness of

the platform and ultimately use the service being offered via the WGN platform

NGOs

Innesto Association

MAcA - Environment Museum

Housing association group - Citizens committee Dora spina 3

Sports associations

UISP, Event Five Committee

Religious associations: 1. Metropolitan Curia Santo

Volto 2. Islamic center/ Taiba

Mosque and Apls Islamic




Influence the design of the service in terms of specific user requirements.


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Association

Cultural associations

Other local associations

Trial and evaluation Take part in workshops, events and, in

general, engagement activities, providing inputs and suggestions in relation to a specific Scenario;

Mobilisation and involvement of local people in piloting actions, working as a facilitator to engage people who is already involved in their activities/projects;

Provide feedback on the usefulness of the platform and ultimately use the service being offered via the WGN platform and provide feedback on its usefulness.

Citizens

Local residents and other people using the Dora Park

Young people

People involved in NGO’s activities

Former workers of major factories which were located in the area

Families

Tourists


Take part in workshops, events and, in general, engagement activities, providing inputs and suggestions in relation to a specific Scenario

Local networks

Mobilisation and involvement of local people in piloting actions and increase wider uptake of the platform


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Exhibit 8: Activities to be undertaken with Stakeholder groups aligned with objectives

Activity Mechanism

Lead - Target group[s]

Description Objectives Engagement Focus

Phase

Stakeholder Mapping

Desk analysis Interview to the former Dora Park Committee

Pilot site Managers former Dora Park Committee

Analyse roles and function of each stakeholder related to Dora Park

Define relevant stakeholder who may be involved

Identify potential stakeholder

Design & Development

Key stakeholder Interviews

Face to face interview

Pilot site Managers Relevant stakeholder: - Municipality Departments; - NGOs - Businesses

So far we have interviewed: 5 Municipality Departments (Culture; Public Green; Youth; Urban Regeneration; Information System) 3 NGOs (MAcA Environment Museum; Innesto Association; UISP National Sport Association) 2 Businesses (Dora Shopping Mall; Ipercoop)

Identify ongoing projects and activities related to Dora Park Define internal processes within the Municipality Identify emerging needs at local level Develop system requirement

Involve Collaborate


Technical Meetings

Events (upon invitation)

Pilot site Managers and UniTO - Municipality Departments; - NGOs - Businesses

So far we have organized 4 technical meetings in collaboration with UniTO, during which we have presented the potential of the platform. Other technical meetings will be organised with other relevant stakeholders

System design feedback Develop system requirement

Involve Collaborate



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Activity Mechanism

Lead - Target group[s]

Description Objectives Engagement Focus

Phase

Focus groups

Pilot site Managers - Municipality Departments and administrative officers - NGOs - Businesses

At least 2 Focus groups for each scenario will be organised with stakeholder involved

involve them in discussions on each specific Scenario Develop system requirement

Involve Collaborate Develop scenarios and use cases


Participatory events

Community meetings and workshops; Community mapping; Transect walks; OST

Pilot site Managers - Municipality Departments and administrative officers - NGOs - Local residents - Citizens

At least 2 participatory events for each scenario will be organised with NGOs, stakeholder and citizens to collect local needs and suggestions, and to engage as many citizens as possible and to encourage them to engage with the online platform directly

Co-design actions and activities Increase platform utilisation System design feedback

Involve Collaborate Collect data and information Empower Co-design

Design & Development Trial & Evaluation

Thematic Workshops

Public events Pilot site Managers - Municipality Departments and administrative officers; - NGOs; - Local residents; - Citizens

If necessary we will organise dedicated thematic workshops to go into particular issues related to each Scenario

Maximize participant interaction and discuss deeply their needs System design feedback

Collaborate Collect data and information Empower Co-design

Design & Development Trial & Evaluation


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Activity Mechanism

Lead - Target group[s] Description Objectives Engagement Focus

Phase

Surveys On-line and paper-based surveys

Pilot site Managers - Municipality Departments and administrative officers; - NGOs; - Local residents; - Citizens

At least 50 surveys Consult with the wider public about the service and efficacy of the WeGovNow platform

Collect data and feedback

Trial & Evaluation

Communication events and Promotion events/demonstration

Platform Demonstration

Pilot site Managers; Media; Businesses; Start-up; Citizens

Attendance at community festivals will provide an opportunity in which the WeGovNow platform can be demonstrated to a large number of people spanning several target groups. The outcome will be that more people become aware of the WGN platform and its capabilities; and its potential use in the context of the local service being delivered.

Increase platform utilisation Opportunity to integrate new tool

Inform Trial & Evaluation


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5.2.4 Expected Engagement Results

By using WeGovNow the City of Turin wants:

to make easier the participation of the citizens in urban redevelopment processes;

to increase the transparency of decision-making processes;

to develop more inclusive policies, promoting the citizens’ role of active local actors;

to test new form of collective decisions;

to collect information from users/citizens;

to support local communities in developing new projects;

to promote the Regulation for the Care and Regeneration of Urban Commons,

supporting the implementation of several pacts of collaboration and collecting data and

information in order to monitor and evaluate the results of the different partnerships.

Expected result for specific actions:

10 Key stakeholder Interviews to define internal processes within the Municipality, and

to identify ongoing projects and activities related to Dora Park and Identify emerging

needs at local level

5 Technical Meetings to present the potential of the platform and to collect System

design feedback

2 Focus groups for each Scenario attended by 5 people

2 Participatory events for each Scenario attended by 20 people

2 Community workshops attended by 20 people

30 end users testing the prototype

50 surveys for administrative officers, Business and NGOs members, and citizens to

evaluate the service

1 Communication event/demonstration


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5.3 San Dona di Piave

San Donà del Piave is a city of 42,000 inhabitants in North-Eastern Italy – Veneto Region -

close to Venice. This is an increase of 9.8% over the intercensal period from 2005 to 2015.

Population ageing is a major trend currently being witnessed across the region. In 2005

17.9% of the population was aged 65 years and older. In 2015 this proportion increased to

20.8% and the projection is that this cohort will double as a proportion of the population by

2050. Another notable trend is that the population has also become more ethnically diverse.

In 2005 only 2.6% of residents did not speak Italian as their principal language. By 2015 that

had increased to 9.9% with over 4,000 immigrants from more than 80 countries now

resident in the city. These two trends will have implications for the social services provided

by the Municipality and justifies the priority that the Municipality puts on its Social Strategy.

5.3.1 Background

The Social Opportunities Plan (SOP) is part of this strategy. The SOP represents a general

policy framework introduced by the San Donà di Piave Municipal Administration in 2015 to

respond to the need for a closer relationship between the needs of the population, the

overall quality of life of people and the economic development of the city.

The SOP’s lines of action are centered on the need to rethink spaces (housing, urban,

buildings, community) in relation to community welfare policies. The Social Opportunities

Plan SOP is now the focus of urban regeneration, which is also a community development

and social cohesion tool. Well-being becomes a means of reading human condition and life

of one's community, an approach that allows people to meet their needs at different ages

and living conditions, becoming at the same time agents of welfare.

This means addressing the relationship between the individual and freedom, the latter

meant as the creation of common values and actions that can increase benefits for people,

opportunities to work, to live, to study, to do sports, to access health care, to move and live

the natural environment.

Urban regeneration, therefore, as a way of taking on the human condition irrespective of

specific "categories" and contradictions that categorization entail, for a real and concrete

inclusion, so that everyone feels active and aware of the city.

The role of the City of San Donà di Piave is actually to orient the development goals towards

the common good that includes both human development and the ecological-

environmental aspects. A city that grows on itself without consuming soil, guarantees a

suitable environment for future generations.

Planning urban development today represents an opportunity to combine the idea of space

and the quality of life for its population. It means designing a city as a functional ecosystem

that creates and develops relationships between people and among different organizations.

It means interpreting every space (a town, a neighbourhood, a square) for the community,

understood as a place of living, relationships, economy, beauty, identity and change. San

Donà di Piave rejects the idea that there should be "dedicated" areas for the elderly, young


40

people, migrants, the disabled, pursuing the myth of exclusivity, simply because exclusivity

preludes to exclusion and therefore solitude. Instead, we think that large and small spaces

should be thought as economic, social and organizational "systems of relationships" where

we share new responsibilities, policies, methods, and services. They are the "community

construction sites" where we want to (re) affirm the identity of our city and its citizens.

That's why, in our role of public administration, we are talking about co-design,

collaboration and co-production, first and foremost, by taking on new responsibilities for a

city that fearlessly addresses change for a new human and urban development.

The city's strategic vision translates into some actions related to urban policies. San Donà di

Piave with the SOP, drew four scenarios for urban development, through the

methodological support of the Research Center "Giorgio Lago" (CIRN) of the University of

Padua:

1) The topic of housing for the aged and related solutions, providing for example a tool

spreading information on social services and activities in the community and providing a

map of affordable houses, accessible houses, owners, associations of tenants, and social

housing providers.

2) Requalification of some city hotspots (including the former Cantina Sociale – the wine

cellar cooperative building - with the project "Cantina dei Talenti" and a former military

base less than 10 km from the center;

3) The regeneration of the City Centre, with the purpose to collect ideas and share

information about how to promote the city centre and support business initiatives

4) Skills, Education and training development to facilitate the transition from school to work.

Urban development policies also include European cooperation through the participation of

San Donà di Piave. as leading partner, in the Urbact program (with the "City Centre Doctor"

project that also led to the activation of an Urban Local Group).


The collaboration with the University of Padova (Department of Political Science, Law and

International Studies) has produced a descriptive and analytical survey of the main activities

of active networks and the spaces used (and unused) in the district.

The result is a general definition of “ 4 project Clusters” that have been the subject of

participatory discussions for decision making and through a participatory process have

allowed the Municipality of San Donà to co-design and co-create with some citizens.

The 4 project clusters are:


41

The regeneration of public spaces to make these spaces active with cultural activities

and to use new (e.g. apps) and existing technologies (e.g. signage) to invite residents and

visitors to the attractions and activities in the city centre;

New creative activities supporting local development;

Age friendly city and environments (houses and care services);

Schools empowerment in order to get more attractive training courses and activities for

youth.

The main goal is to define intervention projects aimed at strengthening the relationship

between welfare and local economy.

Community management is also introduced with the Municipality’s regulation (245/2015)

which seeks to adopt new models of home care (as inspired by the Strategic

Implementation Plan of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing).

This means the promotion of active and independent living through Open and Personalised

solutions developing ICT solutions to help older people stay independent, more active and

mobile for longer and promoting innovation for age friendly and accessible buildings. The

Local Health Authority, Regional Authority, business companies working in the field of care

and assistance are the main partners of this process.


Informcity is a data sharing platform, based on the San Dona di Piave city's geographic map.

The portal provides access to online information services for the district and allows for the

participation and the consultation of urban planning policies.

5.3.4 Initial Focus of Use Case Development Work

The participatory processes already undertaken in San Donà di Piave to co-design and co-

create with some citizens have thus far been composed of 4 project clusters:

(1) The regeneration of public spaces to make these spaces active with cultural

activities and to use new (e.g. apps) and existing technologies (e.g. signage) to invite

residents and visitors to the attractions and activities in the city centre and to also re-

vitalise abandoned spaces like the big barracks.

(2) New creative activities supporting local development;

(3) Age friendly city and environments (houses and care services). This mainly means to

promote social housing policies and new models of services with a focus on the basic

needs of all its residents and therefore to increase the liveability of the city for all;

(4) Schools empowerment in order to get more attractive training courses and activities

for youth.


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5.4 San Dona di Piave Engagement Plan

The San Donà di Piave City Council is going to adopt a specific “Regulation on collaboration

between citizen and the City for the care, shared management and regeneration of urban

commons”.

The City of San Donà is also lead partner of the Urbact project “City Centre Doctor” which is

going to start a two year collaboration project between 10 European partners. The wider

scope of the project is to include more creative and place-led initiatives that stimulate

change and innovation in the city centres of smaller cities located in the shadow of larger

cities by addressing some specific aspects in terms of thematic challenges (retail, work and

creative enterprise) and place-led & more collaborative governance approaches. The project

proposal contributes to the Thematic Objective 3 Competitiveness of SMEs.

5.4.1 General Objectives

On the basis of the work started with the SOP the community engagement objectives for

the Municipality of San Dona di Piave are to:

Raise Awareness about the use of ICT platform supporting participative processes in 3

strategic local “public interest” scenarios :

urban regeneration;

ageing scenario;

youth - citizenship and jobs opportunities;

Promote innovative public-private models of collaboration to improve a more wide civic

approach in the development of public initiatives and services.

Stimulate the adoption of public regulations and collaboration agreements focused on

the user empowerment and on the community development approach;

Elicit input from a range of end users to obtain user requirements for the applications

offered;

Test the early prototype;

Involve various stakeholders in the day-to-day utilisation of the WeGovNow platform

Encourage stakeholders to evaluate the efficacy of the WeGovNow platform and

services offered.


Community workshops - to inform local residents of the current capabilities generally

provided by the WeGovNow platform:

School-centred workshops – according to the “Orientation and Territory Network

Agreement” to empower teachers and students to get information and solutions to

approach jobs and training opportunities, and therefore system requirements that are

relevant for them.


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Urban Local Group workshops – crossing the City Centre Doctor Urbact II project – to

involve city centre activists to obtain input into the design and development of tailored

system requirements and use of the WeGovNow platform and relevant processes required

for service delivery so as to help different professionals, retailers and shop owners to define

creative and co-working solutions.

Focus groups with business organizations to design the integrated “wine cellar” business

model and relevant processes required for set up the service;

Focus groups – with managers and professionals responsible for elderly home care and

assistance related services, to involve them in discussions on how the WeGovNow platform

can improve a integrated services delivery (design & development);

Focus groups internal to the Municipality to involve different departments in the testing

phase of the platform;

Focus groups to involve associations, parishes and unions to obtain input into the design

and development of tailored system requirements mainly focused on a “community

building” approach.

Interviews - to consult and involve other Key local stakeholders (Transport Company) to

work with developers and public service providers to help define and improve the platform.

Communication events and press releases– to widen the uptake and use of the platform.

Various processes/techniques and instruments (mechanisms) can be deployed but these

should be laid out in accordance with the project phase (design & development and/or trial

& evaluation); the target group (older people, business, developers, young people etc…) and

whether the objective is simply to inform about project activities, events and services or, for

example, to obtain stakeholder involvement in order to obtain input into the design and

development of tailored system requirements or end-user testing.

(The example in the table is just to provide an idea as to what information and detail should

be added to the table for each activity planned)


44

Exhibit 9: Activities to be undertaken with Stakeholder groups aligned with objectives

Activity Mechanism Lead - Target

group[s] Description Phase

Community workshops

Open events at the City Theatre To introduce citizens to the use of the WGN platform

Pilot site Managers; Business organizations Urban local Group Volunteers Associations Schools (high schools) Parishes Social and health care providers Social cooperatives Unions Regional organizations and officers dealing with the digital agenda Citizens

“ICT and social Innovation” is the first community workshop already scheduled for September ‘17. An open event at the City Theatre, in order to illustrate the state of the art of the project, the main scenarios and the different potentialities related to the 3 project’s objectives: user empowerment, collaborative production and open data management. At least one more community workshop will occur in the first months of 2018.

Design and

Development Phase

+

Trial & Evaluation

Trial & Evaluation


45



WEGOVLABS

2 hours periodic working groups and field tests with different local stakeholders

Pilot site Managers;

-Schools (up to 20 representatives);

-Urban Local Group (20)

-Business organizations (30);

-Managers and professionals (20);

-Municipality workers (up to 15) - Associations (30) - Parishes (10) -Unions (15-20) -Universities (5)

Technical meetings with Municipality representatives from ICT Department, Social Services and Urban Planning and economic activities + different stakeholders representatives to obtain input into the design and development of tailored system requirements and use of the WeGovNow platform and relevant processes required for service delivery.

Design and Development

Phase

+

Trial & Evaluation

Public events; open space events; interactive displays/exhibitions;

Wegovnow project’s stand

at the Fiera del Rosario 2017 (first weekend of October)

Citizens (120.000)

Businesses organizations

Management of a dedicated space during the annual local trade fair with more than 120.000 expected attendance

Design and Development

Phase


46



magazines,

newsletters

Municipality’s newsletter + Basso Piave e-mail newsletter (weekly)

Associations

Other…

citizens

Dedicated articles


According to the four project thematic clusters the following stakeholders are envisaged:


47

Exhibit 8: Stakeholder groups to be involved: Initial plans for San Dona di Piave


Public Sector

Urban Regeneration and Development Dpt.

Social Services, Culture, Education and Youth Dpt.

Public green and municipal buildings Dpt.

Information System Dpt.

Local Health Authority

Nursing Home

High Schools, professional schools

Universities

Arsenàl.IT. Veneto's Research Centre for eHealth Innovation.


Take part in workshops, events and, in general, engagement activities, providing input and suggestions in relation to a specific Scenario;









48


Business

Cantine Viticoltori Veneto Orientale s.a.c.

Social cooperatives active in social housing

City centre retailers

Business Associations (ASCOM)


Collaborate in the implementation of

the specific service scenario (as, for

example, farmers, handcraft makers,

retailers, hotels and restaurants in the

wine cellar project) and to the related

business models; in terms of specific

user requirements and ultimately use

the service being offered via the WGN

platform and provide feedback on its

usefulness.




49


NGOs

CGIL-CISL-UIL - Unions

volunteer associations

cultural associations

Sports associations

Red Cross

San Vincenzo

AUSER

ANTEAS







Mobilisation and involvement of local people in piloting actions, working as a facilitator to engage people who is already involved in their activities/projects;



50


Citizens

Local residents and other people

Young people

citizens entitled to manage urban gardens

People involved in NGO’s activities

Refugees and migrants

Families

Tourists








Activity Mechanism Lead - Target group[s] Description Phase

Community workshops

Pilot site Managers; -Business organisations -Urban local Group

To introduce citizens to the use of the WGN platform open events and station tests where people can see the prototypes. “ICT and social Innovation” is the first

Design and

Development Phase

+


51

Open events at the City Theatre station test at the Municipality Urban Centre

-Volunteers Associations -Schools (high schools) -Parishes -Social and health care providers -Social cooperatives -Unions -Regional organisations and officers dealing with the digital agenda -Citizens

community workshop already scheduled for September ‘17. An open event at the City Theatre, in order to illustrate the state of the art of the project, the main scenarios and the different potentialities related to the 3 project’s objectives : user empowerment, collaborative production and open data management. At least one more community workshop will occur in the first months of 2018.

Trial & Evaluation

WEGOVLABS

2 hours periodic working groups and field tests with different local stakeholders

Pilot site Managers;

-Schools (up to 20 representatives);

-Urban Local Group (20)

-Business organizations (30);

-Managers and professionals (20);

-Municipality workers (up to 15) - Associations (30) - Parishes (10) -Unions (15-20) -Universities (5)

Technical meetings with Municipality representatives from ICT Department, Social Services and Urban Planning and economic activities + different stakeholders representatives to obtain input into the design and development of tailored system requirements and use of the WeGovNow platform and relevant processes required for service delivery.

Design and Development Phase

+

Trial & Evaluation


52

Activity Mechanism Lead - Target group[s] Description Phase

Public events; open space events; interactive displays/exhibitions;

WeGovnow project’s stand

at the Fiera del Rosario 2017 (first weekend of October)

-Citizens (120.000)

-Businesses

-Organizations

-Associations

-Other…

Management of a dedicated space during the annual local trade fair with more than 120.000 expected attendance

Design and Development Phase

Magazines,

newsletters

Municipality’s newsletter + Basso Piave e-mail newsletter (weekly)

Citizens

Dedicated articles

Trial & Evaluation


53

5.4.4 Target Audience

Businesses: collaborate in the implementation of the specific service scenario (as, for

example, farmers, handcraft makers, retailers, hotels and restaurants in the wine cellar

project) and to the related business models; in terms of specific user requirements and

ultimately use the service being offered via the WGN platform and provide feedback on

its usefulness.

Young people – mainly referring to high school students : Influence the design of new

collaborative service with the aim to disseminate, through the platform, different

training or job opportunities, also reducing the gap between the school and local

enterprises;

NGOs: collaborate in the implementation of the specific service scenario (as for

example volunteer associations and unions for the citizens participation in the ageing

scenario) providing input for the developers on proposed technical/functional

requirements to improve the system. Use the service being offered via the WGN

platform and provide feedback on its usefulness.

Public Sector Officers:

-Those employed by Municipal IT department are responsible for trouble shooting

concerning the technical operation of the platform; they also respond to any requests

submitted by platform users in relation to technical problems these may experience;

the ICT department is responsible for the regular mapping of information provided on

the municipality’s existing web portal (http://www.sandonadipiave.net/);

- Those employed by the Social Services, the Local health Authority and/ or by the

Nursing Home collaborate in the implementation of service model (integrating home

care, social housing) based on a community development approach;

- Teachers supporting students in training or job opportunities research related

initiatives;

Family Carers: Influence the design of the service ( in the ageing scenario) in terms of

specific requirements related to the promotion of active ageing and social inclusion

initiatives.

Universities of Padua and Venice: collaborate to support the municipality in the

development and delivery of the e-services focused on the citizens participation.

Developers: Will implement technical solutions for the WGN platform so as to support

the municipalities/local authorities and civil society in the development and delivery of

the e-services whilst ensuring end users have an influence in the design.

Local networks: as, for example, the Urbact local Group

(http://urbact.eu/citycentredoctor) 20 people involved in the design and realization of

different public initiatives aiming to revitalize the city centre; mobilisation and

involvement of local people in piloting actions and increase wider uptake of the

platform with a specific view to the retail.


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Policy-makers: Raise Awareness about the role of ICT, mainly referring to the

WeGovNow platform, in facilitating the citizens participation to public interest

discussions and to the set up of meetings, events and other cultural initiatives.


The following outcome is expected from the engagement activities to be undertaken:

2 Community workshops attended by at least 300 people each

20 Focus groups /year attended by 20 people each


5 strategic interviews

5.5 Southwark

Southwark is one of the thirty three boroughs that make up London. It is categorised as both

an ‘Inner London’ and ‘Central London’ borough and as such, features many of the standard

characteristics of urban, inner city areas – for example, high population density, a mix of

wealth and poverty and large-scale regeneration etc. However, in many respects, the

situation in Southwark is more pronounced than the rest of London.

Although Southwark is the tenth smallest borough in London, it has the tenth largest

population, with 306,745 people. This is estimated to increase by 47,108 people over the

next decade (a 15% increase compared to the 10% forecast for London as a whole).

Southwark is more than twice as dense as the London average (10,632 persons per square

kilometre compared to 5,510) and is the ninth most densely populated local authority area

in the whole of England and Wales

It is a youthful population. 42% of people are aged between 20 – 39 compared to 35% in

London and 27% in England. Similarly, just 8% of people are aged 65 or over, compared to

11% in London and 17% in England. However, in line with the UK’s ageing population, the

number of people aged 65 plus is forecasted to increase by 32% over the next decade, while

the number of people aged 20 – 39 will rise by just 9%.

It is also a diverse population; evenly split between females (50.2%) and males (49.8%), and

people from a white background (52%) and Black and Minority Ethnic group (48%).

Southwark is home to the largest Black African population in London. 35.9% of residents

were born abroad and more than 120 different languages are spoken in the borough.

According to the Index of Multiple Deprivation, Southwark is the 12th most deprived

borough in London and the 41st most deprived local authority in England. Southwark has the

sixth highest unemployment rate in London (8.9% compared to the London average of 7%)

and gross annual pay is £32,983, close to the London average of £32,781 but under the

inner London average of £34,365.


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5.5.1 Background

Southwark is the largest local authority social landlord in London, and social housing is a

distinctive feature of the borough’s urban geography. In April 2012, over 40 per cent of the

total housing stock in Southwark was social, compared with 24 per cent across London as a

whole, but this has decreased since the 1980s and the private rented sector has expanded,

which is consistent with patterns in other central London boroughs. Southwark has an

ambitious plan to redress this with its commitment to build 11,000 new Council homes over

the next thirty years.

Since the 1990s, some housing estates in the borough have been run by Tenant

Management Organisations (TMOs). TMOs enable tenants and leaseholders in social

housing to take collective responsibility for managing the homes they live in. They are user-

run, local and neighbourhood-based. Larger TMOs usually have paid staff, including estate

managers and repairs staff, but also rely on resident volunteers. In annual satisfaction

surveys of residents, TMOs consistently score higher than Council managed estates on all

key performance indicators for both leaseholders and tenants, with TMO leaseholders

considerably more satisfied than Council leaseholders.

Southwark is recognised as a best practice local authority vis-à-vis TMOs, and is committed

to the development of more TMOs across the borough. The commitment is underpinned by

community engagement exercises which showed ‘significant appetite among Council

tenants and homeowners for more resident involvement in housing management’ and for

more tenant management initiatives. WeGovNow offers the Council a way in which to

facilitate the expansion of TMOs in a way that they could benefit from the WeGovNow

platform by making social networking activities, raising issues and collective decision making

easier.

Southwark Council, in collaboration with the Greater London Authority, are preparing a new

plan for the Old Kent Road and surrounding area which will serve as a potential testbed for

the deployment of WeGovNow. The plan will guide and manage new development and

growth in the area over the next 20 years. It provides a vision and objectives as well as

policies on:

A strategy for growth in jobs and businesses

Locations for 20,000 new homes, including new Council homes

A revitalised high street with shopping and town centre facilities

The design and heights of buildings and spaces

Improvements for pedestrians and cyclists, including new links and making existing

routes safer

Public transport improvements including an extension to the Bakerloo Line and two new

underground stations

The infrastructure that will be needed to support growth such as schools, open space

and public realm, health and other community facilities


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The local authority acknowledge that these are big changes that will take time to deliver and

realise it is absolutely vital that they get these changes right. This is where they will seek

input from the community about their ideas on anything from how they can build more

homes to making cycling safer.

Further to this the Council is reviewing the Southwark Plan and Core Strategy to prepare a

local plan called the New Southwark Plan. This new plan will set out its regeneration

strategy from 2017 to 2033 and will also be used to make decisions on planning

applications.


The local authority is committed to engaging with the local community; the Council is a

public body, elected by and ultimately accountable to its residents. Decisions on issues as

wide ranging as education, housing and transport have a significant impact on the day-to-

day lives of people in Southwark. As such, it is the Council’s duty to actively seek the

opinions of its residents and give them a genuine say in the decision making process.

However, it is not simply a matter of ideology; there are also solid practical reasons for

taking engagement seriously. When it comes to Southwark, it is the residents who are the

experts, and the Council make better decisions when it listens to them.

Southwark Council have learnt that good quality engagement can help residents to

understand the rationale for its decisions, even if they don’t necessarily agree with them.

This has never been more important than right now, when sustained cuts in public spending

in the UK mean difficult and unpopular decisions increasingly have to be made. To illustrate

this point, residents were recently asked how they would find the savings the Council have

to make in the coming years, without cutting valued local services. Through the consultation

process, residents who were initially angry about changes to services came to understand

why these changes were necessary.

Ultimately, good engagement leads to a better relationship between the Council and

residents, which is vital because Southwark can only be improved by working together.

However, much of the current engagement is relatively old fashioned. Residents who want

to have their say generally have to give up their own time to attend a public meeting or join

a forum, panel, working group or similar. Realistically, a limited number of residents have

either the time or the inclination to do so and consequently, the Council’s engagement

reaches a select group of residents, who have a disproportionate influence over decisions

made.


Southwark Council have a number of existing online platforms and are keen to explore how

WeGovNow might be integrated with these platforms.


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Residents can access many Council services - such as paying their Council tax or requesting a

repair - using the ‘MySouthwark’ website. There are more than 140,000 registered accounts.

MySouthwark was developed by the Council’s IT contractor.

Residents can view, respond to and see the outcome of all the Council’s consultations using

the online Consultation Hub. In its first year, there were over 80 consultations on the Hub

and the Council received more than 7,500 responses. The site is an “off-the-shelf” product

called Citizen Space, developed by Delib, a UK digital democracy company.

In the Council’s pledge to build 11,000 new Council homes over the next 30 years it has

sought for resident involvement and ideas on where to build these homes through the

Community Maps platform developed by Mapping for Change. Residents have mapped their

suggestions and from 105 of these, 50% have been taken forward by the Council for full

feasibility studies.

Southwark Council are complimenting their Consultation Hub with another Delib product

called Dialogue, which enables residents to publicly discuss local policy issues and has also

recently purchased a Geographical Information System called Spectrum Spatial, which is

developed by Pitney Bowes.

Southwark’s Residents’ Aims

The Council believes there is a significant overlap between its priorities for WeGovNow and

the priorities of its residents. However, in keeping with the ethos of WeGovNow, Southwark

would like the opportunity to ask its residents this question directly, rather than making too

many assumptions on their behalf. The Council are aware that some residents feel that

“consultation” and “engagement” are hollow words; something that it pays lip-service to so

that they can “tick a box” and plough on with their original intentions. As such, it is

important that the platform clearly demonstrates how feedback has been listened to, and

where possible, acted on.

5.5.2 Initial Focus of Use Case Development Work

Despite budgetary pressure, Southwark makes a number of commitments to equality and

fairness in line with its approach to equality. In 2015 Southwark has increased its efforts to

make the borough healthier, with investment in cycling, parks and leisure and free fruit

every day for primary school children. An ethical care charter is being rolled out and the

quality of homecare is to be improved so that older people can lead independent lives for

longer. Southwark has also committed to make the borough an age friendly place. Against

this general background, it is envisaged that a series of WeGovNow use cases will be

developed that concern a number of policy and public service domains. Exhibit 9 provides a

preliminary view on the initial thematic focus to be adopted for the purpose of use case

development in Southwark. This view will be further consolidated / extended through

collaborative use case development during the next stage of the overall project.

The whole borough of Southwark forms the pilot area for trialling the WeGovNow platform

and tools. The plan is to test the platform to support a diverse program of engagement in


58

terms of both scale and policy domains. Below are a few example use cases, where the

WeGovNow platform could reinvigorate the Council’s engagement with the local

community.

Housing

Many of the Council’s residents live on housing estates, with communal areas and shared

services. These communities have a considerable amount of shared knowledge and skills.

The Council want to empower these residents to use these skills and work together to

improve their estates, especially where they can accomplish things faster than the Council

could with its limited resources. WeGovNow provides an opportunity to enable residents on

an estate stay connected using the social network component, a mechanism with which

they could report any issues using the interactive map component – e.g. “There is a

pothole” or “The communal garden has fallen into disrepair”, and they could vote on how to

improve the communal garden using the structured opinion forming component, for

example. Residents could volunteer their time and services to improve the communal

garden using the trusted marketplace component.

Transport

The cycling infrastructure in London is underdeveloped compared to some other European

cities. Southwark Council want to make it easier and safer for people to cycle in Southwark.

Local cyclists could stay connected using the social network component of WeGovNow and

organise meetings and rides. Cyclists could comment on proposed new routes or report

issues using the interactive map component. Cyclists could vote on options to improve

cycling infrastructure and safety using the structured opinion forming component. Cyclists

could exchange equipment and offer training using the trusted marketplace component.

Highway improvements

The Highways team want to conduct advance on-line scoping exercises with residents and

businesses in areas where they plan to carry out future major streetscape improvement

schemes. Engagement of residents and businesses via the WeGovNow platform can help

inform design briefs for improvements schemes in terms of objectives and priorities. The

team could ask citizens to identify and tell them about local issues and potential

improvement opportunities. The team could also explore the potential to allow users to

overlay limited existing constraints data over the basemap to inform their comments. This

would be based on datasets held by the Council. The tools could help make design briefs

more realistic and responsive to local concerns.

Above are some preliminary examples and going forward the project team will work with

colleagues across the Council to identify suitable projects that fit with the WeGovNow

timeframe.


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5.6 Southwark Engagement Plan

The following section outlines the key engagement objectives, activities and expected

results to be undertaken by Southwark Council.

The Council believe that the vast majority of residents care strongly about local issues like

the environment, regeneration and social care, but it needs to make it easier and more

convenient for them to have their say. Emerging technologies provide this opportunity. The

local authority in Southwark want to use the WeGovNow platform to test new and exciting

methods of engagement, with the ultimate aim of reaching a wider audience and becoming

more representative of its community.

5.6.1 General Objectives

The community engagement objectives of the London Borough of Southwark are to:

Increase the number of young people participating in local decision making processes

Get a deeper understanding of citizen’s needs and reach a wider more representative

demographic to increase citizen’s participation in decision making processes to shape

the community and local area

Elicit input from different target groups to obtain user requirements for the applications

offered

Improve access to information for older people and through this their wider

engagement tackling isolation and social exclusion

Raise Awareness and promote the use of the WeGovNow platform

Test the early prototype and final platform

Involve various stakeholders in the day-to-day utilisation of the WeGovNow platform

Encourage stakeholders to evaluate the efficacy of the WeGovNow platform and

services offered


To achieve the objectives outlined above Southwark Council has defined the following

separate key engagement activities:

Stakeholder Mapping – to define stakeholders to be engaged, analyse them by impact and

influence and identify community leaders with whom to define a more detailed engagement

strategy tailored to the different audiences.

Community workshops - to inform local residents of the current capabilities generally provided

by the WeGovNow platform; encourage feedback to ascertain whether this aligns with their

local concerns in the context of different services. (design & development).


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Youth-centred workshops – to empower young people to define the scope of services and local

actions, and the system requirements that are relevant for them.

Older people workshops to empower young people to define the scope of services and local

actions, and the system requirements that are relevant for them.

Focus groups – with administrative officers and NGOs to involve them in discussions on how

the WeGovNow platform can improve service delivery in relation to the different service

scenarios (design & development)

Technical Meetings - with administrative officers to involve them in discussions on how the

WeGovNow platform can improve service delivery

Stakeholder Interviews - to consult with and involve administrative officers, NGOs etc. to

obtain specific requirements for the WeGovNow technical platform & collaboration processes

to be enabled by the new services and to see the area from the perspective of stakeholders and

identify emerging needs at local level. (design & development)

Stakeholder discussions to ensure that end user is involved in the design and development of

the tools

Online Surveys - to consult with the wider public about the service and efficacy of the

WeGovNow platform (trial & evaluation)

Promotion events (festivals, community fetes etc.) - to provide demonstrations and widen the

uptake and use of the platform

Communication events (press releases, flyer distribution, social media drives etc.) – to widen

the uptake and use of the platform

Mapping parties – to present the capabilities provided by the WeGovNow pilot system in the

given local context and encourage wider involvement in day-to-day service utilisation (trial &

evaluation)


Exhibit 9: Stakeholder groups to be involved: Initial plans for London Southwark


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Public Sector

Southwark Council’s Community

Engagement Team

Highways Division of the London

Borough of Southwark

Transport Policy Division of the London

Borough of Southwark

Highways GIS Officer

Highways division admin support officer

Housing and Modernisation (Housing

(resident services, repair, major projects,

garages team, IT, Communities)

Environment and Leisure (Highways;

Parks; Waste; Community Sports Team;

Community Safety)

Southwark Clinical Commissioning

Group

King's College Hospital NHS Foundation

Trust

Guys and ST Thomas NHS Community

Healthcare Services

South London and Maudsley NHS

Foundation Trust

Community Engaement team


Take part in workshops, events and, in general, engagement activities, providing input and suggestions in relation to a specific scenarios;









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Local businesses and

business organisations

Southwark Business Forum

Southwark Chamber of Commerce

Southwark Council’s Strategy and Partnerships Team

South Bank Employers Group Skills training providers

Local social enterprises

Fast food shops

Pubs

Cafés

Off licenses

Leisure providers

Education providers

Transport for London

Lambeth and Southwark Community Transport


Work as a contact point for offline engagement activities, promoting and communicating the project

Influence the design of the service in

terms of specific user requirements and

ultimately use the service being offered

via the WGN platform and provide

feedback on its usefulness.




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NGOs

Age UK Southwark

Young Advisors Southwark

Southwark Cyprus Turkish

Bermondsey Big Local

Turning Point

Community Southwark

Southwark Carers

South London Tenancy Support

Southwark Circle

Blackfriars Settlement

Southwark Irish Pensioners Project

Disability groups

Community groups

Housing association groups

Business improvement district groups

School groups

Friends of parks

Southwark Cyclists

Southwark Pensioners Centre

Time and Talents

Link Age

SGTO







Mobilisation and involvement of local people in piloting actions, working as a facilitator to engage people who are already involved in their activities/projects;



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Citizens

Local residents within the vicinity of the scheme (e.g. 250m radius)

People using highway that may not be residents, such as: o pedestrians, o cyclists, o parents of locals schools, o users of public transport (buses), o motorists that park in the street

People working in Southwark

Elected Members

Community Councils

Youth Council

Tenant & Resident Associations

Area Housing Forums

Council Tenants

Homeowner Council






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Mobilisation of other local residents



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group[s] Description Objectives

Engagement Focus

Phase

Stakeholder Mapping

Desk analysis

Pilot site Managers and MfC All with a potential interest

Identify roles and function of each stakeholder related to the initial service scenarios around young people and skills building; age friendly cities, local area improvements

Define relevant stakeholders who may be involved

Identify potential stakeholders


Key stakeholder Interviews

Face to face/telephone interview

Pilot site Managers and UCL Relevant stakeholder: - Council departments - NGOs - Businesses -Tenants management staff - Residents Associations

To date interviews have been held with: Officers from within the Highways Team; Community Engagement Team and 7 local residents. Subsequent interviews will be arranged with other key stakeholders

Identify ongoing projects and activities related to initial service scenarios Define internal processes within the Council to assess where/how the WeGovNow platform can aid/improve service delivery Identify emerging needs at local level Develop system requirements

Involve Collaborate


Activity Mechanism Lead - Target Description Objectives Engagement Phase


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Engagement Focus

Phase

group[s] Focus

Technical Meetings

Events by invitation

Pilot site Managers and MfC - Council departments - NGOs - Businesses - Youth Council - Tenants management staff - pensioners

Three technical meetings have been held in collaboration with MfC, during which the potential of the platform has been presented. A series of 3 meetings have been scheduled specifically target for the fortnightly Youth Council meetings Other technical meetings will be organised with other relevant stakeholders

System design feedback Develop system requirements Develop different service scenarios and use cases

Involve Collaborate


Focus groups Pilot site Managers Council departments - NGOs - Businesses - Youth Council - Local residents

At least 2 Focus groups for each scenario will be organised with key stakeholders involved. Focus groups will be facilitated and questions posed on existing or related service use relative to the specific scenario; how the WeGovNow can reshape existing or develop new services and what key features may be required. The notes and recordings from these can

Involve stakeholders in discussions on each specific scenario to refine and develop use cases Develop system requirements

Involve Collaborate



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Engagement Focus

Phase

feed in to refining service scenarios and developing user requirements

Community workshops

Pilot site Managers Council departments - NGOs - Businesses - Youth Council - Local residents -Faith groups

Workshops will introduce the project and offer the opportunity to explore actions and local activities that are relevant to WeGovNow and provide an opportunity to see which could be suitable to be co-opted by the project. The workshop will be broken up into 4 sessions: -Introductory section -Demonstration of existing WeGovNow components to help frame the discussion -Break-out groups (each facilitated by a moderator) for ideas generation for new service scenarios and/or refinement of existing ones. - feedback session from the scenario break-out group work. The notes and recordings from these can feed in to refining

Identify ongoing projects and activities related to initial service scenarios Develop system requirements Develop different service scenarios and use cases

Involve Collaborate


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Engagement Focus

Phase

service scenarios and developing user

Youth-centred workshops

Workshops will introduce the project and offer the opportunity to explore current ICT use among young people to access services. The workshop will be broken up into 4 sessions: -Introductory section -Demonstration of existing WeGovNow components to help frame the discussion -Break-out groups (each facilitated by a moderator) and ideas generation for new service scenarios. - feedback session from the scenario break-out group work. The notes and recordings from these can feed in to refining service scenarios and developing user

Involve Collaborate Co-design


Online Surveys On-line and paper-based surveys

Pilot site Managers - Municipality

Develop a survey to gather feedback on who is using the WeGovNow platform and where potential

Consult with the wider public about the service and efficacy of the WeGovNow

Collect data and feedback

Trial & Evaluation


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Engagement Focus

Phase

Departments and administrative officers; - NGOs; - Local residents; - Citizens

improvements could be made. platform

Mapping Party Digital and paper-based mapping

Pilot site Managers; - Community Engagement Officers -Youth Council - Students - Teachers - Youth clubs

4 Mapping parties will be organised with schools and led by members of the Youth Council to map out proposed area improvements from a youth based perspective. A competitive element can be introduced to encourage participation and the wider use of the WGN platform. The outcome will be that more people become aware of the WGN platform and its capabilities; can participate in providing suggestions about local area improvements and will be in a position to provide feedback on the usability of the system

Increase platform utilisation System design feedback

Involve Collaborate Empower

Trial & Evaluation

Community Festivals; communication events and Promotion

Platform Demonstration

Pilot site Managers -Citizens

Attendance at Community festivals (Bermondsey Street Festival, Peckham Rye Park Fete, among others) will provide an opportunity in

Increase platform utilisation

Inform Trial & Evaluation


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Engagement Focus

Phase

events/demonstration

-Community Engagement Officers - Media -Businesses - Start-ups;

which the WeGovNow platform can be demonstrated to a large number of people spanning several target groups. The outcome will be that more people become aware of the WGN platform and its capabilities; and its potential use in the context of the local service being delivered.


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5.6.4 Target Audience

Businesses: Influence the design of the service in terms of specific user requirements

and ultimately use the service being offered via the WGN platform and provide feedback

on its usefulness.

Young people: Influence the design of the service in terms of specific user requirements


on its usefulness.

Older people: Influence the design of the service in terms of specific user requirements


on its usefulness.

NGOs: Provide input for the developers on proposed technical/functional requirements

to improve the system. Use the service being offered via the WGN platform and provide

feedback on its usefulness.

Public Sector Officers: Supply the e-service and take responsibility for providing input for

the technical/functional requirements and the administrative support for any queries

arising during the trial and validation phase.

Family Carers: Influence the design of the service in terms of specific user requirements


on its usefulness.

Developers: Will implement technical solutions for the WGN platform so as to support

the municipalities/local authorities and civil society in the development and delivery of

the e-services whilst ensuring end users have an influence in the design.

Local networks: Mobilisation and involvement of local people in piloting actions and

increase wider uptake of the platform

Policy-makers: Raise Awareness about the WeGovNow platform and the collaborative

development of e-services


By implementing the WeGovNow platform for the delivery of e-services Southwark Council

wants:

to make it easier for all citizens living or working in the borough to participate in

decisions about the local urban realm;

improve access to information necessary for full participation in shaping services, public

realm and civic life

to increase and diversify those who participate in decision-making processes;


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to support local communities in developing new projects;

to streamline internal work processes in relation to citizen engagement.

Improve civic participation across all generations supporting active, resilient and

cohesive communities

Expected result for specific actions:

10 Key stakeholder Interviews to define internal processes within the Council, and to identify

ongoing projects and activities related to WeGovNow and Identify emerging needs at local level

5 Technical Meetings to present the potential of the platform and to collect system design

feedback

2 Focus groups for each Scenario attended by 5 people

2 Community workshops attended by 20 people

3 Youth-centred workshops attended by 15 people

4 Mapping parties attended by 15 people


50 surveys for administrative officers, Business and NGOs members, and citizens to evaluate the

service

3 Communication events/demonstration

6 Quantitative Results

This section identifies the expected quantitative results in relation to the three pilot

validation sites cumulatively. Detailed are the expected quantitative results, the means and

the quantifier.

Means KPI Quantitative Target

Workshops No. of participants attended 700

Focus groups No. of participants attended 460

Technical Meetings No. of participants attended 50

Stakeholder interviews No. of interviewees 25

Surveys No. of respondents 150

Promotion events No. of events attended/organised 10

7 Next Steps

The primary aim of this Engagement Plan has been to outline a framework for engagement

in the WeGovNow pilot sites and demonstrate how the co-design process will be initiated.

The Engagement Plan offers pathways to participation and collaboration with a variety of

stakeholders and this report has provided generic operational specifications of concept,

methods and procedures to be applied for the purposes of the WeGovNow project. This


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document covered the early planning phase of WP2 that feeds all subsequent work to be

undertaken in the work package and contributing to WP3 in terms of consolidated

descriptions of scenarios for the need for and use of certain tools and features. However,

further detailing will be required as work progresses during the project’s (e.g. use case

development, local validation trail planning and so on) various stages and as the learning

from earlier activities is acquired. The generic strategy and engagement methods presented

in this document is expected to be revised several times during WP2 lifetime, as further

discussions with the project stakeholders take place and as further progress is achieved in

terms of research. For this reason, this document will periodically be updated and is seen as

a ‘living’ document.

As far as the tasks in WP2 are concerned, the next steps in the stakeholder engagement and

validation trials process will include:

Engaging target audience to introduce the project and explore which topics are of

interest, encourage participation in specific project phases and understand the needs

and requirements of different end users;

Development of use cases in which scenarios are outlined and user stories are

developed for translation into specific features and functionality for the platform.

Design of case studies where the WeGovNow platform can be trailed in under day to

day conditions

END OF D2.1

deliverable - wegovnow · the objective is to develop a greater understanding of stakeholder needs...

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