Online public consultation and civic engagement

Learnings from Federal Government Trials and International Experiences

Jim Macnamara PhD, FPRIA, FAMI, CPM, FAMEC

Professor of Public Communication &Director, Australian Centre for Public Communication

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Terms

E-government Government 2.0 E-democracy E-citizenship Digital democracy Teledemocracy Cyberdemocracy

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Terms

E-government• Primarily the online delivery of services

E-democracy• “The use of Web technologies to engage citizens in

debate, discussion, consultation and online voting” (Kearns, 2002, p. 11)

• Online submissions

• Online voting

• Online public consultation

• Online civic engagement in democratic processes

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E-government: E-democracy

Initiatives underway internationally• US – Clinton adminstration 1993-97. Mainly services

FirstGov site Sept 2002 – now www.usa.gov

• Canada – bilingual site opened Dec 1995. Now Government of Canada or Gouvernement du Canada http://canada.gc.ca

• UK – a long history of development www.gateway.gov.uk – registration of services www.govtalk.gov.uk – for accessing govt documents www.petitions.pm.gov.uk – petitions www.number10.gov.uk site http://petitions.number10.gov.uk www.direct.gov.uk launched Mar 2004 Directionlessgov – www.directionlessgov.com

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E-government: E-democracy

New Zealand• www.e.govt.nz

UK Cabinet Power of Information Task Force (UK Cabinet, 2009)

• 3,000 government Web sites – aim to reduce to 1,000

• Review report 2007; final report 2009 Australia (federally)

• One of the first to publish Hansard

• Webcast Parliamentary proceedings

• National Office of the Information Economy (NOIE) established in 1997

• Office of Government Online 2000

• Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) replaced NOIE in 2004

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O E-government: E-democracy - Australia Future Challenges for E-Government (AGIMO

2004)

• Noted an “international trend towards online service delivery and greater citizen interaction”

• Most focus on service delivery

Better Practice Checklist on Online Policy Consultation (AGIMO 2004)

Election of the Rudd government (Kevin07) new focus

Consulting with Government – Online (AGIMO, June 2008)

Minister Tanner announced online consultation trials July 2008

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O Federal Online Consultation Trials Three (3) online consultation trials launched

Dec 2008 – Mar 2009

• Department of Broadband and Digital Economy blog to discuss digital economy

• Department of Employment and Work Relations forum for teachers/educators on early education

• Attorney-General’s Department consultation site

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10 Key learnings

1. Planning is key Planning must address

• Clear intent and objectives

• Choose the right platform to suit objectives

• Moderation policy (light touch important)

• Resources

• Evaluation

Planning should involve three key parties• Senior policy officers – high-level support

• IT/Web technical staff – technically strong and secure

• Communication staff – must be communicative

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10 Key Learnings

2. Controversial issues can hijack consultation• Minister Conroy’s announcement of proposed internet

filtering (‘Clean Feed’) sent DBDE blog into meltdown

• AG’s site targeted by long-running campaign for an Australian Bill of Rights

• DEWR forum launched amid collapse of the nation’s largest childcare provider, ABC Learning Centres

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“Prominent Australian bloggers have lashed the Federal Government over its first attempt at public consultation via a blog, which has already been hijacked by critics of its plan to censor the internet.”

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Online consultation

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10 Key Learnings

3. Time frame – fast response required• A challenge in Public Service environment

• Guidelines and fast-tracking required

4. Resources• Dedicated staff required to handle large volume of

blog posts, comments, e-mails, etc

5. Culture• Public Service culture presents some challenges

• ‘Champions’ required to change PS culture (UK)

• PS staff also need protection from political blame (UK)

6. Design and navigation• Citizens should not have to know how government

works to find things (UK)

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10 Key Learnings

7. Language• Citizens should be able to talk in their language

• Policy on slang, swearing, humour, parody, etc

• Flexibility (Macnamara, 2008)

• Voting, seconding, favourites, etc

8. Can be government-hosted or third party – “managed e-citizenship” or “autonomous e-citizenship” (Stephen Coleman, 2008)

• Government sites can be intimidating, remote, unknown

• “Fish where the fish are” – eg. GetUp, NetMums

• Probably need a combination of both

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10 Key Learnings

9. Specialist sense making tools and processes required – for both government and citizensFor Government For CitizensMonitoring (listening) Background reading

(sidebars)

Stock responses, placeholders

Categorising

Data/text mining Simple voting, supporting

Categorising Editors (summaries)

Argumentation software* Argumentation software** MIT Deliberatorium (formerly Collaboratorium) (Klein 2007)

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Key Learnings

10. While controversial issues present challenges to open environments, day-to-day consultation and engagement within communities of interest/practice is well suited to online• Museums (eg. War Memorial)

• Arts and cultural organisations

• Austrade

• Basic taxation questions (ATO)

Public consultation and civic engagement required/desirable beyond major policy making

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References

Coleman, S. (2008). Doing IT for themselves: Management versus autonomy in youth e-citizenship. In W. Bennett, Civic life online: Learning how digital media can engage youth (pp. 189-206). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Department of Finance and Deregulation. (2008). E-democracy community of practice. Retrieved February 1, 2009 from http://www.finance.gov.au/e-government/better-practice-and-collaboration/cop/e-democracy.html

Hirst, M., & Harrison, J.( 2007). Communication and new media: From broadcast to narrowcast. South Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

Kearnes, I. (2002). Code red: Progressive politics in the digital age. London: Institute for Public Policy Research.

Klein, M. (2007). The MIT Collaboratorium: Enabling effective large-scale deliberation for complex problems. MIT Sloan School of Management Working Paper 4679-08, 31 December. Retrievefd November 7, 2008 from http://ssrn.com/abstract=1085295

Macnamara, J. (2008). Internet media and the public sphere: The 2007 Australian e-electioneering experience, Media International Australia, no. 29, November, pp. 7-19.

UK Cabinet Office. (2009). Power of Information Task Force Report, February. Retrieved April 28, 2009 from http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/reports/power_of_information.aspx