Participating in a democracy

Following the very active debate on the UK and Ireland E-Democracy Exchange following the announcement of the publication of the Digital Participation in Scotland report I thought it worthy of a brief summary of some of what had been said and the concepts that had been considered. A key element of the debate was about participation (or e-participation), democracy (or e-democracy), and ultimately what the terms mean and how they can conceivably be measured.

David Newman, part of a group that produced one of the big ideas for the digital agenda (diagram presented at http://cirn.wikispaces.com/Putting+users+at+the+heart+of+the+Digital+Agenda+for+Europe) pointed to the failing of the report that it didn’t meet the latter two of the four stages people go through when integrating digital tools into their lives and work: 1. Accessibility, 2. Skills and competences 3. Effective use 4. Empowerment.

I then supported him stating my own argument is for feedback loops as standard, that are consistently employed to change systems. However my BIG concern is that government and therefore participation is so BIG that even those elected or employed in it can’t appreciate the magnitude/complexity, so how the hell does the citizen? This brings with it the issue of where to start and end feedback loops. I entirely agreed that the measures named were of little use and had argued this point endlessly!

Andy Williamson supported this saying his research “clearly shows that engagement becomes effective when you ask, listen, respond, and act”. Professor Stephen Coleman agreed with the preceding arguments whilst asking “which metrics should the report have been measuring?” Ella Taylor-Smith, inquiring about the strategy the report was linked to, raising the issue that digital participation was described in another Scotish strategy as “people’s ability to gain access to digital technology, and understand how to use it creatively. Increased digital participation can improve people s quality of life, boost economic growth and allow more effective delivery of public services.” Which hardly the conventional definition of e-participation. Andy Williamson then went on to raise the matter that there appeared to be no actual ‘voting citizens’ involved in the charter.

At about this point Steven Clift jumped in with a lengthy commentary around work he was due to publish on ‘Inclusive Social Media’ – there were an extensive number of measures in the proposition. Pedro Prieto-Martin of CKYOSEI stepped in suggesting that it was a matter of differing definitions. He also mentioned their own paper “The e-(R)evolution will not be funded”  which paid some attention to evaluation issues, especially around EU-funded projects. Pedro was also concerned at the number of evaluation criteria that required collection and analysis. He then pointed out that their association claimed that the best way to advance the field was to “closely align eParticipation research with citizens and civil society needs”. ( http://www.ckyosei.org/docs/EParticipationResearchOnServiceOfCivilSociety.pdf ) He proposes viral growth, satisfaction, and impact as potential measures.

Ella reported that they also used a final analysis based on input, actions, output, outcomes and impact in the final results report of the HUWY project. (Avalilable here: http://www.iidi.napier.ac.uk/c/publications/publicationid/13367375 ). In terms of definition she preferred that of Ann Macintosh – “use of information and communication technologies to broaden and deepen political participation by enabling citizens to connect with one another and with their elected representatives” Macintosh, A. (2006) eParticipation in Policy-making: the research and the challenges . In P. Cunningham & M. Cunningham (Eds.) Exploiting the Knowledge Economy: Issues, Applications and Case Studies; IOS press, ISBN 1-58603-682-3, pp.364-369, which seems a pretty good one to me too. She also directs to a wider view of participation – http://pathwaysthroughparticipation.org.uk/.  Ann Macintosh also concluded her contribution by informing us that she has “been working recently with colleagues, Simon Smith and Jeremy Millard, considering the issue of eParticipation evaluation. The results of our study can be found in a paper soon to be published in the International Journal of Electronic Governance. In it we present a framework for evaluating eParticipation, distinguishing between factors which lie at least partly within the control of the stakeholders in an eParticipation initiative and factors which are largely external. It uses a three-layered impact assessment framework distinguishing between outputs, outcomes and impacts. Its multi-layered character is intended to prompt evaluators to consider links to high-level policy goals, culturally-specific understandings of eParticipation and the chain of transformations which condition long-term impacts. In this way one can, not only, move from outputs to impact but also select different evaluation criteria depending on purpose/stage.” This is a paper that should prove very interesting.

One of the difficulties in the debate is the difference in political structures between the US and the rest of the democratic world. My own view is that in representative democracies, participation is difficult to deliver without potentially tilting the balance of the representatives power, so they don’t tend to be in favour of it – something I labelled in my dissertation one of the ‘antinomies of e-government’. The issue of definitions is not unusual, again in my dissertation I spent a number of pages going through a range of definitions of ‘e-government’ before even trying ‘e-democracy’, which is equally debatable, as will be ‘e-participation’.

P.S. My apologies if I’ve missed or misquoted people – it did go on for pages…and its all here on Democracy Online.

E-democracy

A long-time lurker on the W3C e-government  group, J.H.Snider, posted links to his  2001 commentary in Government Technology, E-Government vs. E-Democracy where he argued “that it is harmful to equate e-government with e-democracy reform because the motivations leading to the two types of reform are so different.  If you are a government official opposed to e-democracy but supportive of e-government, I think conflating the two terms is good political strategy.  But if you’re a democratic reformer, you want to reserve separate terms for e-government and e-democracy.”

He also provides a link to a more recent article of his on the politics of e-democracy entitled “Would You Ask Turkeys to Mandate Thanksgiving? The Dismal Politics of Legislative Transparency“, published in the Spring 2009 issue of the Journal of Information Technology & Politics.  

I have little trouble agreeing with him having found e-democracy often sidelined, one way or the other, in the e-government debate by officials, politicials and academics. Some using e-democracy as a sales pitch for e-government, some the other way, whilst some just mix the two up. I continue to ask, as Snider does,
whether politicians are going to delegate power that easily!

If you are of a less cynical outlook you may be more appreciative of the new 388 page book from Stanford University “Online Deliberation: Design, Research, and Practice” from editors Todd Davies and Seeta Pena Gangadharan  (Creative Commons licensed) and its free for the PDF!

A month by month guide to what’s been blogged!

December 2007

National Indicator 14 – avoidable contact – this was the first draft!

Measure for measure – a look at metrics internationally

World Wide Web Consortium – some new reports

January 2008

Satisfaction Canadian Style – a look at some of the excellent Canadian work

Satisfaction is high on the agenda – publications from the LGA, NCC and New Statesman

Irish Lessons – a report from Ireland

February 2008

NI14 – the drama continues – version 2 of the draft national standard!

March 2008

NI14 version 3 and a homage to Catalonia – NI14 version 3 and a report back from a Spanish-flavoured conference

Wanting what the customer wants – NWEGG report on citizen need

Public Value, Social Capital & other fun metrics – a trawl through the terminology!

Customer Unfocused – excellent Richter & Cornford paper

Delivering Efficiency – a new DCLG report

April 2008

Is there a public service ethic? Some academic views

Great E-mancipator survey as PDF – for those who can’t Google!

Customer Need and Public Service – philosophy gets dragged in!

A Theory of Parsimonious E-government Management – the theory!

14th April 1865 – why and what the Great Emancipator

Annual Research Report – what it says on the label!

Feeding back – from the launch of the SURVEY

History repeating itself – my abstract for Ethicomp 2008 at Mantua, Italy

Satisfaction? responding to Pete – a dialogue develops

Re: Pete but not a repeat – a response to a comment

E-government bulletin – a piece published in the same communication

May 2008

Public value and satisfaction – Mark H Moore

Channel migration – response to another comment

Targets, metrics and dissatisfaction – what happens when citizens aren’t happy?

Initial feedback to Great E-mancipator survey – a summary!

Systems thinking, control charts and philosophy – more philosophy and history

A summary of some recent posts on the UK e-democracy network – what it says

June 2008

Why government IT fails – a link to an article

Change and channels – a comment from Glyn Evans

Satisfaction – another meeting

Customer insight – an online conference – with the Cabinet Office

Systems thinking, balanced scorecards and satisfaction – they can work together

Scorecards, systems, Canada and Australia – examining thinking

Customer What? – a debate with cabinet Office

Old Whine in New Bottles – picking up on PINpoint from the IPF

Feedback from Brendan – a blogger at the IPF

Yardsticking! – better than benchmarks

July 2008

Computer Weekly blog awards – I’m shortlisted!

NI14 Guidance released – from the IDeA

NI14 – the new moneypit for suppliers

Tail wagging dog – another go at NI14

Bread and circuses – customers versus citizens

Some of July’s literature findings

Customer first! – findings on NI14 from the north east

A month by month guide to what’s been blogged – THIS!

August 2008

IDeA NI14 Guidance and GovMetric

Channel usage and strategy – updating my thoughts!

Customer insight guidance – whats happening at the IDeA

Semantics, semiotics and sophistry – having been told once too many times ‘its all semantics.’

Citizen oriented architecture – A new name for the model!

Which community – which communities are you a member of in your neighbourhood?

Computer Weekly blog awards – the sad news…

Inclusive transformation – a report from EURIM sounds positive!

September 2008

Researching Local Government, Web 2.0 and Service-oriented architecture – the future (perhaps?)

Conference call! – presenting research in London

The Invisible Hand? – mashups or intelligent agents?

Further feedback to the invisible hand – some comments!

Between rocks and hard places – invisible hand versus data security

The Public Office – a new Whitehall novelty

Rock on Canada – reading Canadian e-government

So, what’s the vision? – employing experience

Measuring what matters! – Australia adopts the Canadian CMT

The ‘invisible hand’ writes on… – more thoughts on XML and its uses

October 2008

Social inclusion and digital exclusion – a European report on English e-government

Promises, pledges and satisfaction – debating some more options

A history lesson! – looking back to a forecast from 2000…

The Bandwagon Effect – consumerism’s effect on service delivery!

Some questions about anchoring expectations – how do we measure the gap?

I before E – systems thinking and digital inclusion

Who is doing what in local government – is the network joined up?

Another model, but flawed – the Chester model

What do we do about sharing data? – the Conservative manifesto…

November 2008

Scotland seeks satisfaction – citizen satisfaction, the Scot’s approach

London calling! Revisiting NI14 – a report from Tower 08.5

Getting to Gemba – resorting to systems thinking

Getting egged on! – Report from the EiP conference

Satisfaction counts! – a newly discovered software supplier (and in the UK).

California dreaming – an interesting paper from the USA

Viewing the market – a brief look at system suppliers

Sayonara satisfaction – a link to another blog’s visit to an amazing Japanese company

Going critical! – Heidegger meets the IDeA

Being insightful – a very brief review of the ‘insight’ report

December 2008

Citizen Engagement Exchange – a revision of the model

NI14 back in the news? – some recent research

Citizen or consumer – command & control? – David Marquand revisited

NI 14 Paying the piper – more stuff on NI14!

Activity based recharging – are we economic with the economics?

Gartner – right again! More on metrics and engagement.

News from the USA – the Federal Web Managers’ white paper

NI14 – update to the guidance – 2 page update from the CabO

Wise words from Oz – A new Australian e-government report

Why bother? – a look back at the research

January 2009

How NOT to use feedback! Why the Minister is wrong.

East or west, no-one answers! A report from China

Having second thoughts! In support of Goodhart’s Law

Honesty is the best policy! Statistics in the news

Au Revoir NPM – A paper by Michael Duggett

Co-production – a report from Compass

Co-production – part 2 – an article in the latest Public Money & Management

Behind the Vanguard – a new essay from Prof. John Seddon

What have I just been saying? a recent academic paper from Surrey

Accentuate the positive! the latest Accenture report

February 2009

Digital Britain – a new report from DCMS and BERR

The power of information – latest news from Steinberg, Vanguard, et al

A good moan – a new piece on mycustomer.com

S*d it! – a slave to the Internet

Happy birthday – an homage to Charles & Abraham

Get real Read! – Government IT gets it in the neck, again.

Oysters and pearls – creative dissatisfaction

World Wide Web Consortium – news from nowhere

A new job? – a vacancy at Whitehall

Making contact with NI14 – update on the research and an online debate

March 2009

I Googled ‘twitter’ and ‘e-government’ – and found enlightenment, well almost!

Why don’t you listen? Two newish publications.

Web 2, yoof and snouts in the trough – how not to do new media

Paper in the pipeline – new research paper on its way

A paradox we can’t work with? An interesting academic editorial

The many angles of multichannel service – looking at an option from MyCustomer.com

New thinking – reading Gerry McGovern’s latest newsletter

Triumph of the will – the model and some papers from ‘clicktools‘

Complaining culture – turning complaints into an artform

Get Carter – Ofcom versus Digital Britain

Andrea strikes again – EU blue sky thinking

Laddering Participation – forty years on

April 2009

Social s(t)igma – another idea on MyCustomer.com

What is e-government for? – Is is just a channel or are we wanting to engage?

Evidence base – latest Gerry McGovern blog

Get satisfaction – more on satisfaction and pledges

Good complaint handling – a ‘how to’ guide

Great Emancipator II – the second annual survey

publicexperience – had a bad one?

You can’t win! – MP slags off DVLA

A private sector experience – what we learnt on our holiday

Operational efficiency – what can we read into the Treasury report?

May 2009

What I’d expected – initial results from the survey

Need and satisfaction – news from Chorley

No place to be – the value of the Place survey?

How to complain – another personal experience

Off target – lots of moans about target regimes

Good Planning – what makes a good planning web site?

Guidance & metrics – still not a lot of deep thinking…

NI14 – the latest! IDeA keep us posted

Complaining again – advice about complaints

Citizen-consumers – digging in the library

June 2009

Expenses anyone? – a role for e-government

Researchers in the dark – Parity in the press

More on Parity – the report in the flesh

What shall we do? – a view from the week’s events

How many visitors? – discussing web site stats

Digital self-exclusion – a new Ofcom report by Mori

Getting overfocused on the tools – wasting money?

Don’t count on empowerment – a report from the CLG

Watmore’s wisdom – last words from the former CIO

The Final Report – from Carter

July 2009

Return to Canada – after a trip to ECEG2009

The Tory Take – considering things after an election

Web 2.0 and benchmarking – more from Gartner

Channel accounting – can we have a cost per channel?

Contrasting opinions – Who is right about Post Offices?

Listening to the front line – a new report from the Cabinet Office

Metrified – GovMetric go public

Getting Techie – listening to Tim Berners-Lee

World Class – yet another Cabinet Office report…

New blogger on the street! John Suffolk joins the crowd

August 2009

Consuming ourselves – another McKinsey report starts some thinking

Service quality and efficiency – MP’s ask questions, again…

Citizenomics – comparing costs and productivity

Interim survey results – NI14 rather wasted on us

Measuring the email mountain – Considering the President’s inbox

Developing e-government – advice from India

Foresight – a new report on the US

Optimization Techniques – how customers measure

Analysis Paralysis – IBM’s latest idea

Electronic government costs – in N.Ireland

September 2009

Effect of central on local – Is this what the CLG wants to hear?

Mistaken conclusions – Demos barking up a wrong tree?

Follow the leader – new report from the Sunningdale Institute

Channel Strategy – news and views from the Cabinet Office

In these hard times – looking at the Tory alternative

E-government dependencies – To Web 2.0 or not

Another survey – this one from the Oxford Internet Institute

US government web sites – a up-to-the-minute study

Why we need to involve the “local” end users – not just “other” cultures

October 2009

Engaged in the USA – some ways to approach citizens

Blogging about other bloggers’ blogs – some lessons from history

E-governancing – why Accenture agree with this blogger!

Will e-government be different? – back to the academic literature on e-government

Minister for e-government – Angela’s back!

Digital conclusion – Martha’s report

Beatcounters – beancounters getting it wrong?

User-centred approaches to e-Government – latest from the OECD

Public service? – it’s a culture thing!

November 2009

Disinfecting the swamp – thinking about “open gov”

Foressing the future – the Q3 report from Foresee

Analogues of service – Kevin Carey in GC Magazine

Citizen Issues – asking them what they think of service?

Reasons to be cheerful – G2010 in the news

Jobcentre + A qualitative analysis of the dole offices

E-Parliament – will it be virtually any better?

E-government back in the news! – Malmo in the news

Benchmarking the mire – Dissing Capgemini

Happiness – is it the same as satisfaction?

December 2009

Back to academy – Papers by Winner and Hirschman

Open strategy – leaking a leaked leak

Don’t get carried away – liberating the UK’s mapping data?

Frontline first – new website/report from the Cabinet Office

Governing IT – a report from the Institute for Government

Looking east – a report from Booz

E-democracy – e-government: e-democracy or e-deliberation

NDL – the sixth NDL-Metascybe integration and CRM report

Co-production again – a new report from NESTA

Measuring Social Media – looking at a few methods

January 2010

Gov 2.0 again – a Christmas message from Andrea di Maio

The case is adjourned – Philip Virgo’s blog

Social media analytics – Avinash Kaushik’s thoughts on them

Going native – what to do with social media natives?

A new start – picking on Deloitte!

Improving service – Socitm’s turn to be picked on!

Benchmarking the nations – what’s the point?

Zettabytes – how Americans consume information

Going continental – Pan-European E-services

The final edition? – Government ICT Strategy

February 2010

Social Media News – it’s there on the news stands

Satisfaction levels out – the latest Foresee report

Social media as a channel – a report from Right Now

Accountability – a report from Localis

The engagement ethic – a report from the Innovation Unit

Passive democracy – The Hansard Society considers social media

New Horizons – when is e-government achieved?

Transparency – web site transparency equates to trust in government?

Low usage of e-services – a tale from Korea

Smarter public services – IBM advertises in New Statesman!

March 2010

Crossroads – where we’re at with e-democracy

Digital participation – following on from Digital Britain

Poor relations – broadband coverage in USA not dissimilar to UK

Community work – a report from PwC and the IPPR

Democratic participation – An academic view of e-participation in the EU.

Varieties of Participation – a paper by Fung

What really matters – another Accenture report

Tailored technology – thoughts from CIO’s in the USA

Social mediating – another report from NESTA

Focus not thrills – Andrea di Maio and Martha Lane Fox

Cultural shift – Ipsos MORI and the new Total Place report

A week in politics – burying NI14 and resurrecting the E-government Unit?

April 2010

April fool – wondering who Sir Peter is working for now?

NI14 is dead, long live parsimony! – promoting the model

Staring across the pond – comparative US and UK views

Be my muse – pondering automated social media and Gov 2.0

The twittering parties – Hansard Society and Sitemorse publications

Web (ab)users – some thoughts on usability and accessibility

Lost in Spain – literally!

E-government and sex – first report about Ethicomp 2010

E-government and the volcano – could e-government have made life easier?

Keeping mum – social media and the election

E-government united – the UN report finally appears

May 2010

Efficiency savings – another doubter

What’s the use of benchmarks – Pew Internet survey

What’s the use of satisfaction – Foresee compared with Pew

E-election mania – what next ID cards for voting?

Semantic, semantics – Pew report on the semantic web

Multi-channel engagement – a Belgian academic revelation

Multi-channel engagement – Part 2 – Some studies from the Netherlands

Multi-channel engagement – Part 3 – Recent research from Sweden

Good government – Local, central and open

Europe calling! – A Digital Agenda for Europe

To the e-barricades! – EDEM10 conference opinions

Voice of the Customer – measuring Gov 2.0 buzz

Who leads Gov 2.0 – A question from David Osimo

June 2010

Horses for courses – Andrea’s visit to the World Congress

Adios CAA – Good riddance to poor measures

The paradigm trap – research from Malaysia

Researching digital government – an aid to researchers

UN-decided – the 2012 UN e-government survey

Opening the vaults – the coalition’s approach to open data

Scots wae hae – Scotland launches citizen satisfaction measuring

Not bovvered – A personal experience of poor customer service…

Island of dreams – the latest from Singapore

Building the better web site – a presentation on GovLoop

Holiday reading – a raft of publications from the 2020 Public Services Trust

The cutting floor – slashing government websites

July 2010

Insight in place – LGDC on Total Place and customer insight

Local 2 – another report on social media in local government

Where’s Watmore? – Ian’s back!

Gartner Open Government model – some open data thoughts

Social viability – an interesting report from Intel

Governing Electronically – a new book by Paul Henman

The technicist manifesto – a response to MLF

The opening of Australia – Open data in Australia

Gov 2.0 in Germany – Another Schellong paper

Out of focus – a review of focus groups

The maturing Internet – users are getting older!

Portuguese e-government – what’s happening there

August 2010

United by e-government – the east learning from the west

Citizen engagement – who should hold the data?

A lesson in efficiency – Civica on outsourcing

E-egg on government face? – how not to crowdsource

Gov 2.0 strikes again – a new publication from KPMG

Open data foresight – where do we publish open data?

Visions of the ideal – e-democracy?

The UN and accessibility – an academic study of international accessibility

Council web costs – how FoI requests rate the web channel!

Digitising the Job Centre Plus – a useful report from the UK DWP

Rude behaviour – organizational culture matters!

September 2010

e-participation – scorecard and wiki

ID Cards – should we or shouldn’t we?

Measuring social media – some more ideas!

Timetables – open transport data

A facelift for the pig – post-bureaucratic hogwash?

The dilemma of social media – two new reports about it

Community development – a new report from the CDF

Getting satisfaction – a new report from China

No contact – No more Contact Council

Social skeptics – social capital or not?

If you build it… – Social media as a research tool

October 2010

Bubbling under – e-partipation questions

Marathon not a sprint – a blog about Singapore

KISS – keeping service measurement simple

E-trust – not in South Korea

Freedom of misinformation – open data publication

Canada waits – the latest from there

Local e-government – in Belgium, this time

E-couch potatoes – virtually democratic

Same old story – the CSR010 effect

As green as we appear – the Philip Green review

OASIS – the open source community web site

November 2010

It’s all over down under – NZ gets a government ICT strategy

We are the CHAMPS – CHAMPS2 business change methodology

E-exclusion – exclusion it is, for the moment!

Service energising – The Political Innovation weblog

Political Innovation – a link to a post on that weblog

Getting Customer Focused – it’s happening in Dubai

Another lesson from Canada – Biz teaches BIS the buis!

The crowd in the cloud – Andrea hits a nail on the head

Let’s start a petition – e-petitions and DirectGov

Internet poverty – the latest UK statitics

Fix the web – positively improving accessibility

December 2010

Channelled thinking – to Surrey & other homes of good practice

CitizenSpace – a tool from DeLib

A change man – Prof. Jim Norton

Blogging for academia; writing for citizens

Government data done well – TBL’s five star model

An inaccessible world? – Web site accessibility still poor

This document has been archived – where are the standards?

The government IT strategy awaits… – looks like a long one!

We-government – Two differing strategies, plus a missing one!

The learning government? – A fresh breath of air from Air Canada

Learning government – Philip Virgo blog on Universal Credit

Avoiding past mistakes – a response to the PASC

January 2011

Happy New Year – Andrea’s top 10 of 2010

2010 in Review – WordPress’s analysis of the Great E-mancipator

Why benchmark? – The EC 2010 review

Semantic web – a new chapter in the story

Engagement advice – from California

Brave old world – Evgeny Morozov’s new book

Competition – a new blog at DMU

Citizen perspectives on engagement – are we doing it right?

Social media and councils – the point is? – doing it with good intentions?

On common ground – open applications development

The delusion of e-democracy – no change to democracy

E-government costs – reports from the USA

February 2011

Lies, damned lies – employing statistics

Social Media – Good & bad – the empowered era

Social Mediation – long live libraries

Digital agenda – Mario asks for one

E-forms – Webcredible’s guide to

Online political campaigning – engaging with citizens

Government communications – a presentation

Web 3.0 – horizon scanning

Better late than never – NAO report

Cloudsourcing – why G-cloud is right

Crowdsourcing US-style – a new app on the block

How not to encourage e-government – an example

Using the data – a new site to help

March 2011

Better served – A Socitm report and reality

The scores are published – so? The latest EU e-gov report

Facebook – is it for government

Improved thinking – A new IfG report

Routemap to 2015 – The local services ICT routemap consultation

How green is my cloud? – G-cloud and green ICT

Presenting the evidence – PASC video

Email’s the best – better than social media

Citizensourcing – a tale of New York

Public consultation – a paper on it

More evidence to PASC – Socitm’s turn

Parallel world – another researcher

April 2011

What? more PASC – Ian Watmore’s turn

Government ICT Strategy – a short review

Click on – BBC Radio 4 guide to crowdsourcing

Digital Deca – Ten tips on the web

Transforming government – a new report from OASIS

e-government & e-commerce – an academic view

Anniversary – blogging birthday

Healthy cloud – medicine and the cloud

Real codesign – Charles Leadbeater article

Public engagement – two reports about it

Dirty old cloud? – Greenpeace on the warpath!

May 2011

Leaner & Greener – a report on ‘lean’

Behaviour change – a NLGN report

Alternative vote – on websites

The social medium – a view from GovLoop

History lesson – two stories from the past

Channel manoeuvres – two new reports

Unpicking history – Adult care

Circles within circles – an IBM report links to an acquaintance

Opening government – a few more publications on the topic

EU targets – back on them again…

June 2011

Website costs – old story, new twist?

How to – howto.gov

Semantic Community – a sandbox for openness

Cyberutopianism – Morozov and Curtis considered

Uncivil service – HMRC performing poorly

Uncivil service – Part 2 – ongoing saga

Internet discussions – does e-participation work

Really open government – Iceland should be in the news

Open government, really? – Beth Noveck in Canada

Customer Service Guidance – lots of it

Less e-paper – latest from Singapore

July 2011

Annual surveys – a ClickTools report

Same Old Mistakes – WEF report

Getting on – a report on older users

Social Impact Analysis – another academic school

Communications & Trust – lessons from the North West Frontier

Measure the Outcomes – PASC report

Enter the gamma – alpha.gov.uk’s accessibility

Misplaced trust – a paper on the topic

Older & offline – the Fujitsu report

Web age – looking academically

PASC reporting – conclusions of the PASC

August 2011

Critically acclaimed – CBI report

Public value? – A paper from New York

Open, and better data – is open data all its made out to be?

Open data or what? – another critique

Government productivity – a study from the LSE

Complaints Management Best Practice – research from CDC

Model Network – the PSN?

Social Media Mining – how it can be wrong

How much more involvement? – A ResPublica report

September 2011

Green cloud – another view on cloud’s greenness

The list grows – list of companies with satisfaction measurement apps

It works both ways – bi-directional open data

Understanding social media – a blog post & a paper

Public Information Management – what is e-government?

Modern days – need modern ethics

Faceache – Do social media create revolutions?

About face – Analysing social media

Social media guidelines – plenty out there

October 2011

E-government study 1 – the first of a series of reviews

E-government study 2 – One from Wales

E-government study 3 – one from Germany

Open source cloud – is it or isn’t it?

Open and shut cloud – some differing opinions

Is government a platform – a Tim O’Reilly paper considered

Digital exclusion by default -a DWP research paper

Social Service – an LGiU paper

Cool crowdsourcing – innovation in the US

November 2011

California dreamed – egovernment below state level

Top ten priorities – Another from the US

E-rules – is e-rulemaking out of fashion?

Tell us how – the Cabinet Office crowdsources

Safegov – a new website about cloud

Data matching – addresses and names

Irish Times – more Irish lessons

Pan-European Egovernment – 6th Ministerial Conference

Neighbourhood Networks – a report on them in the UK

Goss Social Media Survey – what it says

December 2011

Government Web 2.0 in Canada – and elsewhere

Parlour Games – Mike Bracken speaks

Government Data Service Launch – Mike Bracken speaks again

E-directive – as opposed to an EU one

Democratic accountability – a paper on the topic

Directgov – the NAO report on the site

Evil crowdsourcing – the subliminal side

Six months on – NAO report on the UK Government IT Strategy

Broadband and the economy – A US report

January 2012

A Digital Agenda – the EU 6 month review

Austere academia – an LSE report

Keep taking the tablets – a usability report

Digital participation in Scotland – a report and its summary

Not rocket science – bad practice in BC

Keep it stupid, simple – Another PAC report

Participating in a democracy – a recent debate

Rescuing policy – Dan Lenihan’s book

Up down under – comparitive reviews

Ninging up York – a community consultation

February 2012

Open Data Manual – the manual and more

New Democracy – Greece, old & new

Evaluating Citizen Participation – a new IBM publication

Acronym Wars – fun in the EU

Unsubscribe – trying to dump spam

The ‘Green’ Emancipator – on video

Linked Open Data – some more sources

Open Sores – on Open Source

E-government tightrope – News from NZ

The Inbox – measuring email

Cloudy Days – who’s not playing?

CONsultation – Tell Us How & GeniUS

March 2012

Complexity – Government has too much

Open warfare – more opinion on open

Open by design – …and yet more

United we fall – the 2012 UN report

Data Dividend – the Demos report

Scotland the Brave – the McClelland Report

Good Practice? – A DWP report/website

Molten Cloud – A health warning

Yes, minister – the budget

Facing our Future – the New jersey view

April 2012

Accountancy Age – how it doesn’t add up

Open the data Maude – the revolution will not be about open

A cloudy outlook – why we need to plan

Top Management Team – new Socitm report

Clicktivism – does social media do it?

Comment on this post – who does what?

Channel choice – Canadian services

Civic engagement – Comparing two papers from the USA

Democratic Demands – more to social media

What is ‘open government’? Andrea di Maio and the OGP

Implementing transparency – open government and the NAO

May 2012

Irish ways – the latest Irish e-government strategy

A digital nation – Canadian report on web usage

Good progress – G-cloud is making

The design method – a good blog

The election result will not be Tweeted (in advance) – a review of the research

Social media and revolutions – a Libyan view

Inclusive online community engagement – a new US report

GovSM – a wiki on social media

Six stage digital engagement – the easy view

Digital urban spaces – an RSA view

IBM take on BYOD – will it be cheaper?

Lost in Poland – e-government there

The failure of IT reform – it takes more than technology

Hearing loop? – New NAO report

Digital entitlement – what is the digital divide?

Open record ethics – managing the cost

Gold plating – a report from Consumer Focus

Is data.gov.uk transparent? – a second opinion

Can channel shift be forecast? – someone seems to think so…

July 2012

Five star rating – the new open data white paper

Social media mischief – messing in Mexico

Youth and social media – a new report from the US

What’s the big idea? – Policy Exchange on big data

Communicate – learning from Leahy

Counting the cost – Realities of channel shift

Storm cloud – weather resilience and the cloud

Social voting – via Facebook?

Streaming the meme – what next for socia media

Less skeptical on social media – a good guide

Voter ID – how to stop people voting

August 2012

Social media and customers – another view

Transparent e-gov – a UK PAC report

Opening the data – an open data critique

Daring to be truthful – a report on new media

Customer avoidance – HSBC setting an example

Performance standards – A paper by Colin Talbot

Social local – a study of loval government social media

Generation Y e-government – Australia looks to video

Open data is a means – Ovum report

Listen to customers not big data – just do it!

September 2012

Policing – systems thinking style

Hyperlocal encouragement – Six tips for hyperlocals and others

Local Government Data Service – Chatter on the Internet

Social Media Fantasy – A Finnish report

Central resource – Audit Scotland criticise

Open but closed – open government in the Emirates

Shared practice – shared services?

Universal Chaos – in the Houses of Parliament

Key areas of attention remain – in US .gov sites

Simple things? – maybe not so simple

October 2012

Digital by diktat – questioning digital by default

The vital need of criticism – constraining ideology

Ideas cannot digest reality – Seeing like a State

Lies, damned lies – a cheap alternative to open data

E-government disaster – emergency web site

Digital by diktat 2 – a pop at the private sector

How hard can it be? – nPower’s sluggish website

The g-cloud of unknowing – a paper being published

Pakistan – watch this space – social media in Pakistan

Irish eyes on the USA – looking at their e-government

Quoting the obvious – can Google teach us anything?

Big problem – technology is not the answer

November 2012

Ecosystem – misuse of the word

Social media in a disaster – some practical guidance

e-voting – the current debate

Anti-social media – a little infographic

My identity – the DWP and identity

Local government digital service – a riposte

December 2012

Like a Virgin – a moan!

An summary of some recent post on the UK E-Democracy network

In government circles we have long been expected to follow Prince 2 project management principles and define what we were expecting to achieve before we set out. In central government ‘gateway reviews’ are supposed to be de facto prior to spending the bulk of the project monies. Then at the end, some sort of post-project review is supposed to be carried out to present the success or otherwise and any lessons learned etc…

I think perhaps first of all we need to know what the great British public expect of e-Democracy or even Democracy and attempt to champion that.

As with everything e-, there is an assumption that it will be used, is cheaper and better.

Where is the evidence? OK, I can contact my local councillor by email, it doesn’t mean that the answer is any better than if I’d waited to a response to a voicemail or letter, they’ll still be waiting on a response from a council worker. What it might mean is that I’ve jumped the queue on the person without access to email.

As I’ve stated before there is great potential for improving services, including the democratic ones but fundamentally it’s the process behind it, and it has to recognise that some will never be able to use it and that shouldn’t reduce their chances of being heard.

Rather than assumptions, I’d like to see more evidence from this country (cultures and systems vary, along with connectivity). This includes more ‘measured’ pilots.

What I do think is missing is any review (post-implementation review, lessons learned etc) that might guide those still trying to steer the little e-ships.

If X could say we did Y and it didn’t work, so try Z. If we had clear case studies that weren’t value laden…etc

Trying to coax councillors into believing that e- is worth it is hard. Trying to get their electorate to accept the expenditure is equally hard. It can only be supported by successful pilots.

I suspected at the end of the e-Government Unit that much documentation would vapourise, so saved what I wanted for research purposes then. The post BVPI157 review appears to have been: “well done, you all did it, cheers, goodbye!

Feeding back

Having marked the anniversary of the assassination of the Great Emancipator with the launch of the Great E-mancipator blog, I’ve been promoting it across the various lists and mailing lists I’ve been using and accumulating.

In some cases this has resulted in completion of the SURVEY, in others personal emails (all polite, thanks John, Dan and others) and in the case of the e-democracy list, some supportive discussion, thanks Paul and Jeremy.

I’ll pick up some threads from Paul here, since they are very relevant.

• Channels – “who else uses channels?” “blunt usage”? – has anybody any favourite/preferred alternatives? I had the same problem with my research supervisors and the term “silo“. I also have a concern about channels turning into silos – now that’s worrying if you don’t like either expression! I still believe that customer/citizen contact should be managed as a whole with the I.T. that supports it.
• Drop-outs from online processes better than user satisfaction – but what about the other channels? The person wanting face-to-face at five-to-nine?
• “We still do not have a single central resource for gov webbies like the Australian state of Victoria has had for several years > http://www.egov.vic.gov.au/” – again but I like to see this across all communication/service channels?
• “Strategy is extremely patchy rather than holistic” – this is a ket element of my dissertation, its a Civil Service modus operandi if I’m correct. They have no idea what to do, so ask everyone else to provide exemplars, and then cherry-pick the best or in the worst instance the low-hanging fruit! At the end of the exercise, everybody is doing something different at public expense but central government have a model for all to follow, if it isn’t too late? Prime examples of this in e-government were Implementing Electronic Government Statements 1 & 2, the Priority Service Outcomes and a string of ‘national projects’.

The discussion continued and I’m looking forward to refining the model with such feedback.