Executive Summary

"For democracy to flourish, citizens need free and open access to information.

In today's digital age, this means access to information online....Today, with the Internet, citizens have vastly greater opportunities to access the information and ideas necessary for civic discourse. Librarians, cyber-activists, and other public interest advocates have sought ways to expand access to the wealth of resources that the Internet promises, and have begun to build online communities, or "commons," for producing and sharing information, creative works, and democratic discussion. Information commons thus offers a way not only of understanding the challenge posed by enclosure, but of building a fundamental institution for 21st century democracy. It provides a language to explain how the extraordinary public assets invested in the nation's information infrastructure can deliver opportunities for the participation of all citizens."

(from The Information Commons - a Public Policy Report, Nancy Kranich, NYU School of Law, 2004)

One of the aims of the e-government programme is to improve the opportunities for people to participate in government.

Participation means more than consultation. It includes making government information available to people in ways that make it accessible and relevant, as well as creating opportunities for people to be actively involved in the design and delivery of government policies and services [Note that while online participation can contribute to increasing awareness and understanding of the political system and citizens' rights, electronic voting for elections is outside the scope of this report] .

This paper examines the scope for increasing using e-government to improve the opportunities for public and businesses to participate in government. It discusses the environment in which e-government operates, the experience of governments elsewhere, and the barriers to and enablers of participation through e-government.

Some of the lessons emerging from international experience are:

• integration of technology with traditional 'offline' tools for access to information, consultation and public participation in policy making and service design/delivery is needed to make the most of information communication technologies
• people are encouraged to take part in the democratic process if they feel their contributions will have an effect on decisions
• to engage people online, the tools need to be provided, the issues broadcast widely, the facts made clear and stated in a form that can be understood, access to the means for input given to those who will be directly affected by the issues, a safe public space provided for informed debate, and rational incentives for the ordinary person to enter such debates
• the barriers to greater online citizen engagement are cultural, organisational and constitutional not technological. Overcoming these challenges will require greater efforts to raise awareness and capacity both within governments and among citizens
• increased participation by public and businesses is not intended to replace our representative system. The Government is still expected to take the initiative and to lead. Such leadership can, however, take advantage of referring to wider resources to inform policies, service design and delivery; and to improve trust in democracy through increased transparency and accountability.
• Government initiatives such as the proposed actions in the Digital Strategy, the local government Smart Newtown research project and the goodpracticeparticipate.govt.nz site established to help public servants engage successfully with community, voluntary and Māori organisations, all contribute to improving participation.
• From our research, a cross-agency programme for online participation activities with input from stakeholders, will contribute to e-government's 2010 goal to transform the operation of government and improve the opportunity for New Zealanders to participate with government online. The environmental factors, the current government activity and the barriers/enablers associated with technology inform the proposed e-government activities that contribute to improving public and businesses' participation in government.

Government initiatives such as the proposed actions in the Digital Strategy, the local government Smart Newtown research project and the goodpracticeparticipate.govt.nz site established to help public servants engage successfully with community, voluntary and Māori organisations, all contribute to improving participation.

The issues presented in this paper are intended to provide a basis for further thinking on the potential opportunities for e-government to facilitate public and businesses’ participation in government.