Participation - Project

• the Participation project
• Participation User Engagement
• Strategy
• Supporting Activities
• Contact for further information

Participation Project

The participation project is examining the scope for e-government to improve the opportunities for public and businesses to participate in government.

Participation Events

Workshop 7 Dec 2006

The State Services Commission held a workshop on 7 December 2006 in Wellington to explore how new technologies can help New Zealanders engage with government.

The workshop also served to launch a broad-based Participation Community of Practice which includes practitioners from central and local government, academia, business and civil society organisations. Their expertise and insights will be needed in building a State Services framework for online participation that reflects shared values, is adaptable and stands the test of time. Participants agreed that the workshop was timely given the growing interest in online tools to foster public participation in policy and service delivery.

A summary of the event, along with some materials that were presented at the workshop can be found on the events page.

You are welcome to contact the project team for further information.  Contact details are below.

What is Online or e-Participation?

• Creating opportunities through the use of ICT for people to be actively involved in design and delivery of government policies and services and
• Making information available in ways that make it accessible and relevant.

The levels of e-participation according to Professor Ann Macintosh¹, Director of the International Teledemocracy Centre - and that builds on the OECD² definitions - are:

e-enabling

accessibility and understanding (information)

e-engaging

consulting a wider audience to enable deeper contributions and support deliberative debate on policy issues (consultation)

e-empowering

providing opportunities for citizens influence and participate in policy formulation and service design (active participation).

1. Macintosh A. (2004).
Characterizing e-Participation in Policy-Making: International Teledemocracy Centre, Napier University.

2. OECD (2001).
Citizens as Partners: Information, consultation and public participation in policymaking: OECD.

The Context

The paper Participation through e-government - the context, presents the findings from research carried out during 2003 and 2004. It covers the environment in which e-government operates, the experience of governments elsewhere and the barriers to -and enablers of- participation through e-government. The issues presented in this paper are intended to provide a basis for further thinking on how the E-government programme can deliver the participation objectives.

A Framework for Online Participation

We propose to develop a State Services framework for online participation which aims to:

• Define how online participation aligns with the Development Goals for the State Services and the Digital Strategy
• Provide a collaborative and consistent approach to developing and implementing online participation across government
• Determine what are the underlying principles required to support online participation
• Inform the way government implements online participation
• Determine what online methods and tools can help people to engage with government
• Define what evaluation is needed to monitor and assess the value of online participation.

The following diagram illustrates the current government directions that influence a framework for online participation, and the potential parts of such a framework as a starting point [click to open larger image].  Moving from left to right:

• The government directions - the Development Goals of the State Services, the Digital Strategy and the E-government Strategy
• The potential parts of a framework which are:
• principles to guide participation
• standards that contribute to participation.  Examples: government performance in engaging public and businesses, Web Guidelines
• components such as Tools, Accessibility, Education, Building Capability, Awareness, Knowledge Transfer.

The right side of the diagram shows a picture of groups of people to illustrate that  input is sought from representatives of government, public and business to develop the framework.

How to Participate

The successful development and implementation of a framework for online participation needs to have active input.  This means putting participation into practice!

The work programme involves developing a framework, creating a resource library and preparing a plan for implementation.

The following opportunities to contribute are:

• Join the community of practice that is being established to exchange ideas, comments and suggestions
• Maintain a watching brief of this website and input when you consider appropriate.

You are welcome to contact the project team for further information.  Contact details are below. 

Participation User Engagement Pilot

We've begun a pilot project designed to bring the public into the development of a Framework for Online Participation. By doing in-depth interviews and group sessions with a small number of New Zealanders, we want to understand participation from the perspective of people who will use the tools of e-government.

Admittedly, participation 'the concept' can be hard to grasp. Even for the most seasoned expert, it is a complex, multi-dimensional set of ideas and practices. That's why our aim is to try and understand participation as an experience rather than as an idea.

To do this, we're asking participants to use charts, stories, drawings and photographs to help us understand the places, spaces and issues that define participation for them. We'll talk about how technology fits into what they've told us, and begin imagining what sort of 'participation products and services' could be successful in New Zealand.

The creations, ideas and stories of our participants should provide the Participation Community of Practice with a rich basis for discussion and insight as they develop and design a Framework for Online Participation. Following its conclusion, the project will be evaluated to see if its approach would be appropriate for wider use in State Services policy development and service design.

The timeline for this project runs through to December, 2006.

For further information, contact David Hume at the project team, details below.

Strategy

• Make government information easier to find.
• Publish key government information online.
• Provide multiple channels for contact with government.
• Provide improved opportunities to participate through e-government.

The E-government Strategy's current response to increasing participation in government is to promote better understanding of what people want from e-government, by encouraging agencies to be people-centric in designing and delivering e-government and by helping people find government services and information using the portal.

Some other examples of how government invites participation include helping people find their MP, publishing important documents about what Parliament is discussing and how to make submissions to its committees, by helping people understand how our laws work, and by making legislation available online. From the government portal, www.govt.nz, you can find out what government is currently consulting on.

Supporting Activities

Provide a secure environment and authentication framework enabling secure, trusted exchange of information among agencies and between agencies and customers.

• Catalogue government information.
• Drive the routine online publishing of key government information.
• Provide facilities to enable interactive consultation among agencies and between agencies and customers.
• Develop systems to enable the public to offer structured feedback on policy issues.