All posts in the topic Comparing models (Short link)
Summary
- There are 8 posts — by 5 authors — in this topic.
- Latest post made by Steven Clift at 2005 Dec 14 15:29 UTC
I often refer to Issues Forums and online consultations as the one, two punch for local e-democracy. Most of the attention and resources (be they limited) have been on focused on structured online consultations, so it is an honour to be able to share details on the Issues Forum model. In the past, even I have written more about online consultations <http://www.publicus.net/articles/consult.html> and events than on Issues Forums. Comparing models Issues Forums - Citizens to citizen conversations among local leaders in government, media and society. Think of a public square or town hall open to many uses as determined by those who show up. E-consultations - (Of which epanels are a flavour) Government inviting citizens to engage on specific topic on which the government seeks input. Think of a government-hosted public hearing in the town hall. Comparing costs This is difficult to do or at least I haven't seen any research in this area. E-consultations normally have an up front technology adoption/platform cost and then per topic/event cost for facilitation, outreach, and content preparation (normally leveraged from the democratic process). Issues Forums whether done independently or with E-Democracy.Org also have an up front technology set-up/adoption cost, but we found the main resources (be they volunteer or funded) need to go into participatory practices by forming and educating a local steering committee and recruiting a forum manager. These are mostly one time costs IF creation of a volunteer base is successful. The major resource requirement once the base is in place is outreach to citizens and community leaders. Our sense is that this "heavy lifting" requires more than just a volunteer-based approach (and therefore ongoing funding) to reach into diverse communities and push continual growth of the forum. It _might_ be that for local online consultations to truly thrive and be worth the per event/topics investment, a local Issues Forum is a pre-condition or at least primes the community for e-participation. We don't know because the places with Issues Forum don't seem to have online consultation and vice versa. In the ideal scenario with an Issues Forum in the community, a local council has a place to easily recruit participants. When an e-consultation is over, the council also has a place to send people or even during a consultation, to send those who want to talk about topics outside the scope of their hosted event. In the end, my sense is that the cost to set-up an Issues Forum is about the cost of one online consultation. Presenting both models together might help both succeed and provide democratic value well beyond the costs to provide. Steven Clift
I wanted to add a bit more comparative information ...
Issues Forums Outcomes:
1. Sustained conversation of local issues - a reliable place to go online for
open ended community involvement
2. Accountability - of government, of the media, of political groups and most
typically among citizens for the views they express
3. Informed via Dialogue - Civic education 101, information sharing
4. Agenda-setting - Sometimes discussions influence the media/reporting and
decision-makers in an organic fashion
5. E-mail centric with enhanced web participation via GroupServer - "hot"
topics are forwarded widely within government and political networks,
participants may publish via e-mail, are "stuck" on the forum until they decide
to leave with "delete" key as filter, more likely to be exposed to new topics
(like the serendipity
of a print newspaper)
Online Consultation Outcomes:
1. Gather Citizen Input - Government gathers citizen/expert input on topics
they select (or depending upon the format, on related issues raised by
citizens) on a time-limited basis
2. Informing Citizens and the Media about special Government
Proposals/Documents - Attention to source documents and proposals increased,
announcements about online consultations often are mentioned in local media
3. Structured Surveys - Unlike online discussions, well structured online
surveys bring in more easily quantifiable information (although normally not
academically representative)
4. Goal of influence on decision-making - An ideal outcome on which best
practice research is required, can work when input sought at policy formulation
stage but this an ideal that is hard prove with any democratic method
5. Web-centric sometimes with e-mail alerts - citizens must decide to visit the
forum to participate, easier to avoid topics of lesser interest
I guess the number fives aren't outcomes, but they are important to mention.
Steven Clift
E-Democracy.Org
Would you say that issues forums are useful at the first stage of mediation or negotiation that leads to policy formation, stage 1 in the diagram on http://www.qub.ac.uk/mgt/papers/prefer/mednproc.html ; while ePanels are useful at stage 2, exploring problems and coming up with alternative solutions? Dave Newman
From: "D. R. Newman" <d.r.newman@qub.ac.uk> > Would you say that issues forums are useful at the first stage of > mediation or negotiation that leads to policy formation, stage 1 in > the diagram on http://www.qub.ac.uk/mgt/papers/prefer/mednproc.html ; > while ePanels are useful at stage 2, exploring problems and coming up > with alternative solutions? Issues Forums are most of one and part of stage two. From your page: Supporting mediation and decision-making processes with groupware When mediators get opponents to meet and discuss issues, they take the group(s) through a number of stages. Here are some of the things they do in each stage. Open discussion - Stage One Y - People get familiar with other participants. Y - They discuss the issue(s) of concern. Y - They explain their own needs, and listen to other's needs. N - They do not set out positions [Many do] and solutions [Some do] at this stage. N - They agree on the key issues to be discussed further. [The discussion is more organic, as long as someone is replying it can continue or often evolve into new topics.] Structured problem-solving - Stage Two Y - Participants start to explore the issues. Y - They identify many possible solutions. N - They work out how well these alternatives help or hinder them in meeting their [there is no "their" or expectation that consensus or collaboration comes from the forum, sub-groups of participants often go somewhere else to do this, Issues Forums can help these groups form and reach critical mass more efficiently] needs. N - They try to modify and synthesize the options into ones that meet the important needs of each group. [The kind of facilitation required to do this is relative high cost work, not something you can expect of a volunteer forum manager.] We have discussed ways to connect local Issues Forum participants based on topics of similar interest for information sharing tied to problem solving. For example, someone could register there issues interests, say recycling or traffic calming, then use the network to post questions to those in other communities who have indicated a similar interest/expertise. Buried in this technical "wish list" document under "Modules 1." we outline such an open source (the way to go IMHO) feature that we could have built if funding became available: http://e-democracy.org/wiki/Groupserver_feature_ideas Cheers, Steven Clift ^ ^ ^ ^ Steven L. Clift - - - W: http://publicus.net Minneapolis - - - - E: <email obscured> Minnesota - - - - - - T: +1.612.822.8667 USA - - - - Skype/MSN/Y!/AIM: netclift Join Democracies Online: http://dowire.org Start an Issues Forum: http://e-democracy.org/if
>Comparing costs
>This is difficult to do or at least I haven't seen any research in this area.
We're looking at costs for a benefits analysis which should be available in
January. The idea is that we've tried to look at financial implications, cost
savings etc of all the edemocracy applications piloted in the Local eDemocracy
National Project (of which issues forums and epanels are two). The benefits
analysis doesn't just look at the financial perspective, it also looks at other
benefits (such as increasing participation, meeting government priorities etc)
> It _might_ be that for local online consultations to truly thrive and be
worth the per event/topics investment, a local Issues Forum is a pre-condition
or at least primes the community for e-participation.
We don't know because the places with Issues Forum don't seem to have online
consultation and vice versa. In the ideal scenario with an Issues Forum in the
community, a local council has a place to easily recruit participants. When an
e-consultation is over, the council also has a place to send people or even
during a consultation, to send those who want to talk about topics outside the
scope of their hosted event.
We're going to try combining our epanel with a more issues forum based approach
in the New Year. Not sure how it's going to work just yet but I think that the
way to sustain an epanel on a long-term basis is by having a more community-led
feel to it to help encourage people to want to stay involved
I would agree with this approach of using a mix of short-term consultation exercises to allow stakeholders to be drawn into more permanent communication relationships through online communities. In this document http://www.inovem.com/product/flyers/e-comms-briefing.pdf I have referenced an example within Central Government (Health & Safety Exec) where we found this technique extremely useful. Given the cost of acquisition, it makes sense to provide a facility to reduce churn and keep people involved. John Glover
"We don't know because the places with Issues Forum don't seem to have
online consultation and vice versa. In the ideal scenario with an Issues
Forum in the community, a local council has a place to easily recruit
participants. When an e-consultation is over, the council also has a
place to send people or even during a consultation, to send those who
want to talk about topics outside the scope of their hosted event."
Such a dual strategy sounds right, but is it realistic? I might be
wrong, but relevant council websites donÂ’t seem to link to issues forums
at the moment, even though the forums have been running for quite some
time. Why not? I know there is some legal ambiguity over whether or not
a council website can link to a separate site that contains “political
material”? Does this include issues forums too?
I've been out with a cold or I would have responded earlier. Council policies about "external" links seem to vary widely. In Newham, the Council added a link to "discuss local issues online" in the main page of their Council and Democracy section: http://apps.newham.gov.uk/democracy/home.htm In Brighton, I recall discussion of such a link request needing to go through proper channels ... I would guess some follow-up is required. In general, linking campaigns by local steering committees need to be much more aggressive. The honest truth is that often takes one by one e-mail and telephone requests. This, like most other aggressive outreach, would be strengthened by dedicated outreach funding. In terms of being realistic, all you need is a council interested in epanels/online consultations where citizens are also interested in Issues Forums. Obviously, promoting online town hall events/consultations in Brighton & Hove or Newham would be a good test of the one-two punch. In also might add, with the other leading online consultation providers in the UK participating in this workshop (thank you), perhaps you might encourage Issues Forums in the communities/with the Councils where your services are requested. This might strengthen the overall climate and demand for effective e-consultation. Let us know if you see merit in this idea. Steven Clift E-Democracy.Org