P2 in Nanotechnology Efforts

Kathy Hudson, Ph.D. reports on the use of technology and deliberative democracy in a series of town hall meetings about nanotechnology. Her findings show that more people attended town hall meetings (including community leaders and policymakers), that attendees were more "tech-savvy" and "those with a “point of view”. These meetings also generated more media attention. According to Hudson, "online groups were more representative of the general population, allowed more in-depth discussions, and changes in attitudes could more reliably be tested. However, they had less of an impact on the policy discussion."

The same report (in subsequent pages) discusses other nanotechnology public participation projects. One other project report included uses technology (Tom Beierle's online discussion project).

Role of Technology in Democratic Governance

An April 19, 2007 story in the Toronto Globe and Mail discusses the role of technology in democratic governance. "True democracy requires debate, compromise and trust in the people elected to make tough decisions, said lawmaker Dr Tony Wright, who chairs Britain's Public Administration Committee," the story says. Wright continues by saying, "Just pressing a button to say that you're against something doesn't seem to me to be a great expression of democratic engagement," he said. "It should be seen as extending the normal methods of representative democracy, not supplanting them."

Public's Role in Developing Technology Policy

A March 2006 article by Jennifer Winter entitled "Public Involvement in Technology Policy: Focus on the Pervasive Computing Environment" provides an interesting review of the public's role in developing technology policy. The paper appeared in Vol. 36, Issue 1 of the Association of Computing Machinery's ACM SIGCAS, a publication that "brings together computer professionals, specialists in other fields, and the public-at-large to address concerns and raise awareness about the ethical and societal impact of computers." You can download a copy of the paper by registering (free) at http://portal.acm.org/portal.cfm.

Abstract:
"This paper examines the role of the general public in informing technology policy, observing that public involvement often occurs only through the electoral process or via feedback after plans have been implemented. Planners and policymakers are not necessarily in touch with the feelings and desires of the public who will be affected by their decisions. For this reason it is important to seek a clearer understanding of the views of citizens who are not typically involved in the planning or design process in order to guide the evolution of technology, as well as to highlight areas where there may be some discrepancy between planners and the needs of everyday users. To broaden the inputs into discussion of emerging problems related to pervasive computing in the State of Hawaii, both information and communication technology specialists (including government policy makers) and members of the general population were invited to participate in a multi-phase study. Differences in perception between specialists and the general public were identified in all phases of research. Specialists were identified as being more focused on near-term issues related to barriers affecting the growth of high-technology industries within the State. Non-specialists showed greater concern for "human" issues, including issues related to the control of technology. Importantly, both groups independently described a need for increased public participation in the process of technological development. Analysis also revealed that both groups found the problem statements generated by non-specialists to be valuable contributions, arguing for their inclusion in the process of problem identification and further supporting the use of participatory planning methods."

UK Forestry Commission

The UK Forestry Commission has a number of initiatives and reports it is working on related to public involvement and governance in forest planning. One report, Involving People in Forestry, includes detailed fact sheets in its toolbox on electronic democracy, internet surveys and the use of websites that are tailored for practitioner use.

E-Government and Democracy

This 2004 report by Steven Clift, entitled "E-Government and Democracy: Representation and Citizen Engagement in the Information Age," focuses on the role that technology can play in strengthening and enhancing representative democratic practices. It was prepared based on research provided to the United Nations.

Technology for Citizen Engagement and the 108th Congress

Here is a report by the Public Forum Institute, which is "an independent, nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization committed to developing the most advanced and effective means of fostering public discourse." The report discusses an effort by the Forum, initiated by members of the 108th Congress, to engage citizens in discussions about issues within their districts, often using technology.

Other reports by the Forum and details of their activities can be found at www.publicforuminstitute.org.

Technology for Consultation in the UK

This article by Sarah Arnott, posted April 5 on the website Computing calls for greater use of technology in consulting with citizens in the United Kingdom.

Research

The April 4 edition of the Deliberative Democracy e-bulletin reports that the Oxford Internet Institute recently published a working paper for discussion purposes that's titled, "Reconfiguring Government-Public Engagements: Enhancing the Communicative Power of Citizens." The paper is the result of an OII/Cabinet Office Event entitled "Engaging with the 'Google Generation,''' which considered potential implications for government-public engagement with emerging trends in online communication (like blogs and social networking tools).

You can download the paper at http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/research/publications/FD9_pa1.pdf.

Research Centers

Chris Berendes wrote to share information about the Center for Technology in Government at the University at Albany.

The center's mission is to work "with government to develop information strategies that foster innovation and enhance the quality and coordination of public services.
We carry out this mission through applied research and partnership projects that address the policy, management, and technology dimensions of information use in the public sector."

The center is also the host of the 1st Annual Institute on International Digital Government Research, which is supported by the US National Science Foundation.

Visit their website to find reports, toolkits and other information about collaboration and integration, e-government, strategic use of information and other topics.

Open Source Tools

Gov2U is a Greek NGO that has been working to promote the use of technology in citizen-government decisionmaking.

According to their website at http://www.gov2u.com/ , "Gov2U was conceived and founded in 2005 as a non-profit, non-governmental organization by a group of visionary professionals from the fields of Legislative Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and community activism aiming to develop tools that facilitate the everyday work of elected officials and that offer citizens a greater stake in political discourse by enabling them to contribute their ideas, suggestions, and opinions."

In an October 2006 email from Project Manager Evika Karamagioli, she writes: "Our principal achievement to date has been the development of Gov2DemOSS (http://citycouncil.gov2u.com/ ), an open source, generic, informative and collaborative e-participation platform. Gov2DemOSS provides an efficient channel for institutions and organizations to keep their communities informed, manage their information repositories, interact directly with their constituents and to gauge public opinion. The open source nature of the software means that it is provided free of charge to interested parties, with Gov2u services covering the planning process, customization and deployment of the software, training of site administrators and users, support and maintenance.

"Though initially the platform was envisioned as primarily a tool for various levels of government, we are increasingly attracting interest from a wider range of stakeholders including community groups, civil society organizations and even corporations who are seeking an efficient medium for interacting with their membership base. Currently the platform is being implemented in the US and in Spain.

"Furthermore, we participate as a partner, in the EU co-funded "Virtual Desktop for the Mobile Elected Official - e-Representative project" FP6 -2004-26985 (http://www.erepresentative.org/) Gov2U is a member of the implementing consortium in partnership with: Napier University International Teledemocracy Center , Hewlett Packard Nederland B.V. , Scytl Secure Electronic Voting S.A., Dutch Parliament , Lithuanian Parliament, Catalonian Parliament, Hungarian National Assembly, and Westmeath City Council (Ireland). The project is investigating the potential impact of a "virtual elected representative's desktop" to support the work of elected officials at the national, regional and local level by making legislative services more effective and more tailored to meet their individual requirements."