Angus Whyte

Towards an evaluation framework for eParticipation

Purpose – The paper seeks to demonstrate the use of a range of perspectives and methods to evaluate eParticipation initiatives. It aims to argue that there is a need for coherent evaluation frameworks employing such perspectives and methods, the better to understand current eParticipation applications and learn from these experiences.Design/methodology/approach – A case study of eParticipation evaluation for four local authority led projects from the “top down” stream of the UK Local e‐Democracy National Project is presented.Findings – Applying the eParticipation framework resulted in an assessment that was considered fair by participants. However, the framework needs further development. More consideration needs to be placed on how and when to use tools in which contexts, also, on how to combine tools to enable inclusive engagement. The evaluation timescale meant important aspects of the framework were downplayed.Research limitations/implications – Further research is needed in two main areas; first, on ...

Electronic democracy and young people

This article examines action to address young people’s apathy to the democratic process and politics in general, by considering possibilities for using information and communication technology to engage young people. The article describes two e-democracy systems in use in Scotland, which provide young people with opportunities to participate in and understand democratic decision making. The systems are designed to allow young people to deliberate issues of importance to them. The Highland Council initiative involves young people in the design of a web site for their youth parliament with online debates and Internet voting. The Young Scot initiative is a national youth portal, including an e-democracy channel. The emphasis here is on content management and moderation of e-consultations for young people. Research indicates that democracy is best taught by practicing it and that many young people are comfortable using new information and communication technologies. These ideas form the basis of both projects.

Transparency and Teledemocracy: Issues from an 'E-consultation'

Transparency is a term common to distributed computing, communications studies and other fields that information science draws upon. Its everyday uses and connotations are carried over into these domains, coalescing around some common issues relevant to knowledge management. Transparency is also a common term in political theory and practice and one that has been associated with teledemocracy: the application of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to support democratic processes. For example, ‘greater transparency’ is commonly used to justify the use of ICT by governments to consult with the governed; the topic of the work in progress reported here. Transparency is an abstract benefit, perhaps more so than ‘knowledge management’ itself. It promises gain for all, but risks being lost between expectations first raised by political and managerial ‘spin’ and then deflated by the same corporate forgetting what it is meant to address. The paper explores some of this dangerous territory, reflecting on how everyday notions of ‘transparency’ relate to two current issues in knowledge management and social informatics: firstly, the design of systems to promote shared awareness of activity and identity; secondly, the study of ICTs to illuminate the invisibility of the ‘social infrastructure’ that they depend upon. The paper briefly reviews uses of the term ‘transparency’, drawing on literature from the fields mentioned above. The aim is to delineate dimensions of transparency that may help designers, policy makers or citizens to evaluate what can or should be made transparent in the interplay between technology and due political process. Ethnographic methods were used to document outcomes of an ‘electronic consultation’ project that contributed to a Government consultation of eleven to eighteen year olds in Scotland. A website ‘ econsultant ’ was developed and its usage monitored online and offline, including in events leading up to a ‘Scottish Youth Summit’. Using brief extracts from field notes, the website itself and audio and video transcripts of the site in use, the paper will show how those participating in the consultation collaboratively shared and managed awareness of their activities and identities. Reflecting on what was made visible through the e-consultant site, and wha was hidden by it, the realised and potential ‘transparencyenhancing’ effects of this and similar prototypes will be discussed. The discussion focuses on the roles of intermediaries and social infrastructure in the project, illustrating the trade-offs between transparently simple design and transparency of information in the collaboration between consultants(those doing the consulting) and consultees (those consulted). Finally, indications are given of the direction the authors’ ongoing research.

Representational Politics in Virtual Urban Places

EDEN, a famous garden, is also an acronym for the Electronic Democracy European Network, a project involving a consortium of public administrations (local authorities), academic institutions and technology companies. The thirty-month project aims to improve communication between the administrations and citizens in decision-making processes to do with urban planning, and at time of writing is in the transition from ‘requirements analysis’ to implementation of a software toolkit. The EDEN project is concerned, amongst other things, with the mobility of messages to and from urban planning officers in public administrations. Mobility, that is, from people ‘outside’ a city administration to people ‘inside’ it via a website, a virtual place from where messages are to be routed to a correct destination. The planning of virtual urban places is a new concern for both urban planners and systems designers working to implement ‘information society’ initiatives. These two occupations and research fields share similar methodologies, models, and artifacts used to intervene in the practices of their clients. This paper describes how the practices through which planning is made political have been represented in the ‘requirements analysis’ of the EDEN toolkit. The politics of the project do not just lie in its objective, the reconfiguring of ‘virtual’ political geographies in parallel with the ‘real’. The distinctions made between virtual and real politics are themselves political. Setting aside any essential differences between the two, we will look instead at the politics of representation and representations embedded in the EDEN project and software.

Designing E-democracy in Scotland

Abstract The move towards the use of new technologies and the new focus on citizen engagement in Scotland provides the opportunity for e-democracy to emerge. Working towards the goal of e-democracy, the International Teledemocracy Centre (ITC) is developing a body of ICT, supporting skills, tools and techniques, designed specifically to facilitate the use of technology, capable of enhancing democratic engagement. This paper begins to articulate how citizens are engaging with government and with their elected representatives about issues that concern them, using technology specially designed for the purpose. The paper examines the nature of e-democracy and considers concepts of democracy, issues of democratization, and issues surrounding citizen access and participation. In addition, the paper discusses the design and use of two electronic tools developed by the ITC between 1999 and 2001 i. e. e-consultant and e-petitioner. Finally, the paper presents analyses of findings drawn from research to monitor and evaluate the use of these tools and the arrangements which accompany their entry into society.