Dennis de Kool

Social media monitoring: Responsive governance in the shadow of surveillance?

Abstract Social media monitoring is gradually becoming a common practice in public organizations in the Netherlands. The main purposes of social media monitoring are strategic control and responsiveness. Social media monitoring poses normative questions in terms of transparency, accountability and privacy. We investigate practices of social media monitoring in four Dutch public organizations. Policy departments seem to be more strongly orientated towards monitoring, whereas organizations involved in policy implementation seem to be more inclined to progress to webcare. The paper argues for more transparency on social media monitoring.

The Perceived Impact of Open Inspection Data on the Quality of Education in Dutch Primary Schools

Open government has become a prominent issue for governments in recent years. Many studies focus on the data published by governments (supply) instead of on the needs of potential users (demand). In this study, we investigated the perceived impact of open data provided by the Dutch Inspectorate of Education. The research question is what is the perceived impact of open inspection data, as used by parents, on the quality of education in Dutch primary schools? The empirical data have been gathered by both surveys and interviews. The results of the surveys show that both the factual use and the perceived usefulness of the Inspectorate’s open data are relatively low. Parents want all individuals and institutions, in general, to have more influence on the quality of primary education. The results also indicate that the increasingly frequent visits to the Inspectorate of Education’s website are linked to parents’ desire to have more influence on the quality of primary education. Finally, as parents are more involved in the schools or visit the Inspectorate’s website more often, they want the participation councils to have more influence. Nevertheless, Dutch parents highly estimate the average quality of the education provided by primary schools. However, when their involvement increases, their assessments of their school’s performance decrease. Frequent visits to the Inspectorate’s website are related to lower performance assessments. So, open inspection data are potentially valuable for (critical) parents, especially when attention is also paid to “soft” quality indicators.

Webcare in public services: Deliver better with less?

Social media monitoring and webcare are gradually becoming common practice in public organizations in the Netherlands. This chapter focuses on webcare, i.e. the act of engaging in online communication with citizens to address client feedback. We investigate four cases of webcare by Dutch public organizations. The main goal of webcare is to gain a better insight into relevant sentiments within target groups. Reputation management and anticipation of clients’ questions and needs prevail in this endeavour. Improvement of information provision and service delivery on the basis of citizens’ feedback are other important motives. In some of our cases, signs of co-production are visible. However, in none of the cases are the impacts of webcare systematically monitored.

The perceived value-relevance of open data in the parents’ choice of Dutch primary schools

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the perceived value-relevance of open data published by the Dutch Inspectorate of Education in the parents’ choice of Dutch primary schools. Design/methodology/approach – Empirical data were collected through a mixed method strategy including quantitative and qualitative methods: quantitative surveys among parents of pupils in 25 primary schools; and semi-structured in-depth interviews using a topic list. Findings – Parents make little use of the Inspectorate’s website compared to other information sources. The perceived usefulness of this website to parents choosing a primary school is also relatively low. Personal information gathered by school visits, written information from schools and information from other parents are more important sources. Research limitations/implications – Subjective considerations, such as the atmosphere and ambience of a school, play an important role in parents’ choice behavior. Pragmatic considerations also play a role, ...

The information ecology of parliamentary monitoring websites: Pathways towards strengthening democracy

This paper investigates the monitoring of parliamentarians by independent parliamentary monitoring organizations (PMOs). Three parliamentary monitoring websites (PMWs) in Germany, the United Kingdom, and France are compared regard- ing their contribution to strengthening democracy. An information ecology perspective reveals the interrelationships between the national institutional context, the democratic values pursued by the initiators, and website design. Two types of PMWs can be distinguished. One type focuses on enabling citizens to discharge their monitorial role, whereas the other type com- bines this focus with an explicit reformist stance. PMWs seem to have positive effects on various aspects of transparency and accountability. However, a better understanding is needed about what these websites entail for the quality of parliamentary work.

The perceived impacts of monitoring activities on intergovernmental relationships: some lessons from the Ecological Monitoring Network and Water in Focus

An increasing stream of monitoring activities is entering the public sector. This article analyzes the perceived impacts of monitoring activities on intergovernmental relationships. Our theoretical framework is based on three approaches to monitoring and intergovernmental relationships, namely, a rational, a political, and a cultural perspective. Our empirical insights are based on two Dutch case studies, namely, the Ecological Monitoring Network and the Water in Focus reports. The conclusion is that monitoring activities have an impact on intergovernmental relationships in terms of standardizing working processes and methods, formalizing information relationships, ritualizing activities, and developing shared concepts (“common grammar”). An important challenge is to deal with the politicization of intergovernmental relationships, because monitoring reports can also stimulate political discussions about funding, the design of the instrument, administrative burdens, and supervisory relationships.

The Use of Social Media in the Public Sector: Some Lessons from the Netherlands

Under the label of E-government, governments are undertaking different activities that are directly related to the development of the modern information society. In this chapter, we will focus on a specific communicative challenge of E-government, namely, the use of social media tools by civil servants. Social media are rapidly penetrating the modern information society. This new generation of digital applications emphasizes the importance of user-participation, content-sharing, and accessible communication. Both companies and governmental agencies are exploring carefully the possibilities of social media to communicate with customers or citizens. An important reason is the assumption that the use of social media can result in governments that operate more effectively and efficiently. However, for civil servants the utilization of social media brings both challenges and risks. This chapter analyzes the challenges, risks, and dilemmas of social media for Dutch civil servants. The theoretical framework that is used consists of a “classical” and a “modern” approach to civil servants. In the classical “Weberian” model, politicians are responsible for policy making (and communication about it) and civil servants have to implement policies (“the primacy of politics”). This “principal” approach implies a limited role of civil servants in the virtual world of social media. On the other hand, the “modern” approach to civil servants highlights the professional expertise and distinctive responsibilities of civil servants. The “pragmatic” approach leaves more space for active participation of civil servants on the Internet. For this reason, a fundamental reflection about the primacy of politics, the role of governmental communication, and the culture in the new social media landscape is necessary.

Web Monitoring and Strategic Issue Management: Dutch student protests against the 1040-hour norm

Social media is a label for many new Internet technologies that are used for sharing information (pictures, movies, music, and/or expertise) with other people. Examples are Linked-in, Twitter, Yammer, and blogs. Social media can gap the distance between governments and citizens. However, individuals and small groups can also use social media as a powerful mobilization tool for protesting against government policies. In 2007, Dutch students used social media to protest against the so-called 1040-hour norm. This norm refers to the total amount of teaching hours that students are required to follow each year during the first and second years of secondary education. Although required by education inspectors to comply with this norm, many schools were unable to do so, because of teacher shortages. Students complained that they were forced to be at school without taking classes and used social media to mobilize each other for mass demonstrations. At the ministry of Education, Culture and Science policy makers and the Deputy Minister in charge were completely surprised by the scale of the protests and the speed of organization of the protest actions and the mobilization force the Internet provided to the protesting students. As a result of these experiences the ministry of Education, Culture, and Science has developed an online early warning system to signalize relevant discussions about education topics on the Internet. This ‘webmonitoring’ strategy is aimed at reducing ‘strategic surprises’. This chapter analyzes the mobilization process of student protests against the 1040-hour norm in the Netherlands and the communication- and online strategy that the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science has developed since then.

Learning with GIS-Based Monitors in the Netherlands

Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are becoming an increasingly important tool for governments in policy processes. GIS are computerized systems for the purpose of saving, analysing and demonstrating data on the basis of a geographical component. GIS can support policy-making, policy implementation and policy-monitoring. An important strength of GIS is the possibility to visualize policy problems and effects. This potential of GIS is important in the digital society that puts an increasing value on transparency by governments about policy results. Despite the high potential of GIS, the utilization of GIS-based monitors in practice is rather limited. This chapter describes and analyses the impact of GIS-based monitors on learning processes within the Dutch government. Four different case-studies have been investigated, namely, PolStat, the Spatial Monitor, the Monitor Region Amsterdam and the Water Monitor. These GIS-based monitors have been analysed by using three different theoretical perspectives. Important learning barriers are the ambiguity of many policy goals, the relatively short history of most GIS-based monitors, a defensive approach from governments towards transparency about policy results and the lack of demonstrable problem-owners. The conclusions and recommendations at the end of the chapter aim to stimulate e-governments in becoming location-oriented learning governments as well.