Mark Thamm

Rethinking governance via social networking: the case of direct vs. indirect stakeholder injection

Recent advances in communications technology have enabled new approaches to governance in which stakeholders across sectors and jurisdictions are engaged in consensus building and implementation processes. This paper explores some mechanisms through which online social networking may impact on governance towards greater openness & transparency. In particular we examine the case of one initiative, the WeGov Project, which has as its mandate the bringing together of e-governance and e-society. We begin this paper by providing a contextual background to the initiative, its objectives and remit. We then proceed to critically examine the processes underlying the design of the WeGov tool-kit, as well as the end-user engagement methodologies, which feed back into the design of this platform. We ask how direct & in-direct injection from policy makers on social networking sites (SNS) can facilitate participative governance in its most transparent and inclusive sense.