The German Bundestag:
The German Bundestag (Parliament) hired ‘dialogue by design’ to create e-managed ‘smart panels’ where websites were created to act as consultation-hubs (Dialogue by Design, 2010a). These ‘smart panels’ allowed citizens to engage with local government through whichever method best suited them (telephone, paper, text, or electronic) with the results of these consultation processes collated and published on the consultation hubs (Dialogue by Design, 2010b). The process was three-staged, with the first stage limited to participants offering short responses to the question “What information, functionalities and content offerings would you like the website of the German Bundestag to provide?”. Stage Two involved the response being collated, analysed and reported on the consultation hub website where citizens were provided with the opportunity to engage with the findings, reviewing, commenting on and prioritising the suggestions. Stage three displayed all the prioritised results and allowed participants to evaluate the process before allowing them the opportunity to comment on the governments responses to all the issues raised (Dialogue by Design, 2010a).
Successes:
The online multi-level online engagement process attracted over 1100 registered participants, with nearly 500 people making over 1100 comments in the first stage (Dialogue by Design, 2010a). As this was a relatively uncontroversial niche area of interest the response level can be seen as excellent. The multi-level approach meant that citizens could engage at whichever level of complexity they chose, with the first stage more basic and the final more in-depth. According to the report’s author the engagement process revealed criticisms and suggestions that could not have been identified in advance, and would not have been revealed using previous consultation methods such as face-to-face forums or questionnaires (Dialogue by Design, 2010a).
What to take from the example:
Engagement should not be sought through a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach. Young people will have varying levels of interest in various topics; some will want to be fully engaged and take part in in-depth discussion throughout the whole decision-making process, while others will be more interested in simply finding out about the issue or what other people have proposed. By using eGovernment as the backbone for a multi-methods approach the digital divide can be overcome through allowing participants who do not have access to the internet the ability to take part in a method which best suits them. If one was to glean one key point from this summary it would be that local government needs to adopt a citizen-centric approach when seeking to engage with youth. It must be designed and implemented to suit the varying needs, goals and concerns of young people, using the flexibility inherent in eGovernment to help facilitate this.
Applicability to Auckland:
As Auckland youth have varying levels of interest in various topics this approach would be highly recommended for the new Auckland City Council. In addition to being flexible, it would help to overcome the digital divide and let youths engage in own terms. In addition it is important to note that eGovernment should not be implemented at the expense of other forms of engagement such as face-to-face meetings or the establishment of youth councils. A comprehensive approach to Government seeks to incorporate a wide range of technologies and approaches to engagement using the open and cost effective nature of the web to coordinate these activities.
In addition, to truly engage youth’s in local government, the Auckland City Council should link the Youth Hub to other organisation’s and initiatives targeted at youth such providing the hub with a cloud computing based ‘Schoolnet’ which allows teachers to freely access material related to local council engagement online through a cloud computing system to ensure that a culture of engagement is fostered early among young people. Local Government New Zealand’s ‘Kids Voting’ initiative could be hosted in Auckland through the Council Youth Hub and could be improved through enabling teachers access to more local government information and resources. In addition, results of ‘Kid Elections’ could be posted on the Youth Hubs drawing greater attention to the site and the initiative.
A further example of this potential integration is TIG’s ‘Virtual Classroom on Tobacco Control’ which provides teachers with virtual toolkits to enable them to run virtual classrooms focussed enforcing a smoke-free message among youths. There is no reason why an Auckland City Youth Hub cannot include these sorts of services with issues such as the environment, bullying and youth unemployment able to be addressed.
Further Example:
The US Government’s award winning ‘firstgovt’ portal which provides extensive opportunities for citizen engagement.
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