Public Consultation through the Internet. A guide to the issues involved in using the Internet for public consultations

Transcription

1 Pubic Consutation through the Internet A guide to the issues invoved in using the Internet for pubic consutations

2 Owen Gendower: Hotspur: I can ca spirits from the vasty deep. Why, so can I, or so can any man; but wi they come when you do ca for them? Wiiam Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part I This document is the resut of a coaboration between Cumbria County Counci, the Countryside Agency, the Forestry Commission and Lancaster University. It was written by Bronisaw Szerszynski and Michae O Donoghue of the Institute for Environment, Phiosophy & Pubic Poicy (IEPPP) at Lancaster University. The authors woud ike to thank Mike Smith of Cumbria County Counci, Amanda Litte and Lynne Fox of the Countryside Agency, Keith Jones and Steve Gregory of the Forestry Commission, and the Lancaster University Graphics Unit. Thanks are aso due to Sue Hoden of IEPPP for earier research that fed into the writing of this report, to John Fox of Wefare State Internationa for graphic and conceptua work on the WOW consutation, and to Robin Grove-White, Jane Hunt and Sue Wedon of IEPPP for advice and encouragement. Pubished by Institute for Environment, Phiosophy & Pubic Poicy, Lancaster University, January 2003 Further copies can be purchased for 7.00 from: Kate Lamb IEPPP Furness Coege Lancaster University Lancaster LA1 4YG United Kingdom Te: (0) Fax: (0) Emai: k..amb@ancaster.ac.uk or downoaded free from the IEPPP website at 2

3 Introduction There is a growing recognition in Western societies amongst bodies ranging from oca authorities and government agencies to charities and private corporations of the need for greater eves of consutation with the pubic. Pubic consutation, using surveys, citizen s panes, focus groups and consensus conferences, has become a key method of trying to reconfigure the reationship between institutions and their reevant pubics in a way that is appropriate to the compexity of modern society. And, as a more specific appication of what has become known as e- government, consutations using information and communications technoogy (ICT) potentiay offer institutions radicay new and powerfu ways of engaging with the pubic. As a recent IPPR report argues, (Kearns et a. 2002: 13), in a time when associationa activity has decined markedy, the Internet seems to offer a way that peope can act civicy without having to eave their home, coege or workpace. The Word Wide Web can make avaiabe vast amounts of information to anyone with access to a computer connected to the Internet, and affords unparaeed opportunities to individuas for the expression of opinions to others. The deivery of consutation processes through new technoogies such as home computers, PDAs and mobie phones coud potentiay re-brand the exercise of the rights and duties of citizenship as something appeaing and reevant to younger peope. Just as the Internet is heping bring about McLuhan s goba viage, connecting together geographicay dispersed individuas and groups, it can aso offer new and dense forms of interaction within ocaities, amongst citizens and between citizens and officias. However, there are aso probems facing any institution considering an Internet-based consutation. There is itte sound information on the basis of which they might decide how and in what way the Internet might be effectivey used for consutation purposes in the specific circumstances they might face. The very fexibiity of ICT means that there is a huge range of choices that might be made before any Internet consutation can take its fina shape. And just as the commercia use of the Internet produced a dot.com bubbe of over-hyped enthusiasm, those invoved in e- government and e-democracy must aso proceed inteigenty and judiciousy, rather than assuming that any Internet consutation wi automaticay be a success. To paraphrase Hotspur in the quotation opposite: anyone can put up a website, but wi peope come to it? The partners who have produced this guide engaged in an experiment in Internet consutation Way Out West (described on page 6), which, aong with subsequent consutation activity at IEPPP, has informed the content of this document. Against the background described above, the aims of the guide are: to set out the context of both the current expansion in consutation activities and the use and appication of the Internet for such purposes; to describe with exampes the main different ways in which the Internet has been used by pubic bodies to inform and consut with the pubic; to give some guideines about how to navigate the main choices invoved in embarking upon an Internet consutation; and to point readers to further usefu resources. 3

4 Consutation The 1990s saw a rise of interest in consutation in the United Kingdom, with more and more pubic bodies seeking to reach out beyond their institutiona boundaries and engage with members of the pubic. Apart from any statutory obigations that might be driving such activities, there are a number of different specific aims that an institution might have in deciding to consut with the pubic. These incude: What kinds of activity were invoved in this reaching out? Tambini (1999) distinguishes four key democratic practices: to produce a better decision one which has been informed by a wide range of knowedge and points of view information provision (transparency, openness) preference measurement (pos, referenda) deiberation (pubic reason coective debate about probems and issues) mobiisation (socia organisation by citizens) to produce a egitimate decision one which is the outcome of a democratic procedures, open to a to hep counter widespread scepticism and apathy towards democracy amongst the pubic, and to encourage the growth of an active, informed citizenry, engaged in issues of the pubic good Apart from the ast of these, which is not generay an activity in which institutions can pay a direct roe, a of these practices have in various combinations payed a roe in consutation exercises. But why do institutions engage in pubic consutation? It is important that an institution is cear about what its aims are in consuting with the pubic, and that it chooses a form of consutation that is ikey to deiver those aims and is unikey to have unhepfu sideeffects (such as the unreasonabe raising of expectations). The rise of the Internet The idea of the Internet deveoped in the United States in the 1960s. J.C.R. Lickider produced the concept of a Gaactic Network in 1962, in which he envisioned a gobay interconnected set of computers through which everyone coud quicky access data and programs from any site. The deveopment of packet switching rather than circuits, deveoped by Leonard Keinrock, ed to the first wide-area computer networks and to the creation of the ARPANET in the ate 1960s. Eectronic mai first appeared in 1972 based on software created by Ray Tominson at BBN. The origina ARPANET grew into the Internet we know today. Many peope often think the Word Wide Web (WWW) is the whoe of the Internet. The origins of the WWW can be found in the Memex. Created by Vannevar Bush in 1945 the Memex was abe to make and foow inks between documents on microfiche. Text that offered inks to other documents became known as hypertext. Advances in the use of hypertext resuted in 1980 in a software appication, written by Tim Berners-Lee, which aowed users to create their own arbitrary inks between documents. The term Word Wide Web was aso made up by Berners-Lee in the autumn of 1990 to accompany the creation of the first web browser, the forerunner of the many Web browsers now avaiabe 1. After its eary adoption by higher education, during the 1990s the WWW was increasingy adopted for commercia and eisure purposes, which heped drive its further technoogica deveopment and increasing popuarity. The number of Internet users continues to grow. In February 2002 the number of onine users wordwide (i.e. those using some kind of Internet-based service or resource) was estimated at miion. The number of peope onine in the United Kingdom in June 2001 was estimated at 33 miion approximatey 55.3% of the popuation 2. Further detais are avaiabe at:

5 The democratic potentia of the Internet In the 20th century the introduction of new media was often associated with strong caims about their democratic potentia. This has been the case successivey for radio, broadcast TV, cabe TV, teetext and CD-ROM. However, the technoogica optimism that accompanied the rise of the Internet exceeded that of any of its predecessors. The democratic promise of the Internet can be seen as originating in certain characteristics that distinguish it from previous media. These incude the foowing: Low cost of entry: to pubish information on the web one needs a computer, some software and a phone ine. The financia costs are therefore very ow compared to other media. Accessibiity: pubishing on the web is not controed by gatekeepers; no icense or permission is required, nor is access prevented by the actions of existing payers in the marketpace, as is the case for other media. Skis: in a iterate society, the skis required are considered to be widey hed or within reach of a arge proportion of the popuation. Steve Cift: Founder of Minnesota E-Democracy, It is about making the onine communication toos for many-to-many civic discussions, organising and pubic invovement avaiabe. It is based on the beief that open communication and participation is the foundation of democracy... It is where citizens see themseves as active producers of ideas and opinions, not just consumers of information. Unmediatedness: the Internet aows individuas to communicate without the moderation or interference of an editor or tak show host. dissemination: the Internet provides a simpe way of making arge amounts of information widey avaiabe. Aboition of geography: the technoogy aows peope who are geographicay distant to communicate with ease. Steve Mier: Speed: communication can happen at a reativey fast rate. Mutipe modes of communication: the Internet can support one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-one and group interactions, in contrast to the passive one-to-many communication characteristic of previous mass media. democracy is enhanced when peope are informed about issues, where there is a high eve of pubic debate, when residents organise in support of their positions, and when citizens evauate pubic officias and then hod them accountabe for the effects of their decisions... Access to information wi make peope better informed, and two-way communication wi faciitate broader participation in poicy discussions and decision-making. (Mier 1995) 5

6 Way Out West An Experimenta Internet Consutation In 1999 the Countryside Agency, Cumbria County Counci, the Forestry Commission and Lancaster University carried out an Internet consutation, Way Out West (WOW). This was intended as a genuine pubic consutation about andscape perceptions in West Cumbria in the North of Engand. But it aso served as a research opportunity to expore and evauate the effectiveness of the Internet as a vehice for pubic consutation. Before and after the Internet consutation itsef, three focus groups were hed with different socia groups in West Cumbria, to inform the design of the consutation site, to evauate the competed site, and to provide an aternative mode of consutation with which the onine consutation coud be compared. The WOW Consutation site was designed in part to faciitate the evauation of different modes of on-ine expression and different degrees of pubicness and constraint. It had a inear, episodic design, with a number of contrasting sections through which participants had to move in turn, often being required to make a submission before proceeding. These sections varied from simpe word-association games, through questionnaires with pre-set options, through to areas prompting expressions of opinion in response to those eft by earier participants. There was aso a sister site, the WOW Centre, which had a discussion room, a gaery for pictures and poems, and a ist of oca environment and conservation groups. This used a menu format so that users coud chose freey which eements to visit and revisit, and were nowhere required to contribute before proceeding further. Some key research findings from WOW: Participation was shaped both by the uneven spread of Internet access and use, and by the uneven spread of participation in pubic consutation exercises. Put simpy, this means that onine consutations may attract a narrow band of civic technophies. Peope s perceptions of the Internet consutation were profoundy shaped by their prior experience of the Internet and of pubic consutation in genera, as we as by the perceived reevance of the topic to their everyday ives. Thus the younger, more Internet-famiiar found it sow and worthy compared with their own favourite websites; the oder and civicy active found it frivoous compared with other forms of consutation. Design choices were evauated differenty by different kinds of peope. The more articuate favoured open formats where they coud express themseves freey and in their own time; others preferred the ease of tick boxes and pre-set options. Those who were inexperienced with both computers and consutations iked friendy, ight features; others did not. The inear design of the WOW Consutation produced far more responses than the more open WOW Centre, suggesting that the frictioness nature of the WWW needs baancing with constraints and incentives. The consutation was advertised in ibraries and oca media before going ive in Juy It continued unti November, by which time 216 individuas had spontaneousy visited the WOW Consutation, and a further 27 focus group participants had done so after prompting, making a tota of 243. The anaysis and evauation of the consutation process aid the grounds for the current document. The fu research report and a shorter summary of the consutation findings can be accessed at: 6

7 The Varieties of Internet Consutation Different situations ca for different forms of communication. Institutions have to refect about their own objectives and purposes for engaging in consutation, and about the needs and expectations of their pubics. When these are cear it shoud be possibe to determine the appropriate modes of interaction amongst the institution and members of the pubic that need to be estabished in the consutation. Experiments in e-democracy can be seen as generating a number of different processes, which we might term visibiity, communication, diaogue and debate (see Tabe 1 beow). A of these processes can occur aong one or more routes: from institution to pubic from pubic to institution between members of the pubic. On the foowing pages four modes are presented which iustrate some of the different ways these reations of visibiity, communication, diaogue and debate can occur between institutions and the pubic in different forms of e-democracy and Internet consutation. Tabe 1: e-democracy terminoogy and definitions used in this guide Visibiity Communication Diaogue Debate putting information, ideas, decisions or debates on dispay for peope who might seek them out. activey addressing and conveying a communication to a recipient. a cyce of communication and response between two specific parties. continuing diaogue between mutipe participants, where each communication is (potentiay) audibe or visibe to a other participants. 7

8 Exampes: Mode 1: An institution putting a their minutes and proposas on the web. This mode summarises the main democratic use of ICT to date: making information about pubic services, transport, education and Counci business avaiabe on the WWW. In oca authorities in the UK said that they use an interactive website as a means of pubic participation (DETR 1998). Used here, the term interactive denotes features such as search functions. Some authorities are making this information avaiabe through computer terminas with touch sensitive screens in pubic paces, such as ibraries and shopping centres. For exampe, Nottinghamshire County Counci has County Contact Kiosks ocated in its ibraries and some shopping centres, and Cumbria County Counci has Genesis Terminas in 32 sites across the county, mainy in ibraries. INSTITUTION Word Wide Web Visibiity Members of the pubic The above iustration shows a mode where an institution has made information avaiabe on the Word Wide Web for the pubic to see. This is an important step to take, taking advantage of the ease with which arge amounts of information can easiy be pubished and updated on the WWW to fufi the obigations of transparency and accountabiity to the pubic. As indicated in the pane on the eft, it is increasingy seen as obigatory for institutions to do this. It aso has the advantage of creating no unreaistic expectations amongst the pubic about how institutions might respond to any communications from the pubic. However, athough the information is visibe to those that seek it, it is not being communicated directy to anyone, so that take-up of the information may be ow. Furthermore, in this mode there is ony one-way information provision with no pubic diaogue or debate. There is no cear mechanism for response from the pubic to the institution reating to the information that is avaiabe; neither are there any mechanisms avaiabe for the pubic to discuss amongst themseves or even discover the reactions of others to the information provided. 8

9 Mode 2: An institution putting a proposa on the web and inviting emaied responses. Exampes: Word Wide Web visibe to pubic INSTITUTION e e e Members of the pubic One exampe of Internet consutation that conforms roughy to this mode is provided by the London Borough of Brent, which made its annua paperbased counci tax consutation avaiabe on the web in the ate 1990s ( Whie the web method used the same questions and format as the eafets, peope ogging on to respond via the Internet coud check how other, anonymous, peope had responded. However, the very short questionnaire had no open questions, so the opportunity to read other s opinions was imited to seeing ticked responses. The use of the web was ow, with ony 33 peope responding via the Internet - this may not be surprising, given that eafets were deivered to every househod and from a tota of 100,000 eafets there was ony a 4.5% response. This kind of initiative corresponds with Mode 2 with additiona visibiity achieved through each member of the pubic being abe to view other responses. This mode iustrates a scenario in which pubic response to information provision is invited using emai or web forms. This provision provides the possibiities for a imited amount of diaogue, as the institution receives responses from the pubic to the information it has provided. If responses are in the form of answers to cosed questions this method can produce easiy summarised resuts for exampe recording percentages of preferences expressed regarding a specific proposa. However, this situation may be described as one invoving a private response to the institution. Each response is singuar, eading to no further diaogue between institution and pubic. It is aso unikey to produce pubic debate on the issue in question. This mode is ikey to be ess usefu in contexts where issues are more compex or not yet so ceary defined for the institution or for the pubic. In such situations there is ikey to be a need to stimuate greater pubic debate to assist peope in arriving at more considered views. A rather different use of eectronic consutation was carried out through the debate engines devised at the newmetropois science museum in Amsterdam ( Consutations were carried out on a number of themes, from the age at which women shoud have their first chid to green widife corridors. Some of these consutations invoved the coaboration of the Netherands Ministry of. These were not internet-based, but instead were made avaiabe on terminas within the museum. Again, these were a variation on Mode 2, with a sembance of debate being created by making avaiabe videos of various individuas expressing their opinions on the topics in order to stimuate further thought. 9

10 Exampes: Mode 3: Citizens (or pubic body) initiating an emai-based or web-based civic debate. The American State of Minnesota is a key site for experiments in civic onine democracy. E-Democracy is perhaps one of the best known eectronic democracy sites and home to MN-POLITICS ( This is an e- mai discussion forum that has been running since It acts as a pubic commons, with over 4000 direct participants, incuding ordinary citizens and peope in pubic office. On-going discussions can be somewhat abstract, but some participants use MN-POLITICS to make announcements. There have aso been occasions where sma groups of participants have got together to take action on a specific issue. Twin Cities Free Net (tcfreenet.org) is an organisation whose aim is to use to increase access to Internet resources in the Minnesota and St Paus area, and to use the Internet to buid community and democracy in the area. It uses Caucus software to host its web-based conferences on topics ranging from poitics and crime to gardening and iterature. A variant of this mode has been deveoped in the UK by the Hansard Society ( which has hed a number of onine consutations in its Democracy Forum using WebBoard software). These are generay topic specific, and are hed in order to inform the work of specific Pariamentary Seect Committees. Officias do not participate, but the contributions are monitored and summarised in a fina report. In a different vein again, Active.org.au is a network of civic networks for activists in Austraian cities, using Active open-source software and emai ists to faciitate citizen organisation in urban ocaities ( Word Wide Web visibe to pubic INSTITUTION Comments visibe to organisation Members of the pubic In order to aow members of the pubic to examine and respond to each other s comments it is necessary to create a pubic discussion space. There are two main kinds of onine discussion space: emai-based and webbased (see aso p. 12). In emai-based discussions the emai address of each participant is on an exposion ist ; they receive every message posted to the ist, and can in turn send messages to the ist. A web-based discussion uses the medium of the WWW to gather a contributions onto a website, providing a highy visibe medium for pubic discussion. The discussion space can be made visibe through web browser software to any member of the pubic or ony to members. Comments submitted to the discussion space may eicit responses from other members of the pubic, generating a chain of comments and responses referred to as a thread. Discussion is sometimes moderated (see Samon 2000). In this mode it is assumed that the discussion is visibe to the institution. This mode is more effective at buiding active citizenship and a more nuanced discussion of a compex issue, but can be harder for the institution to summarise and digest. Pubic see and add comments to onine space 10

11 Mode 4: Citizens (or pubic body) initiating a web-based civic debate in which both members of the pubic and officias or eected members participate. Exampes: Word Wide Web visibe to pubic INSTITUTION Comments visibe to organisation Members of the pubic Organisation responds to onine comments Pubic see and add comments to onine space Ony 8% of oca authorities in Engand and Waes post responses back to emai or web-based discussions (Kearns et a. 2002: 21). In the UK, the London Borough of Brent caims to have been the first UK authority to run onine fora. They were set up for them by UK Citizens Onine Democracy and were on 3 specific topics Loca Agenda 21, recycing and Wembey and one genera open space. In 1998 Brent aunched a discussion area caed BRAIN, using the Lotus Notes software, that currenty offers a number of threaded discussion spaces on topics such as neighbourhood watch and trading standards ( A comparabe web-based forum is provided by Cumbria County Counci, powered by the software Discus ( The CCC Discussion Forum is aso divided into a number of topics, and has frequent contributions from Counci moderators. Mode 4 differs from Mode 3 by adding the participation of officias or representatives of the institution in the onine discussion space. This faciitates a genuine exchange of views between institution and pubic, and can create a strong sense of connection and being istened to amongst the pubic. However, once started it is important that any such commitment is maintained by the institution, and this can invove a substantia commitment of time from empoyees or representatives. Participation from institutiona representatives can aso steer discussion towards specific grievances and interests rather than a more genuiney exporatory discussion between citizens. The Community Forum space set up by Northfied Community Onine (NCO) ( is an exampe of an onine discussion forum where a community group initiates a forum and invites officias to participate. Each of their fora is a time-imited event that is run simutaneousy by other oca media, such as newspapers, oca radio and through face-to-face meetings. Community members can participate in the Internet discussion either through the web café provided, or through a specia e-mai ist. Network Perices in Athens (Tsagarousianou 1998) is ess deiberative and more pebiscitary in character. Through pubic terminas, usuay sited next to newsstands, citizens are abe to vote in referenda, propose issues on which to have referenda, and amend or annu earier decisions. 11

12 Design considerations Once the genera mode for the consutation has been chosen, there are a number of more specific design choices to be made about the mechanisms through which opinions wi be gathered and circuated. Here we ist a few of the main options. Onine poing This is a voting system that aows users to seect a response to a question from a number of answers (a yes/no or mutipe choice question). Poing is very quick to do and usuay anonymous. Like questionnaires, poing is more suitabe for consutations foowing Mode 2, but can aso be used as an adjunct to more deiberative consutations. Onine questionnaire Questionnaires are easiy presented as onine web forms. They may ask the user to make seections from specific ists of answers (tick boxes, radio buttons or menu items) or require the user to type their own comments or specific detais (text boxes). Onine questionnaires can be configured so that submitted forms are gathered automaticay into data anaysis software. Web discussion Unike an onine questionnaire, web discussion aows users to make their responses avaiabe to others either members of the pubic or those within an organisation so that others are abe to comment on what has been said. This usuay eads to a engthier and more thoughtfu discussion. A web discussion can be organised in threads to cover a number of reated themes, aowing users to comment on very specific topics. Like the foowing options, web discussions are most suited to Modes 3 and 4. Chat forum This is simiar to a web discussion but Chat usuay has two distinct features: Users are usuay onine at the same time and chat with each other (this is sometimes referred to as synchronous chat). Users comments are usuay at most one or two sentences ong and have a tendency to be reactive rather than refective. Chat sessions can take pace over ong periods of time, but most sessions are short. Emai ist Rather than use the web a number of institutions use emai ists, which distribute the same emai to arge numbers of peope. These ists aow correspondence to be sent to specific individuas, in contrast to the web, which offers a broader access but has ess ikeihood of response. Emai ists can be set up which aow users to sign on to a ist or to remove their name from it, or to specify the eve of traffic they want to receive, a feature which offers users a eve of contro and one which meets their changing interests. Other design questions Responses coected through any means of consutation have to be meaningfu to the provider. In addition to seecting the most appropriate onine toos a series of questions need to be considered when setting up the onine consutation: Constrained vs. open topics Shoud the topic be broad to aow for many response variations; or constrained, aowing for potentiay fewer responses with greater focus on one issue? Ongoing vs. time-imited Is there a deadine or time imit for the coection of responses before decisions have to be made; or can discussion continue for onger periods of time? Text vs. tick boxes vs. graphics Can you produce discrete questions for your consutation to aow poing or seection; or do you require user responses in their own words or which require responses that cannot be categorised? 12

13 Concusion - Making E-Democracy Work The focus of this guide has been on encouraging institutions to stand back and refect upon the specific aims of any proposed Internet consutation, in order that appropriate forms of interaction be set up between institution and pubic, and amongst the pubic itsef. It is hoped that the framework provided above is usefu in this regard. However, another issue was aso thrown up by the WOW Consutation research the probem of barriers to wider participation in Internet consutations. There seem to be four main barriers: access computer iteracy genera iteracy The authors of this guide think not. Nevertheess, it is important that Internet consutations are carried out in a way that recognises the reaities of the Internet either going with the grain of these reaities, or finding ways to compensate for them. If consutations are going to have broad participation, it is crucia that the Internet is used in tandem with other media if ony for advertising the Internet consutation and how to access it. Pubic terminas can be used to widen participation beyond those with persona Internet access but the siting of the termina in terms of estabished patterns of socia activity and the oca avaiabiity of enthusiastic hep wi cruciay shape the eve and character of any participation through a pubic termina. motivation The probem of motivation presents a particuar hurde. Why shoud peope respond to a consutation? Because it is about something in which they aready have an interest? Out of a sense of pubic-spiritedness? Here Internet consutations come up against the tribaised nature of the contemporary WWW. The commerciaisation of the WWW in the 1990s further encouraged a tendency that had been there from its eary days, the custering of interactions within specific interest groups. In the supposedy goden age of postwar pubic service teevision audiences were commony gathered together synchronousy participating in the same programmes; now, in the age of digita teevision, videos and the Internet, such events become exceptiona, water cooer moments. For the rest of the time, peope are dispersed into myriad subcutura media words. Under these conditions, one thing the Internet can do very we is to enhance interactions within a community that is aready bound together by shared interests and ifestyes. But the idea of pubic consutation depends on the notion of the pubic sphere, a ream where peope from diverse waks of ife and of diverse interests gather together to discuss issues of the common good. Is this just a hopeessy nostagic notion? Is Internet consutation, ironicay, a backward ooking concept unikey to succeed? Specific oca controversies focused around an event such as a panning decision can temporariy create a vibrant oca pubic sphere, which a time-imited Internet consutation can usefuy channe and focus. Members of the pubic are wary about contributing to consutations when they are not cear what it is for, and contributions tend to be of ower quaity. With a consutations there needs to be a cear statement of why the consutation has been initiated, of who wi be istening to contributions, and of what wi be done with the findings afterwards. Whether the exercise is a simpe istening exercise or designed to inform a specific decision, institutions need to be cear about a of these, and to ensure that any promises are carried through, or the cynicism of the pubic towards poitics and institutions wi be enhanced rather than diminished. Internet consutation is sti an emergent and fuid area. It is important that entrepreneuria inventiveness persist in this area just as in e- commerce. But it is aso important that essons are earned and shared. 13

14 Usefu resources The Victoria Teecommunity Network keeps an internationa ist of community computer networks, free-nets and city-regiona guides at ( The Civic Network is an evoving coection of onine resources dedicated to supporting civic ife and citizen participation ( Neighborhoods Onine is an onine resource centre for America s neighbourhood buiders peope who work through grassroots organisations, as vounteers, and in government to buid strong neighbourhoods and communities. It provides usefu inks to sources of information and exampes of civic networking. ( Communities Onine seek to pay a comparabe roe in respect of the UK ( Steven Cift, who was cosey invoved with Minnesota s onine deveopments, runs the e-democracy consutancy Pubicus.net ( which has many hepfu resources on how to run different kinds of pubic consutations onine, and Democracies Onine, an emai based service promoting onine civic participation and democracy wordwide ( Headstar s E-Government Buetin ( provides a comparabe emai service informing participants of e-government deveopments in the UK. Software mentioned in this guide Active ( Caucus ( Discus ( Lotus Notes ( WebBoard (webboard.oreiy.com) The Hansard Society has a usefu coection of downoadabe reports ( on many aspects of e- democracy, from on-ine eections to pubic consutations and deiberation. The Digita Society programme of the Institute for Pubic Poicy Research (IPPR) ( is designed to stimuate debate about the pubic poicy issues raised by ITC, and has incuded specific projects on e-government, e-participation and e-voting. 14

15 References Carter, Dave (1997) Digita Democracy or Aristocracy? Economic Regeneration and the Economy, in Brian D Loader (ed.), The Governance of Cyberspace, Routedge, pp DETR (1998) Enhancing Pubic Participation in Loca Government: A Research Report, LGA/LGMB Democracy Network, DETR. Kearns, Ian, Jamie Bond and Beatrice Stern (2002) E-Participation in Loca Government, London: IPPR (avaiabe at Mier, Steven E. (1995) Civiizing Cyberspace: Poicy, Power, and the Superhighway, Addison-Wesey. Samon, G. (2000). E-Moderating: The Key to Teaching and Learning Onine, Kogan Page. Tambini, Damian (1999) New Media and Democracy: The Civic Networking Movement, New Media & Society, 1(3): Tsagarousianou, Roza (1998) Back to the Future of Democracy? New Technoogies, Civic Networks and Direct Democracy in Greece, in Roza Tsagarousianou, Damian Tambini and Cathy Bryan (eds) Cyberdemocracy: Technoogy, Cities and Civic Networks, Routedge, pp

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