Six stage digital engagement

May 27, 2012

Thanks to GovTech for pointing me to CivicPlus’s attempt to sell web services to government by telling them there are six stages to engagement. It’s actually a US company so the questionnaire involved is focused on the needs of US citizens but even so is quite amusing by its assumptions. I thought I’d complete it as a citizen (one of the choices), and after a few minutes had done it! If only life were that easy…

CivicPlus label the six stages – static, emerging, active, receptive, participatory and fully-engaged and I state again, if only matters we that simple…

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Irish ways

May 1, 2012

A new report is out from the Irish Government entitled Supporting Public Service Reform eGovernment 2012 – 2015. Particularly welcome are the proposals that :

“Action 13 The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform will develop an electronic channel allowing citizens and businesses to suggest potential new eGovernment services and to track progress of their suggestions.

Action 14 Opportunities for users to provide feedback should be integrated into the design of new electronic systems to facilitate suggestions from those that use the systems with a view to ensuring continuous improvement. This feedback could be through the system itself or through links with social media where appropriate.”

But what about the older applications? Have I missed something? All current channels need feedback to assist improvement, along with measurement of usage. Many services will have existing poor e-channels that may be choking the opportunity for electronic service delivery.

As to Open Data, it’s the usual:

“Action 21 All public bodies will publish appropriate data in machine-readable formats to facilitate re-use. Initially this will include data newly released (in reports, on websites etc.). Over time, public bodies should identify additional data that could be released as open data. This action will enable individuals and businesses to use data in ways most helpful to them including developing applications relevant to their own needs and interests.”

But CSV is a machine-readable format, what about RDF and the like?

Interestingly Annex II contains a definition of e-government, which demonstrates willingness to achieve clarity in what the Irish government is attempting to do, if all nations had established a definition, along with some initial benchmarks a substantial part of the international deficit might have been saved. It’s a good report, and shockingly lacking the gloss and spin that one becomes accustomed to in such documents. It’s also given itself a reasonable three years space to work within, which is very practical.

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Civic engagement

April 19, 2012

A recent paper from the USA by Karen Mossberger and Yonghong Wi “Civic Engagement and Local E-Government: Social Networking Comes of Age” possibly asks as many questions as it answers, particularly when compared with a paper from 2011 by Haller, Li & Mossberger entitled “Does E-Government Use Contribute to Citizen Engagement with Government and Community?“

In the 2012 paper no change was seen in the use of US local government web sites for citizen participation and whilst there wasn’t much discussion, it was hoped social networks might create opportunities. The paper then asks a number of questions as to what discussions are occurring, their content and the impact upon policy. The final paragraph on page 15 is clear that:”two-way interaction will require time and management by city employees. Citizens expect a response to arguments and ideas they put forward. Some local governments fear issues of censorship regarding incivility online from citizens, as well as possible consequences of casual, unauthorized comments from government employees or elected officials.” In the UK context I think we’ve been through all that and got over it, although the constructive dialogue and need for responses are still a matter to be developed, as I recently discussed in CONsultation.

The 2011 paper, having noted some outcomes stated in the conclusion on page 27 that ” it may be that those who already most interested and informed are most likely to use digital government to support their civic engagement”, which I think was a conclusion from experiences in Canada. There was also a ‘conclusion’ that “the information capacity of e-government may indeed be affecting the possibilities for government interaction with citizens and other forms of citizen engagement” – the italics being mine, as I question whether it is or not?

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Channel choice

April 17, 2012

A recent paper in the Government Information Quarterly 29 (2012) by Christopher C. Reddick & Michael Turner is appropriate to the UK debate. The paper is entitled ” Channel choice and public service delivery in Canada: Comparing e-government to traditional service delivery” and it looks at some of the excellent work done in recording citizen satisfaction and other metrics in a range of Canadian jurisdictions. I’m a little confused by the definition of e-government since they state on page 9 “Through a survey of citizens across Canada there was evidence that e-government has really taken hold as the dominant contact channel, with 55% of Canadian residents surveyed used the Web or email to contact government for a service or information, which rivals the phone at 51%”, which is confusing with the inclusion of email, which is little better than quick ‘white mail’. However, it then goes on to state that “the data indicates that citizens actually received the most satisfaction by receiving a service or information in a government office”, which is probably the same in the UK.

Interestingly, it then goes on to state “There appears to be a digital divide in access to e-government in Canada and it is centered on age and gender, but its cause may not be attributable to simply differences in access. The digital divide can be mitigated if there is greater citizen satisfaction with e-government”, which I can’t disagree with, although the divide in gender terms is nominally marginal in the UK.  A further conclusion is that “governments should realize that citizens use many contact channels, and often several in a single interaction or transaction with government, with some of them being better suited for certain tasks than others. However, governments should realize that citizens receive less satisfaction with the phone [and that] they must find better ways to integrate contact channels as one method to move e-government forward, ensuring that the information received through use of different channels is consistent and service responses are of equivalent quality. Then, where citizens have multiple choices to contact government, they can use the channel that best suits their needs”.

Once all the channels are being measured for satisfaction and re-tuned as a result, there will be, as stated, ”a positive view of all contact channels [which] leads to a positive overall view of public services, so governments will need to continue focusing on service channel improvement to improve overall views of public service – the very model I have been promoting for some years. However, as a warning to some of those pre-occupied with benchmarking services the report concludes “collecting aggregate survey data is limited because of its inability to discern nuances in the data which can better be teased out with more direct methods of observing citizen behavior”, so be warned!

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Top management team

April 10, 2012

In the wake of the Socitm Better Connected 2012 review and reports, a further report has been published aimed at the management of UK local authorities. Better Connected 2012: a briefing for the top management team picks up on some of the results of the annual study along with opinions of those involved. It’s only 16 page so the £50 price tag is a little steep, unless you are a subscriber. The author(s) promote what they describe as eight ‘simple, clear points which can act as guiding principles’, unfortunately number eight is ‘we want public services that are more transparent’, which isn’t at all clear to me – is that the policies, data or management that needs to be ‘transparent’? The other seven are equally ‘simple’.

The service picked on and discussed around mystery shopping is that of public libraries. Possibly one of the more difficult to manage in these turbulent times with high asset value, regular revenue costs and an unpredictable market. If the library service concerned has an old software application, they’re highly unlikely to get a new shiny, all-singing one in the current climate – instead they are likely being compressed and expected to do more with less. Ultimately it may be said that going online with the latest applications, and encouraging self-service will cut a few librarian posts, but it’s a fine line in the costings.

I heartily agree with the statement on the eighth page that ”council leaders and managers must accept that the main purpose of the website is to deliver services”, but currently policy dictates that it isn’t necessarily the council that is delivering services now, and the private and third sectors have their own opinions as to what their route is once they’ve taken on services and it isn’t necessarily transparency of ease of customer contact. Similarly, the twelfth page argues for lots of user testing, which I totally agree with but third-party application interfaces aren’t easily or affordably tweaked once they are in place.

Unfortunately for all the good intentions the authors are too far detached from the reality of delivering services in the current climate and whilst there is much good advice the attitude is likely to pi** off more council web managers than it will educate.

1 Comment | citizen, customer satisfaction, e-government, engagement, Metrics | Tagged: , | Permalink
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