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Digital Dialogues

A study into the use of eDemocracy tools by the UK Government has published its interim findings. Simon Collister examines how far it's come.

A study into the use of eDemocracy tools by the UK Government has published its interim findings. Simon Collister examines how far it's come.

The independent study, Digital Dialogues, evaluates a series of eDemocracy projects run by UK central government departments to help engage with the public in shaping public policies. While some of the interim results may not be too surprising for NMK readers, the study gives a good overview of the government's present attitudes towards online democracy and hints at possible initiatives for the future.

Here's an insider's guide to Digital Dialogues' interim findings:

Q. 'Digital Dialogues'. It sounds good, but who's behind it?
A. Digital Dialogues has been developed and carried out by the Hansard Society as part of its eDemocracy Programme. It's also being funded by the Government's Department for Constitutional Affairs.

Q. I see. So is the Government serious about online public engagement or is it simply throwing money at the project so it's seen as doing the right thing?
A. The report tells us that its aim is "to promote use of online technology by central government for the purposes of enhancing public engagement in the policy process." But we won't know how serious the Government is until the project is finished and we see how many recommendations the Government takes up. To the Government's credit, two of the case studies in the project were official Government projects already up-and-running when Digital Dialogues began.

Q. How many case studies are evaluated in total?
A. These interim results cover the first phase of the study from December 2005 until June 2006. Within this period six case studies were evaluated: one from the Department for Education and Skills; one from the now defunct Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM); one from the Department of Work and Pensions; two from the ODPM's successor, the Department for Communities and Local Government and one from the Food Standards Agency.

Q. Are we talking about ground-breaking stuff here...? The first minister to have a Twitter account?
A. Erm. Not really. Three of the case studies were short-term discussion forums; another was a one-off webchat while the DfES project was a long-running online consultation tools which has been running since 2003. The most ground-breaking case study was the UK's first ministerial blog by rising star David Miliband.

Q. Ah, yes. The Miliblog. What's that about?
A. According to the report, David Miliband was the driving force behind setting up his ministerial blog which was running before Digital Dialogues began. The blog began life in 2005 when Miliband was Minister for Communities and Local Government in the ODPM. It then transferred to the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in May 2006 when Miliband was promoted to Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Q. What' does Digital Dialogues say about the Miliblog?
A. The report cites the fact that the Miliband blog had all the necessary features of a blog (apart from trackbacks), outlined its relaxed moderation policy clearly and was written by the minister himself as strengths that allowed real engagement between a minister and the public. On the downside the report criticises Miliband for not responding regularly to comments left by visitors, the lack of links to third party blogs and the blog's cost.

Q. Oh, yes. The cost. How much was it again?
A. According to the study: "At just over £6000, this was (comparatively) an expensive blog - given that there are a range of free and open source alternatives on the market that are popular and widely used."

Q. £6000! Comparatively expensive! I'll say...
A. The study adds that: "Compared to government's wider spending on online communications, however, it is a small sum. The decision to spend this amount on a blog was driven by the departmental web team's desire to ensure that the application they bought enabled maximum flexibility, manageability and security."

Q. Ah. Blame the mandarins! What's next for the Miliblog?
A. Although the blog can be seen as a governmental first-step into the world of social media, the study believes that Miliband needs to work on the social aspect of the site - linking to more external sites, creating a comprehensive blogroll and visiting other sites to build a health network of readers. Reassuringly for the study's authors, quantitative feedback from visitors to Miliband's blog showed that 80 per cent said they would read blogs by other ministers and other government representatives while 87 per cent said blogging was a credible form of political participation.

Q. So, was Miliband's blog the most exciting thing in the report?
A. While all of the online tools used in the existing case studies were considered 'innovative' platforms, Digital Dialogues also questions whether 'speculative' tools may also be used by the Government for policy engagement in the future. These include file-sharing sites like YouTube and Flickr to consult on public policy through visual content; viral emails and online games to drive hard-to-reach members of the public to policy consultations and chatbots to facilitate out-of-hours consultations.

Q. Cool! Are we likely to see a Minister for Chatbots in the near future?
A. That remains to be seen. Two other 'speculative' tools flagged up by the report include wikis and online petitions. Both of these tools have led to recent embarrassments for the Government through David Miliband's disastrous attempt to devise a participatory environment contract using an open source wiki and the now famous epetition on Downing Street's website to scrap proposed road-charges. At the very least, these incidents will have probably increased Whitehall's deeply-entrenched aversion to anything that gives the man-in-the street a greater say in public policy. However, the simple answer is that we'll have to wait and see what the final outcomes of Digital Dialogues will be.

Q. Ooooh. It sounds like a great report. Where can I get a copy?
A. A PDF version of the report can be downloaded from www.digitaldialogues.org.uk. Alternatively, a HTML version allowing users to add comments can be access by visiting: www.digitaldialogues.org.uk/interimreport

Join the debate about edemocracy at Working Together 2 on March 8!