Change we can believe in

Alexander Schellong and Philipp Girrger recently released an interesting paper called Government 2.0 in Beta Phase highlighting the use of Web 2.0 applications for eParticipation purposes throughout Germany. The study concludes that — based on the 66 cases studied — "German Government 2.0 activities are still in beta phase".

The study analysed the state of eParticipation and use of Web 2.0 applications for urban planning, budgetary planning, complaints/suggestions, and citizen services in 50 of Germany's largest cities and in its 16 federal states.

Some key findings from the research into these areas are outlined below:

Urban Planning

A rundown of results for each of the 50 cities shows that citizens overall remain in the role of passive information receiver in urban planning processes....

58% of the cities offer citizen the possibility to comment on drafts and concepts but only 6% have virtual polls on urban planning projects. Web 2.0 applications are rarely being used...

Budgetary Planning

40% of cities and 8% of the states make their current budget as well as information on a government’s project realized effects available to the public. 60% of cities try to include their constituents in the early phase of budgetary planning by offering them the chance to submit ideas—mostly through online forms and in 20% of the cases through a participatory budgeting platform. Only one city, however, asks its citizens for a virtual vote on the final budget...

Similar to cities, 60% of states offer citizen the opportunity to submit comments or ideas on the budget—usually this is realized by presenting them an email address. State-level participatory budgeting activities or virtual polls could not be found. Moreover, Web 2.0 applications are rarely being used in budgetary planning.

Complaints and Suggestions

60% of cities and 31% of states offer citizens to submit a complaint or suggestion. Tracking its progress in government’s internal processing or impact is offered by less than 10% of all cases. Online petitioning is possible in 50% of the states and 30% of cities. Web 2.0 applications are non-existent.

Citizen Services and Web 2.0 applications

Most of the 14 Web 2.0 applications set in this survey are not yet being used on the state and local websites. RSS is used in 14 states and 28 cities. Another popular application is video functionality which is part of 68% of state and 36% of municipal websites. Sometimes the term “podcast” is used for video functionality as well. While 36% of cities and 50% have started using micro-blogging, they lack information about the channel on their portals. Tagging, polls, Wikis, blogs and chats are those Web 2.0 applications that are the most seldom to be found on state and local websites.

The image above (taken from the report) displays the % of Web 2.0 applications implemented in cities and states. This emphasises just how prevalient RSS and Video are over and above any other Web 2.0 applications and services.

City Rankings

The study also looked at cities and found up to 80% of these do not have any embedded Web 2.0 applications in their websites. Some noticable exceptions, however, include:

• direktzu.bonn.de - which offers citizens the opportunitie to engage in dialogue with the Mayor through and online platform and to comment on ideas and suggestions by fellow citizens.
• berlin.de - provides a micro-site aimed at encouraging voluntary citizen engagement. It also provides links to numerous citizen participation offerings on the district-level e.g. participatory budgeting in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg and Lichtenberg.

Conclusion

The study notes that for urban and budgetary planning eParticipation remains mostly on the level of information provision. The web is rarely used as a medium for participation and even when it is these efforts remain hidden deep within government websites. 

It also notes how participatory budgeting struggles with successful adoption rates. According to buergerhaushalt.org, out of 18,040 municipal participatory budgeting offerings in Germany, only 67 cases can be considered active. Therefore, only 0.5% of all 14.000 municipalities in Germany have implemented Internet-based participatory budgeting.

One of the primary onservances from the report is that Web 2.0 applications are mostly applied to disseminate information towards the public. The medium is being used as a push mechanism. Correspondingly, video and micro-blogging applications are the most popular applications deployed with cities and state websites.

The study concludes by recognising that while states and municipalities have eParticipation on their agenda, they lack the willingness or resources to fully engage in it. In order to rectify this the authors believe German authorities should focus on three main areas:

1. Improve knowledge on the potential, limits and implementation of eParticipation and Web 2.0 applications in politics and government.
2. Convince government officials to just try out new things and sail into uncharted waters.
3. Give citizens the opportunity to learn participation in various ways as early as possible.

(H/T Mick Phythian)

Campaign "Let's Do It!" - was a grassroot initiative to clean up Estonia from illegal waste in just one day. The plan was to clear up thousands of tons of illegal waste all in the space of 24 hours. More than 600 volunteers worked on the project with only 3 full-time employees.

Then on May 3, 2008 with the help of 50,000 volunteers more than 10,000 tons of garbage was collected, and Estonia was cleared of illegal waste. Under normal circumstances it would have taken the government three years, and an estimated €22,500,000 to complete the same task. Instead, it was completed for €500,000 and in only one day.

An inspiring achievement based on the power of citizen organisation. 

For more, check http://www.teeme2008.ee.

(H/T Adrial Hampton)

Jen Pahlka discusses Citizen 2.0. She explains how our consumer experiences on the Internet are changing our expectations of how we interact with government.

'We're obsessed with the customer experience..we think of ourselves first and foremost as consumers'

'We then elected Barack Obama...and started to imagine our role as citizens might be as important as our role as consumers.'

'What would a citizen experience look like?'

'Voting is a narrow and unsatistifying experience as a citizen.'

'We have bybrids of citizens and consumers.'

'Citizens building the products they want to buy and consume'

Consumer -> Participant -> Citizen

'We've come to understand ourselves as citizens not through our experiences with government, but through our experiences online.'

'We're bringing our online expectations to the government and they cannot meet them.'

'The federal government could stand to be more like a tech company.'

'Working in government is like running a marathon. Blindfolded. Wearing sandbags' - Katie Stanton, White House Director of Citizen Participation

'Lots of people in government that want to meet our expectations of citizens...but they need/want our help.'

'That's why I founded Code for America'

For more check:

@codeforamerica and Code for America

(via GovFresh)

Participatory Budgeting Cologne

View more documents from Matthias Trénel.

This Case Study of Cologne's experience with e-Participatory Budgeting was presented at the International Conference “Participatory Budgeting in Asia and Europe: Key Challenges of Participation” on August 17-19, 2009 at  University of Zhejiang, Hangzhou China.

(via Intellitics)