Electronic democracy for
Wolverhampton
Abstract : E-democracy brings
the workings of government closer to people,
making it more accessible and easier to
understand, one of the aims of the Webocracy
project. A pilot, run since May 2002 by one of
the partners, Wolverhampton City Council, is
showing promising results as residents are
increasingly participating in online discussions
and opinion polls about key local issues.
The three-year IST programme project, involving
eight partners from the UK, Finland, Germany and
the Slovak Republic, was launched in October
2000. Project partners developed an Internet
based system, Webocrat, which uses advanced
information and communication technologies.
Pilots have also been run in the city wards of
Tahanovce and Dargovskych hrdinov in the city of
Kosice in the Slovak Republic.
"The added value of engaging citizens on the Web
is that it's a different channel that attracts
people who may not participate through other
means," says Peter Thomson, Wolverhampton City
Council's Policy Officer for e-government.
Wolverhampton's Wolforum site, which is based on
Webocrat, is an interactive website offering
access to information, discussion forums and
online opinion polls. Such online outreach
attracts people who may not be comfortable
speaking out at a public meeting or talking to
someone who approaches them on the street with a
clipboard. So far, public feedback has been
positive.
"People appreciate the service and the level of
usage is building up fairly steadily," says
Thomson. "It was off to a slow start but we have
been linking the information to other community
events and involving agencies."
These linkages to public services and community
agencies are key as people are concerned about a
range of issues that involve a number of
services that do not necessarily fit into
Council departments, such as cleaner streets,
crime, and public health.
"Working in partnership allows us to respond to
what people want to say," he explains. "Wolforum
also allows us to link into other events such as
the City Action Forum, involving meetings, tours
and discussions about community issues. The
discussion area of Wolforum fed into that
process."
Wolforum complemented other public engagement
and consultation activities involving public
services and community agencies in the
Wolverhampton Partnership. Thomson says the
Partnership's joint participation work would
have come about without the project, but without
the benefit of online participation.
E-democracy in action
The details of the system were designed by
project partners through consultation with
potential users - citizens, elected members and
council officers - as part of the project to
ensure it meets real needs.
Important documents such as reports, budget
proposals and minutes of meetings will be
published on the Web. People who need this
information will be able to locate documents
through a variety of menus, indexes or search
facilities, created automatically by the system
and reflecting their individual needs. In this
way, everyone will be able to receive
information in a way that makes sense to them;
not always the case with existing systems.
Wolforum's lively discussion forums involve
citizens, councillors and council officers.
Citizens will be able to use these forums to
express their opinion on important issues of
public interest and to debate alternative
solutions, without having to attend a meeting.
With other online discussion systems it can be
difficult to keep track of topics as the debate
progresses. The new Webocrat system is more
advanced in that the topics of discussion will
be classified and contributions organised
accordingly. This makes it as easy as possible
for participants to engage in an ongoing
dialogue.
Forums and online opinion polls on specific
issues, and questions of public interest will
emerge from reactions to published documents or
the discussion forums. The results of votes will
be then fed back into those areas. This may
appear similar to current online polling
systems, but the connection with information and
discussion should result in better informed and
more considered views being expressed by
citizens, and as such, add value when fed into
decision-making.
The Wolforum forums engage users in the
following online discussions:
I like Wolverhampton because . . .
How would you change Wolverhampton?
Leisure opportunities
Making a healthy city
Neighbourhoods and communities
The built environment
Pollution and waste management
Law and order
Strategic area forums (covering all City Wards)
Democracy - voting at 16
Online voting in the not too distant future
The Webocracy project does not involve online
voting because of the complex security and
authentication issues around voting. Thomson
explains that although there is a degree of
security provision in the project, it's not
intended to be up to the strength online voting
would require.
In some areas of the UK there have been pilots
of online voting for the last two elections, but
not in Wolverhampton. However, there is a clear
commitment from the UK national government to
move to online voting, but that is long-term.
"We don't expect to try it in Wolverhampton
until at least 2005," he said. "But we do hope
that this project will lead to more people
seeing the importance of voting in local
elections."
Voting took place on 1 May 2003 for one-third of
the members of the Wolverhampton City Council -
one in each of the twenty wards within the city.
The list of candidates was posted on the Council
site before the vote and results immediately
followed.
Subject Descriptors : Information processing,
Information retrieval, Information transmission
Subject Index Codes : Information Processing,
Information Systems
Subject Class : IT, telecommunications
Remarks : Results Entry form
Collaboration Sought : Further research or
development support, Information
exchange/Training
Sources of Support : CEC
Programmes : IST
Projects : IST-1999-20364
Project Title : Web Technologies Supporting
Direct Participation in Democratic Processes
Contact Details
Contact Name : SABOL, Tomas
Position : Project co-ordinator
Department : Faculty of Electrical Engineering
and Informatics
Contact Organisation : Technical University of
Kosice
Address : Letna 9
City : Kosice
Region : VYCHODNE SLOVENSKO
Kosicky kraj
Postcode : 04120
Country : SLOVAKIA
Telephone Number : +421-95-6023259
Fax Number : +421-95-6334960
Electronic Mailbox :
sabol@tuke.sk |
RoDI
ISOC
IWA
ARTT
RTS
WQC 2003
ISAQ 2005