German Chancellor Angela Merkel is going online to engage Germans on the future of their country. On February 1 the Chancellor’s office launched a “Dialogue about Germany’s Future”, a project that combines an online crowdsourcing website and a series of in-person, “US-style” town hall meetings. It marks the first time the Chancellor is going directly to citizens using an online tool to engage them in decision making.
Over the next two months, Germans will have a chance to share their views on the Germany they’d like to see in the next 5-10 years, answering three main consultation questions:
How do we want to live together? What holds society together? How can we produce more children and be more family friendly? How can society and government enhance security? How can we engage citizens better?
How do we want to sustain ourselves?What are Germany’s strengths on the world market? How can we stay curious and innovative while making money? What can employers, employees and government do to make employment more secure and appealing?
How do we want to learn? What do practical values look like? How can we all learn to do better – at work and at home? What role does the internet play? How can we improve professional development? Can the society as a whole learn?
Taking Ideas Seriously…and Uncharted Territory
In a weekend interview with the Bild am Sonntag, Merkel emphasized that all suggestions would be taken seriously: “They won’t land in the thin air of the internet. Rather, each one will receive an answer, and the best have the chance to be acted upon”. Pushed further, Merkel explained how ideas could be acted upon, while acknowledging the novelty of the initiative:
I can’t promise anyone that we will immediately implement everything, but I also won’t say what won’t work. Reasonable ideas could be turned into a research project or model project. Examples of best practices, on topics such as “better working conditions for the elderly” or “the city of the future” could achieve more than current political discourse. We will also send good ideas to the responsible ministries. What’s clear to me is this: With this online “Dialogue of the Future” we’re entering new territory. We don’t know 100% how exactly this will work, and how many people will actually take part.
Merkel explained that her team of “120 experts” would be pouring over the results after the online tool closes in April, releasing a book in June, and presenting the most useful ideas in September.
In-person vs. Online
When asked why the main thrust of the project was online, Merkel answered simply, “there’s no other way to reach so many people”.
After the crowdsourcing site has been closed, authors of the ten top-voted ideas will have a chance to meet with Merkel in her office.
The online process is also being complemented by 3 in-person “US-style” town hall meetings in the cities of Erfurt, Heidelberg and Bielefeld with 100 participants each, as well as sessions for children and youth.
So what?
The project has only been live for a few hours, so I can only make general observations. It’s clear that the project has lots of potential. It has buy-in from Merkel herself, who has committed her government to respond to and act upon all “reasonable” ideas within a strict timeline (the timeline below, which appears on every page, explains the process. Click to view larger image). It shows that the federal government in Germany is interested in using novel ways to engage citizens, including both crowdsourcing and “town hall” meetings.
Potential challenges include how to deal with popular suggestions that are beyond the scope of the federal government. A “Citizen’s Forum” project last year in the country, for example, brought together 3,000 interested citizens who suggested that education systems (a state responsibility) be harmonized across the country. The idea was pretty much dead on arrival, as states have clung to that responsibility vehemently. Critical to the collection of useful ideas will be communicating to participants the scope of ideas being solicited (what is up for discussion, and what is not). Another essential step for the Chancellor’s office will be to ensure enough resources to wade through the ideas (6 hours after launching, a total of 123 have been posted).
Stay tuned for further updates as we track this exciting project.
With last month’s announcement of the new Canadian health care funding formula, federal transfers to the provinces will continue on an annual increase of 6% until 2017, at which point increases will be tied exclusively to GDP. Without delving into the complex politics here, suffice to say this unilateral federal decision is generating both positive and negative reactions (and the manner in which it was proposed). But what I’m more interested in is how this significant change impacts the ongoing health care debate in this country.
Maclean’s “Best of 2011” featured an article entitled, “Our health care delusion, which brings to light some of the current realities around the functioning of our health care system. According to author Ken MacQueen, a 2010 Commonwealth Fund report found that when compared with the health care systems of a dozen other countries, “Canada scored well on leading ‘long, healthy productive lives,’ but it was mid-pack or worse on every other measure.” In recent years, one major issue that has come to the forefront is wait times, which are “widely regarded as the Achilles heel of the system.” MacQueen explains how these issues have emerged in ERs across the country; yet many Canadians still believe that we have the best public health care system in the world.
So what has been done so far? This past year the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) engaged Canadians in a national dialogue on health care transformation, which consisted of an online consultation process and six in-person town hall meetings, which Maclean’s helped moderate. You can read their final report here.
Let’s just hope that momentum builds and that such efforts continue as we look to 2014…
Dialogue. We hear this word all the time in the world of community engagement. Nowadays, dialogue can prevail both in person and online. But at the core, the intent is the same: to have dialogue is to take people from all walks of life and bring them together to consider and deliberate on a topic until an understanding can be reached. Dialogue has the potential to bring connection, cohesion, and in turn, community.
Ideally, this is what dialogue is to us. Realistically, though, can it exist? Can true, honest dialogue really ensue between human beings? The reality is every person has their own set of judgments, assumptions and defenses. This was a much discussed point at a panel discussion on Civic Engagement in the Canadian and German Federations held by the Forum of Federations here in Ottawa. The ongoing question lingers: Is it possible for conflicting personalities to put aside their differences, dispel all judgments, and truly see eye to eye?
I recently stumbled across a book called Community Conversations by Paul Born, co-founder of Tamarack, an institute for community engagement. In his book, Born speaks to the concept of “community conversations”, events which take place when people from all backgrounds sit down, dispel their assumptions about one another, and truly “listen” to each other by entering a space of “unknowing.” Only with creating this special space, Born claims, can we push for real groundbreaking social change at a grassroots level. An example would be taking an issue like homelessness, gathering all the key policy makers, like politicians and social aid workers, and sitting them next to homeless individuals to talk about it. It’s fundamentally similar to the work we do here at Ascentum. It’s about putting an issue on the table, confronting it head on, finding a way to relate to it and solving it. It’s about actually listening to people different from you, not just waiting for your chance to talk.
What fascinates me so much about this idea is that it empowers a person’s ability to let themself be vulnerable. I think so many of us have this fear of inadequacy, that when faced with something we don’t know, we become assertive, defensive and aggressive with what we do know. Our opinions become searing daggers, attacking everything in their path. Dialogue becomes a battle; we are afraid of the unknown, so we defend ourselves against it.
But just like Paul Born, this is what public engagement agencies like us aim to change. At our dialogue sessions, we often post “dialogue vs. debate” posters which highlight the difference between the two . Before entering a discussion, we remind participants that “when I debate, I listen to find flaws,” but “when I dialogue, I listen to understand.”
What’s the lesson here? Well, I think we should remember it takes immense courage for an individual to truly listen, put aside their assumptions and embrace the need to learn. It comes down to this: Don’t take yourself too seriously and if you don’t understand something, be open to learning. Let it all shine through; show your weaknesses, be open to changing your views because every experience gives you knowledge, and knowledge is strength.
It’s been a busy year on the Ascentum blog, a space for us to share interesting developments in public engagement, useful tools and resources, and news on the goings on of our dynamic team. Our top most viewed blogs deal with topics vast and varied, from the history of crowdsourcing to the demise of RIM, from Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi to the use of NVivo to analyze qualitative feedback in engagement processes.
Here are the top 10 blog posts (by page views) of 2011:
In an effort to follow new and interesting practices in engaement, I’ve spent some time looking into the work of Everyday Democracy – a non-profit organization that works closely with communities across the U.S. to address complex, local level issues through public involvement (PI). Its work seems to reflect a much larger trend around PI, which is the rise of community-based initiatives, particularly in the U.S.
To help demonstrate the type of impact that PI can have on the local level, let’s look at Portsmouth Listens, a collaborative effort between the city of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and its citizens to impact important local issues through increased PI. According to Matt Leighninger, “Portsmouth Listens shows that public engagement processes do not have to be ‘owned’ by government – that they in fact may be more effective and sustainable when they are jointly owned… it harks back to a time in New England when public life was as much a function of community as politics.”
It all started in 1999 with the issue of bullying in the city’s middle school. In an attempt to address the situation, the school invited students, teachers, parents and neighbours (e.g. homeowners, shop owners and individuals from a nearby senior’s housing complex) to participate in a dialogue.
Some of the most notable ideas came from students themselves, which included moving the school’s bike rack to another area that has more traffic and is less isolated, and increase lighting in certain areas around the school grounds. A year later, the town council used this process as the foundation for gathering public input on school redistricting, which can be a ‘hot’ issue in any community. With a significant enrollment imbalance between Portsmouth’s three elementary schools, rotating dialogues were held in each one. This process helped increase comfort levels, as parents were given the opportunity to get a feel for all the schools, thereby decreasing the antagonism around “moving my kid from their school.”
These types of participative initiatives continue to be used in Portsmouth today. For example, residents can review the city’s Master Plan, which outlines the framework for the community’s planning and land use decisions. In one review, citizens came up with a unique idea that wasn’t in the Plan – to convert an old soap factory to an art colony, which could also attract tourists to the city. For more information, please visit this link for Everyday Democracy’s two-part orientation video (scroll down).
All of this leads me to ask three questions:
Are these types of community-level initiatives emerging to the same extent here in Canada? (I would argue that they aren’t, or are not as well publicized)
How is the potential for community-level change affected by the fact that our municipalities are “creatures of the provinces,” which provide less funding sources and regulatory levers in relations to their American counterparts?
What actions we can take as citizens, so as not to limit the possibilities for citizen-led, community-level change here in Canada?
One online engagement tool that we put to use on a regular basis is something called a “Choicebook”, an innovative public participation tool that provides participants with the key facts, perspectives and arguments needed to make an informed choice about a given issue. With the necessary information at the tips of their fingers, participants are guided through a series of scenarios, and are asked to provide their ideas, perspectives and priorities, through a combination of open- and close-ended questions.
Our Choicebook™ tool can be hosted on a stand-alone consultation website, or launched from an invitation e-mail. We can even embed the tool within Facebook, to take engagement where possible participants are already converging on social media.
One Choicebook that we’re particularly proud of us was part of aproject that we recently profiled on our website. Back in the summer of 2009, when climate change was on the top of Canadians’ minds in the run-up to the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Ascentum partnered with Apathy is Boring, a Montreal-based non-profit with a mission to use art and technology to educate youth about democracy, to engage Canadian youth on the issues of energy use and climate change. This partnership brought “Speak up for Change!” to life.
The Speak Up! Choicebook™ created for this website was embedded into Facebook, allowing for an ongoing dialogue to take place on the ‘wall’ of the project page. It included flash animation and audio prompts to create an innovative and engaging consultation experience.
Holly Clark recently had a chance to sit down with Ellis Westwood, Ascentum’s new Director of Project Innovation, to explore his new role, and learn more about his views on the future of public engagement.
1. You have recently been promoted to “Director, Project Innovation”, with Ascentum. Can you give us some context on what this title entails? How is this new position different from your last? What new responsibilities/duties do you have?
The first thing people say when they hear my title is that they’ve never heard anything like it before! For me the new role is about always trying to be creative. It’s about building on tried and tested engagement approaches, but not being afraid to try new techniques or tools. I think the new role reflects my growth at Ascentum over the last five years. It’s an amazing place to learn, work, and have fun. As a Director, I’ll be working directly with clients and delivering projects, while coaching and supporting our really talented staff at Ascentum.
2. What are the highlights of your year, and what do you hope to accomplish in the next year with Ascentum’s clients?
Over the last year, I’ve been involved in some very interesting projects, working with adventurous, creative and smart clients.
One of our recent engagement projects was “Our Health Our Future”, Canada’s first national dialogue on childhood obesity. We used a blend of in-person, online and social media tools to foster conversations across Canada on healthy weights and about how we can all work together to address the growing health problem of childhood obesity. As part of our creative approach, I used social media to foster conversations on Facebook and Twitter about childhood obesity. We engaged hundreds of caregivers, youth and stakeholders across Canada and to hear how childhood obesity affected them and their ideas for making our kids healthier.
So that’s where I’ve come from over the last year. Where do I want to go? Well, I’d like to continue to use social media, to complement the engagement work that we do through in-person and online channels.
3. Why do you think public engagement is important?
I think public engagement is important because it helps organizations make more “sustainable decisions”. These are decisions that are durable and sustainable into the future, developed by involving the people and perspectives that are affected and need to be involved.
At the beginning of my career, when I worked for the federal government, I worked alongside people that were smart and passionate, but at the same time they didn’t have all the answers. For me, engaging the public means providing government and decision makers with those additional perspectives, ideas and experiences from those outside government. It’s these additional sources of evidence that organizations need to make more sustainable decisions on important public policy challenges.
4. You are well known at Ascentum for being very well-versed in social media and new technologies. How do you think we can continue to capitalize on these tools to perform better public engagement?
For me, social media is all a conversation. It’s about people sharing points of view, information and ideas. It’s tools that people can use to co-collaborate and co-create.
So, social media is a natural addition to many public engagement projects. Depending on the project objectives and target communities, social media may not always be suitable for every engagement project. But when it is, we tap into and join the conversations that are already happening or foster new ones aligned with the topics we’re engaging on. These can act as natural complements to other streams of communications we might be doing, such as online deliberation or dialogues.
Social media also allows us to broaden the scope of our engagement. By using social networking tools like Facebook, which has 17 million Canadian subscribers, we can help our clients reach more people, hear more stories, gather more ideas, and ultimately make more sustainable decisions.
5. Based on your experience of social media and its progress thus far, what do you see for the future of public engagement in relation to these new technologies?
I’m really excited about the possible application of social games in public engagement. Imagine if you could use an interactive tool to actually re-design your community park or your neighborhood services on an engagement website? You could choose the design and size of your local community centre. You could redesign the public transit routes that serve your neighborhood.
This idea reminds me of that popular computer game from the 1990s, Sim City. In the future, online engagement could take a similar form. The only difference is that it would be more interactive, more social and you could collaborate with others to co-design solutions to the problems we face in our communities, cities or our country.
6. What’s the most important thing you’ve learned in your experiences? How do you think this will see you through your future?
I’ve learned a lot over the past five years! But the most important thing is that, to help my clients get the insights they’re looking for, it’s my job to help them ask the right questions.
In planning projects, I always like to start working backwards from the end. I ask my clients, what would success look like? What do you want to know from the people you are engaging? And also, what information do we need to give to participants to make it deliberative, so that they can give you their informed perspectives?
If organizations don’t ask the right questions of the people they are trying to engage, they won’t be able to gather the experiences or ideas they’re looking for, as well as their broader engagement objectives.
Some final thoughts…
It has been and continues to be an amazing experience at Ascentum. Every day, I get to work with really smart people who are passionate about public involvement. I get to work with all kinds of neat clients on interesting and important issues. All of that makes it easy to get up in the mornings and come to work, and I’m looking forward to the upcoming year and the future beyond that.
While public engagement continues to take place on a number of large-scale provincial and federal initiatives across Canada, it is also happening at the local level, as Canadian towns are finding ways to engage their communities in issues that affect them the most.
In the town of Hinton, Alberta, Council recently gave reading to a bylaw that will consolidate current committees into one advisory committee called the Community Engagement and Accountability Committee. This will bring together residents from Hinton and the surrounding area to provide direction to Council’s strategic planning, monitor the sustainability plan and receive feedback from residents on community issues. The committee will be expected to act as Council’s eyes and ears on matters of culture, recreation, education, wellness, local economy and environments.
“This must be achieved”, according to Hinton Mayor Glenn Taylor, “through public engagement and dialogue.” He continued, “Efficient and effective use of a committee member’s time was also an important consideration as was a structure that motivates volunteer interest. We have come to learn that volunteers prefer to commit to specific projects for specific time frames. This new model will encourage that to happen and I think that we will actually end up with more volunteers and more satisfied volunteers who will help advance our community.”
I found it inspiring that a small Canadian town has not only made the move to empower its citizens, but that the town mayor has recognized the importance of dialogue. To me, this is one of those examples of great community engagement, where although it takes form in small pockets, it can still have tremendous impact.
Also intriguing is that this town’s mayor understands the importance of targeting the right volunteer for the right task. The reality is that most people want to do their part, but will of course seek activities that suit their own personal needs as well. On a lot of our project work, Ascentum tries to maintain this mentality when reaching out to participants for dialogue sessions. The key is approaching the right audience; only then will you get the best result.
In recent years, Richard Edelman, the CEO of the world’s largest public relations (PR) firm, has called on the PR industry to embrace public engagement. He suggests there is an enormous opportunity for PR professionals who move “from a push to pull” type of mentality, which means shifting “from pitching to informing, from control to credibility, from one-off stories to continuing conversations, from influencing elites to engaging a new cadre of influencers” (you can see a full presentation from 2009 here). So is it possible that public engagement holds the key to PR’s future?
The relationship between public relations and public engagement is interesting. The most obvious question is: how does one distinguish between the two? General thinking in the field says that these two activities can be placed on the same continuum – the only difference is that public engagement is usually more interactive than PR (note: this is not to say that one is necessarily “better” than the other, as there are different rationales involved). So maybe a more focused question is: how and when does the shift from practicing PR to public engagement occur? As I’ve discovered in my current state of thesis writing, this type of discussion requires a little more of an explanation, as it can lead you down a semantic rabbit hole if you’re not careful…
So what’s the issue? According to Edelman, the isolated nature of policymaking needs to be addressed, as “communications and policy cannot be separated… both are tied to operating reality. Unfortunately, many organizations still determine policy and operating approach in a vacuum, then hand it to PR folks to explain.” So how does this issue relate to public engagement? Think about how you’re talking to your audience. PR is often about “selling” something – a good, service and/or idea – to the public and building a process to show them why. In contrast, public engagement takes it a step further – it is about asking for input on something and building a process that allows you to do so. However, it’s important to remember that the two aren’t mutually exclusive. In fact, you could make progress on your PR goals by using public engagement effectively, as sustained dialogue is often inherent to the process. That being said, the shift from PR to public engagement can occur when communication and policy are brought together in a complementary manner.
So are there major companies that have integrated public engagement into their overall PR strategy? Definitely! Check out IBM’s “Smarter Cities Challenge,” which is providing $50 million worth of IBM expertise to help cities around the world address their key challenges at the local level. In response to the city’s high collision rates, the city of Edmonton – the only Canadian finalist – sought to become a “global leader in traffic” and tasked IBM experts to analyze key transportation data within the city. In this way, IBM is evolving its stakeholder relationships in a manner that represents Edelman’s notion of “the change from impression-based interactions to long-term relationships.” These kind of shifts are solid evidence of an evolving PR industry, where passive consumers are becoming empowered influencers, and where public engagement is paramount.
Earlier this week, Google announced support for business and organization pages on Google+, the latest social network from Google. We’ve been following Google+ for several months and we thought it would be a good idea to review opportunities to get engaged on Google+.
Google+ is the latest social network from Google and offers the tightest integration with other Google services like Gmail and Search. Google combines the functionality of popular social networks like Facebook and Twitter into its own unique experience.
The first thing you’ll notice on Google is the very clean interface and the following + things. This is a combination of the Facebook “like” button and the Twitter re-tweet. Users can + links or photos that they like in their feed or on external websites. The + can also be used to address a user like +Ascentum, which is similar to Twitter’s @Ascentum system.
Adding the Plus
The easiest option for businesses and websites is to add the Google+ button to their site content. The integration is very similar to the Facebook Like button and allows users to quickly + content they find interesting on your website, many users also use this as a bookmarking system that they can refer to later.
The other major importance of adding the Google+ is impact on search. Google has indicated that the content with more pluses will receive higher search ranking. It would be a good opportunity to add this functionality now to help building your site’s prominence in the future.
Joining the Plus
Now that Google has added business pages it’s a great opportunity to add your business . Unlike Facebook or Twitter, Google+ doesn’t currently have the ability for multiple people to update an organization page. This functionality may be available soon but until then, we recommend creating a new Google User account specifically for your business page. Use this account exclusively to manage your Google+ Page.
The page setup is very simple but you’ll need a square image with your organization’s logo and some details to describe it concisely. Most of the Google+ Page fields will accept HTML links so you can link to your website for more information.
You will probably need to promote your new Google+ organization page on your webpage and other social networks to connect with users. One interesting benefit that Google has added to search is you can use +Ascentum to quickly find your companies Google+ Page.
As more users add your organization page you may want to develop some “Circles” of users to help group them into different categories. You can use these circles to communicate different information. For example, employees, volunteers and regular users can all get their own circle and receive different communication. Whenever you post something to your page you can choose which circle(s) should see the update.
Hanging Out…
One thing that makes Google+ unique is the the Hangout functionality. This lets you have a live video/chat with a fairly small number of users. This could be a great way to engage employees or volunteers without the time or expense of organizing personal meetings.
While Google+ is still fairly new it does offer some unique possibilities for engaging users and like all the networks before, it’s free to setup and experiment with.
Part 1: A Basic Introduction or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Understand Gamification
It could be said that our brains are wired for competition and games. And adding gaming elements into everyday life has always seemed normal in human nature and has brought us to where we are today. We give children stickers and small trinkets to praise them for succeeding and behaving. We accumulate loyalty rewards on pieces of plastic or paper to thank us for spending our money at our local coffee shops. In Ontario, we gain demerit points when we get caught driving badly and get pulled over by the cops.
As much as people would rather it not be the case, gamification — the concept of joining game mechanics, game design techniques, and game style into everyday life to solve problems and engage audiences — is thoroughly ingrained into our culture and what some could almost state is a driving force for our modern society and economy. (more…)
Over the summer, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz began a crusade to end what he, and many others, are calling the political gridlock in Washington. In August, Schultz sent out an e-mail to all of his employees, as well as a number of business leaders, stating that he was finding himself “growing more and more frustrated at the lack of cooperation and irresponsibility among elected officials as they have put partisan agendas before the people’s agenda.” Weeks later, Schultz urged CEOs across the country to withold their political contributions until a “transparent, comprehensive, bipartisan debt-and-deficit package is reached that honestly, and fairly, sets America on a path to long-term financial health and security.” CEOs from many top companies, including those from AOL, Pepsi and Walt Disney, heeded his call and took the pledge. Following this, Schultz sought to broaden his call for action through public engagement.
On September 6, 2011, Schultz worked with the non-profit organization No Labels to conduct a “town hall meeting” in New York, where people could call in to share their perpective on what’s causing the “crisis of confidence” in America. Branded as a “Conversation with America,” Schultz sought outreach through online advertising, mass e-mailing, and by running ads in the New York Times and USA Today, urging “Americans to participate in the forum and insist politicians to end their hyper-partisan behaviour.” Schultz said he was inspired to hold the town hall meeting after receiving hundreds of e-mails and letters from citizens who are struggling in the current U.S. economy.
Now for some points on what went down during the town hall meeting:
- Where was it held? The venue was Cooper Union, a prestigious private college in Manhattan. However, it was slightly repurposed to look like your local Starbucks, complete with eager-looking young people in the background, sipping on their Starbucks drinks and typing away on their Macbooks. The whole thing was streamed online.
- Who was there? An impressive group of individuals hosted the meeting, including a senior political columnist for Newsweek and CNN contributor; the President of the Grady Health Foundation in Atlanta; a Professor of Management from the Harvard Business School; and the President of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
- What happened? Over a 90-minute time period, the panel discussed the issues at hand and took questions from call-in viewers. However, the broader focus seemed to be on encouraging people to take the pledge to withhold campaign contributions.
So what should we make of this? From a process perspective, “A Conversation with America” does not represent the most robust public engagement initiative for a number of reasons. The hosts of the meeting were not unbiased and promoted a clear agenda, many of the questions that were asked were very similar and seemed to be a bit leading in nature, and there was corporate branding everywhere. However, I’m assuming that Mr. Schultz is placing more focus on the message rather than the process.
Political ideologies aside, I think this is an inspiring example of high-profile business leaders, particularly those from companies with popular consumer brands, taking a stand and using (some form of) public engagement to get citizens to “wake up”!
Earlier this year, Ascentum was hired by the South East Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) to engage community members across southeastern Ontario and gather public input on new health care plans for the region.
We worked closely with staff from the South East LHIN, as well as physicians and other clinical experts, to design a series of deliberative workbooks that local residents could complete online to have their say.
Here’s an excerpt from a recent press release that looked back on what we achieved. According to the South East LHIN’s CEO, Paul Huras:
The fact that we heard from 867 participants who took the time to complete a total of 1775 detailed workbooks is a solid indication that this engagement worked very well,” said Huras. “Each of these participants took the time to learn, understand and comment on workplans that were detailed and complex. The process provided a great deal of quantitative and qualitative feedback that has helped our Clinical Leads and their teams to adjust and fine tune these plans,”he added.
We appreciated the opportunity to work with the LHIN and their partners on this project. From our perspective, they were truly committed to gathering input from their communities and using it to help guide their decision-making.
Recently, some people have questioned the value of LHINs. These critics say that LHINs are too costly, or take money away from front line care.
From my perspective, the right question about what LHINs do should be framed differently. Who best understands the health care needs of local communities across Ontario? Local residents and health system planners, or those in a head office thousands of kilometers away?
We have done work for several LHINs, including Share Your Story, Shape Your Care for which the North West LHIN won the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2)’s Innovation of the Year award for 2009.
We’ve always found LHIN staff to be dedicated, hard-working local residents driven by a desire to coordinate health services in a way that reflects local priorities, needs and values. We think their work is important and hope they are able to continue building on the progress already made.
To end, a local MPP for the region once told me “When you get the public involved, you get way better results. When you leave it up to a politician, it takes too much money; it takes too long; and they’ll probably get it wrong!”
I just arrived back from a term position at Canadian Blood Services (CBS), where I was on loan from Ascentum for a little over five months. Submerged in the world of blood and blood products, not only did I learn a great deal about the organization, but I became further versed in the realm of stakeholder relations, one of Ascentum’s main service offerings.
CBS is a prime example of how an organization can use stakeholder engagement to further advance its goals, while ensuring that all players are involved in the decision-making process. Designated as a Stakeholder Relations / Communications Specialist, my role included managing the various committees CBS has for gaining input on the blood system. The two main committee groups I helped oversee were the seven Regional Liaison Committees (RLCs) and the National Liaison Committee (NLC). (more…)
I had the good fortune of attending MESH 2011 in Toronto back in May this year. Since Information privacy is something we take very seriously at Ascentum, one of the presentations that I chose to attend was on Information Privacy by Dominic Jaar where he highlighted some key facts about online privacy. Below I’ve summarized his key messages, and wrote how we try to overcome some of these challenges at Ascentum.
Privacy statements are usually hidden and are changed frequently
Almost all sites insist on making their registration process quick and simple. Therefore, they prefer to keep users from spending time on privacy statements. Here at Ascentum, we try to find a balance – between simplicity and ensuring that engagement website users take the time to read through and understand the fine print. Exposing users to our privacy statements is one of the key steps during registration. (more…)
The brouhaha against the Keystone XL pipeline once again shines a harsh light on Alberta and its oil sands industry. And the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy’s latest report on the costs of climate change to Canada sharpens the debate.
What flies under the radar in the rest of Canada is the fact that Edmonton City Council recently passed a comprehensive and far reaching environmental strategy called The Way We Green (TWWG). Its goals and policy directions, including on climate change and energy, are nothing if not forward looking and very ambitious. (more…)
I remember how excited I was when I got my first blackberry. It was thick, black with a monochrome screen, but it was beautiful. Finally I could get emails, contacts, and a phone all in one. Goodbye abandoned and gently used palm pilots, and hello thumbs.
The first few blackberries I had were fantastic. They did what they were supposed to do really well. The other bells and whistles were slightly useful, like mobile web browsing or the music player, but they could be ignored. Then something happened that changed mobile phones, arguably forever – the iPhone. It did a lot of things really well. It did the basics (phone, email, calendar), and it also made mobile browsing functional. What changed it all was consolidation of media (songs, videos) that people already had and the already legendary app store. (more…)
On September 21st, Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean attended the International Conference on Community Engagement in Singapore. The Conference was specifically aimed to discuss, “Countering Extremism and Building Social Resilience through Community Engagement”.
At the conference, Mr. Teo applauded the success of the Community Engagement Program (CEP) which was launched in 2006 in Singapore to enhance racial and religious harmony. This program was created to strengthen the understanding and ties between people of different races and religions, and build up Singapore’s skills and knowledge in coping with emergencies. Through the program, the community is involved in response plans that are activated when a crisis occurs, and ensures that Singaporeans will work together to cope with them. (more…)
As the warm air subsides and the seasons shift, the Ascentum team is also feeling some major changes in the atmosphere. It has recently been announced that Ascentum’s Director, Mary Pat Mackinnon, will be promoted to Partner at Ascentum! In her position as Director, Mary Pat has led public and stakeholder engagement initiatives and is integral to the strategic planning work Ascentum does for its clients. (more…)
In early August, it was reported that the Canadian Embassy in Beijing had used the popular Twitter-style social networking site Sina Weibo to post the entire Federal Court decision in the legal battle that led to the deportation of businessman Lai Changxing.
While governments in Canada are starting to use social media to engage Canadians in dialogue, the creation of a Weibo account makes the embassy the first Canadian diplomatic outpost to use social media to speak directly to local citizens in another country. (more…)
In the spirit of the “back to school” season, I’d like to share an example of a social media strategy that we can learn a few things from. Recently, the Government of India’s Department of Information Technology (DIT) released a draft of the “Framework and Guidelines for Use of Social Media by Government Organizations.” What’s even more interesting is that this document has been circulated for public consultation. The opportunity to provide feedback is open until the end of this month.
What strikes me most about this strategy is its robustness – it is not simply a declaration to support social media use. Rather, it seems to provides government organizations with a detailed strategy for conducting productive engagement with their stakeholders through social media. After reading through the document, there were three things that I especially liked:
1. The strategy articulates the underlying challenges associated with integrating social media into government practices:
“While at a personal level, the uptake and usage of such media is gaining rapid popularity, use and utility of such media for official purpose remain ambiguous. Many apprehensions remain including, but not limited to issues related to authorization to speak on behalf of department/agency, technologies and platform to use to communicate, scope of engagement, creating synergies between different channels of communication, compliance with existing legislations, etc.”
Understanding these complexities is essential for anyone hoping to leverage social media in a truly strategic way. This is especially relevant for government, as there will be strict protocol around corporate communications.
2. The strategy does not ignore the essentials. Determining “who, what, when, where and why” is always a critical first step to identifying your social media needs, expectations and limitations. This may seem like a no-brainer, but overlooking these fundamental questions (e.g. targeting the wrong audience, developing irrelevant content) is often at the root of unsuccessful social media campaigns.
3. The strategy speaks to some important nuances around social media. Perhaps the most important is the recognition that “social media is literally a 24/7 task… [so] the extant rules and regulations of media interaction do not fully apply to them.” In fact, the relentless pace of activity occuring on social media platforms (e.g. news can spread instantaneously and exponentially; people will expect instant updates and responses) makes it a unique, and often more demanding, channel for citizen-government interaction. The DIT also emphasizes the need for social media monitoring and analytics, which can help organizations increase their outreach overall by utilizing key data around online activity.
In a recent article entitled “Are Facebook, Twitter Fostering Civic Engagement?”, Emily Badger provides a useful narrative of the debate on whether social media strengthens or weakens democracy. To narrow her scope, she focuses on the impact in countries that are already considered democratic, like Canada and the U.S.
Those who suggest that social media hinders democracy often point to a phenomena that has been termed “slacktivism” (“slacker” + “activism”). This results in minimal, “feel good” measures of support for an issue/ cause for the purpose of personal satisfaction and social capital. (more…)
At the end of June, one of the most familiar voices in political circles signed off as the host of Canada’s longest running political program, The House. Kathleen Petty, a veteran CBC reporter, is known for creating a space where personal attacks, guests talking over one another, and reading unchallenged from talking points were not tolerated.
You’ve probably heard of “crowdsourcing” – a way for organizations to solve tough challenges by tapping-into the knowledge of their broad communities.While social media and web technologies provide governments, businesses and other organizations with tools to crowdsource more rapidly and collaboratively, crowdsourcing itself isn’t new.
In a great blog, DesignCrowdresearched some of the most well known examples of crowdsourcing. They think the first case could date all the way back to 1714 in England. And, of all the examples they describe, it’s this one – the invention of the Marine Pocket Clock – that I find the most interesting. Here’s the story. (more…)
I am a big fan of the Government Services Agency or GSA in the US. Canada’s equivalent is Public Works. GSA have been early adopters and supporters of social media with apps.gov but now are on the brink of a giant step forward for government. They are moving to Gmail. Think of the cost savings, the collaboration options, the bottomless in-box (for all intents), but also a recognition that web based makes sense.
Contrast GSA’s innovation with government departments here in Canada that use antiquated browsers (IE 6) and Lotus Notes as a major email platform. I know, Lotus Notes. GSA’s decision is one to be commended. (more…)
One of Ascentum’s pubic involvement tools is the Choicebook – a deliberative experience where participants learn about issues, tough questions, and recommend options or choices. These are built into larger engagement processes that may include in-person events and other online tools, like crowdsourcing. Depending on the engagement objectives, participants can be asked a variety of open- and close-ended questions, in a Choicebook resulting in the collection of reams of quantitative and qualitative data for analysis.
While we use SPSS to analyze our quantitative results, the thousands of words of text that we collect through open-ended questions is analyzed using a specialized tool called NVivo. As an analyst, I use both tools to help dissect and understand the views of the publics we engage. During a recent project, I was responsible for reading through 85,335 words of comments (about the same length as the second Harry Potter book, “Chamber of Secrets”), contributed by over 850 participants. Deploying software like NVivo allows me to ensure that participant feedback can be analyzed and presented in a systematic way. (more…)
It’s always important, at key points in a public involvement process, to produce written reports for participants on what the sponsor has heard and how their input will be used. This presents a clear “return on participation” to those involved – or, in other words, why it’s been worth their time and effort to take part.
These reports can be different in style, content and format, depending on their purpose. Sometimes, they will be analytic and will only be available several weeks or months afterwards, once data collected has been carefully reviewed and assessed.
Other times, “what was heard” descriptive summaries are all that is required and these can be produced in shorter periods of time.
For some in-person dialogues, it’s possible to produce a written report for participants even before they even leave the event at the end of the day. This can really provide them with tangible evidence of what has been accomplished.
Here at Ascentum, we’re really interested in how people are using social media to connect, get involved, and engage in dialogue on issues that matter to them.
That’s why I volunteered to be part of a small team led by digital guru Mark Blevis (@MarkBlevis) that looked at how people were using Twitter on the night of Canada’s 2011 federal election.
In space provided by The Canadian Press (thanks @CdnPress_Ott!) we spent a fun evening together following the posts, unfolding events and the stream on Twitter related to the election. (more…)
Throughout our busy project season here at Ascentum, I’ve also been working on the capstone report for my MPA degree. Through my research, I’ve learned about a wide range of policies and practices that government departments and agencies have adopted to help them build the organizational capacity needed to effectively integrate public involvement at the federal level.
However, in this blog I want to focus more on public and stakeholder involvement occurring at more local and personal levels. The reason is simple: we often see public involvement as a large-scale process that is managed at the higher levels of government. However, it can also be a sustained effort coming citizens themselves, who can use it to their own benefit to improve their everyday work and activities. (more…)
Studies and studies time and again report that we as a society are growing – and it’s not just in numbers I am talking about. A joint study between Statistics Canada and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted between 2007 and 2009 concluded that approximately 1 in every 4 Canadians are obese, compared with nearly 1 in every 3 Americans.
Now I know that life’s stresses can get in the way of eating healthy – but what if I told you that a new social media tool can help make it easier for you? (more…)
“When you get the public involved … you get way better results. When you leave it up to a politician … it takes too much money; it takes too long; and they’ll probably get it wrong!” (Lou Rinaldi, Ontario MPP for Northumberland-Quinte West)
When Ontario MPP Lou Rinaldi opened a media event with this tongue-in-cheek observation last week, he certainly got a good reception from the audience, ranging from nodding heads to roars of laughter.
He was in Belleville, along with staff from Ascentum, for the official launch of the Community Engagement for the South East Local Health Integration’s “Clinical Services Roadmap” initiative – a project to involve communities across the region in helping design measures for improving the way health care services are organized and delivered locally. (more…)
Shaw Communications has just launched a great customer consultation to hear their views on internet use and fees. There are 35 in-person dialogues but, ironically, limited ways to take part online. We think they can do better. (more…)
One year ago, Haiti was shattered by one of the most devastating natural disasters in its modern history. The 7.0 magnitude earthquake destroyed an already fragile country, killing 300,000 people (roughly the size of London, Ontario), leveling towns, villages and cities, including the capital Port-au-Prince, and chipping away further at the spirit of the nation. (more…)
It is never too late to make a New Year’s resolution. We at AmericaSpeaks and Ascentum thought it might be helpful if we proposed a resolution focused on Open Government that federal managers can adopt to start the year off right: Resolve to make a specific, concrete commitment to enhance citizen participation in your agency.
(Note: Ascentum and AmericaSpeaks are partners in offering online public engagement services to agencies in the US Government in support of the White House’s Open Government Directive) (more…)
Here are just some the Twitter posts and links that we’d like to pass on from this week. You can find us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ascentum
New Ascentum blog post: Adding the right images to your engagement website (so people don’t ignore them!) http://bit.ly/h8PKLw
Resources: Tools for the institutionalization of public engagement (PDF) #edem http://bit.ly/hsxt1P (Retweet from @participatory)
Resources: 24 ways to keep your blog interesting to you and your readers http://j.mp/fSvdp4 (Retweet from @GovNewMedia)
Resources: Nice blog! This is a nice model for #engagement sites, too. “Landing Pages: A Great Infographic” http://goo.gl/fb/MKys7 (RT @scottica)
@ascentum news: @elliswestwood Briefing Management at the Public Health Agency of Canada this am. Exciting online/social media #engagement on obesity to come in 2011!
Think generic stock images help you “jazz up” your website? In fact, users don’t even notice them…
We’ve all seen generic or stock images on websites. The teamwork image of joined hands; the cheerful executive pumping his or her fist while using a laptop; business people embracing each other like they’ve just won the lottery. These types or stock or generic photos are often added to websites to “jazz them up” or make them more user friendly. But do they actually work? (more…)
Here are just some the Twitter posts and links that we’d like to pass on from this week. You can find us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ascentum
Resource: Everyone bookmark this! RT @nonlinear_tweet: RT @DoctorJones: New Canadians stats on social media usage. http://goo.gl/1wx4s
Case Study: “Local Practices in Online Engagement” from US National League of Cities http://bit.ly/fSkIQ4 #municipal #engagement
Fun: Demo of our voting keypads = fun analysis of icebreaker questions on people’s favourite royal couple / gender! http://twitpic.com/3acglf
@Ascentum News: Doing a demo of our voting keypads at GoC with “Who’s your favourite Royal couple?” as an icebreaker. Interested to see results by gender!
Resource: Canadian Medical Ass. Journal: The Need for Public Engagement in Choosing Health Priorities http://bit.ly/fFynmV
Case Study: Ordinary Icelanders vying to draft new constitutionhttp://yhoo.it/eoVkOG
Here are just some the Twitter posts and links that we’d like to pass on from this week. You can find us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ascentum
Ascentum blog: “Fostering International Dialogue and Youth Engagement in Laos” http://bit.ly/9pr3m4
Study: “Online public participation most effective among young people who are already online” http://bit.ly/afEIDd
Resource: For a great explanation of why #PublicEngagement is so important, read The Change Foundation’s Strategic Plan [Ascentum client] http://bit.ly/9pgmng
Blog: “How can new media help civic engagement?” http://bit.ly/cGyMFD (@Afine @leifutne @jdlasica)
Retweet: RT @INgageNetworks: Recommended: “Using Social Media Platforms to Amplify Public Health Messaging” http://j.mp/9X9Ur9 #hcsm
The need for robust methods of evaluating the impact of public involvement on policy and participant outcomes is widely recognized. Unfortunately, the reality is that all too often evaluation receives lip service only – being treated as afterthought and/or being grossly under-resourced. So, when Ascentum’s MPA Co-op Intern Tristan Eclarin pitched the idea of assessing the Mental Health Commission of Canada’s engagement process vis-a-vis the development of a framework to guide a pan-Canadian mental health strategy, we were keen – both because it is such a compelling public issue and because we collaborated with the Commission on the process.
His case study – Creating a Framework for a Mental Health Strategy for Canada: Assessing the Engagement Process – examines how the design, implementation and results of Regional Stakeholder Dialogues and Public Consultations impacted the Commission’s Framework – Toward Recovery and Well-Being. The paper argues for a comprehensive assessment framework that is carefully tailored to context. To learn, more including his insights about the results of this engagement process, read on……
While most Canadians were enjoying their turkey dinners and beautiful autumnal colours over the recent Thanksgiving Day weekend, I was hard at work in Washington, D.C. for the first in-person session of a 6-month course on Dialogue, Deliberation and Public Engagement (DDPE). The professional-practitioner distance education program is offered through Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara, California, and works with program participants to shape them into masters in the field. (more…)
Federal, provincial and municipal governments across Canada are taking steps to use social media to communicate with and engage their publics.
The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), for example, uses social networking, microblogging, widgets and video sharing to provide information and participate in a dialogue on living healthily. The City of Guelph is using social media to help local residents commute during an especially busy summer construction period, and give personalize help when users posted difficult experiences with roads or bus routes.
What do these examples have in common? They are based on an understanding that the public expects that government will join and participate in conversations taking place in social media spaces – not just use them simply as channels to broadcast. (more…)
Most people have some preconceived notion of what a public consultation may look like: a crowded room, people talking back and forth, and a person standing at the front fielding questions. However, meaningful engagement can be achieved in a wide variety of ways, and as a result, should look different depending on the situation.
In my last blog, I talked about Community Summits, one of the engagement methods I used recently in a course at the University of Victoria to conduct ‘simulation’ consultations. This time, I’m shifting to another method, Conversation Cafés. (more…)
Most people have some preconceived notion of what a public consultation may look like: a crowded room, people talking back and forth, and a person standing at the front fielding questions. However, meaningful engagement can be achieved in a wide variety of ways, and as a result, should look different depending on the situation.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing a few examples of different methods, which I used recently in a course at the University of Victoria to conduct ‘simulation’ consultations. (more…)
Ascentum’s delighted to be speaking at the next Advanced Learning Institute (ALI) Social Media for Government conference in Ottawa, September 27-30.
We’ll be presenting on a recent high profile public engagement project we were involved with – the online consultation on a Digital Economy Strategy for Canada. We’ll be describing the process design, launch, the challenges we encountered along the way, and our principal learnings, alongside the great team from Industry Canada. (more…)
Last year, we had the privilege of working with the Mental Health Commission of Canada as it embarked on an epic journey to develop a mental health strategy for Canada.
I say “epic” because the magnitude of this task cannot be under-estimated. Consider: the prevalence of mental illness and mental health problems in Canada (one in four Canadians will at point or another in their life struggle with mental health issues); the chronic under-funding and fragmentation of the Canadian mental health system (which is in effect a patchwork of systems held together by a mix of goodwill and duct tape); the complex constitutional context in which any reform must occur (not to mention that many social services are delivered by municipal and regional authorities) and… Well, you get the picture. (more…)
Smartphones bring the world into users’ hands. Web access, Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia and apps allow people to access, share and co-create knowledge in real time.
They are also powerful tools that can make in-person dialogues awesome – both in terms of generating shared information and giving participants a more engaging experience. (more…)
Has my consultation initiative been successful? Here’s one question that we are bound to confront with every project… Before you launch into the mechanics of your evaluation though, take a moment to reflect on the following three questions – and in each case, “peel back the onion” to seek the answer behind the obvious answer… (more…)
From designing marketing campaigns to vetting brand ideas to solving customer service-related issues and shaping new government services, crowdsourcing is a dynamic tool being used ever increasingly by companies to solve some of their most quizzical quandaries. (more…)
Over the past few weeks, there has been a great debate in Canada on the role of the census, and what form it should take – a short, widely-distributed version or a longer, less widely-distributed version – and whether completion should be mandatory or voluntary.
Earlier this week, I got really excited! (You should have seen me…)
On July 12, The UK Government launched an innovative crowdsourcing project to gather public ideas for reducing the country’s serious budget deficit. The Spending Challenge used an engaging website where members of the public could submit their ideas for “getting more for less” by making public services less costly and more efficient. Participants could also read each other’s ideas, as well as rate and comment on them. (more…)
The DDPE Graduate Program is entering its seventh year running at Fielding Graduate University and is now working in collaboration with the University of Western Sydney, Center for Citizenship and Public Policy. (more…)
Lots of people are worried about young people these days; why they vote less and appear less socially and politically engaged.
But, instead of just studying youth, Ascentum is part of an exciting community-level project to actively engage young people, as well as the rest of their communities, in dialogues and action about their confidence in learning and on how they want to make a difference in their neighbourhood, city, country or world. (more…)
Ascentum is excited to be working with the Canadian Council of Directors of Apprenticeship (CCDA) to develop a plan to strengthen and improve their signature “Red Seal” program, a system of common standards for the skilled trades in Canada. (more…)
Facebook has been receiving a lot of attention lately as a result of their privacy settings. In particular the default settings on new features like the Instant Personalization through the new Graph API which launched in April . Matt McKeon has a great visual illustration on how the default Facebook privacy settings have changed between 2007 and 2010. (more…)
La Fédération de la jeunesse canadienne-française (FJCF) est un organisme « par et pour les jeunes » qui reconnaît le rôle important que jouent les jeunes d’expression française dans le développement et le bien-être de leurs communautés et qui met tout en œuvre afin de faire en sorte qu’ils puissent s’engager à leur façon et… en français. (more…)
With my current co-op semester coming to an end, it seems appropriate to reflect on my experiences here at Ascentum. As the company’s very first intern, I really didn’t know what to expect when I first began. But now, in considering what I’ve learned over the past four months, it’s challenging to figure out where to begin! (more…)
Ascentum is proud to be working with Canadian Blood Services (CBS) to address the pressing issue of organ and tissue donation and transplantation (OTDT) (more…)
How does real population in the US compare to the Facebook population in the US? There is a great infographic from Mashable that paints a very interesting picture of the differences. At the highest level 38% of the US population has an active facebook account. It is actually pretty much the same in Canada too (12.7 million/33.9 million). (more…)
Public involvement has changed how advocacy works.
Today, civil society organizations – whether they are local nonprofits or national associations – are fostering social change through collaborative dialogue with their publics instead of “top-down” or expert-oriented campaigns.
By involving the public, who want to be engaged, these advocacy efforts are leading to more sustainable and innovative solutions to shared problems. (more…)
Ascentum is pleased to be assisting the New Brunswick Health Council (NBHC) in its first province-wide citizen engagement initiative, entitled ‘Our Health. Our Perspectives. Our Solutions.’ Manon and I are particularly pleased to be working on this project in our home province! ☺ (more…)
During the first two months of my co-op placement here at Ascentum, I’ve been writing a case study on the development of a pan-Canadian, consensus-based mental health strategy. This is a nation-wide initiative of the Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC), which collaborated with Ascentum to design the in-person regional dialogues and the online consultation process. (more…)
There is a great series on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) called the Age of Persuasion. It is all about the business of marketing. The show is hosted by Terry O’Reilly who happens to be both compelling AND persuasive himself. (more…)
It is never too late to start an outreach campaign, as long as your public participation initiative is still open. In this document we outline eight different principles and strategies for outreach, including the dos and don’ts for each. The principles include pointers on messaging, interactivity, ambassadors, mediums, the rationale, tracking, intentions, and social media.
I recently took part in Ottawa’s second “Case Study Jam,” (twitter.com/CaseStudyJam) – an open learning and dialogue event for people who work in or care about social media, whether in government, businesses or elsewhere. (more…)
Facebook recently launched a new Home Page design and is also planning more changes for how Facebook Applications can engage users. A fairly technical developer roadmap has been published by Facebook but we’ll try to summarize here: (more…)
When people have access to balanced information about an issue and an opportunity to talk-through policy options with others, they are willing to make tough choices and sacrifices to serve the public interest.(more…)
My name is Tristan Eclarin, and I’m currently working towards my Masters in Public Administration at the University of Victoria. This semester, I’m working here at Ascentum as a co-op student. I’m excited about the opportunity to learn everything I can about public participation and social media, and I’d like to share some of my first impressions: (more…)
At its core, Twitter is a community-building tool. In this blog, we’ll share ways you can build a Twitter community around your in-person dialogue events so they are engaging, create a stock of shared knowledge and make the results more sustainable. (more…)
Because we facilitate both face-to-face and online dialogues here at Ascentum, people often ask us “how are they any different?” or “which works best?” (more…)
Veterans Affairs Canada launched their branded YouTube channel just in time for Remembrance Day. They really got things started on the right foot (more…)
In our world, the notion of “sustainability” might be described as the impacts of a public involvement process, and its linkages to action, over time. This is important because… (more…)
Schultz worked with the 
Chancellor Merkel crowdsources Germany’s future
Wednesday, February 1st, 2012
Over the next two months, Germans will have a chance to share their views on the Germany they’d like to see in the next 5-10 years, answering three main consultation questions:
Taking Ideas Seriously…and Uncharted Territory
I can’t promise anyone that we will immediately implement everything, but I also won’t say what won’t work. Reasonable ideas could be turned into a research project or model project. Examples of best practices, on topics such as “better working conditions for the elderly” or “the city of the future” could achieve more than current political discourse. We will also send good ideas to the responsible ministries. What’s clear to me is this: With this online “Dialogue of the Future” we’re entering new territory. We don’t know 100% how exactly this will work, and how many people will actually take part.
Merkel explained that her team of “120 experts” would be pouring over the results after the online tool closes in April, releasing a book in June, and presenting the most useful ideas in September.
In-person vs. Online
When asked why the main thrust of the project was online, Merkel answered simply, “there’s no other way to reach so many people”.
After the crowdsourcing site has been closed, authors of the ten top-voted ideas will have a chance to meet with Merkel in her office.
The online process is also being complemented by 3 in-person “US-style” town hall meetings in the cities of Erfurt, Heidelberg and Bielefeld with 100 participants each, as well as sessions for children and youth.
So what?
The project has only been live for a few hours, so I can only make general observations. It’s clear that the project has lots of potential. It has buy-in from Merkel herself, who has committed her government to respond to and act upon all “reasonable” ideas within a strict timeline (the timeline below, which appears on every page, explains the process. Click to view larger image). It shows that the federal government in Germany is interested in using novel ways to engage citizens, including both crowdsourcing and “town hall” meetings.
Potential challenges include how to deal with popular suggestions that are beyond the scope of the federal government. A “Citizen’s Forum” project last year in the country, for example, brought together 3,000 interested citizens who suggested that education systems (a state responsibility) be harmonized across the country. The idea was pretty much dead on arrival, as states have clung to that responsibility vehemently. Critical to the collection of useful ideas will be communicating to participants the scope of ideas being solicited (what is up for discussion, and what is not). Another essential step for the Chancellor’s office will be to ensure enough resources to wade through the ideas (6 hours after launching, a total of 123 have been posted).
Stay tuned for further updates as we track this exciting project.
All translations are my own.
-Stephan Telka-
Tags: Angela Merkel, Bundeskanzlerin, Chancellor, Crowdsourcing, Germany, Public Involvement, Zukunftsdialog
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