Listening to the ground: web and mobile technology option for public participation

Listening to the ground: web and mobile technology options for

public participation in government

2010 ZAWWW International conference

University of Kwazulu-Natal (UKZN)

Laban Bagui and Andrew Bytheway

Menu

• Give you a feeling of what it is about– Background, Research Problem, question, aim and

design

– Public participation stakeholders, technologies, expert opinions, models, and scenarios analysis

• Present our findings– E-Participation quality model and Critical success

factors

• Suggest areas to pursue research

Listening to the ground: web and mobile technology options for public participation in government

Background

•In South Africa, Technology investments were intended to lay foundations for quality service delivery, at the transactional level. E.g. : Numerous technology-based initiatives have been launched: government websites are rich with information from all administrative departments and state institutions, call centres have been established to garner complaints, compliments and ideas, and the Presidency has even opened its own call centre to provide a “direct line” to the President himself. •However, after 16 years the country is still a theatre for violent protests about service delivery, xenophobic attacks against foreigners, student’s violent strikes, violent union marches, and other fierce demonstrations. •The nation exhibits a low level of public satisfaction with service delivery as well as a decrease in confidence in the government.•The efforts at conventional public participation spaces– such as community meetings, public hearings, consultations and forums – sometimes give the impression of being no more than a terrain for confrontation and affirmation of dominance by powerful leaders or parties.


Research QuestionHow should South Africa look at using ICTs to make public

participation work as it should?

The aim of this study was to undertake a review of e-participation, balanced by experts opinions and to draw conclusions about the problems and patterns of implementation.

Aim of study

Research problemAlthough significant investments have been made, public

participation seems have poorly benefited from the use of technology


Research Design

• Qualitative approach

• Literature review

• Semi-structured interviews

• Content and Scenario analysis



Mbombela stadium: 7km outside of Nelspruit in Mpumalanga

http://www.sa-venues.com/accommodation/nelspruit.php

http://www.sa-venues.com/mpumalanga.htm

Key elements using ICTs in Public Participation in Government


Some keywords• eGovernment

• eParticipation

• Social Capital

• Leadership

• IT management issues


Public Participation Stakeholders• Parliament• Specific government departments• Justice courts• Institutional offices• other governments• Individuals• Community based organizations (CBOs)• Non government organisations (NGOs)• Businesses • Media, and even• Organized crime.


e.g. : Technology for Public Participation

• FOSS (Free and open source software)

• GIS (Geographic information system)

• XML

• Web 2.0 and web 3.0

• Mobile platform (PDA, cellular phones)


Expert Opinion


Expert opinion on e-participation in South Africa, from an external point of viewExpert1 Expert2 Expert3 Expert4Public Participation happens only for those who have means (Rich and influential)

To make the people heard in high spheres parliament has to have space for people to participate in debates.

Issues of participation for poor

Local government do not listen to people

Make people heard, which means to have his/her preferences recognised and influence policy and budget

People are not heard

Protests and demonstrations are the only means they have to get heard

Political parties are heard in parliament

Forms of active citizenship

Critical citizenship

Service delivery is certainly one of the main issues

Issues of dissatisfaction and complaints

Service delivery protests Service delivery protest truly for recognition and to show their frustration

There is an issue accessing information on government channels

Information access issues

Not all departments use technology

People need to earn the right to speak to others

Problem of elitism

Civil society needs to be rooted in the ground

Access to the judiciary is difficult

The systems should be built by the private sector

Leaders should be educated in the use of ICT

Need for cultural and electoral reform

Local areas

Internet and mobile technology (web, mobisite, sms, users opinion tracking on fora, banners, adds on sites)

Cellphones, sms are key Library campaigns Mobile for protests

Mobile participation

Sms comments on topic

Online deliberation

People should deliberate online

Technology can help in context where people have power

Experts word Summary

The key findings from the interviews are that public

participation in government in South Africa doesn’t work

properly; the experts envision a design that would be

local, culturally connected to the people, probably

originating from the private sector, with a sense of

educating both leaders in government and individuals in

communities; they see potential in internet and mobile

technologies to help the process.


Gartner E-government hype cycle evolution


Source: Gartner research, 2004

E-Participation models


• Macintosh and Whyte (2008) framework for characterising e-participation: from level of engagements to critical success factors

• Government IT management challenges and key issues (Di Maio et al., 2010): Strategy and planning, service delivery and operations, and specific activity domains

• UN model for e-participation from emerging to connected;

• Network readiness and e-government ranks: South Africa is respectively 52nd and 97th out of 184

Scenario analysis

• Scenario 1: “Good to Ideal”Social capital is being optimally managed. • Scenario 2a: “Healthy average”Social capital is developing. • Scenario 2b: “Unhealthy average” Social capital is mismanaged. • Scenario 3: “Worst case”Social capital is limited to those who have, there is

nothing for the have-nots


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E-Participation quality Model


X South Africa

Denmark, Netherland,

Norway X

X Sub-saharian African countries

Critical success factors

• A dedicated and willing leadership• Development of Social Capital in

communities • Careful management of IT issues • A continued focus on people • Access to the growing body of knowledge

concerning e-government thus e-participation

• Transformation of government practices to accommodate available technologies

• Measure participation and engagement


Conclusion

• Pay attention to critical success factors

• Defining e-participation strategies


Laban Bagui [email protected]

Andrew Bytheway [email protected]

Faculty of Informatics and DesignCape Peninsula University of TechnologyCape TownSouth Africa

Me Ti Be Ma Yega/ Merci / Thank you/ Danke Shön / Dankie / Ngosi

Questions?

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

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