Re-blogged from Steven Clift, who reports on a new report titled, “New Democracies, New Media: What’s New – A study of e-participation projects in third-wave democraciesâ€? (PDF version) by Professor Stephen Coleman and Ildiko Kaposi.
The report has a country by country overview of such initiatives, such as the
the Open Government site in MongoliaÂ
“Below is the table of contents and their final recommendations. If you are aware of other e-democracy studies looking at transitional democracies, drop some links into the blog’s comment area.
Some Final Recommendations:
On the basis of our case studies, what advice would we offer to anyone setting up an edemocracy project in a new democracy? The following checklist summarises some key recommendations:
• Be clear about the purpose of your project. It is very important at the outset of any project to be clear what it is intended to achieve and why it is different from other campaigns or services. It was clear from some of our case studies that some of the projects had very specific purposes (such as hosting online petitions or collecting and linking policy documents), while others were forced to think through their raison d’etre after they were up and running. A good project should have one or two clear objectives, rather than trying to do everything. Useful projects arise from a need in the real world; they are closely linked to offline activity and well supported by civil society. A useful way of thinking about the purpose of your project is to ask the question, ‘If this succeeds, what new activities will be happening in a year’time that don’t happen in some other form now.’
• Be sure that online is the most appropriate method. In many new democracies, access to the internet is very limited. So why initiate an online project? It could be that the particular users you have in mind for your project are more likely to be online than the rest of the population. It could be that an online project allows you to disseminate information that the mass media is likely to ignore. In designing web sites and other online resources, it is important to avoid complicated software that requires high-speed connections. Don’t become a prisoner of the technology.
• Think about your potential users and how to reach them. Many e-democracy projects devote their time and resources to technical design and editorial content, forgetting to devote sufficient thought and resources to the key question of publicity. Online networks evolve cumulatively; don’t expect it all to take off on day one. The key importance of working with CSOs and grass-roots communities is that they will seed the project with active users in the weeks or months before others hear about it.
• Make connections with offline media. Just because you are running an online project doesn’t mean that you should ignore newspapers, magazines, radio and television. The more that they can use your project as an information resource, the more likely they are to tell people about it.
• Recognise the importance of good online moderation. The human element is crucial to effective communication, especially online, where physical cues are absent and many voices are competing to be heard at one time. It is important to train online moderators who know how to welcome visitors to an online space, involve them in discussion, summarise points made and avoid offensive behaviour. The online moderator is a new democratic role, just as important as the chairperson of a face-to-face meeting.
• Adopt a broad approach to measuring impact. Nobody wants to take part in a democratic exercise which has no impact. It is important to be able to show users of your project that their participation makes a difference. But, as we have suggested above, there are several ways in which impact can be measured and it makes sense to be clear from the outset what effects you are hoping for and which others might occur.
• Evaluate critically, honestly and constructively. It is vital that projects are evaluated, preferably by an independent analyst. Evaluation is not about ‘success’ or ‘failure’, but seeks to understand how the project originated and evolved, how it made a difference and whether lessons can be learned about how to run it differently.