Is citizen-centric government on the way?

Interesting developments last week in the US signal an important shift in attitude to government/citizen relations. Is citizen-centric government on it’s way?

Pia brought this White House press release to my attention and I agree that it is noteworthy. It outlines the change in title of the Office of Public Liaison to the Office of Public Engagement. The official statement has it like this: “The Office of Public Liaison is now the Office of Public Engagement.  OPE, along with the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, will serve as the front door to the White House through which ordinary Americans can participate and inform the work of the President. ”

The statement details how the OPE will have a strong online presence and will offer the opportunity to express their ideas about problems that concern them. Obviously the functional tools for this engagement on this site are still being developed but its worth keeping an eye on.

BTW, there is also a ‘Citizen’s briefing book’ on the website that is a collection of ideas submitted on line during the transition phase of the new President and administration. Unfortunately it’s a pdf. Inside it describes how over “125,000 users submitted over 44,000 ideas and cast over 1.4 million votes, with the most popular ideas accumulating tens of thousands of votes each.”  It’s worth a look and I was inspired to see the most popular idea in the ‘grouped’ entries was ‘making the US the “greenest” country on earth’ under the environment section….

Although these developments are really positive, it’s not all good news. Chris Battle (The Hill, K-Street Insiders) makes some pretty harsh observations, such as the bland brochure-ware that congressional members were fond of creating in the 90′s, up to the present where his observations include “Too many aides in official Washington are setting up blogs and social media pages because they understand that is what they are supposed to do. ..All the while, many are sweating the possibility that they might actually have to say something substantive or engage the public directly.” He doesn’t limit his critique to politicians: he gives the bureaucracy a serve too.  He makes the point as many before him have that it has always been a one-sided conversation. 

In the spirit of experimenting and trying new channels of (hopefully) meaningful engagement with the people I represent, we are keen to hear about intiatives of note. Particularly those focussed on the conversation, and changing the nature of political communication to genuine engagement. There are real challenges in this transformation, not least being bringing the tools of web 2.0 out the tech’s office and the content out of the media office and have them both placed front and centre of the political office.   I guess this is also true for any business, government or community organisation office serious about web 2.0.

Just a little note: I am fortunate in many respects that my constituency, the ACT, is relatively well connected to the internet, but I don’t forget that not everyone a) has a computer with an internet connection b) skills and confidence to use a browser and engage in social networking environments; and c) is inclined to communicate with me through these web 2.0 channels.  So we keep all the other modes of communicating open too.  While affordable, reliable high bandwidth holds the appeal for the NBN for many of us, a significant public good is being achieved by virtue of the NBN providing universal access, and once and for all closing the digital divide.

Tagged: democracy, digital media, ICT, Internet, open government