Technology

We will not attempt to list here every Information and Communication Technology (ICT) that might be used within a public consultation. Instead we will explain a way you can go about selecting appropriate technologies for e-consultation.

How to select technologies for e-consultation

In each of our e-consultation trials we spent some time with our trial partners identifying how e-consultation could fit into their overall consultation strategy. Together we went through these stages:

1. Clarify the objectives of the consultation.
2. Identify participants and their needs (especially communication needs).
3. Work out what knowledge we want to learn (and how structured it needs to be).
4. Pick a few communication processes that will help 2 contribute to an understanding of 3.
5. Select technologies to support the communication processes in 4.
6. Combine these processes and technologies into a plan for the consultation.

Each consultation will involve a number of activities, some using ICTs and some using traditional techniques. Together they should engage all the desired participants and help them produce the knowledge and understanding needed for a particular consultation.

Note that this is a design process that starts from first principles. We analysed needs, broke them down into finer details, indentified individual steps, then synthesised them into a custom consultation design. Too often consultations are carried out just by following traditional routes, like sending out consultation documents and waiting for replies. The e-consultation equivalent is just to pick any technology you have heard of (e.g. discussion forums or online questionnaires) and then try to use it in every consultation, whether or not it is suitable for the participants and objectives. Like learning to drive, the first step is to engage your brain.

E-consultation technologies by communication process

Each consultation is different. There are many patterns of consultation. An annual survey of the needs of people in a local authority area is different from a consultation on how to dispose of nuclear waste. However, it is possible to identify tasks that are carried out in many consultations, tasks that combined together can form any given consultation process.

We classified e-consultation technologies according to the type of communication process they support. We used that classification in our technology demonstrations in Letterkenny and Belfast in 2005. Here follows an expanded classification. Click on the titles to find out more about each. They are organised according to typical stages of a problem-solving process (as found in some types of consultation).

1. Telling the public

Often it is necessary to give the participants some information about an issue, or a proposed policy, before starting a consultation (as in a downloadable discussion document, or a web site). This is a form of one-way communications, like most of those seen on http://www.consultationni.gov.uk/ .

2. Identifying issues, collecting stories

What issues concern participants? What problems should the consulting body be looking at? What can we learn from participants experiences? These are questions often asked at some stage during a consultation (often, but not always, at the beginning). There are technologies to help collect these stories and issues, from e-mail addresses for complaints and compliments to story-telling blogs.

3. Getting reactions, feelings, new ideas

To get spontaneity, people need to interact in real time, in face-to-face encounters, video or audio conferences, chat rooms and elsewhere.

4. Deliberation, dialogue and conversations

Includes any technology that facilitates a relay of responses or conversations. Dialogue can be public—in an open environment with multiple participants—or private—between two users. Many discussion forums include both, allowing participants to converse with each other outside the general discussion.

4. Exploring problems and planning solutions

Where consultation participants work together to explore the ramifications of a problem, and plan alternative solutions (e.g. in a citizens' jury). Technologies supporting this task may facilitate brainstorming, a technique groups use to generate ideas on a particular subject. Whereby, each person in the team is asked to think creatively and write down as many ideas as possible. The ideas are not discussed or reviewed until after the brainstorming session. From the results of the brainstorming, options are formulated which are then ranked or rated.

5. Measuring needs and preferences

Finding out how many citizens have which needs, and what their preferences are between alternative options (e.g. through surveys, opinion polls, preferenda).

6. Joint document authoring

Consultees collaborating to write and edit documents.

7. Co-ordinating and managing the consultation process

Numbers 1-5 are communicative processes. It is possible to identify simple information and communication technologies (ICTs) that could serve each process. Any number of these technologies could be combined to support however many of these tasks are deemed necessary. This is illustrated in Table 1,

This approach is not dependant on a fixed sequence of stages, but rather it allows for the design of a consultation process that is task specific, to meet the specific needs of the consultation topic, the consulting organisation and the participants, and if desirable provides a facility for the management of ongoing relationships between consulting organisations and those consulted. The order in which things are done is not prescribed in this model but rather it allows for selection at the process design stage.

The benefit of this model is that it allows those involved in designing consultation to choose technology based on their own frames of reference. They may not be familiar with the capabilities of technologies but they will be familiar with the tasks required in consultation activity.

Older notes, not yet included in main text

1. What are the various technologies I could use to
   1. Publicise the e-consultation. (Email campaign)
   2. Stay in contact & update participants. (Mailling list, periodic newsletter)
   3. Get their views. (Online discussion forum, online line feedback forms)
   4. Collective writing. (Wiki pages, group report authoring tools)
   5. Conduct a survey. (Online questionnaire authoring tools)
   6. Organise meetings.
   7. Consult over long distnaces. (Online chat, audio/video conferencing)
2. What are the various technologies & what are they used for?

• Supporting one-way information transfer

  Convert consultation documents to PDF format, put them online and make them downloadable
  Convert consultation documents to web pages, make the content navigable
  Collect feedback from online form

• Supporting dialogues

  Realtime 'chat'
  - systems that allow people to converse with others at the same time, reacting immediately to each other, wherever they happen to be
  - e.g. chat rooms, text messaging, audio and video conferencing.

  Ongoing discussions
  - these allow people to take part in a longer discussion over several days or weeks, joining in whenever they have time
  - e.g. discussion forums, e-mail mailing lists, e-newsletter and virtual worlds.

• Exploring problems and planning solutions

  Use computer tools such as gropu support system to
  - organise an agenda-driven meeting
  - allow lots of people to brainstorm ideas at the same time, without having to wait their turn to speak
  - allow pseudo-anonymity, so people are less afraid of coming up with creative, but risky ideas
  - help map out the issues discussed and the options identified. 

• Measuring needs and preferences

  Use computer tools to publish online survey, collect and analyse results
  Use computer tools to conduct electronic voting

• Writing Documents

  A collaborative writing method   
  - with computer software running on a server
  - several people can work on the same document at the same time 
  - writing different parts of it, then editing each other's work

1. Where can I get information on the technology and technical knowledge that I will need in order to engage in E-consultation?

Technology selection process

• Define your needs (Why you need a consultation technology)
  • Define consultation case
    • Description: a short explanation of the consultation activity
    • Reasons: a description of the needs why this consultation activity should be taken
    • Assumptions: All the assumptions to make this consultation activity
    • Benefits: List of benefits for consulting organisation and participant
    • Cost: How much it cost to run this consultation activity
    • Investment: Can this consultation activity will be taken in future
• Define your selection criteria (Criteria for Technology selection)
  • Vendor stability and reputation (support)
  • Wide adoption in market
  • Does it require any possible changes to meet stack holders needs
  • Secure and mature/proven technology
  • Training and documentation
  • Actual implementation of the technology
  • Technology accessibility standards
• List of matching technologies
• Select the best suited for you
  • Good description of technology
  • Infrastructure required (network)
  • Platforms (operating systems, hardware)
  • Architectural Integrity (Interaction with other technology, Would it possible to integrate with other technology?)
  • Fitness for purpose (Is it meeting purpose envisaged?)
  • Expertise (What knowledge should be available in-house, Maintenance and support)
  • Maturity of Standard (Is the technology mature and well-proven)
  • User needs (Does the technology satisfy the user requirements and Matching stack holders requirements)
  • Preservation needs (Is technology is appropriate for long-term preservation)
  • Budget (time, money)