Democracy Portal

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Democracy Portal

A democracy portal is an e-government website section that provides up-to-date access to decision-making content, representative processes, and citizen participation opportunities across multiple government departments, programmes, Council committees, and local commissions and task forces.

Summary:

A Democracy Portal serves as an entry point for citizens to participate in local policy development and develop an understanding of how to strengthen their communities.

The needs and interests of today's citizens mean that new models must be implemented in order to keep up with demands for relevant information and participation in their communities. A Democracy Portal functions as the anchor for such innovating models, the entry point for the existing E-democracy. The fact that E-democracy is a two-way interaction combining education about government, accessible government and collaborative consultation processes, is accentuated.

Rationale and Objectives:

What can you use the Feature/Policy/Software/Technique for?

Delivering an overview of the democratic instruments that exist on the Internet for the citizen in one central location.
Cross-referencing related department information plus department contact information which draws direct lines for citizens, staff, and other community stakeholders.
Creating buy-in of all stakeholders involved in using ICT toward accountability, accessibility, and a participatory role in policy and consultation.

Why use it? (Compared to other options)

Local governments can encourage the broadest range of consultation and neighbourhood input by implementing strategies that incorporate e-democracy principles. Both muncipal councils and their communities will be moving together on ICT collaboration projects.
Local governments will benefit from clear guidelines set out for citizen participation, including the streamlining of websites to have a consistent layout easily understood by all stakeholders.
Local governments create new levels of accessibility and efficiency in developing portals that offer a "one stop" shop to understanding how citizens can be more active in their local governments. Examples include volunteer opportunities, database of "how-to" resources, and staff directories for easy access.

Benefits - The top benefits for each group

All Users: High quality of government decision-making based on collaborative efforts, with the ability to maintain transparency of government websites.
Citizens: Obtain better access to information and to opportunities to be a part of the local policy-making process. The advantage is to potentially have different parts of the local community meet online prior to a large collaborative effort
Councillors: Visibility of local initatives and a more constant level of interaction with constituents between elections.
Local Administration: Challenges the notion of "groupthink" in local city bureaucracies by allowing for a broad depth of knowledge to enter the decion-making process.
Others (special audiences): a Democracy Portal will be helpful in reaching out to people with disabilities who might otherwise not be able to participate in either learning about government or participating at local government meetings or consultations.

Limitations and Cautions

Local ICT decison-makers will need to commit to a consistent flow of information to a central site. The potential is for sites to become inefficient if links are left unattended or websites are poorly staffed.
Safeguards and adequate policies need to be in place to ensure that projects remain objective in the promotion of E-democracy initatives. Initatives will need to remain nonpartisan in their efforts toward ongoing government plans to offer web links and information.
The allocation of funding for training specifically designed to handle facilitation of information would be a proactive step in handling potential influx of information based on citizen engagement on issues.
An essential element of a Democracy Portal is that all stakeholders buy into the collaborative process -- city council, city staff, community groups, and individuals. Issues will emerge with the nature of collaboration if various elements in the process are not contributing or responding.

Successes ^{collected projects}

- Successful Implementations

Example 1 Title: Seattle-Your Government
- http://www.ci.seattle.wa.us/html/CITIZEN/your.htm link
- Usage and Results: the E-democracy initative is an award-winning program that strives to engage citizens above and beyond a service model. It is incorporated into the description of the city, and beyond dialogue and comments it is a commitment to an online library of streaming audio and video clips of city council meetings. These audio and video clips are a result of city council working on a strategy to integrate techonology. The Seattle Channel statistics state that 70 percent of people with cable television have watched the city's channel, up from 58 percent in 1999. Web site page views have gone up from about 22,000 per month to 37,000 per month in the last year and a half.
- Contact Information:

Rona Zevin Director, Office of Electronic Communications Phone Number: 206-684-8264 Fax Number: 206-684-0911 E-mail Address: rona.zevin@seattle.gov

Background
- New Elements of Democracy-http://www.seattle.gov/scec/documents/SCEC_Complete_Final_Report.pdf
- Seattle Channel: (Learn about the station and website)A 12 minute overview of the Seattle Channel mission, programs, and website.-http://www2.ci.seattle.wa.us/Media/ram_sc.asp?ID=2456

Example 2 Title:Queensland Government- Get involved with Government
- Link:http://www.getinvolved.qld.gov.au/index.html
- usage and results: This is an extensive site dedicated to the practice of E-democracy. Citizens have easy access to learning about the role of government and being able to participate in the process. Created in 2002, there are online consultations on key issues, online comments on regulatory policy, and a database to be able to search archives on consultation and government initatives. According to the United Nations Online Network in Public Administration and Finance, 23 e-petitions have been lodged with the Queensland Parliament and more than 7,500 signatures collected.
- Contact Information: (Optional)

Tim Goodwin, Senior Project Officer, E-democracy Unit

Community Engagement Division Department of Communities tim.goodwin@premiers.qld.gov.au p: 07 3224 5601

Fergus Hogarth Manager, E-democracy Policy

Strategic Policy Directorate Department of Communities fergus.hogarth@communities.qld.gov.au

Background:
- eDemocracy - The Role of the Internet in Engaging with Queenslanders -http://www.getinvolved.qld.gov.au/share_your_knowledge/documents/pdf/fs_01_roleinternet.pdf
- How to be involved:Draft South East Queensland Regional Plan-http://www.oum.qld.gov.au/?id=241
- E-Petitions:A trial of online petitioning-http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/EPetitions_QLD/HTML/InformationBrochure.pdf

Example 3 Title: City of Vancouver- Citizens Participate
- Link:http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/publicprocess/citizens.htm
- Usage and Results: As a result of research between 1996 and 1998, the city council of Vancouver adopted a strong focus on public participation in the decision- making process. The addition of the online version of the process includes online manuals for how to participate in government, how to participate in community activism, and directs citizens through the overall process of being involved in their neighbourhoods. The municipal council has partnered with a community television station to co-produce an information show available online that gives context to the municipal policy decisions directly affecting citizens’ lives. Neilsen ratings indicate a high viewership of the show with one episode reaching a high of 90,000 viewers.
- Contact Information: (Optional)

Nancy Largent Public Involvement Coordinator Phone: 604-873-7104 E-Mail:nancy_largent@city.vancouver.bc.ca

Background
- Public Involvment in municipal Priority Setting:The City of Vancouver's Public Involvment Review-http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/publicprocess/pdf/Benefits.pdf
- City of Vancouver Public Process Guide – Short Version

http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/publicprocess/pdf/publicprocess.pdf