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Issues Forum case

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Also available in PDF from ICELE (follow-on to UK Local E-Democracy National Project).

CONTACT: Steven Clift

Tel: +1-612-822-8667

Email: clift@publicus.net


Contents

Issues Forums: Local Online Citizen Engagement in the UK

Background Information

Title: Issues Forums: Local Online Citizen Engagement in the UK

Location: Brighton & Hove, London Borough of Newham, Minnesota, U.S.

Primary Sponsor Organisation: E-Democracy.Org

URL: http://e-democracy.org/uk

Budget: £30,000

Project Start Date: 01 NOV 2005

Project End Date: 15 MAR 2005 - Pilot phase, Forums ongoing

Executive Summary

Online local Issues Forums engage citizens and strengthen democratic practices. The communities of Brighton & Hove and the London borough of Newham launched ongoing vibrant online discussions about important local issues. These citizen-based forums attract the participation of local councillors, civil servants, the local media and community leaders. As pilots established by E-Democracy.Org, Issues Forums make effective use of ICTs based on a structured democratic design approach. Combined with common sense facilitation techniques built on civility and respect, the forums bring out a cross-section of community voices on a sustained basis.

Each community met or exceeded recruitment goals with over 30% of subscribers posting public comments on a diversity of local issues. In a preliminary survey of participants, a 46% said "I've found the forum more interesting or useful than I expected" and 42% said already "recommended or plan to recommend the Issues Forum to others."

Once established, Local Issues Forums provide "any time, anywhere" opportunities for local citizens participate in their communities on a sustained basis based on citizen interest. Outputs from the project include new open source GroupServer forum technology, a 60 page guide book on Issues Forums, and a multimedia experience on Issues Forums lessons from Minnesota, USA.

Project Rationale and Objectives

Over the last decade, E-Democracy.Org established a model for online citizen engagement focused on civic structure and facilitation instead of technology. The E-Democracy.Org model, Local Issues Forums, have proven successful in several local communities in Minnesota, in the United States. Yet, until recently, Local Issues Forums had not been tried in the United Kingdom.

Local Issues Forums are quite unique in their sustained ability to engage citizens and elected officials in thoughtful and respectful public discussions on important local policy issues that are often monitored and reported on by the local media.

The goal of this project was to document the Local Issues Forum process, create training materials, develop appropriate open source software to support Local Issues Forums, and launch a pilot project in the UK. The long term goal, was to demonstrate the effectiveness of Local Issues Forums as means of engaging UK citizens in local decision making processes and to offer this model of citizen participation to communities across the country.

Specific Goals:

  • Engage citizens in a local UK chapter of E-Democracy.Org
  • Develop guidance for the management of forums and their users
  • Provision and customisation of open-source tools for implementing a citizens forum that viably allows citizens to participate via e-mail or the web
  • Provide a ready-to-go shared platform for local authorities to run Issues Forums
  • Report on the engagement potential for citizens forums and local democracy
  • Provide case studies taking citizen, Forum Manager, local media, and LA perspectives into account

What was delivered?

The project was initially planned to deliver one pilot Issues Forum created as part of E-Democracy.Org using the enhanced open source forum technology.

Initially, six communities expressed interest in exploring the idea. Based on demand, we expanded our efforts to focus on four communities. Two forums successfully opened within the pilot phase, a third in the town of Melksham, initially on our waiting list, is now in the recruitment phase. Blackburn and Luton area efforts remain interested, but the timing was not condusive,

Items delivered as of March 15, 2005:

  • Two pilot communities
    • Newham with over 100 participants registered, plus web visitors
    • Brighton & Hove with over 160 initial participants, plus web visitors
    • Established active volunteer steering committees with Forum Managers in Brighton & Hove, Melksham, and Newham
    • Outreach visits and training from the U.S.-based E-Democracy.Org repsentatives in the UK in January 2005
  • E-Democracy.Org materials produced
    • Issues Forum Guidebook drafted, 60+ pages in-depth "how to" advice for steering committees, Local Authorities, citizen participants, and Forum Managers
    • In-depth article on creation of Minneapolis Issues Forum completed
    • E-Democracy Experience - The multimedia case study on E-Democracy.Org's experiences prior to UK pilots completed - includes video with Minneapolis Mayor, forum participants, and ten minute documentary on the use of the St. Paul Issues Forum and a specific community issue
  • GroupServer code enhanced based on E-Democracy's democratic practices and approach
    • Installed at forums.e-democracy.org
    • New features developed as contracted
    • Source code available for download under GPL license
    • Local communities and authorities may work with E-Democracy.Org to host additional Issues Forums on the server through at least December 2005 at no cost

Communication Activity

The Issues Forum process, from the sharing the idea, creating local steering committees, and recruiting forum members, to participating in a forum is fundamentally about communication.

  • Project communication platform - http://forums.e-democracy.org/factory - public "Liftoff" (Local Issues Forum Team) online group included local steering group members, Oxford evaluators, U.S.-based E-Democracy.org leaders, and anyone else interested from the UK and beyond, 30 members.
  • Initial outreach - A month of outreach via UK and global online networks (e-mail lists, blogs, etc.) distributed a call for local forum interest.
  • Local outreach and training meetings - Visits by E-Democracy.Org representatives from the U.S. to Brighton & Hove, Newham, and Blackburn. Separate meetings with 10-15 members of each steering committee, council staff, and citizens brought the model alive. These events allowed E-Democracy.Org to bring the story of the existing Minnesota to life. This helped local citizens envision what kind of effort they we undertaking for their own communities.
  • Local citizen-based steering groups - Led outreach communication to citizens and councillors alike
  • Forum participant recruitment - Forums in the larger cities require at 100 participants to open, outreach online and off by steering group members was essential to acheive this goal.
  • Media outreach - A national press release led to coverage in e-government trade press and BBC Online News.

Successes

Overall, the Issues Forum forum pilot phase was highly successful. Dozens of citizens and public leaders came together in a short time frame to make this project possible.

  • Pilot forums opened in two unique communities. Only one was required at launch of project.
  • Melksham, a smaller market town, is in the middle of recruitment drive seeking 50 initial members.
  • GroupServer platform worked well for project communication.
  • GroupServer development process led to new forum features that better support the Issues Forum model. This New Zealand-based software is now available for open source download as planned.
  • Local steering groups successfully established with authentic local leadership.
  • Volunteer Forum Managers recruited. This is key to maintaining a sustainable, low cost, citizen-based model.
  • E-Democracy.Org produced a guidebook, articles, and the multimedia experience. This represents the first time in their lessons have been systematically documented for broad dissemination.
  • Quick adoption of the Brighton & Hove and Newham forums, by local citizens. Multiple issues raised and addressed from a diversity of perspectives.
  • Very few defections in the early stages of project.
  • Participation of local officials right from the start. Including the observation of the forum by the Newham mayor.
  • A meeting with the local citizen consultation official in Brighton & Hove demonstrated a real interest in Local Issues Forums and a sense that they could compliment existing consultation efforts.
  • In the first few weeks of operation, 27 citizens posted to the Newham Issues Forum (26% of total subscribers), while 56 people posted to the Brighton & Hove Issues Forum (34% of total subscribers).
  • In an informal survey of 56 early participants - 46% said "I've found the forum more interesting or useful than I expected" and 42% said "I've recommended or plan to recommend the Issues Forum to others."

Benefits to Citizens

This e-democracy pilot is fundamentally citizen-focused. While a constructive and collaborative approach with government institutions and the media is essential, constructing the forums based to create the maximum value for citizens and broader community are up front.

While it is to early to judge the full impact of the open forum, some specific benefits that have been identified so far include:

  • Allows citizens to participate in their community at any time from anywhere. With busy schedules, mobility issues, and competition for people's time, citizen participation through an Issues Forum makes democracy more accessible.
  • The Issues Forum development process is citizen-based. With a cross section of citizens involved, this help ensure benefits for all citizens rather than one particular perspective or existing institution.
  • Created an "instant" network of active citizens interested in local affairs that are able to exchange information, ideas, and opinions on local issues.
  • Awareness of the range and diversity of issues of concern or interest to members of their community.
  • Opportunity for citizens to "test" their ideas and opinions against those of peers in the community.

In the words of participants:

"The benefits of this forum for me are very simple and direct - it opens a conversation with people who are responsible for making the decisions that affect various aspects of our lives. This makes it easier to get facts straight, and if need be, hold them to account before a live audience." Nick Taylor, Brighton & Hove.

"(1) Day time meetings impossible to attend - but that doesn't mean we don't care and don't notice. We may be time poor but not apathetic (2) Forum Brings the issues physically together not scattered round the City - A pattern of issues may emerge. (3) Forum Threads are a knowledge store - both questions and answers appear. B and H Council prints the questions as public record not the answers." Shula Rich Chair Brighton and Hove Private Sector Housing Forum

Benefits to Authority

The Local Authorities in Brighton & Hove and Newham are engaged with the new Issues Forums in their communities. Meetings were held with key council staff and both steering committees have local authority attendees. While a council was welcome to formally establish and "own" an Issues Forum as part of this pilot, the time available made formal consideration difficult. It was clear in the pilot communities, that requesting or requiring formal council endorsement or sponsorship would have been time consuming and perhaps change the nature of the forum. Our Issues Forum Guidebook addresses the opportunity for council and/or community-based sponsorship comprehensively.

Some specific benefits identified in the pilot forum process:

  • Local authority officials in Brighton & Hove indicated strong optimism that the Local Issues Forum will complement their existing consultation processes.
  • Newham local authority officials as well as representatives of the Metropolitian Police and the local NHS branch filled a room to learn about the Issues Forum. Many of Newham's steering committee members work for or have connections to the Council. It is important emphasize the informal connections between the Council and the pilot forum.
  • The forums provide an opportunity to build awareness of existing consultations and in-person community participation events. It also can generate additional informal feedback that complements formal consultations.
  • Civil servants noted that value of helping councillors be exposed to direct and dynamic public discussions of consultation themes that may not always come across in final reports and summaries.
  • Councils are in a stronger position to discover and clarify to inaccurate information flowing through the community. This is particularly helpful where gaps in media coverage of local issues are present.


From a cost/benefit perspective, the creation of a low cost, sustainable, ongoing forum local forum is a significant advantage to a council. Each local council now has a ready made forum where they can make announcements, share documents, and most importantly receive citizen input.

These are "participatory" forums where active citizens who want to make their community a better place or simply have something to say, voluntaryily "show-up." With proper outreach, voices from less enfrancised communities can now be raised in the heart of the community dialogue and educate other citizens and councils on those communities perspectives and priorities.

These forums directly complement conceptually "representative" citizen juries or deliberative polls which are are significantly more labour and cost intensive. The value in the ability to reach citizens in their homes and businesses compared to the effort required to physically gather citizens must not be underestimated.

Finally, as established in the Project Initiation Document, any local authority may sponsor or fund the creation of a forum through a local community organisation working with E-Democracy.Org through at least the end of 2005. This unique model offers an opportunity for local authorities to meet democracy-related e-government targets in a sustained low-cost manner.

Benefits to Councillors

A local Issues Forum provides a strategic opportunity for local councillors to monitor the pulse of the community. Their participation is voluntary, as it is for all other citizens. Councils may post at their own discretion.

This allows councillors comfortable with the online medium to flexibly engage directly with the public as their time permits. It also allows those councillors who prefer to simply read the forum to do so without being forcesd to publicly perform or speak. Citizens, and councillors as citizens, are ultimately responsible for the quality and value of the exchange.

While it is too early to write a conclusive list of strategic uses of the UK forums by elected councillors. A handful of Brighton & Hove councillors from different parties have posted to the forum. In one case, they forwarded information provided by council staff in response to an issue on the forum. This demonstrates the "representative" role councillors can play between the forum and the local administration.

Overall, an Issues Forum is an "early warning" system about issues bubbling up in the community as well as a space where citizens can more directly appreciate the competing priorities for public resources that representatives face everyday. Despite the ease with which some citizens can be publicly critical in onlne forums, past surveys on the Minnesota forums have found an increased understanding of complex issues and respect among participants, including elected officials, who hold differing views.

Limitations

The launch process has three key phases - steering committee formation, forum charter drafting and recruitment of forum manager, and finally, participant recruitment. Each step of this low-cost, "built to last" model can only move as fast as volunteer capacity allows.

The charter development and recruitment process was compacted due to the limited time available for the pilot launch. In the past, E-Democracy forums have taken at least six months to go from initial interest to the recruitment stage. The accelerated pilot process created project momentum, but the parallel process meant that much of the material developed by E-Democracy.Org was only available in draft form.

Because it is a challenge to sell citizens and public leaders on the "concept" of an Issues Forum, E-Democracy.Org recommends that the local steering committees consider forum "Grand Openings." The ability to point people to actual topics of conversation online will greatly assist forum growth and recruitment efforts. The forums help sell themselves once they come to life.

Evaluation

The pilot project is being evaluated by the Oxford Internet Institute. Representatives of the Institute have monitored the our "Liftoff" and steering committee online groups for project communication, attended outreach events in Brighton & Hove and Newham, commissioned a quick survey of participants, and interviewed project leaders.

Our own evaluation is that the process for steering group formation and forum recruitment process takes time to successfully implement. We used much of four months available in the start-up phase (something which could easily take six months to a year under normal circumstances). The forums successfully met our recruitment targets and we are quite pleased with the results. However, we suggest that a further evaluation of the forum discussion, facilitation, and growth stage occur in the coming months. It is difficult to fully evaluate the success of our "built to last" approach until we determine if the forum actively continues for more than six months.

Lessons learnt

The key lesson learned is that the E-Democracy.Org model of citizen-to-citizen forums on local issues is not culturally or geographically unique to the Upper Midwest of the United States. With the UK pilots we are developing a truly global model for local e-democracy.

Converting our informal and not well documented process into a product has dramatically increased the potential to create more forums with fewer resources required per forum created. However, the day-to-day involvement of those schooled in the E-Democracy model was essential to turn "book smarts" into "street smarts."

The one short coming of our development process that must be shored up is the creation of a temporary recruitment position to assist with the launch of a local forum. A one to two month contract position (this could be someone in the community, a specialist who goes from community to community, or the volunteer forum manager if they agree that once launched they will continue as a volunteer for at least one year) is required for someone on the ground to lead recruitment efforts.

This "organiser" must work at the direction of the steering committee and would present or table at community meetings and events. Online outreach by the steering committee must be complemented by someone who physically signs new members up around the community. A key assignment of this person would be to lead outreach to diverse communities in order to launch a forum with a broad range of voices in the community.

What could happen next?

The Issues Forum concept and platform is ready for expansion across the UK. A pragmatic approach is to target outreach to local authorities and/or communities with an interest in cost-effective and sustainable local online forum that take a highly citizen-centric approach. Issues Forums complement online consultations hosted on government websites. They may also be flexibly positioned as either local authority, local voluntary sector, or local E-Democracy.Org initiative.

We've identified the following draft list to assist turning the Issues Forum pilots into a UK-wide opt-in service for local communities:

  • With direct input from the UK pilots, further enhance GroupServer to support forum creation, recruitment, steering committee activities, and content management. This might include a web-based local "Chapter Home" to host additional community content generated by members of the online forum.
  • Launch a national "Yes, I want to talk to my neighbors" online campaign using online petitioning tools to allow UK citizens to opt-in to a system that will support forum development. This will allow us to more easily identify the communities where citizen demand for such forums exists.
  • Continued support for forum management, facilitation development and extended recruitment and diverse community outreach.
  • Leverage the Issues Forum Guidebook content for an online training course with video for future steering committee and forum managers.
  • Extend citizen-oriented content from guidebook into HTML and Flash-based content to introduce new or potential participants to the forum concept. Generating authentically local citizen-demand for e-democracy forums is essential.
  • Develop roadshow presentation for UK-based E-Democracy.Org leads to present to interested communities in a process to identify the next set of forums.
  • Develop a price for creation of a volunteer-based forum in the range of 6,500 - 10,000 GBP per community, with a low ongoing annual budget of under 5,000 GBP. This should include resources for a paid recruiter to assist with diverse and active outreach during the launch phase of the forum.
  • Create models for E-Democracy.Org Issues Forums that are funded like other local voluntary sector organisations (local authority support, member donations, etc.) and "affiliates" in cases where Issues Forum are legally owned and operated by a Local Authority.
  • Expand the multimedia E-Democracy Experience to include video and content from the UK pilot forums.
  • Host a three day open source computer programming "sprint" in the UK with global GroupServer developers to further expand features and foster the creation of a UK-based developer community
  • Survey forum members after six months of open discussion to develop a baseline understanding about the forums.
  • Assist interested steering groups in the process of moving from steering committees to full E-Democracy Chapters after one year.
  • Consider partnership with UK charitable organisation as legal host for "E-Democracy UK." This could serve as an umbrella association of UK-based local E-Democracy steering committees and chapters.
  • Help Local Authorities meet their democracy-related e-government targets requirements by introducing our citizen-centric model in a way that helps them meet their goals.
  • Establish an exchange program between E-Democracy.Org projects in the US and UK.
  • Host an E-Democracy.Org conference in the UK, focusing on the building and mantaining of Local Issues Fourms. Bring together community representatives from a variety of communities interested in the concept of Local Issues Forums.

Additional information and sources


Further Information:

Project Information

Project Coordination Online Group (public)* http://forums.e-democracy.org/factory/groups/liftoff

Brighton & Hove Issues Forum

Newham Issues Forum

Issues Forum Guidebook - 60 Pages

GroupServer Open Source Code

E-Democracy Experience - Multimedia and Videos


Contacts:

Steven Clift, Board Chair, E-Democracy.Org clift@publicus.net

Tim Erickson, Forum Launch Coordinator and lead author on Issues Forum Guidebook, tim@politalk.com

Mark Walker, Brighton & Hove Steering Committee Co-Chair

Dan Jellinek, Brighton & Hove Steering Committee Co-Chair

Richard Stubbs, Newham Steering Committee Chair

Gavin Sealy, Newham Forum Manager

Richard Waid and Dan Randow, http://GroupServer.Org


Author: Steven Clift

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