Seattle's Online Civic Engagement Initiative
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Contact:
Rona Zevin, Director, Office of Electronic Communications, City of Seattle - Rona.Zevin@Seattle.Gov
Democracy Portal & the Seattle Channel: Seattle's Online Civic Engagement Initiative
Background Information
Title: Democracy Portal & the Seattle Channel: Seattle's Online Civic Engagement Initiative
Location: Seattle, Washington. (USA)
Primary Sponsor: City of Seattle
Organisation: Office of Electronic Communications, Department of Information Technology
URL: http://www.seattlechannel.org
Budget: $2,000,000 annually
Project Start Date: 12/2001
Project End Date: On-going
Executive Summary
In 2001, the City of Seattle created a "democracy portal" through a multi-stakeholder group called the Seattle Commission on Electronic Communications. Building from 8 years of cable television experience, an expanded Seattle Channel was created based on the Community Groups and Technology Survey Results of March 2001. Currently, 87 percent of Seattle Channel viewers have Internet access, and there is an increasing demand for new technologies, such as video on demand, increased interactivity and web services.
The Seattle Channel enhanced its features to increase public awareness, understanding and participation in government, community and cultural affairs. Newly elected Mayor Greg Nickels sponsored an initial supplemental budget of $200,000 to enhance the TV channel's activities and to build its new website. In 2003, the city government completed construction of a new City Hall, which includes a studio and working space for the Seattle. This integrated multimedia service is for the City of Seattle, its citizens, officials and employees. The Seattle Channel is a unique combination of a 24 hour cable channel and an interactive website. Website: http://www.seattlechannel.org
Project Rationale and Objectives
In the first quarter of 2001, Seattle City Council member Jim Compton and former Mayor Paul Schell created the Seattle Commission on Electronic Communications and appointed its 14 volunteer members. The Commission’s charge was to develop a short-term and long-term vision and direction for the City’s television station and its Web site in order to increase public awareness, understanding and participation in government, community and cultural affairs. Seattle’s democracy portal's objectives include:
- To be a virtual community gathering place where residents can find tools and services they want and need in order to participate in the public life of their city.
- To gather information about civic and cultural events, learn about government services and interact with City officials and other citizens.
- To allow citizens a space to express their thoughts and opinions in a method and at a time that is most convenient for them. Seattle residents will always have access to their community and government, day or night, through television, the Internet or cellular phone.
The city of Seattle was already familar with the majority of stakeholders that were participating at the civic level. The democracy portal was aimed at creating new interactive experiences for citizens that felt they were either too busy for local politics or simply did not know how to get involved.
- A random sample of Seattle residents in November 2000 showed that 57 percent of cable viewers, or 33 percent of all Seattle adults, have watched the Seattle Channel.
- The typical viewer is between the ages of 51-67,educated and affluent. The Seattle Channel's African-American viewership is higher than would be predicted based on racial demographics.
- The majority of viewers do not regularly watch the station and usually reach the Seattle Channel by channel surfing. Over 50 percent of viewers watch City Council meetings.
- Eighty-seven percent of Seattle Channel viewers have Internet access, and there is an increasing demand for new technologies, such as video on demand, increased interactivity and more web services.
What was delivered?
The Commission envisioned the television station and Web site as a dynamic information and communication resource. By integrating the best of television, the Internet and other digital technologies, a “democracy portal” created a virtual destination that would provide citizens with the tools and services they want and need to participate in the governmental, civic and cultural life of their city.
The Seattle Channel, with the direction of the Seattle Comission on Electronic Communication, was able to move forward on the project. Newly elected Mayor Greg Nickels embraced the Commission's report and provided strong support for this new initiative. He sponsored an initial supplemental budget of $200,000 to enhance the TV channel's activities and to build its new Web site.
In 2003, the city government completed construction of a new City Hall, which includes a studio and working space for the Seattle Channel. The Seattle Channel offers competitive local political coverage and offers a wide range of television programming relevant to the political growth of an already active citizenry.
A recent survey indicated that almost 70 percent of people with cable television have watched the City's TV 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.
Communication Activity
The City of Seattle was aware of the fact that citizens were watching the Seattle Channel, but it was crucial that citizens understand the link between the traditional medium of televison and the exciting possiblities of an online environment. To this end, the city of Seattle relied on marketing brand principles to enhance communication with citizens and city councillors.
- The Seattle Channel offers a weekly email newsletter with information about new shows, program schedules, and website highlights: the Tune In Newletter at http://www.seattlechannel.org/newsletter/default.htm
- The City created an advertising campaign that included signs on the side of buses, stickers, fun events and efforts supporting local arts festivals.
Successes
Reason for Success
The overall success story of the democracy portal is the Seattle Channel. Key stakeholders from the Mayor, City Council and community groups have received the Seattle Channel as a tool for collaboration, communication and issues resolution, which is an indication of its success.
The City of Seattle has been able to create two Web sites that compliment each other. The main government of Seattle website at http://www.seattle.gov is service based and the Seattle Channel is civic minded. One of the reasons that this has been successful is that both the TV channel and website are managed by the same department. Staff from both groups collaborate and provide technical support for each other. This department also manages the City's efforts to address the digital divide and has been able to link community based e-democracy efforts with the City's Democracy Portal.
Related Stories
The Seattle Channel has been incorporated into other areas of government and the community:
- City Councillors have actively ensured the presence of the Seattle Channel at events that might not have been open to the media in the past, such as the City Council yearly retreat.
- The overall sustainability of the Seattle Channel budget requests and the new studio built in City Hall in 2003.
- The monthly "Ask the Mayor" program that is available through both traditional media channels and may be seen worldwide through the use of web videostreaming technology. Seattle has a partnership with Real Media, a local company, that provides software at a discounted rate to local governments.
- The acceptance of several grant proposals that focused on the philosophy of e-democracy to the city-wide Technology Matching Fund.
Benefits to Citizens
Two Way Communication
The overarching theme of the Seattle Online Civic Engagement Initative is a commitment to create two-way communication between city government and citizens through programming that informs, educates, enlightens and encourages participation in government activities and decision-making. Seattle seeks e-consultation on a variety of issues.
The most important issue would be the annual city budget process, which involves numerous public hearings as well. The city has created a central e-mail account that can be accessed by all council members and various members of the budget office and executive department to review the comments received; The public and staff is encouraged to use this system through our televised programs and in person during hearings.
The city has been able to determine that it hears from many more people electronically than it did in the past when this method was not available. The potential is for this type of consultation to affect change in the outcome of budget decisions. The Seattle government's previous experiences with electronic forums was using BBS rather than Internet technology. There is a current review and the city intends to include online forums.
Two other different examples:
a) When the City was considering a bid for the Olympics, it was very controversial - The city created a television program with speakers from different viewpoints, and encouraged calls and e-mail; the Council, which had been leaning towards approval, then changed and turned down the chance to bid.
b)An individual council member polled his electronic mailing list several times on issues and then reported the results and voted accordingly.(Probably the same way he would have voted).
3D: Debate-Discuss-Diversity
A commitment to encourage debate, discussion, and a diversity of viewpoints on local issues, and to disseminate and support programs and events that might not otherwise be available to Seattle citizens. This is the most significant thing the portal does in terms of making information and opportunities to participate accessible to people who don't spend all of their time following a public policy issue. The Seattle Channel combines both written and video information in easily found and readable formats. For each major issue that the City is considering, the Seattle Channel includes a history and context, information about previous decisions, upcoming opportunities to participate, various points of view, etc. This encourages contacts with elected officials or other decision-makers.
Minority & Special Audiences
A commitment to be mindful of the interests and concerns of ethnic minorities and other special audiences. There has been a concerted effort to bring the views and interests of these groups into programming on the Seattle Channel. Specifically, a program called"Seattle Voices"which is an interview program focused primarily on people of color in the community. The Seattle channel received $150,000 this year to create a new program where members of ethnic, non-english speaking, and other minority communities will be able to produce and/or speak directly in video productions. This program is in an early development phase and the details about how to do this program will be on the website plus the goal is to begin sometime in mid 2005.
Benefits to Authority
Open Government
Seattle has a culture of open government and participation which is enhanced by the existence of the Seattle Channel. Broadcasting public consultations helps local authorities to achieve a high level of transparency and obtain public input that may not otherwise be possible. For example, adoption of the City Budget is one of the most important products of the work of City Council and requires such public input. This is facilitated by the portal. Furthermore, in the cases when legislators are called into session unexpectedly, notice is distributed widely to citizens through the media channel. Therefore, the Seattle Channel makes it possible for a wide audience to view and ultimately participate in deliberations and decisions.
Financial Sustainability
There are several ways in which the channel works to maintain its level of sustainability. One project involved hosting videos for other cities, customized with each city's name. This is currently a cost recovery program and does not generate revenue. The Seattle Channel has been able to take advantage of its emerging presence by charging other government departments for their services. This allows the Channel to incorporate into the everyday workings of city government. It is a cost effective tool that does not require contracting services to private corporations. Finally, the Seattle Channel benefits from outside grants for special projects and has developed a partnership with the city Library Foundation for specific program initatives.
Benefits to Councillors
Communication
The Seattle Channel serves elected City officials by enabling them to communicate directly with citizens. City councillors benefit from programs like the voter video guides. They are also able to highlight their involvement in particular committee meetings or public consultations. The channel produces a monthly program called "Council Conversations" where individual members are interviewed about current issues and topics.
Responsiveness
Councillors benefit from the fact that the Seattle Channel provides accessible information and responds to citizen issues. Councillors can easily review the weekly programming on the Seattle Channel to see which key issues are discussed in weekly council meetings.
Documentation & Context
In a highly active political centre such as Seattle, councillors are able to show that they are providing documentation of their actions and statements. The indexing and archiving of city committee and council debates is invaluable to both city councillors and key stakeholders in understanding the issues. The channel thus provides a context for meetings, hearings and actions.
Limitations
Budgetary Contraints
The entire television annual budget was enough to produce one hour of commercial TV. Phase one of this project was implemented using extra money that the City received from a cable television fee. The City's current budget shortfall delayed the ability to move forward with some additional improvements, although some additional funding has been provided for 2005.
Interactive Media Coverage
One challenge is to make the coverage of decision-making events more interactive. While the Seattle Channel has a limited ability to reference and promote web content, it needs to do much more to enhance meeting coverage. Future considerations include providing better visuals, more context, and more opportunities for interactive discussions.
Defined Marketing Budget
There is not a defined marketing budget: the majority of viewers find programs on the Seattle Channel by surfing; online users find the website through links from http://www.seattle.gov, which is heavily used.
Evaluation
The Seattle Channel benefits from existing sets of statistical data that emerged from the 2001 and 2004 Residential Survey, which included questions on whether or not citizens watched the Seattle Channel and the type of shows they wanted to see on the Channel. The full reports are included as part of the additional information under the survey section.
Overall, the guiding factor for evaluation is the increase in citizen participation by non traditional stakeholders in the community. The statistics show an increase in the level of viewership and an active level of participation, including interest in programming decisions and an overall level of feedback via the Channel's email address.
Lessons learnt
Tool for Understanding Neighborhoods
The Seattle Channel may be used as a tool for the overall understanding of neighbourhoods. It is a way to link political space with public space. In 2005, the Seattle Channel will focus on a new project called the Community Opportunity Producers program. The channel was able to identify a program need for non-English speaking citizens.
Youth Involvement
The Seattle Channel is seeing the emergence of a younger voter demographic that is showing concern for local politics. The Student Voices Project encourages active civic and political engagement of students. It is intended to increase students’ knowledge and understanding of political processes and institutions, as well as their ability to find information and make use of it to participate in the public sphere. The goal is to build on the success of the 2004 interviews conducted by students with leading public officals including the mayor of Seattle.
Tradition of Voter Guides
The City of Seattle has a tradition of providing voter guides. There have been video guides since the early 1990s. This is an opportunity for new politicians and incumbents to obtain 30 minutes of production time and 2 minutes of air time. The city is committed to enhancing the program options and building on the success of the 2003 online video voter guide.
Support & Buy-in
Support from elected officials is critical to the success of an initiative like this, which in turn comes from support of the electorate. The staff must maintain a close, fair and objective relationship with these officials and with community leaders involved in public issues.
What could happen next?
A recent innovation is a program that awards small grants to community-based organizations for civic involvement projects. Seattle has a Technology Matching Fund, which has supported technology literacy and access projects since the mid-1990s. The program funded several Electronic Democracy projects that use e-mail, Internet and other electronic tools to increase communication with government and solve community problems.
2004 E-Democracy Projects:
Homewaters Project
http://www.homewatersproject.org/index.html
Grant Award: $9,000
Engage teachers and students to map and analyze the ecological and cultural assets and liabilities in their community using GIS software. Students create digital and paper community resource maps and make recommendations for improvements to neighborhood groups.
International District Housing Alliance WILD Community Perspectives Project
Grant Award: $9,000
Increase the diversity of participation in International District improvement. The project will bring youth and seniors together, using digital cameras and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) to assess conditions and capture important images of their community. The results will be used to engage the International District community and policymakers in a dialogue intended to positively impact neighborhood policies.
Community Day School Association Parents and Providers Advocacy Project
Grant Award: $3,700
Help parents and care providers to learn how to use technology to advocate for themselves and others through evening workshops and open lab time at the Leschi Community Technology Access Center.
Additional information and sources
Detailed budget: 2003 Seattle Channel Annual Report
Project sponsors: City of Seattle
Stakeholders: Mayor, City Council, Councillors, Citizens, Lobbyists
Further Information:
Learn about the Seattle Channel
Seattle Channel Viewing Room - Council, Mayor, and Community Stakeholders
Multimedia Elements
Question to the Mayor of Seattle: What would you say to other Mayor's considering a democracy portal?
This question is found 20 minutes into the weekly talk with the mayor of Seattle.
2003 Voter Video Guide
Placed online for this case study.
Articles
New Elements of Democracy: Transforming Civic Involvement in Seattle by Rona Zevin, published in the NATOA Journal, 2003
Seattle Democracy Portal by Rona Zevin Presented at the Oxford Internet Institute Symposium on Electronic Democracy, May 2004
E - The future of Democracy?
by Rona Zevin
Presented at the Eureka Democracy Conference, Ballarat, Australia, November 2004
Seattle Democracy Portal Drives Civic Participation by Michelle Gamble-Risley, Government Technology
National Civic League Releases Report
"Bridging the Gap Between Citizens and Local Government with Information Technology: Concepts and Case Studies"
Business Case
Report of the Seattle Commission on Electronic Communications
The Bill Wright Technology Matching Fund Application kit
Open Source Software
City of Seattle Streaming Information
The city of Seattle has developed a code that indexes particular features on Seattle Channel programs, which adds a dynamic element to the archiving and retrieving process. It is available upon request for government programming purposes.
Survey Responses
Information Technology Indicators Residential Survey, 2004
Community Groups and Technology Survey Results, March 2001
2000 - 2001 Information Technology Indicators for a Healthy Community
Contacts:
Rona Zevin, Director, Office of Electronic Communications, City of Seattle Rona.Zevin@Seattle.Gov
Author:
Peter Davison 2005 Email:peter@oneworldcoffee.com