Chapter 1. Introduction: An Information Age Democracy?
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Introduction: An Information Age Democracy?

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Over the past 20 years, advances in information technology have had a significant impact on most societies. The scale of these impacts have been most profound in the developed world and have dramatically changed the way business is done in countries like Australia and New Zealand, which have something of a reputation as ‘early adopters’ of new technologies.

The ubiquity of communication and information technologies has significant implications for the ways in which the public sector conducts its business. The adoption of new technologies allows improvements in the delivery of public services, as well as the manner in which the work of the public sector is structured and undertaken.

Most governments in New Zealand and Australia have been active in developing new approaches to the delivery of public services using technologies like the internet and telephony. One area of growing public sector activity is the use of these technologies to improve communication with key stakeholder groups in order to engage them in public management decisions that affect their lives. The adoption of new technologies is, in part, a function of increasing accessibility and affordability. It also reflects a growing recognition of the dynamic and interactive potential of these technologies and their capacity to engage the public.

The adoption of new technologies is manifest in many ways, including:

the substitution of old methods of communication with new ones;
the development of new channels of communication with existing stakeholders;
the ability to access new stakeholder groups and draw them into the policy development and implementation process;
active participation in decision-making by the community; and
new forms of policy administration and implementation using collaborative technologies.

Given the possibilities that new communications and computing technologies provide to public sector managers, this manual aims to introduce and discuss the concept of ‘electronic engagement’ (eEngagement), namely, the use of new technologies in a range of consultative and deliberative processes which enhance public participation in shaping policy outcomes.

Who is this Guide For?

This guide has been written for the public sector manager who has an interest in the ways in which information and communication technologies may be used to democratise decision-making and policy implementation. It is specifically written for policy professionals (rather than information technology professionals) who have a modest understanding of modern information technology.

Four types of public sector manager might want to use this guide:

the manager facing a ‘challenge’ and possibly looking for alternative ideas or approaches to new or existing problems (including those specifically concerned with the challenges of consultation such as poor outcomes obtained in previous engagement processes);
the manager with experience in online community engagement, which may have delivered sub-optimal outcomes and who is looking to review and refocus their efforts;
managers with carriage of consultative processes looking to add new techniques to their repertoire; or
public sector managers concerned with the effective implementation and evaluation of initiatives in the area of electronic democracy.

Unfortunately, this guide cannot provide one single implementation path for eEngagement, because:

the range of activities that can fall under this category is extremely broad. Although some specific models have had significant attention to date, many other online engagement approaches are still at a formative and experimental stage of development;
the speed of technological change is outstripping the capacity of policy researchers to theorise its application. It may be years before the full implications of the introduction of new media are realised; and
the mix of issue , methodology , audience and technology often makes each implementation unique. Often ‘tried and true’ models translate poorly into different environments for a range of reasons, including cultural differences, excessive expectations and different institutional approaches to policy development.

Despite the virtual explosion of technological innovation eEngagement is not a mature field. Understanding the range of possibilities for these technologies will require the sharing of experiences, coupled with ongoing experimentation, evaluation and documentation. This is currently being undertaken by practitioners using online tools to share experiences and information and through institutional responses by governments setting up practice areas.

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