Lord Mayor Graham Quirk at the launch of hack::brisbane

Last weekend saw the official launch of the hack::brisbane competition by the Lord Mayor of Brisbane, Graham Quirk during the one day Hackfest Brisbane mini competition.

Both competitions are based on usage of the 50 recently released data sets from Brisbane City Council under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 (CC BY 3.0) open license.

Covering all manner of data, from bus stop locations to eat safe ratings; from CityCycle locations to dog parks.

The hack::Brisbane competition challenges the developer community to help improve Brisbane through the creation of creative new apps, websites or tools that use Brisbane City Council data.

The coveted 'Hack Brisbane' T-Shirt!

Of course, this is not the first council to open its data and sponsor an apps competition, but it’s fairly unique in that it is offering prizes in two catagories for both competitions. An Open Catagory covering any data set and any application; and an Access and Inclusion Catagory for an app or website using Brisbane City Council data that helps make Brisbane a more accessible and inclusive city.

To be considered in this category, the app or website should focus on making facilities and services universally accessible to all residents and visitors – be they people with disability, carers, seniors, people with temporary impairments or parents with young children.

The Hackfest event was supported by NICTA’s e-government cluster and by the gov2qld community of practice, with a  representative from each being on the judging panel for the day, along, of course with a representative from the primary sponsors (and prize, venue and t-shirt provider) Brisbane City Council.

I was fortunate enough to be one of the judges and, like my fellow judges, was amazed by the quality of the entries after just 8 or so hours of programming.

Some of the apps from the day are showcased on the Council website.

The winners were chosen based, amongst other things,  on originality and usefulness to the community with the winning app in the Open Category being an Android app called ‘Brisbane Toilet Finder‘ by Jack Marrows.

Brisbane Toilet Finder is an app that locates the closest public toilet to a person using an Android phone.  The longitude and latitude of each toilet provided by the dataset is used with the geolocation capabilities of Android phones to direct a user to the closest toilet with only one click.

image courtesy Brisbane City Council and Jack Marrows

Looking at the UI, it is evident that all of the additional information about a restroom provided by the dataset is shown to the user such as, accessibility and opening hours.  Furthermore, using the Google Street View API it was possible to display a thumbnail picture of the toilet to the user.

The app also allows users to view the average cleanliness of a toilet for a given day and rate it.  The data generated by users rating the public facilities has the potential to be used by the BCC in the future when planning the allocation of resources.  These ratings are stored in the cloud using a webservice built upon Google App Engine.

Finally, users can get direction to the toilet from their current location by a single click.  This was implemented using the Android Google Maps API.

What we loved about the app was it’s simplicity. A number of entries mapped the location of toilets but this one was based on the premise that, at any given location you don’t want (or need) to see all toilets in Brisbane – just the one closest (or the next one if you’re not happy with the rating of this one etc).

The ability to rate the cleanliness of the toilet and the potential for that information to be fed back to council in real-time provided what, for me, is the real benefit to council of opening up dataset- crowd-sourced feedback to help deliver better services to the community.

(Jack also talked about potentially adding QR code reader capability to the app so that Council could attach a QR code to each toilet block making the process of rating a given toilet even easier).

The winner of the Access and Inclusion Category was the ‘Accessible Brisbane’ app by Mike Burns and James Kennon (and also featured on Chanel Ten News that evening!).

image courtesy Brisbane City Council, Mike Burns & James Kennon

Our application, Accessible Brisbane, addresses the fundamental shortcomings of the Access Brisbane database (which, ironically, is its ‘accessibility’). We took the data in the Access Brisbane database, and added a spatial dimension to that data. Then the Accessible Brisbane app puts it in context by giving the user information about accessible venues nearby. Accessible Brisbane also allows the user to quickly and easily contribute new information to the community. Through the Facebook connection, users are motivated to contribute, which addresses the other shortcoming of the Access Brisbane database (ie, the lack of up-to-date data).

The dataset we used was the Access Brisbane database, which we mashed with data from the Google Places API using some matching algorithms that we wrote.

The great thing about this app was it’s focus on building a community to improve the data using existing social networks (Facebook).

You can see more about these apps, and some of the other great entries on Council’s website.

lunch sponsored by Domino's

Of course there are those who see little long term value in these app competitions – and, to be honest, I might have put myself in that camp a while back. Now I see things differently. Opening up data in this way provides potential for economic benefits through new applications, sites and analysis of multiple data sets being generated within a jurisdiction (we’re now starting to see the latter in the UK).

But for me, the value is far more than that. It’s about fostering and encouraging a culture of innovation in the context of government; it’s about government and the community working together; but mostly, I believe, it provides a way for the resources of the public service to be supplemented by passionate and motivated citizens (even if it’s just providing feedback on the state of a given toilet block!)  in order to deliver even better services for the community.

And we’re not done yet!

It’s so exciting to see our community involved in three big events in Brisbane over the next two weeks. Whatever your particular interest area under the “Government 2.0″ banner, there is something for you.

HACKFEST BRISBANE

Kicking off this coming Saturday (26th November) with Hackfest Brisbane – a one day hackathon based on recently released data sets from Brisbane City Council.

HackFest Brisbane is timed to coincide with the launch of the hack::Brisbane competition that challenges software developers to help improve Brisbane with creative new apps or websites that use Brisbane City Council data.

For more information and to register head here:
http://data.brisbane.qld.gov.au/

DEMOCRACY 2.0 SEMINAR

Next week (Tuesday 29th Noveber) Chris Quigley, the founder of the UK based digital democracy firm Delib, will share his experiences and insights working with the Obama and Cameron Administrations in the US and UK on a range of online community engagement, crowdsourcing and mass collaboration projects.

For more information and to register head here:
http://linkd.in/gov2qld_delib2011

GOV2QLD CHRISTMAS EVENT

On Thursday 8th December, we get together for our final group event of the year to “Celebrate the Success of Government 2.0” in our state.

We have some fabulous speakers including Simon Finn MP and it will be a great time to network with peers from other agencies and authorities.

More information and to register:
http://apsozloop.ning.com/group/gov2qld/forum/topics/government-2-0-in-queensland-community-of-practice-event-8th

(Spaces are limited for all events so be quick!)

Thanks all for a fabulous year for our Community of Practice. Look forward to seeing you at one, or all of these special events.

1. it provides the potential for a wider range of opinions, experiences and ideas to be garnered
2. It provides a platform for more efficient management of large scale consultation activities
3. Its easier and more fun for stakeholders than attending community meetings or being badgered on the streets while rushing to a meeting your late for.

(The latter point is, of course, not to say that traditional methods of engagement don’t have huge value. My IAP2 qualifications and experience have taught me of the unique value of many other community participation techniques and I too get frustrated with the current swathe of smegs who preach that online consultation is the only way to engage).

But assuming we are talking solely about reaching new stakeholders through online consultation, what’s the best way of promoting such consultation activities with them?

I wrote the following notes in response to a question in one of our gov2qld community of practice meetings some time ago. Some of the content is dated (I now no longer have a ‘heavily pregnant wife’, instead I have a gorgeous son! …. ermmmm …. no, that sounds wrong, I still have a wife as well, just not a pregnant one – you get the gist ) but the concepts remain valid.

It seems to me that promotion of online consultation events using traditional (i.e. non-online) promotion methods simply doesn’t work (or at least it definitely doesn’t work for me).

The only time I have been persuaded to partake of an online consultation relevant to me is when I have been able to ‘click and comment’. By that I mean, I am at my desk, I am in ‘browse internet mode’ (also often called ‘procrastinate mode’), I am presented with a link to a consultation and I click it to comment.

I am not in ‘browse internet mode’ when I am on a bus or train and see a billboard referring to a consultation. I am not in ‘browse internet mode’ when I am sitting in the comfy green reclining chair reading the local newspaper which contains an ad from my local council for a consultation; I am not in ‘browse internet mode’ when I am opening my council rates notice (instead I am in ‘angry mode’ and certainly not in the mood to read any enclosed flyers or newsletters from council – however, I might read these in green chair mode later – see previous).

So promoting an online engagement activity to me, and I suspect many others, when I am not in browse mode is unlikely to have the desired effect.

But when I am in browse mode, how, and through what channels, can I be presented with a link to a consultation and persuaded to ‘click and comment’?

Well, I check my emails about 1000 times a day. All 5 email accounts (it’s a long story). And when I’m in ‘email mode’ I can usually be easily persuaded to move to ‘browse mode’. (In fact, a recent Community Engagement conference in Melbourne noted that links in emails is one of the most effective ways of driving people to online consultations). I also check Facebook about 5 times a day and if I follow the agency that has the consultation then I might be tempted by a feed update containing a link. But of course, that relies on me following said agency, which, for some, I do now, thanks to the Queensland floods and Cyclone Yasi). I also live on Twitter. So if I follow an agency then you can bet that I’ll see the link to their consultation. And when I’m reading tweets I am simultaneously in ‘Browse Mode’, ‘Procrastination Mode’ and ‘Please show me something interesting mode’

And finally, I belong to communities of interest.

On LinkedIn I belong to a number of groups covering varying subjects, including those that cover the mechanics of online consultations – easy target! But I care about the environment too and belong to a few online communities. I love Organic Gardening and will happily comment on Community Gardening or local sustainability initiatives – if they are promoted through the online Gardening groups I am a member of; I love to sail and belong to sailing communities who care about ocean conditions and boat facilities in my local area. I have a (very) pregnant wife and so am (temporarily) interested in all sorts of issues ranging from vaccinations, family assistance, pain relief and more pain relief – again, if they are promoted through the likes of BubHub.

My point? When I am consuming or contributing to these communities I am simultaneously in ‘browse mode’ and I’m a qualified target for your consultation (if it relates to the environment, the ocean, foreshore planning, community gardens, child health and well-being, pregnancy pain relief etc). So come find me, don’t wait for me to come find you. I probably wont.

An interesting example comes from the UK Department of Innovation where they created widgets that allow other communities to lift consultation questions onto their own community websites. Websites that were built around a community. Websites that weren’t government websites (where people were unlikely to go of their own volition). Yes, there are times when someone will refer me to a consultation or I’ll see a print ad for it and actively seek it out. But these are few and far between and usually only when I am really passionate about a certain subject.

So, what are effective ways to promote and drive visitors to online engagements?

I believe it’s a question of channel and community. Using channels that enable ‘point and comment’ and communities that already exist and are already discussing the issue (or related issues). It’s about embracing and extending that old notion of fishing where the fish are … but then bringing them back to your aquarium (to use the words of my colleague and very good friend Amelia Loye).

Oh, and catch me in ‘procrastination mode’ – that’ll usually do the trick!

It was published in 2008 and so is a little dated now, but the concepts and challenges faced by the records management community in the light of the meteoric rise in use of social media tools by government agencies – both internally and externally – is as relevant today as it was when first published.

As I mentioned last night, I spend half of my time in the world of Records and Information Managers (as Product Manager for Objective Corporation) and half of it in the world of Government 2.0 (as co-founder and coordinator of the gov2qld community of practice) and one of my desires is to facilitate a shared understanding of both communities in the challenges and opportunities of the other.

Steve’s book provides a perspective on Records Management that I believe is extremely useful for all those of us pushing ahead with Government 2.0 initiatives and an insight into the challenges that the records management teams face because of the vast increase in content production and new (and subtly different) content production channels that have emerged over the last few years.

I was going to write a review of the book but James Lappin at tfpl blog has done such a good job that I’ll just link to his, and recommend both it, and Steve’s book to both the records management community and the government 2.0 community.

(Incidentally, for those of you going to the InForum conference in Darwin later this year, Steve will be speaking at that event, as will gov2qld’s very own David Schulz and one of last night’s panelists Troy Pullen).

click to enlarge

Exciting times for the gov2qld community as we have just welcomed our 400th member to the group and are actively working with practitioners and advocates in other states around Australia to roll out similar Communities of Practice in other locations. More details soon!

The next gov2qld networking event will be held at the headquarters of Queensland Police (full details below).

This month we will focus our ‘Government 2.0 Intensive Care’ session on a subject that is often overlooked in the excitement of Government 2.0 initiatives, that of Preservation and Record Keeping.

It’s a subject that was very much front of mind during the deliberations of the Government 2.0 taskforce and I’d recommend the report produced for the taskforce by Recordkeeping Innovation as pre-meeting reading.

Once again we will have a panel discussion with Troy Pullen from Queensland State Archives and James Kliemt from QPS. There will be lots of opportunities to ask questions, discuss your own experiences and most importantly relate the subject matter to your own situations.

Of course, we’ll also have our usual networking session, a look at whats in the news from a Government 2.0 perspective and a chance for you to raise burning questions or issues of the group in our ‘Government 2.0 Surgery’.

Please note we will revert to our previous start time of 5.00pm to enable those that need to get home at a sensible time to do so. For the rest, there will likely be a few takers for drinks afterwards (since the venue is an alcohol free zone).

When: Thursday 11th August 2011, 5.00-7.00pm

Where: Queensland Police Headquarters, 200 Roma Street (between Makerston and Garrick Streets). Once inside the main foyer, turn left just before the security gates. See map below.

RSVP: Please RSVP on the LinkedIn Event page or by emailing gov2qld@gmail.com

It’s free and everyone is welcome!

Many thanks to our hosts Queensland Police Service and our wonderful sponsors, Mammoth Media.

… and thank you for your continued participation in our Gov2qld community!

Venue:

View Larger Map

click for larger image

The next gov2qld networking event will be held at the Gardens Point Campus of QUT (full details below).

This month we will focus our ‘Government 2.0 Intensive Care’ session on a subject that many of you are talking about if not actively working on at the moment, the use of Internal Social Media within agencies and departments.

We will look in particular at efforts to incorporate tools like Yammer into the culture of organisations with some success stories but also some challenges encountered. This will be another panel discussion with lots of opportunities to ask questions and discuss your own experiences.

Of course, we’ll also have our usual networking session, a look at whats in the news from a Government 2.0 perspective and a chance for you to raise burning questions or issues of the group in our ‘Government 2.0 Surgery’.

Please note the start time of 5.30pm due to restrictions on the room, and also we have not (yet!) been able to find a sponsor for this event however Sarah has invited the group to the Reading Room Birthday Party after the gov2qld event so there will be plenty of opportunity to network over a drink or two there.

When: Thursday 14th July 2011, 5.30-7.30pm

Where: Level 12, S block, QUT Gardens Point Campus

RSVP: Please RSVP on the LinkedIn Event page or by emailing gov2qld@gmail.com

It’s free and everyone is welcome!

Thanks for your continued participation in our Gov2qld community!

Professor Beth Noveck

UPDATE: Unfortunately Beth Noveck has had to cancel this visit due to health reasons. We wish her a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing her here in Brisbane in the near future.

Exciting to see that Professor Beth Noveck is visiting Brisbane on Monday 25th July and will be speaking at a free event organised and hosted by QUT.

Professor Brian Fitzgerald will be joining her in the session where both professors will talk on Government 2.0 – Theory and Practice.

Professor Noveck has been at the forefront of this work in the USA and internationally. Her book Wiki Government provides conceptual depth to the ideas while her leading role in the Peer to Patent Project and most recently The Open Government Initiative (within the US government) have established her as an expert practitioner in the area. Professor Fitzgerald, a member of the Federal Government’s Gov 2.0 Taskforce in 2009, and his research team at QUT have lead international thinking on new models for licensing of public sector information since their discovery in 2004 that Creative Commons licences could be applied to public sector information. His two volume edited collection on Access to Public Sector Information: Law Technology and Policy is a key resource in this area.

Highly recommended to all of the @gov2qld community. More details and RSVP information here.

The community has grown from its roots as an online LinkedIn group to a monthly meetup event which last month saw close to 100 people meet to workshop the topical issue of social media in disaster management. 

(Check out the videos of the event here).

image (and T-Shirts!) courtesy of The Reading Room

Government 2.0 is a relatively new term used to describe a new philosophy for how government and it’s citizens can interact online for the ultimate benefit of society. Birthed in the cultural and technological changes of Web 2.0, from where it gets its name, Government 2.0 focuses on greater openness in the processes and decisions of government; on the necessary part that citizens and the private sector must play in order to support the business of government, and the tools and technologies that allow both to happen in an efficient and effective manner.

Around the world communities of interest have grown around various projects and activities that fall under this umbrella term; primarily in the UK, Canada and more recently the USA. In Australia, the State of Victoria has done some wonderful work in not only implementing some of these ideas and approaches, but also in encouraging the community of practice around them. At a federal level in Canberra the Government 2.0 Google Group has been going for a while to provide an online meeting point and various events take place on an almost monthly basis.

But there was no real Government 2.0 community of practice in Queensland despite the State Government being the first to enact legislation for Right to Information reforms, a move followed by almost every other State and, this year, Federally. There were also many projects underway within Government agencies and at a Local Government level.

With many implementing these initiatives and innovative change in discrete locations across Government, Amelia and I wanted to create a place for those involved to share learnings and help the practice flourish. Amelia had seen similar communities working in Canada, where she was involved in a number of key gov2 initiatives. I was eager to share stories of online engagement activities and technology and learn what related activities were happening locally.

And so @gov2qld was born. Manidis Roberts and Objective kindly agreed to sponsor the first get together. Since then, other organisations have helped us run events, including The Reading Room and Mammoth Media. And now our community have a place to learn, to question, to share, to brainstorm, to think big and to have a few drinks and some fun in the process.

Gov2qld is a fabulous group of creative and passionate individuals, and in many ways, exemplifies some of the key aspects of Government 2.0 – openness, collaboration across agency boundaries and community engagement. We tend not to have presentations on subjects from ‘experts’ (like many of the Gov 2.0 Conferences and Events) but rather create spaces for workshops and panel discussions allowing people to discuss, question and better apply learning to their own context.

Philosophy

Our monthly meetings run according to one key philosophy …

Not ‘let me tell you what I can do for you‘ but rather ‘tell me, how can I help you?‘.

It’s a philosophy of sharing and being open to new ideas; of not assuming that what worked for ‘us’ is the only answer for ‘you’; and of not simply providing vendors of products or services with a platform to sell (although of course, vendors, service providers, consultants, citizens and public servants all form part of the community that is served by Government 2.0 and are thus all welcome).

And it’s a philosophy that seems to work.

But it’s also, I believe, the combination of an online community with a regular, monthly, get together that is the real reason for it’s success.

We enjoy our meetings. Meetings happen after hours and while we workshop are mostly informal. Everyone who attends does so in their own time and is there because they want to be. We’ve all been involved in creating a sense of community and our relationships are built on trust and a shared enthusiasm for what we do. The online part of it simply allows those conversations started and relationships formed to blossom (and of course to allow those unable to be at the events to be part of the conversation).

Our monthly meetings follow a similar pattern,

• Networking drinks and nibbles
• Government 2.0 News – from around our State, our Country and the wider worldwide community
• Government 2.0 Surgery – a chance to bring pressing projects, ideas and questions to the group
• Government 2.0 Intensive Care – a chance to workshop a specific issue or project within the group as a whole or in a number of small groups

So far, we have discussed and debated topics ranging from  ‘techniques to promote online engagements’, ‘Managing Engagement more Efficiently‘ through to ‘social media monitoring’ and, of course, ‘social media in disaster management‘. In the future we will look at topics like ‘engaging young people’, ‘managing the cultural change of Government 2.0 initiatives’, ‘combining online and traditional engagement’, ‘the benefits and opportunities of Open Data’, ‘the importance of geo-spacial data and mashups’.

The group has also spawned the Emergency 2.0 Wiki project, led by the amazing @EileenCulleton, and supported by a number of us in the group.

Our members range from Engagement Specialists, to Communications and Marketing people, CIOs and Policy Officers, academics and service providers and even a few interested citizens. Departments represented cover the breadth of State government in Queensland as well as many local councils and some federal agencies. Our online group includes Government 2.0 advocates and practitioners from around the country and indeed from around the globe. Whilst unable to meet with us face-to-face, these online members provide a rich source of input to our community.

But the key thing is that everyone attends, not because they have to, but because they have a keen desire to see a difference in the way their Agencies and Authorities work and, ultimately, in the outcomes they are able to provide to their communities.

It’s a fabulous group of creative and passionate individuals, and in many ways, exemplifies some of the key aspects of Government 2.0 – openness, collaboration across agency boundaries and community engagement. We tend not to have presentations on subjects from ‘experts’ (like many of the Gov 2.0 Conferences and Events) but rather create spaces for workshops and panel discussions allowing people to discuss, question and better apply learning to their own context.

image courtesy of The Reading Room

I’ll leave the final word to one of our members,

“This is the only opportunity I have to hear about what my peers in other government agencies are doing.”

I think that says it all!

If you’re interested in seeing what we’re about or joining the group, please feel free to either contact me, join the LinkedIn Group here or come to our next event which tend to be on the second Thursday of the month (details will be posted on LinkedIn and OzLoop).

It’s free. It’s fun. And you’re welcome!

“How do we effectively manage large volumes of responses to consultations with limited resources, especially when these volumes are likely to increase as a result of more accessible online engagements”?

It’s a great question. The growth of the internet as a means for spreading our ‘engagement net’ ever wider brings with it the potential for a much greater degree of community participation.

Unfortunately, this is a double edged sword.

Greater engagement leads (theoretically) to better outcomes (be they policy, planning or community outcomes). However, increased consultation responses has traditionally led to more work for already over stretched engagement staff.

So how do we manage large volumes of responses to consultations with limited resources?

Currently, the most common form of response that an engagement officer gets is a large, unstructured block of text. Be that in the form of an email, a hard copy letter or the output from a web form (“Enter your comments here: “). In some cases, those responses might be in an excel spreadsheet offering slightly more structure.

The process they then go through is extremely resource intensive and varies per consultation but usually consists of the following steps:

1. Identify Relevance

Is the comment relevant to the current engagement activity? For example, the engagement might be about a new waterfront precinct but the member of the public decides to take the opportunity to express their views on the state of the local roads or levels of graffiti.

2. Extract Themes

Often responses might be highly specific in nature, and yet part of the job of an engagement officer is to identify broader themes – both to report on but also to provide consensus indication. For example, a response might be describing a specific usage scenario but the overall theme is a concern about the environment. Grouping responses enables officers to report on the ’85% of responses that were concerned about environmental impact’.

3. Relate Feedback to specific topics

The traditional mechanism for online consultation relating to large documents (like community, transport or environmental plans; or policy) is to provide the document as a PDF (or as a series of HTML pages) and request responses either by email or by filling in a web form.

A huge amount of effort goes in to extracting the comments and tying them to the specific sections of the original document. For example, sentences 3 and 7 of my email response might relate to section 3.4.3 of the transport plan.

All of this takes time and increases almost exponentially based on the number of responses and variety of channels through which responses might be received.

So are there any solutions? How can the processing of responses be achieved without having to ‘throttle’ the number of responses that are sought?

Based on my experience of a number of large scale consultation activities in the UK and the US, I believe the answer might lie in both changing the mechanism for consultation, combining quantitative and qualitative questioning; and automating many aspects of the process.

In terms of the mechanism, more and more organisations are turning to online interactive documents as their primary online consultation mechanism. Interactive documents are documents that have been specially marked up during the production process to highlight specific topics of consultation – document sections, options, recommendations or proposed policy on which the engagement officer wants input from the community.

This achieves a couple of aims. Firstly it addresses step one above by focusing the attention of the consultee on the issue at hand (in a way that the traditional ‘please provide feedback on this 200 page document’ simply can’t). I am more likely to respond ‘on topic’ if I am directed towards specific discrete questions or allowed to freely comment on a given defined recommendation.

Secondly it address the third step in the process by automatically tying the response to the relevant section (recommendation, action, policy etc) of the document. No more manually relating the comments in an email to the sections of the original document.

Example of quantitative and qualitative questioning in uEngage.

Now, what if we could combine quantative, or structured, feedback with the unstructured comments on the topic? What if we could get the consultees to provide us with the insight as to what the broad theme of their response is?Perhaps tying a discrete question (with a series of pre-defined answers) to the more unstructured feedback will help immensely.

“Is your concern relating to a) the Environmental impact, b) the Economic impact for the town, c) the Cost to implement? Please elaborate …”

This gives us both the theme (quantitive) and the feedback (qualitative) tied directly to the section (option, recommendation, Policy etc) addressing step 2.

So combining interactive documents, inline comments and questions and a scalable consultation database has the potential to dramatically improve the efficiency of the consultation process by remove much of the manual effort involved, and thus facilitate greater levels of community input leading to better outcomes for the community.

However, collecting all this information in a more structured way is only part of the solution. Once the data is in the database we then need effective reporting tools to be able to ‘slice and dice‘ data to enable us to effectively analyse the results of the engagement.

What percentage of responses to Option 1 are positive? How many of the responses focus on environmental issues. What demographic is most passionate about the changes to the proposed land usage? etc.

There are a number of tools that can provide various pieces of the puzzle. My experience, of course, is with Objective’s uEngage product. Our aim was to address all of the above in a single, simple to use, web-based system.

(Disclaimer: I work for Objective but even if I didn’t I’d still think it was pretty cool!).

But, as always, technology isn’t the complete answer. Much of the benefit of these solutions lies in effectively marking up the consultation ‘document’ with appropriate and meaningful questions. But in addition to that, it’s about encouraging consultees to assist in ensuring an efficient process.

As an example of this latter point, one of our large central government customers in the UK experimented with allowing consultees to choose between providing their responses either through the interactive document mechanism or, if they desired, using the ‘old’ model of providing a pdf document and letting them comment by email.

Most still commented by email (perhaps because this was what they were used to). Of course, this led to the processing overheads described above.

So they decided to turn off the ability to comment by email and only provided the interactive document mechanism. To their surprise, the response rates they got to the ‘interactive document only’ engagement where similar to when they offered a choice a choice of engagement mechanisms, but of course the overheads of processing were reduced dramatically.

So I believe there is a way to efficiently manage large scale engagement activities using interactive documents, in place commenting, directed questioning and comprehensive reporting.

I’ll leave the final comment, however, to one of the attendees of our recent Government 2.0 in Queensland event in response to the suggestion that the cost of managing online consultations might become too high without such tools …

“The cost of managing online consultations is nothing compared to the cost of ignoring the community”.

Hear, hear. And, thankfully, there are tools that help us to minimise the cost of the former.