The Wheel

The Wheel trial on active citizenship was the third and final trial. These trials are part of a wider research project on e-consultation, started in January 2004, by Queen's University Belfast, the University of Maynooth and Limerick Institute of Technology.

The Wheel case provided learning about what not to do when organising an E-Consultation.

Conclusion

1. This is an effective way to collect tacit knowledge from people, by stimulating them to tell their stories to the world, on a collective blog. You can get high quality interesting responses.
2. The multiple routes for submission worked, so bridging the digital divide. If you cannot access the web, use e-mail. If not, send a text. If all else fails, telephone and record a message.
3. It doesn’t require as much work for the consulters as do discussion forums or even surveys. But it does require some attention.
4. Publicity is needed to bring people to a site. This can be done through the media (from press releases to a launch by the Taoiseach), or by making people aware of the site when they visit their favourite on-line hangouts (messages in mailing lists or on-line games, or buying Google adwords so that when people search for ‘active citizenship’ they find the site).
5. Copy-writing for the web takes skill and time. But without it, people will leave the site before even having a chance to submit a story

See Speech by the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, T.D., at the Conference on the Future of the Community and Voluntary Sector: http://www.activecitizen.ie/index.asp?locID=12&docID=5