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.

The Wheel Context

The Wheel was established in 2000, as a non-profit body for community and voluntary organisations in the Republic of Ireland.

The Wheel to represent, and seek the views of, the community and voluntary organisations to government.

Following the establishment of the Task Force on Active Citizenship [1], the Wheel decided to conduct a consultation about active citizenship. The aim was to inform the Wheel of member/non-members' views on different aspects of active citizenship.

The Wheel decided on the use of e-consultation for the first time in an attempt to increase possible participation in the consultation.

Process and planning

The Wheel team and the research team met to discuss e-consultation.

The Wheel had little resources to support an e-consultation, such as moderating the online forums, providing and maintaining the technology, trained staff etc.

The research team agreed to support The Wheel in most, in return for research privileges.

From further discussions, The Wheel team agreed to incorporate a feedback mechanism into the e-consultation - to inform participants of their progress - and develop a strategy for recruiting participants.

E-consultation design

The e-consultation was structured along four themes:

1. Who is an active citizen?
2. What should the role of the state be in active citizenship?
3. How can The Wheel facilitate active citizenship?
4. Reflect on the terms of reference.

Comments would posted on to an onlibe blog for each of the four themes. No registration was required, permitting anyone to post and read stories. In addition, contributions could be made by various means:

• via the website
• using e-mail
• via mobile phone
• via telephone (using a voice mail system)

The design of the website built on lessons learned from Waterways Ireland. The end result was a site that reads well for any level of internet user or experience in consultations.

Expectations for E-consultation

This was the first e-consultation ever conducted by the Wheel. Therefore, the researcher team were keen to identify initial expectations of the consulters and consultees for the E-Consultation.

The Consulters

The Wheel team expected the e-cponsultaion would improve the opportunity to learn and experience another method of reaching out the clients. this was important becasue it was a break from traditional methods, whihc were viewed as problematic.

Two concerns were:

1. Getting enough people to contribute
2. Community's and Voluntary sector's access to PCs, internet and other technology

The Consultees

Consultees had mixed feelings about e-consultaiton: some were positive, others were negative. Their experience varied from simply proficiency in IT to inter-agency ocnsultation. Expectations were very varied. Some exmaples were a for all their views to be heard and affect planning, and to gain better understadning of the e-consultation methodlogy for their own use.

Consultation Data Generated

--This may be scrapped--

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