Originally published 11 April 2009. This article is retained from the tCI archive. Law, policy or practice may have changed since publication.
One of the terms that’s used for up-to-the-minute information technology is Cloud computing.
There have been worse examples of marketing hype; at least this conjures up an appropriate image of bits and bytes winging their way from place to place at the speed of light in the wireless world we now inhabit. It seems that most business applications will soon be hosted over the internet; the massive growth in social networking is already a virtual phenomenon; cloud socialising!
So what is the role of cloud consultation? For every enthusiast that points to the lower costs per interaction or exploits the flexibility of eParticipation or eConsultation programmes, there are others who rightly worry about the digital divide and the limitations of online-only dialogues (See Topic No 118). In reality, there are few people who identify with one camp or another; most accept that the modern world of public engagement involves a balance between having your head in the clouds and your feet on the ground.
Striking that balance will, however, be quite difficult in the coming year. There are three reasons for this:-
1. Even though it sometimes looks as if all public bodies have embraced new technology when running a consultation – actually only a minority have done so to any serious extent. The odd eSurvey does not amount to the strategic investment that will be needed in the next few years, so organisations may be fooling themselves as to their actual capability. 2. Too many eParticipation systems are not being used to their full potential. Having a great consultation register isn’t much good if the data is not up-to-date. Training users appears too often to be an optional extra; to function properly organisations need many officials able to work with these systems. 3. There is a continuing debate as to whether public bodies should, or should not, insist on open-source IT solutions. For non-technical Consultation Managers or public engagement staff, this may seem an irrelevance, but for career technocrats, fascination with this choice is reason enough to delay decisions that should have been taken already. 4. Social networking is coming of age, and is becoming increasingly useable for business ... and, indeed, political purposes. It’s made some public bodies think it may not be necessary to make or buy dedicated eParticiption tools, and that they can rely on stakeholders to network among themselves instead.
All these amount to a hesitation to commit fully to cloud consultation. In short, those who haven’t already taken the plunge and learnt how to use the new techniques are in danger of being left behind. This matters! Organisations without a credible conduit to their stakeholders will be perceived as weak and less interested in hearing their views. And, important as the traditional face-to-face methods remain, relying solely upon these will exclude those time-poor consultees for whom electronic communication is becoming the only option.
Time consciousness is a big issue. It explains the remarkable rise of Twitter. Restricting each message to 140 characters ensures brevity (No good for Tuesday Topics, then!), and creates a new form of staccato communication that may well have its uses in some consultation scenarios. But it also runs the risk of creating exclusive conversations among the twitterati, with few others joining in.
This demonstrates the need for a balanced portfolio of dialogue methods. Those who ignore the emerging Technologies for eParticipation will put their organisations at a disadvantage. Those who train most staff and equip a sufficient number of them with the skills to make good use of these channels develop a truly institutional – rather than individual - capability. Such organisations will win!
Trigger points
- How would you characterise your own organisation’s investment in new participation technology?
- Become fully clued-up. Come to our event on Technologies for Participation on 11th November 2009 in Manchester.
- For an interesting discussion of the danger of Tweets becoming too technical – by Gez Smith of Delib
This is the 148th Tuesday Topic; a full list of subjects covered is available for Institute members and is a valuable resource covering so many aspects of consultation and engagement