The ability to elicit people’s views through new technology has many advantages. It is a form of mass publishing that lets the audience decide whether or not they want to participate; they can do so at a time, and increasingly a place, of their own choosing – and it saves a small forest of trees!

Then there’s the question of cost. Of course, the cost-per-response appears much cheaper, especially for high-volume routine e-surveys and, no doubt, Finance Officers regularly salivate at the apparent savings that would be achieved if this method of communication could render the traditional time-consuming, and costly, alternatives unnecessary.

This is probably one of the reasons why we are beginning to see a spate of online only consultations. It is not the only reason. Many organisations lack the skills or the know-how to run focus groups, organise public meetings, meet stakeholder groups and use other dialogue methods – and hiring specialist consultants, or paying intermediaries, takes management effort as well as money. Moreover, whenever multiple channels are used, there is the problem of absorbing and analysing different types of output data. Isn’t life so much simpler, if we just select one method, and let those who wish to take part find their way to that option?