My recent post on 50 Small Hurdles to Open Government generated some great comments and conversation. And so, with the encouragement of a number of those who commented, I took the 50 hurdles from the blog post, and turned them into a Wiki where anyone can share insights and ideas for overcoming them.
Take a look and see if you can offer some tips for dealing with the technical, organisation, policy and skill-set hurdles that hold back so much digital engagement potential in local and national government.
And in true Wiki style it can be built up and developed. Paul Evans has already pointed out one ommission which now has it’s own page: the lack of clarity about what the law says about engagement. However, thanks to Paul’s pointer to ICELE guidance, and contributions from the DC10PlusNetwork today, we now have a pretty good list of where laws and policies support and enable online engagement rather than prevent it.
Visit the Overcoming the Hurdles Wiki here.
The shorter version of my argument was that – in a representative government, the tension between bureaucrats and those who have been elected is still there. Much of the resistance to the promotion of interactivity is not rooted in an incoherent approach to the problem (which is kind of implied by your 50 point plan) but wilful foot-dragging.
Don’t get me wrong though – the original post and the wiki idea are both great ones – sooner or later the camel’s back *will* break 😉
Tim, you have a keen knowledge of immediate needs and problems. But it might be worth keeping some high-level issues–dilemmas that arent easily resolved–in mind. I’ve made my own little list here:
http://www.praxagora.com/andyo/professional/government_participation_question.html
Paul, Andy
I would not dispute either that there many high-level issue-dilemmas, nor that there is a lot of foot-dragging that goes on. If open government is worth pursuing then it should be so at least in part because it involves redistribution of power – and that is always likely to be unappealing to some. And any redistribution of power needs to be analysed for it’s impact on values we hold as fundamental (which of course are likely to be contested…).
The relationship between foot-dragging and practical issues though is worth exploring. Practical issues are the things over which feet are dragged and which create the resistance (if that doesn’t stretch metaphors too far).
The particular genesis of the list I of 50 Hurdles however was a response to finding both front-line staff and senior managers who do want to move forward with engagement – but are being held back because of the many small issues which they do not have a map to navigate.
Ping!
http://neilojwilliams.net/missioncreep/2009/foundinteresting-17-may-to-2-june/