subject: Digital Engagement: An Alternative Perspective [print this page] Budget cuts, Big Society and the future for local government
Budget cuts and austerity, these are two phrases that have become synonymous with Britain's new government. These cuts are already being felt throughout government, and in particular, sweeping spending changes are being made in local government as local council budgets are being slashed by 1.165 billion. Radical spending cuts are being paired with the coalition government's ideal of a Big Society', one in which communities are being given greater freedom to govern. But this freedom requires consultation with citizens. Citizen engagement is a necessary condition in order to make Big Society' function, as engagement allows citizens to become empowered to allow them to influence decisions. But the way in which we communicate is changing. The past decade has seen the rise of the digital generation' and Ofcom found that consumers are spending almost half their waking hours using media and communications. It is obvious that digital technology has changed the way we communicate, and digital communications is rising in prominence. Local government needs to ensure that it is not being left behind by embracing these changes and harnessing the benefits that such technology can bring.
Digital over traditional and the financial rewards
So we have the drivers of digital communications: budget cuts, Big Society', citizen engagement and the digital generation. But drivers alone do not represent a sufficient argument for digital communication. The benefits that digital communications and digital engagement can bring are wide scale. The most obvious are the financial benefits that are brought about through digital usage compared to traditional methods of engagement, such as flyering, mail-shots and paper-based surveys. A simple comparison of consultation method highlights the benefits aptly. Let's take an example: a local council wants to survey the local community on their bin collection. Without the use of digital apparatus, the costs quickly mount. Firstly, there are printing costs; secondly there are distributional costs, then the costs of collecting these surveys, collating them and finally publishing reports. Not only are there direct monetary costs as mentioned, but this process also uses up both vast human resources and a lengthy period of time. It must also be highlighted that the time it takes to carry out this survey often means that by the time the survey is completed, the results are outdated.
Digital resources on the other hand not only replace the need for three out of the five stages mentioned above; it drastically reduces the costs of the two stages that digital consultation requires the publishing of the survey and the reporting. Distributing becomes irrelevant as digitally hosting surveys puts the survey in one place allowing constant access. Digital technology also automatically collects and generates the resulting data, allowing for easy reporting. And in comparison, uploading a survey costs just a fraction of what it costs to print. Even if one wants to consider the fixed cost of creating such a system to survey in this way, the savings are still evident. So to summarise, digital communications are financially cheaper than traditional communication methods, less time consuming and require radically fewer human resources.
Engagement as a necessity for a democratic society
The benefits that arise from engagement itself cannot be ignored either. A paper by Anthony Zacharzewski entitled Democracy Pays: How democratic engagement can cut the cost of government' highlights reasons why engagement is beneficial to democracy. To summarise those points, it is suggested that it provides a better understanding of citizen's wants and needs, which results in more effective policy choices and therefore allows more efficient cuts in spending. Not only does engagement benefit policy, it also increases the transparency of local government actions, allowing citizens to see for themselves what their local councils are doing and what they are spending. Freeing up such information and allowing the spread of open data through engagement can only increase the trust that citizens have for their local councils, which benefits all involved.
Engagement with a digital twist
The above are valid arguments when thinking about engagement as a general notion, but why digital engagement? Well, one can argue that digital engagement allows the process to be streamlined into one easy course of action, where the results are found in one place and easily stored and accessed whenever necessary if needed for reference for example. We have also noted how the digital generation' is driving the change in communications and the ways in which we use technology, and therefore local government should follow the trend. But one can also argue that this digital generation', a generation that is notoriously politically apathetic, will find digital engagement more appealing than traditional methods, therefore empowering an entire section of the population who would otherwise show little interest in what the Big Society' has to offer.
Social media: the right path to take?
Social media has often been touted as the ideal vehicle that digital engagement can use. On average people are spending almost five and a half hours on social media websites and social media companies have in total just under 307.5million unique users. So it is clear to see that there is a huge potential in the use of social media for political engagement, and many political agents are beginning to use sites such as Facebook and Twitter, a key example being Blogminster on Twitter which collates blog entries from MPs and posts them on Twitter. Social media is an attractive prospect for many as not only is it low cost, but many of the audience that want to be targeted are there to be found. The 21st Century Councillor Programme highlights how social media extends the reach of community conversations and helps to support local leadership. So social media seems to fulfil the criteria, not only is it low-cost, but, as Michele Ide-Smith found, it increases the transparency of information, it is useful to gauge public opinion, makes information distribution easier and enables communities to gather support for campaigns
Battling the divide
But there are two problems with using social media, in my view. Firstly, how manageable and customisable are sites that are created primarily for social interaction and not for consultation? For one must remember that engagement and consultation are slightly different concepts. And secondly, social media sites do not overcome the problem of the digital divide. The digital divide is the divide between those that have the access and knowledge of digital technology, and those that do not. Digital Engagement found that 17 million people in the UK still do not use a computer or the internet - over half of the number of people that voted in the 2010 election and his highlights the problems of using social media as an engagement tool. If local governments are aiming for equality in access to information and in access to the engagement process, then social media sites are merely excluding those who do not have and those that do not want access to the internet. Groups such as Race Online 2012 are making efforts to make such technology available to more people, but there is still a long way to go to reduce the 17 million person deficit. Social media may be easy and cost-effective, but the extent to which it is inclusive has a limit.
Rethinking the route ahead
Liz Azyan in her paper Government-to-citizen Communications: Utilising Multiple Digital Channels effectively argues that digital communication must be simpler, more manageable, must close the digital divide, and have a simple delivery of information which must be directed to the users needs. After scouring the internet, social media sites, blogs and news articles I found such sites as Public-i that offers a range of multimedia engagement tools, but still faces the problem of the digital exclusion. So much has been spoken about getting people online and giving people access to the internet, but in my opinion, while this can help tackle social and economic exclusion, it is the wrong way to go in order to find a solution to the digital engagement problem.
Finding another way
Digitalengagement.org and its manifesto was created and an offensive was launched on digital exclusion, and while these efforts are necessary to tackle economic and social exclusion that comes with digital exclusion, engagement tools and information delivery must be accessible by all, and that means everyone. Just because we talk of engagement in terms of technology it does not necessarily mean we are speaking about engagement online. I am not here to argue that internet websites are not beneficial to digital engagement, because they are and they possess great potential for local councils if used correctly. Local government cannot focus solely on using the internet, but with budgets being cut councils are finding it increasingly hard to engage citizens in any other way. However there are alternatives that are being piloted at the moment that fills the criteria and addresses the problems and needs of digital engagement that I have mentioned in the above. This concept is called window.i connect and is already being used successfully by Glasgow City Council. The difference between window.i connect and other digital resources are firstly, it is accessible by anyone, regardless of technological ability or access, and secondly, it can be used as either an information delivery service or an interactive consultation system.
window.i connect: the multipurpose solution
window.i connect is already being used by Glasgow City Council, and the sites consist of an interactive digital display situated behind a shop or office glass front that is accessible to anyone using the touchpad provided. The display on screen is fully customisable and can display an array of information, consultations and campaigns, making it ideal for local government usage. Not only does window.i connect allow effective information delivery, but it has many advantages over social media. For example, it allows councils to slash advertising budgets as events and information can be updated instantly and displayed on screen therefore reducing the need to poster or flyer.
But the second element to window.i connect is the fact that not only does it communicate essential information; it can also be used as a consultation device and these are two key elements to citizen engagement. Hosts can upload surveys which are undertaken by users with either complete anonymity or with submission of user details. Feedback from these surveys can be accessed at near real-time, meaning all data is accurate and relevant, while the system will compile data into easy and readable graphics. The system also allows the host to access useful data on content popularity, such as when content was accessed and how many times which can also be seen in usage reports. Because window.i connect is multi-purpose, there is so much potential to form local partnerships with other local authorities and sponsors. It can potentially streamline the delivery of information from a number of local authorities (for example the fire service, local hospitals, job centres) into one place, making information easy to locate and access.
Glasgow City Council: the success story
Glasgow City Council opened their first site in April 2010 and they currently have four pilot sites running around the city centre. Over two years it is expected that the council will save around 30,000, with this figure increasing dramatically as new sites open and the usage of the extra sites increases. The council reported that local community councils (or parish councils) budget for citizen engagement was 800, but is now being slashed to 100 with the use of window.i connect. This either means that budgets can be cut more effectively, or spending can be redirected to other important areas. The whole concept is supported by the Scottish Green Party as part of a communications strategy. Glasgow City Council are also looking toward the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games in which they plan to use the window.i connect system in and around their facilities in order to improve information delivery, especially to visitors of the games.
Rethinking the phrase digital engagement'
The Glasgow case study has provided evidence of the successes of not only digital engagement, but a unique form of digital engagement, one in which the citizen decides what information they want to consume. As has been shown, the use of technology is driving down costs, allowing for greater citizen engagement and empowering citizens as they are starting to aid decision making processes in local government whilst reducing the time spent carrying out these processes. This process is making citizen engagement on the whole a more efficient and popular experience. As I have found though, window.i connect provides a comprehensive solution in the fact that it bridges the digital divide and allows citizens to become engaged in ways that online resources do not allow.
The words digital engagement does not have to become synonymous with the internet as they so often have done recently. But there is a much simpler way to engage local citizens which does not require getting everyone online. Digital engagement is definitely the way forward, but the internet is not necessarily the road it should take, instead systems like window.i connect offer an efficient and all inclusive engagement experience.
