Digital Dialogues
Digital Dialogues is an independent review of ways in which central
government can use information and communication technology (ICT) to
enable and enhance public engagement. It has been commissioned by the Ministry of Justice and is carried out by the Hansard Society. The project has now been extended to a fourth phase, running until late 2009. This will include
a range of innovative new small case studies from central government,
local government and the third sector. In addition, this phase will
deliver a guide to effective online enagagement and a new
self-evaluation toolkit.
The initiative has three basic aims:
- To promote awareness of online engagement technology and techniques available to central government;
- To embed online engagement skills in central government;
- To evaluate a series of case studies in order to benchmark administrator and user demographics, attitudes and behaviours.
The initial case-study research and evaluation was undertaken in three distinct phases.
The
first, which lasted for eight months, sought to explore how government
departments approached online engagement with stakeholders and the
public; the evaluation was based on six case studies.
The
second lasted for a year, evaluating twelve case studies – many of
which tracked how government departments and agencies were developing
online strategies based on what had been learned from phase 1.
The third phase lasted for twelve months, evaluating seven case studies – some of
which focused on innovative approaches to embedding online engagement
at different stages of the policy process. The third and final report in the series was published in August 2008.
All of the reports are available on the Digital Dialogues website.