The rise of Open Governance pioneers: part one
One of the interesting clusters of projects supported by the Digital Pioneers Fund consists of projects that contribute to the participation of citizens in political and policy issues. For example, the Petities.nl project by Reinder Rustema gives citizens the opportunity to start a petition online. It uses the power of the masses online to organize, take action and be a partner in conversation with politicians. Or Ikregeer.nl, by Manfred Zielinski, which opens parliamentary documents in a simple and user-friendly way. Not only were these projects part of Digital Pioneers, they are part of a broader global movement of similar initiatives.
The term eParticipation is often used in the Netherlands to refer to this movement. After discussion in the eParticipation Academy and long deliberation with the editorial staff of the State of Social Media Summit, we think we need to come up with something else. The term eParticipation proved to be confusing. On the one hand, eParticipation might be interpreted more broad than what is intended in this context, namely citizens taking part in policy and politics. On the other hand, it might also imply that there is a one way communication stream between citizens and government and that this relationship is a dualistic one. We certainly doubt this, as this relationship is slowly dissolving…
So, we came up with the working title Open Governance, of course inspired by Obama and his Open Government Directive. We would love to hear your comments and suggestions on this. Because we see a clear movement in this field, in the Netherlands, but certainly also in other countries, we would like to discuss the state of open governance during the State of Social Media Summit. Together with you and the Digital Pioneers Academy participants we investigate the rise of open governance pioneers. This blogpost will reflect on the rise of open governance pioneers in the Netherlands and will be the first in a series of 3. Any content published here is open for discussion. The final goal is to publish a manifesto with recommendations to empower this movement.
Democracy enters a new phase
The emergence of new technologies in contemporary society results in a significant change in the relationship between government and citizens. Citizens are no longer passive recipients of government, but are more active and assertive. They mobilize around public issues, discussing the functioning of government and co-shape policies that concern them. Internet applications play in the process a facilitating role.
New forms of communication, organization and government are not only possible. In a society where more and more people use new media, they have become necessary. They are necessary for contributing to the improvement of public services, public space and the functioning of our democracy. The general challenge of open governance is to prevent a misfit between the needs, expectations and capacities of citizens and government activities. With the possibilities of social media democracy enters a new phase.
Open governance in the Netherlands
Over the last decades open governance initiatives have sprouted around the world. Sometimes initiated by governments, sometimes by citizens. The US, Australia and UK are probably the best examples of governments which have been successfully stimulating initiatives and successfully formulated a strategy. With President Obama in office, the United States became the most popular example since the enactment of the Open Government Directive in 2009.
In the Netherlands Open Governance is on the rise as well. There are several grassroots initiatives in the Netherlands that support the development of Open Governance. Like Hack de Overheid (www.hackdeoverheid.nl), a movement started in 2009 that advocates more open governmental data produced by the Dutch government. Social Strategy Talk (www.socialstrategytalk.com), where the influence of social media for federal agencies, (non profit) organizations, scientists and individuals is discussed. Or initiatives like de Publieke Zaak (www.publiekezaak.nl), a platform focused on social innovation. All confirm a clear awareness of the importance of supporting and collaborating in online projects.
In 2007 the Executive Board of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (BZK) adopted the research program ‘Government and new media’ because it saw the need to investigate the influence of new media on the functioning of public administration, new opportunities and obstacles for a safe and efficient public administration in an open democracy. In recent years a rich variety of initiatives, supported by governmental and non-governmental institutions, have been experimenting with different forms of participation. Many successful open governance initiatives have emerged from that endeavor.
Digital Pioneers eParticipation
The Digital Pioneers fund has supported a number of open governance projects. Projects that aim at improving citizen’s access to information and services provided by government agencies or to organize around public issues. In 2009 Kennisland (KL), commissioned by BZK, supported seven open governance projects within a special Digital Pioneers eParticipation round. This was an experiment that met the demands of BZK on “how ICT can be used to support existing forms of participation and new forms of participation with the use of new ICT applications”. BZK used the innovative power of the society to create new applications. Central to this was the citizen, who in some projects has also worked closely with governments.
The Digital Pioneers eParticipation round proved a good tool for citizen involvement in improving services and democracy and accelerated the developments. In nine months lead-time, seven initiatives were launched, valuable publicly accessible services or products. To further sustain the grass root eParticipation projects and grass root movement, the eParticipation round was followed up by the Digital Pioneers eParticipation Academy. A learning network of active people in eParticipation, that is currently underway.
Furthermore, BZK also initiated the project Dat zou handig zijn. A competition for generating ideas around the reuse of public government data modeled after Show Us a Better Way in the UK. Launched May 2009, running until September 2009. ‘Dat zou handig zijn’ means ‘That would be great to have’ and made 20.000 Euro available to help realize the best idea(s). Recently BZK launched the Dutch Open data Catalogue, modeled after the successful catalogues in the US and UK.
Researching the state of open governance
Together with you and the Digital Pioneers Academy participants we want to investigate the rise of open governance pioneers. We would like to start an open discussion on the state of open governance and the following questions that will be presented in upcoming blogposts:
* How have open governance initiatives activated participation of civilians in politics and government?
* What are the challenges for the near future?
* What are the general recommendations for a vital open governance movement the following years?
In the next blogpost we will focus on our first findings on the first of these three questions. Your comments are expected and integrated the program of the Summit and the State of Social Media publication we are preparing to publish afterwards. This particular blogpost is open for remarks as well. If there are any other interesting examples that illustrate this moment, let us know!
Together we will set the agenda for meeting the challenges in social media in the future!
June 25th, 2010 at 17:27
Eerder verschenen via email, hier nogmaals mijn stellingen. De taal-discussie heb ik hier maar even buiten gehouden. De nummering is wel hetzelfde. Het belangrijkste punt is de stelling 3.
2. Ik moet me even verplaatsen naar de persoon die dit moet lezen, wie is dat? Zijn wij dat als een soort van geloofsovertuiging of -neuzen dezelfde kant op- beweging of gaan we er ook mee naar buiten.
3. eParticipatie is m.i. breder dan open Governance. Participatie is meedoen, Governance is overheid. Mijn initiatief (en dat van anderen) zijn juist niet met de overheid bezig. eParticipatie is (te) breed, Governance is voor mij te beperkt. Een andere begrip? Wie denkt mee?
4. Ik hoor in het hele verhaal telkens van de relatie tussen overheid en burgers. Juist ook in het veld van de overheid die moet bezuinigen (en dus een beroep gaat doen op zelfredzaamheid van burgers. en een efficiënt opererende overheid met meer open data). Het gaat dus mi. niet alleen om de uitdagingen maar ook over komende noodzaken waar we een plekje in moeten gaan vinden.
Aanzet voor discussie !
June 28th, 2010 at 10:29
Thank you for your comments Wim!
If I may summerize your third point, in your opinion the term Open Government is too limited, because a) open governance is about the government, whereas a lot of initiatives in the NL are not concerned with the government, and b) it has no referance to the participation of citizens… According to Wikipedia, governance means the activity to govern and is derived from the Greek verb κυβερνάω [kubernáo] which means to steer. There are different types of governance (corporate, NGO, participatory or political to which you are referring). So governance doesn’t necessarily has to be about the government (the instrument we created to administer these processes and systems). I think the term Open Governance reflects nicely on the fact that we are going beyond the government as subject and citizen as object relation, to a more equal one where they can be both subject. It already takes for granted that citizens participate in the process…
Summerizing your fourth point, you pint out that we have to observe that governments have to economize and will appeal on citizens to self organize. To put this as a challenge might sound a bit as if we have a choice in meeting this or not. I agree with you that this process is irreversible and thus a neccessity, not a challenge…
July 1st, 2010 at 15:26
Dear Nikki.
My first (why English ?) 2 and 3 point come a bit together. English is a barrier and a lot of people will interpret these term wrongly. Not only me, but also others (listed in other forums ) did not understand the meaning as you meant it to be. My advice: Make a chapter “Governance” and use the definitions as you found on the wiki as part of the document. That will clear things a bit.
My point 4. you state “I agree with you that this process is irreversible and thus a neccessity, not a challenge…” It is a bit of a wordplay I think.
A challenge is for me something what needs to be done and what will require a lot of non-standard thinking of all people involved.