e-Government? First Educate Politicians about ICTs

Canberra.
The next speaker at ANZCA 2010 is Julie Freeman, whose interest is in impediments to local e-government development. She suggests that there needs to be further education about ICTs of policy makers; one of the councillors of the city of Casey, in the south-east of Melbourne, whom she interviewed asked whether email was considered to be Internet use, for example.

The current population of Casey is around 256,000 residents (on 400 square kilometres), and continues to grow; some 89% are under 60. There are 11 councillors representing residents in the city council. The city has an extensive and sophisticated Website (with multilingual information and mobile versions), and its Twitter account (@CityOfCasey) has some 500 followers; there are significant visitor numbers (over 700,000 in 2008/9), while call centre calls are slowly declining. There is also a civic networking site, and the overall e-government costs are around $10,000 per annum.

There aren't many truly interactive features online, however - council does not respond to Twitter comments, and the Website is mainly used for information and for standard customer interaction; this is driven largely by a marked reluctance to relinquish control of political messages. Truly interactive features remain locked down; proposals to Webcast council meetings, for example, were voted down for fear of legal action against councillors making problematic statements. Some of this is also linked to party politics, of course, or at any rate to a coalition of sceptical councillors.

ICT education may be necessary here. There is limited knowledge amongst many councillors about the affordances and possibilities of online technologies; some councillors were unaware that broadband access was an issue in Casey, for example (where existing infrastructure is nearly maxed out), or that it was in high demand; and the council's social media report focussed on the potential dangers of social media use, and addressed none of the benefits.

Additonally, there needs to be education about the potential for citizen participation: councillors acknowledged the value of direct contact with citizens, but this would impact on council decisions only if substantial pressure is brought to bear; they also took the view that citizens should be informed only when - that is, after - council decisions had been made: citizens' meetings were seen as a waste of time because citizens had emotional responses to issues under consideration. If representatives are meant to speak for citizens, this is obviously problematic.

Finally, government policies shape civic capacity to participate in politics, and they influence such participation. Casey has no e-government policies at this point, but no councillor was aware of this fact. Numbers on council also affect which existing policies are actually followed - so this lack of awareness completely stifles any progress towards the adoption of e-government civic participation tools. E-government limitations in Casey are informed by a lack of awareness of ICT possibilities by councillors, and by their lack of awareness that this even is a problem.

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