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17. 'How to' Guides <- Back to categories
e-Methods Guide
This report is to help local authorities identify appropriate e-methods for engaging with citizens. The report is directed at councillors and officials in local government, and the methods are discussed from their perspective.
This report was written by:
Ann Macintosh, Professor of e-Governance and Director of the International Teledemocracy Centre at Napier University.
Stephen Coleman, Visiting Professor in e-Democracy at Oxford Internet Institute.
Mansur Lalljee, Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford and University Lecturer in Social Psychology.
A Guide to Evaluating e-Democracy Projects
Evaluation is vital to providing a well-rounded view of any project. It should be critically honest about what things have gone well, as well as about its difficulties and shortcomings. Future projects will benefit from both types of information.
e-Democracy: What Works
Key lessons from reacent e-Democracy literature, published in March 2005 by the local e-Democracy National Project, following research by Bristol City Council and MORI.
Civic Leadership Blogging 'How to' Guide
The main premise of this document is that a weblog in the hands of a local civic official can be an effective leadership tool. Elected representatives as well as Chief Executives and senior managers of local authorities and other community leaders can use blogs to leverage their leadership skills and activities in ways that aren’t easily done otherwise.
A related premise is that blogging’s potential in the world of civic leadership has been overshadowed byits reputation as a tool for personal diaries, for partisan politics, and as a mainstream media alternative.
50+ Website Toolkit
Council decision-making processes involve a number of stakeholders and a large amount of information. Because of this, the process isn’t always transparent to all participants – Elected Members/Councillors, internal stakeholders, and citizens don’t necessarily have all the information they need, and citizens, especially, may find it difficult to understand and participate in the process.
Administering the report-writing and consultation process electronically, and making the relevant documents available online, is an excellent way to help with these transparency and information issues. The following diagram shows the positive impact which this can have at each stage.
50+ Website - Developers' Roadmap
How to deliver a website aimed at 50+ age group for consultation purposes.
Barriers to e-Democracy: Local Government Experiences and Responses
Our research has been designed to complement the MORI/Bristol survey by providing a more detailed analysis of the actual state of local e-Democracy (in the form of a website analysis) and more in-depth understanding of the problems and opportunities that different actors within local government perceive (in the form of interviews with a range of people in different local authorities).
Councillors' Websites Legal Guidance
This report provides guidance on legal issues related to e-democracy, particularly in relation to Councillors’ websites. The key points are:
·The basic principles which apply are those set out in the Code of Conduct for Members and the Code of Practice on Local Authority Publicity.
· Facilities to publish web pages provided to Councillors by councils must not be used for party political purposes.
· Councillors may prefer to use non-council funded facilities where they can express themselves more freely.
· Links from council sites to external sites containing party political comment are believed to be permissible, subject to the use of an appropriate disclaimer process and to removal of these links during pre-election periods.
Democratic Communities: Working with Local Groups
This document reports on the methodology and outputs from this project. It brings together the learning and materials so that any local authority wishing to undertake a similar project will have a model and a toolkit to customise for their circumstance.
E-Consultation in Partnership: A How to Guide
This guide discusses the organisational processes and resources needed to conduct e-consultation in partnership. It reflects pilot work undertaken in a number of different partnerships as part of the Local e-Democracy National Project.
There are several ways to relate e-consultation to partnership working, and there is no single model that will be appropriate for all types of partnership - a “mix and match” approach is recommended to reflect local priorities and circumstances. However, this guide outlines a sequence of general steps that will be needed for most partnership work on e-consultation. It describes the various approaches and experiences of the different pilot partnerships with these steps, and identifies the benefits and risks of partnership e-consultation.
e-Panels and e-Participation 'How to' Guide
Many authorities have established citizen or resident panels as a central focus for consultation strategies. So far, e-technology has had limited impact on traditional citizens’ panels although some local authorities have experimented with online questionnaires and electronic feedback.
E-panels are a form of citizens panel that uses new technology such as discussion forums, online surveys, live chats, quick polls or votes. Interaction places e-participation at the heart of the panel process. By e-enabling panel members to communicate and deliberate with each other and with local authority decision makers, the aim is to increase ‘community participation’ in the panel process and increase input into local authority decision-making.
Guidance on Making e-Democracy Work
A high-level introduction to implementing e-Democracy in local government.
Guidelines for User Focused Design of Partnership e-Consultation Facilities
This document looks at the design requirements for an e-consultation system to be used in partnership. It accompanies the software specification framework and how-to guide for partnership e-consultation.
The aim is to show how to develop policy objectives through design requirements and into actual design features, and provide user evaluation of some specific examples as a basis for guidelines on what works well. Because of the limited experience with pilot projects at the time of writing, the user evaluation so far is limited. We hope to extend it in a later update of this document.
These questions are examined from the perspectives of two different kinds of user. The citizen using the public face of the system should obviously be considered, although much other usability work already addresses these issues. In a partnership context, the views of partner agencies using the data input and administration tools will be important, and if a range of partners including community groups are involved, the skills and experience of those taking on these tasks will vary enormously.
There may also be a third relevant perspective. If the partnership attempts to co-ordinate its public consultation work, it will need consultation managers who will use the system for management information rather than operational purposes. This role is being developed in some of the pilots, but it has not been possible to include guidance for this group of users as yet. It may be added in a later version of this document.
iCan Councillors' Guidance
The BBC iCan web site aims to help people take their first steps to address local issues that they care about. Through the web site, people can find information about their issue, make contact with interested neighbours, share experiences and also use the site to start a campaign. This document provides guidelines for councillors’ involvement with BBC iCan.
iCan Local Authority Officers Guidance
The BBC iCan web site aims to help people take their first steps to address local issues that they care about. Through the web site, people can find information about their issue, make contact with interested neighbours, share experiences and also use the site to start a campaign. This document provides guidelines for contributions by Local Authority officers.
iCan UK Local Authorities
This guide aims to inform councils about how they can work with civic society web sites such as BBC iCan. It provides suggestions for activities that councils and councillors can undertake to work with iCan to encourage and support local civic engagement.
This guide and its associated materials represent the outcomes of activities undertaken by the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, Stroud District Council, St Albans City and District Council and NorthLincsNet (part of North Lincolnshire Council) as part of the Partnership with BBC iCan project.
iCan: Quick Start Guide
Through iCan, you can:
* Find info: Read about 1000s of local issues from grafitti to recycling to medical complaints, and find out how to do something about them. * Find people: Get in touch with your neighbours and local organisations; exchange ideas and experiences.
* Take action: If you want something to change, read how you can build support and publicity … and then set up a campaign on iCan!
Local e-petitioning - 'How to' Guide
'How to’ guide on developing and running an online petitioning service for UK Local Authorities.
Local Issues Forum Guidebook
You might be asking yourself, “What is a local Issues Forum?”
Simply put, a local Issues Forum is an online forum like a town hall meeting or public commons where any citizen, journalist, or elected official can:
• Post an idea,
• Ask a question,
• Make a public announcement,
• Connect with one another,
• Monitor public opinion,
• Ask for public input, and
• A place where journalists can look for story ideas or identify sources for articles.
MicroDemocracy Citizen Engagement Toolkit
This “How To” guide explains how an authority might implement MicroDemocracy using a number of options. The “How to” guide has been structured to closely follow the PRINCE 2 methodology and large parts of the guide can be directly lifted to form elements of the project plan. This is part one of the overall MicroDemocracy ‘How To’ guide and covers set up and technical implementation. Part two will cover Policies and Procedures for using MicroDemocracy and will be developed following detailed evaluation of the concept and software by Swindon BC.
Online Surgeries for Young People Guidance Report
'How to’ guidance on running multi-representative online surgeries with young people.
Requirements for an e-Consultation System for Partnerships
This framework specification identifies the range of features and facilities that may be required for a software system to support consultation activity in a partnership context. It is intended to be tailored to create a specification reflecting the individual needs and priorities of a particular partnership. Each of the features and facilities is described, the circumstances in which it is required and its benefits and drawbacks are outlined, and any inter-relationships with other features and facilities are noted.
The framework is intended to be of value to both multi-agency partnerships, such as local strategic partnerships, and to partnerships of county and district councils in areas of two-tier local government. It is based on pilot work in both these types of partnership.
Visible Voices Best Practice Guide
To provide a website with associated forums for young people in Surrey. To involve young people in the democratic process by opening up a two-way electronic channel of communication between Surrey’s partners and young people.
Visible Voices Model Business Case
This document outlines the costs and benefits of delivering the Visible Voices project.
It is not a business case in the sense of identifying requirement against cost justification and measuring the project against the business case but is intended to assist in obtaining the funding, possibly only in part, from external sources. More information about the Visible Voices project is available in the PID and the deliverables: The Developers’ Toolkit and The Roadmap. The best practice guide covers the UrcountyURsay project, which was used as a host for Visible Voices.
Visible Voices - Video Consultation of Young People
The e-Democracy National Project is developing links between councils and communities with the use of new technologies. Surrey County Council will be using video to engage local young people in council processes through a series of filming events under the banner ‘More than just a Voice’.
Partnership Working and Consultation - Data Structures - Recommended Data Structures for Sharing Information
In 2001, the City of Seattle created a "democracy portal" through a multi-stakeholder group called the Seattle Commission on Electronic Communications. Building from 8 years of cable television experience, an expanded Seattle Channel was created based on the Community Groups and Technology Survey Results of March 2001. Currently, 87 percent of Seattle Channel viewers have Internet access, and there is an increasing demand for new technologies, such as video on demand, increased interactivity and web services.
The Seattle Channel enhanced its features to increase public awareness, understanding and participation in government, community and cultural affairs. Newly elected Mayor Greg Nickels sponsored an initial supplemental budget of $200,000 to enhance the TV channel's activities and to build its new website. In 2003, the city government completed construction of a new City Hall, which includes a studio and working space for the Seattle. This integrated multimedia service is for the City of Seattle, its citizens, officials and employees. The Seattle Channel is a unique combination of a 24 hour cable channel and an interactive website. Website: http://www.seattlechannel.org/.
Democracy Debate Toolkit
This toolkit has been developed to support councils in the early stages of e-democracy development. It recognises that some e-democracy tools will be in existence in all councils – at the minimum, each council has a website that provides information on how local democracy works in the locality. However, it also encourages councils to think about how they can use e-democracy more strategically.
Implementing Democratic Information Management
Building Your Own Website
This guide contains a description of the technical architecture, the methodology for development, adaptation of the APLAWS CMS and information about the functions of the website.
Webcasting Event Checklist
This document provides a checklist of considerations for anyone wishing to webcast an event or to organise a remote viewing of a webcast event. The checklist focuses on the operational information needed and is designed for use by the event organiser. It is not a technical ‘How to Webcast’.
The event could be on Council premises or out in the community and could be anything from a formal meeting to a community hosted debate. The checklist covers venue assessment’ webcasting formats and also covers steps to be taken if you need to use a satellite van to provide Internet connectivity as opposed to the more usual ISDN or ADSL connection. This checklist covers the event planning process as it is affected by the decision to webcast an event.
Webcasting Facilitators' Checklist
Webcasting is a way to communicate interactively with the community and within local authorities. Anyone with an Internet connection can access a live webcast or they can watch past webcasts via an archive. Webcasting is fast becoming an extremely popular way of using audio/visual technology to engage with the community.
This document looks at the issues to address before webcasting, as regardless of the technology you use, there are some key preparations and considerations to deal with.
Webcasting Technical Architecture
This document focuses on the technical architecture that makes up Lewisham’s ‘Streaming Suitcases’. In our brief to potential suppliers we specified that we were looking for three portable webcasting solutions to meet different webcasting needs. The successful supplier put together the following components for each suitcase.
Webcasting: Community Focus
The project produces research from ‘real’ webcast events in the rural community of North Lincolnshire. This includes the remote viewing of council meetings in a village hall (i.e. no home computer required) and proof of concept for a satellite uplink during a webcast from the community.
Webcasting Overview Guide
Video is just one of the technologies whose use is massively on the increase on many websites as a result of the rapid increases in Broadband take-up. Local Authorities who are using video are finding that it matches many people’s preferences in terms of the format of information and creates new and engaging ways of communicating with the public.
Webcasting is the most effective way of distributing video to website users. In simple terms it is the broadcast of audio and video over the internet. Unlike a web cam it provides a moving image with synchronised audio and video. Webcasts can be produced in such a way as to enable viewers with a 56k dial-up phone connection to view them – however picture quality is largely dependent on the size of the viewer’s internet connection so viewers with a better connection will see a better picture.
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