Open Government and Public Engagement: Making Citizens Voices Heard
Laura Wesley�Canadian Open Data Summit
Edmonton
Table of Contents
Vision
Behind the scenes
The Need
Prototype
Consulting Canadians / The Commons
In an effort to deliver on our Open Dialogue / Open Policy Making commitment, the Government of Canada has been collaborating with civic tech and public engagement practitioners to co-create an eco-system for citizens and government to engage online.
We would like your endorsement to continue building out this proof of concept.
Under what conditions would you use this site?
Where we at?
Vision
Prototype
Behind the scenes
The Need
Open Government
An invitation to Canadians to shape gov
A view into government; not a narrow program
It’s meta: co-create opportunities for citizens to engage with their government - especially important in establishing nation-to-nation relations
Open Dialogue
Talk to us
Participate in a consultation
Tweet at a minister or department
Host your own town hall
Sign up to be notified of future opportunity to engage (by topic, location, department)
For Public Servants
Join the Consultations Community of Practice to learn from your peers and find experts.
Download the playbook with tips and tricks and a decision tree to help design consultations.
Get help by contracting through the standing offer
Collaborate on The Commons with specialists from private sector, non-profit orgs and other levels of government.
In the Digital Consultations Library:
Powered by GitHub - prototyping, documenting and improving with each one
Consistent user interface building on design patterns and context of use
eRegs Primary task: Inline commenting on existing legislation, policies, regulations and laws
Where we at?
Vision
Behind the scenes
Prototype
The Need
The Commons
Behind the scenes view powered by GitHub.
Threaded discussions for designers, developers, public engagement practitioners to co-create Open Dialogue / Open Policy Making web presence.
Hosts code for tools in the digital consultation library.
Collaborate
PCO, TBS and public already collaborating on GitHub
Want to move to coding together
This would signal a change in direction: belief that government should serve as a platform
Code
The code for these sites has been forked into the Canada-ca repo:
GC2.0 tools
Canada.ca
open.Canada.ca
BC Developers Exchange
eRegs
And more...
Compensate
Match demand to supply for small dollar contracts.
Save time procuring services.
Increases gov contracts to entrepreneurs, small business, youth and civic tech.
Can give it away to other governments.
Consulting Canadians / The Commons
There you have it...our vision for Open Dialogue in Canada. What do you think?
Our intention is to create a self-replicating, continuously improving, value-producing eco-system powered by the knowledge and skills of Canadians regardless of where they live, work or play.
The next set of slides explain the current state and why we need this to support meaningful engagement between government and citizens.
Where we at?
vision
The need
Prototype
Behind the scenes
Trust in government
16
% of Canadians who say MOST/ALL THE TIME
Q. How much do you trust the federal government /government in Ottawa to do what is right?
Copyright 2017 �No reproduction without permission
Making citizens voices heard
Citizens expect government to engage as a mark of a healthy democracy
Government can increase public trust and confidence by engaging citizens – when citizens see themselves and their input considered and reflected
Closing the gap means governments and public servants working as part of collective efforts
The Actors
Public servants
Minimize risk and streamline efforts to get help wherever help resides
Elected officials
Showcase the multitude of ways to engage directly with elected officials
Civic Tech
Engage (and compensate!) designers, developers and anyone with skills to contribute
Citizens
Participate based on interest, capacity, availability
Problem Statement
Skills gaps
where
tech(ies) can help
Analyzing data
Consultations receiving
10s of 1000s of unstructured submissions
Matching tool to objectives
Mimicking others rather than what’s appropriate for goal
Reach and usability
Enticing UNusual stakeholders to engage requires relevant, compelling content
Resource constraints preventing growth in capacity
Standing offer
Helpful for large projects but results in single use tech that doesn't build long-term capacity
Time pressures
Learning and doing for the first time; every time
Price of policy
Building accessible, bilingual, mobile-friendly tools takes time away from other tasks
Power of
digital not
being
realized
Scope
Size of investment should map to importance of goal
Scale
Digital can increase volume of participation without increasing cost
Efficiency
Re-using and adapting existing tools would save time and money
Next Steps
How could we work together?
Commit
Join us on GitHub if you want to help improve the way citizens and government work together.