Post in Metrics to judge local e-democracy

Jul 30 18:58 UTC

Having had an English local authority web site, plus all the e-democracy
appendages, under my control for nearly ten years I've watched things
grow (and I've read most of the tosh on social capital). The usage has
crept up, with the occasional burst as people have gained confidence in
the medium and that includes whether their emails and e-forms will be
responded to. It also includes contacting their elected representatives
and expecting them to act (trust). I've given the elected reps websites
and blogs, computers and email - I have to trust them to use them
properly and that the public will contact via these channels. As it is
the web usage is dead slow by the elected members - OK they receive and
respond to emails but they have yet to get into blogging - where
councils do get it done there's often a member of staff doing it!

I've also set up public forums that don't get used - most likely through
lack of trust that action will not occur. It needs to be seen to be
followed through and it needs people to use the channels to make it
happen.

Participation happens when people contact their elected rep and they can
see them passing on the action to an employee to sort out. Where the
public lose trust/faith is where this doesn't occur or the staffer does
nothing! (and I've seen this happen elsewhere).

Essentially, counting the visitors gets nowhere - watching them over a
period helps but it needs to be at usage and performance. Just putting
up email addresses and blogs does nothing, they need promoting.