Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
ICT applications for use by the public will inevitably and unavoidably
have technical, human and social components and should therefore be
designed as sociotechnical systems;
•
•
citizen engagement in defining and developing these is crucial to their
success;
•
the rewards (outlined 10.2 above) are very significant and attractive - in
both social and in economic terms.
10.3.2 Publicising the Value of Citizen Participation/
Engagement
At least one precedent has already been set for a senior government min-
ister to recognize and acknowledge publicly the benefits of citizen en-
gagement in decision-making. This occurred in the context of local
health provision. Regarding the role seen for citizen juries in the UK, in a
speech on the 23
rd
June 2005, Patricia Hewitt (Secretary of State for
Health) highlighted the benefits of 'Citizen Juries' in Leicester, UK. She
recalls: “
the health authority was grappling with the problem of how to
recognize services across three acute hospitals. Their proposals were
leaked - and the public were confronted with a plan to close a highly
successful and much-loved hospital and replace it with what looked like
a glorified old people's home. Within a few weeks, 120,000 people had
signed a petition to save the hospital. I persuaded the health authority to
establish a citizens jury and, for a week, in the full view of the local paper,
a panel of local residents interrogated the experts on their plans. The re-
sults were extraordinary. The part of the plan that had attracted most op-
position - the 'care and rehabilitation centre' - was welcomed with open
arms by the people's panel. But they were equally firm that they were put-
ting it in the wrong place. The authority, sensibly, accepted the people's
verdict and amended their plans
” (Hewitt 2005). It will of course be some
years before the impact of this particular citizen jury can be assessed. The
fact that it
took place at all suggests the stirrings of a change in culture to-
wards acknowledging the value of citizens' knowledge and experience and
accepting these as significant contributions to decision-making processes.
What needs to happen now is the extension of this growing awareness of
the benefits of citizen engagement into the domain of ICT development.
We have described some of the instances where this is already happening.
Often however, as we have noted, the engagement relates to a very specific
aspect of technology such as creating and designing a website (e.g.
Germany's Bundestag website project). Often too the intention has been
specifically to engage with hard-to-reach groups (for example, the Surrey
Search WWH ::
Custom Search