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understanding, infrastructure and institutions. We have attempted to lay
out our stall regarding each of these in the course of this topic.
For citizen engagement and participation to become the accepted norm in
shaping our digital futures requires that these processes are also institutional-
ized in society. Lisl Klein provides an excellent example of institutionaliza-
tion in describing a familiar everyday context: “
society has made a policy
decision, crystallised in law, to restrict driving to one side of the road. This
apparently simple decision is supported by a surprising number and range
of institutions: the assumption that it must happen is built into the design of
vehicles. It is built into the training of drivers, as well as into their legitima-
tion (licensing). It is built into the formulation of codes and standards (the
Highway Code, standards about the width and layout of roads, and so on).
Then there is the continual reinforcement of seeing that others do it, and, fi-
nally, sanctions (punishment) if it does not happen. These institutions, in
turn, are supported by funds, training establishments, staffing, and monitor-
ing (traffic police). Together, these institutions are very powerful, and they
have been in force for a long time. In addition, a breach of the policy is gen-
erally clearly visible and unambiguous. As a result of all that, the policy is
mostly carried out: drivers are not in the position of having continually to
decide on which side to drive
” (Klein 2005).
As already discussed, to put in place a comparable set of mechanisms to
institutionalize citizen engagement and embrace a range of new design ap-
proaches requires a groundswell of support and action at many levels and
in many sectors. The pervasiveness of the problems and issues associated
with large scale ICT systems means that there are many in society who
would like to see significant change. This means that there are likely to be
influential thought leaders willing to make the case for citizen engagement
and the allied need to change the focus of ICT design. Through sharing
their vision and understanding with many others in central and local gov-
ernment, in telecommunications, manufacturing and retailing sectors, in
academia and in the design community, preparedness and enthusiasm for
change can be expected to grow.
10.4.2 Giving Citizens a Voice
Another separate, but closely related, aspect to explore is how citizens at
large can begin to become involved in influencing decisions to shape our
digital futures. The World Wide Web is an awesome symbol of human
creativity and people power. It is the world's largest ICT system, continu-
ing to grow on a scale so vast that it is hard to conceive its true propor-
tions, and it is arguably making the greatest contribution yet to human
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