Information Technology Reference
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by 'America Speaks' which combine traditional 'town hall' meetings with
the use of ICTs to allow votes to be counted and reports of deliberations to
be compiled in real time.
10.4.4 Investing in the Transition
Achieving the proposed shift in focus of ICT design and development will
require commitment of substantial resources to implement governmental
strategies at both national and local levels. There is often reluctance to in-
vest in the citizen participation/engagement aspect because of the high
perceived cost (see Chapter 7). In contrast it seems that we simply accept
the escalating costs of large scale ICT systems and the huge investment in
the technological aspects of ICT development projects - despite their un-
satisfactory record of delivery. There is now a need for comparable com-
mitment of resources to the social, human and organisational aspects if the
reluctance to engage with citizens is to be overcome. The risks and costs of
failure to do this successfully are proving just as significant. All the key
stakeholders will have a part to play in resourcing the transition.
The reality is that investment in the human aspects or 'soft issues' has
for decades persistently remained at very low levels compared with the
vast investment in information and communications technologies. The in-
vestment in the technology escalates for each successive public sector ICT
development, (£6 billion for the latest NHS system in the UK, which is in-
tended to make patients records more accessible, to enable GP's to topic
hospital appointments, and to develop a system to store and send prescrip-
tions and x-rays electronically). Thus it is to be hoped that in such a crucial
area as health provision, that good practice will be the norm and set a
precedent in participation and engagement to ensure an excellent match
between ICT provision and user requirements. This will reverse the pattern
of inadequate involvement of stakeholders, including citizens as patients,
documented in the failures of ICT systems cited earlier in the topic (National
Audit Office 1999; Bourn 2000).
10.5 Roles of Stakeholders
Although this topic is focussed upon the importance of the role of citizens
in shaping technologies and determining their application, there are many
other stakeholders with a part to play in debating and planning a shift in
focus of ICT design. Successful institutionalization of sociotechnical
thinking and associated citizen/user engagement within ICT design will
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