E-government And Planning: Key Citizen Participation Issues

A free new book explores the issues related to on-line citizen participation for local government planning departments.

3 minute read

July 27, 2005, 5:00 AM PDT

Citizen participation is a common goal of local governments. Local governments face the challenge of giving information to and getting input from citizens. The use of the Internet for citizen participation is growing among local government planning departments.

A new e-book edited by edited by Jennifer Evans-Cowley and Maria Manata Conroyof The Ohio State University explores the issues related to on-line citizen participation for local government planning departments. In designing for e-government planning departments need to consider accessibility, trust, and the types of participation tools that are most appropriate to meet citizen needs.

The intent of this compilation is to provide insight into the available tools and necessary considerations for local governments to initiate successful online citizen participation tools. The book includes the following chapters:

Chalres Kaylor provides an assessment of e-government offerings in U.S. cities with populations over 100,000. The authors review is part of an ongoing longitudinal assessment called the Municipality eGovernment Assessment Project (MeGAP). MeGAP benchmarks online service provision for information, interaction (e.g., registration, permits, GIS), transaction (eCommerce), and transformation (eDemocracy). The scores from his assessment highlight thatwhile significant progress has been made since the start of the study in 2000, most of the online e-government participation opportunities remain basic and focus on information dissemination rather than entering the realmof engaging and transformative eDemocracy.

Chris Steins takes a more abstract look at the e-government landscape by offering a conceptual framework for evaluating how specific technology tools fit in applying e-government to local planning. Steins then introducesfive emerging technology-based tools (e-permitting, content management systems, webGIS, visualization tools, and impact analysis) being used to incorporate e-government into planning.

Joe Wheaton and Lori Bali provide critical insight into these issues to explore what is needed to create an accessible e-government offering. The authors review the legal framework for creating an accessible website, andthen highlight common problems found in websites that make them inaccessible for specific segments of thecommunity population.

Karen Mossberger and Carolyn Tolbert present the influence of e-government on citizen attitudes toward their government. In particular, the authors review the e-government landscape from the perspective of citizensrelationships with their government, why citizens use e-government, and what they expect from e-government.

David Prosperi begins the section with an introduction to the use of interactive GIS for citizen participation. Interactive GIS has become a bandwagon of sorts, necessitating a critical appraisal of the tool.

Kheir Al-Kodmany focuses on the use of Web mapping and GIS to facilitate communication between local planners and the public. The author presents examples that demonstrate two-way (and even three-way) levelsof communication to enhance public participation.

Jennifer Evans-Cowley and Maria Conroy highlight the use of e-commerce applications to facilitate business operations between planners and the public. E-commerce, like interactive GIS, is a potentially valuable tool that can not only save citizens and governments time and money, but can also enhance the dialogue between government, citizenry, and developers.

Thanks to Chris Steins

FULL STORY: E-government and Planning: Key Citizen Participation Issues and Applications

Tuesday, July 26, 2005 in The Ohio State University

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