Process and Planning

Process and Planning

Focus

It was decided by Waterways Ireland that the consultation would concentrate on:

• The Internal Screening Process
• Policies for the Equality Impact Assessment

Plan: Traditional and Technological Mix

The consultation organisers wanted to include e-consultation elements in an overall consultation process run along traditional lines, in which respondents could send in written submissions or request a meeting with the consulters. The organisers were experienced in running consultations, it was the electronic communications component that was new to them.

After a number of meetings between the research group and Waterways Ireland, it was decided that the team would design a web site.

Process

Potential respondents could browse the consultation documents, then join a discussion forum where they could leave comments on the issues that interested them.

There then followed a short process of negotiation in relation to the design of the site. The research team took the Waterways Ireland consultation document, converted it to HTML and put it on-line.

Our developers set up a discussion forum, and showed the consultation organisers how to enter the first questions to start off the discussion.

Review

Every part of the site was reviewed by Waterways Ireland and amended in accordance with their suggestions. The result, for better or worse, was a site that mirrored their off-line consultation.