The Wheel

The Wheel trial on active citizenship was the third and final trial. These trials are part of a wider research project on e-consultation, started in January 2004, by Queen's University Belfast, the University of Maynooth and Limerick Institute of Technology.

The Wheel case provided learning about what not to do when organising an E-Consultation.

The Wheel Context

The Wheel was established in 2000, as a non-profit body for community and voluntary organisations in the Republic of Ireland.

The Wheel to represent, and seek the views of, the community and voluntary organisations to government.

Following the establishment of the Task Force on Active Citizenship [1], the Wheel decided to conduct a consultation about active citizenship. The aim was to inform the Wheel of member/non-members' views on different aspects of active citizenship.

The Wheel decided on the use of e-consultation for the first time in an attempt to increase possible participation in the consultation.

Process and planning

The Wheel team and the research team met to discuss e-consultation.

The Wheel had little resources to support an e-consultation, such as moderating the online forums, providing and maintaining the technology, trained staff etc.

The research team agreed to support The Wheel in most, in return for research privileges.

From further discussions, The Wheel team agreed to incorporate a feedback mechanism into the e-consultation - to inform participants of their progress - and develop a strategy for recruiting participants.

Conclusion

1. This is an effective way to collect tacit knowledge from people, by stimulating them to tell their stories to the world, on a collective blog. You can get high quality interesting responses.
2. The multiple routes for submission worked, so bridging the digital divide. If you cannot access the web, use e-mail. If not, send a text. If all else fails, telephone and record a message.
3. It doesn’t require as much work for the consulters as do discussion forums or even surveys. But it does require some attention.
4. Publicity is needed to bring people to a site. This can be done through the media (from press releases to a launch by the Taoiseach), or by making people aware of the site when they visit their favourite on-line hangouts (messages in mailing lists or on-line games, or buying Google adwords so that when people search for ‘active citizenship’ they find the site).
5. Copy-writing for the web takes skill and time. But without it, people will leave the site before even having a chance to submit a story

See Speech by the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, T.D., at the Conference on the Future of the Community and Voluntary Sector: http://www.activecitizen.ie/index.asp?locID=12&docID=5