ask away: online political engagement in new zealand

7/28/2019 Ask Away: Online Political Engagement in New Zealand

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This is my honours visual

communuication designproject. With your help, we

can change the relationship

we have with government in

New Zealand.


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Ask Away:

The design o interactive web

platorms can break down the

barriers between people and

government, creating an open

democracy where citizens canknow more, say more and do

more.

The path towards

Participatory

E-Democracy inNew Zealand

Meg Howie

Massey University

Wellington, New Zealand

[email protected]

Meghowieresearchproject.tumblr.com

I will spend until November this year designing a web

platorm to acilitate online political engagement. Beore

the 2014 election, it can be unctioning, but Ill need

your help:

Coders, join me in a weekend hackathon to get the

basic unctionality working.

Longer term partners, come on board to keep the

project moving.

Politicians, show that accountability and responsive-

ness are your priorities and make sure it gets used.

Or just have a chat with me about it.

Are you interested? Email me.
http://meghowieresearchproject.tumblr.com/http://meghowieresearchproject.tumblr.com/


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Precedents

The internet is being used to:

Spread awareness

Pool voices /prioritise

Generate discussion

Reach consensuses.

(See links at end or examples)

Target audience.

To begin with: anyone who

reads the news online.

7 best practice techniques:

1. Deault optionsHuge changes can be implemented simply by changing

deault settings. This can be applied to the structure o

interactions.

2. Follow the crowdAs a rst step people need to have access to a larger

groups ideas in order to agree with them, because people

behave as others around them do (Heath, 2010, Latane

and Darley, 1968). Some will always be active, but the

benets o their actions can be multiplied i they are vis-ible to others.

3. Prioritising and agreeing mechanismsUsing up-voting means the best content foats, and

would help politicians understand where public opinion

is ocused. Another strength o this technique is that it

oers an easy entry-level way to engage.

4. Osite communicationsPrompt people to return and contribute over a long

period o time, and can deliver customised content that

oers value to the user.

5. Social media integrationBrings people to the platorm organically.

6. GamifcationA successul way o increasing and maintaining engage-

ment.

7. Two way dialoguesIt is vital that users are not only given the impression

that they are being listened to, but are provided with

meaningul responses rom the politicians they are ad-

dressing.

This is the age o transparency, whether business, indi-

viduals and politicians like it or not. Government canbecome porous, sending inormation out and allowing

peoples thoughts and wishes in. Transparency leads to

greater condence in government, reduces the chances

o corruption and provide a air space or businesses to

operate (OECD, 2013).

The tools o the internet mean that or the rst time

gathering opinions and sharing inormation is not

prohibited by nancial cost (Breuer & Farooq, 2012),

and people are using them to deliver services, co-create

and reach consensuses. An examination o existing toolsor civic engagement in New Zealand, shows they are

ragmented and do not cater to those who do not seek

them out.

New Zealand needs a space or discussion that is ac-

cessible to people with dierent levels o interest and

knowledge about political issues. Access, inormation,

engagement and activation are the core outcomes o my

project; access to issues that are relevant to the individu-

al, inormation that is digestible and balanced, a range o

ways to engage and enabling mechanisms so that citizens

can play a more active role in the governing o Aotearoa,

New Zealand.


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3

Above Homepage wireframe

(before visual design is applied)

ask away

see NZs topquestions

answer aquestion

track myquestions

ask a question

sort by: most asked coming up in parliament by topic users I follow search by keywords

@paulabennet, what mechanisms are in place to protect vulnerable kids underyour welfare reforms?

asked by @Nigel33 and 343,766 others

@johnkey, can you provide funding for milkshake machines for massey university?

asked by @Nigel33 and 343,766 others

All Parties, what are your priorities for education?

asked by @gpatel and 234,700 others

Vote this question up

Click on the question

to learn more

sarah westify

answered by @paulabennetat 5.14pm 3rd June 2013


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Above Site map

Below Potential land-

ing page


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Outcomes

The end goal o the project is to transorm the publics

relationship with government. Four outcomes will dene

this transormation.

People have access to inormation about relevant

political events as they happen without having to

seek it out

They are inormed about a range o opinions and

issues

They take ownership o and engage with the demo-

cratic process People are active as citizens. My denition o an

active citizen is someone who is consciously aware

that decisions are being made which will aect them,

keeps track o what is going on and in some way

inputs to those decisions.

The results o this transormation will be that Govern-

ment are held accountable or their actions, and transpar-

ency is demanded at all times. It will mean marginalized

voices are better heard, increasing understanding and

inclusion within our society. As we gain a better under-

standing o political issues, we can make increasingly

important contributions to the governance o our coun-

try. Having one unied consultation and discussion hub

would mean that people would know where to go when

submitting their views, inormation would be encoun-

tered not sought, and the experience o political engage-

ment would go rom a sporadic, oten unrewarding activ-

ity to a positive sustained relationship with Government.People will vote based on issues and policies, rather than

assumptions or personalities. This is the rst step towardsa truly open and participatory democracy.


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Sources andlinks

Better lie index: Civic engagement. (2013). Organi-

sation or Economic Co-operation and Development.Retreived rom: http://www.oecdbetterlieindex.org/top-

ics/civic-engagement/

Breuer, A, Farooq, B. (2012).Online political

participation: Slacktivism or efciency increased activism?

Prepared or delivery at the 2012 ISA Annual Conven-

tion San Diego, April 1 4. retrieved rom: http://www.

academia.edu/1476245/Online_Political_Participation_

Slacktivism_or_Eciency_Increased_Activism_Evi-

dence_rom_the_Brazilian_Ficha_Limpa_Campaign

Drutman, L. (2010). Get politically engaged, get

happy?Retrieved rom: http://www.psmag.com/politics/get-politically-engaged-get-happy-8307/

Gamifcation. (2010). Freebase. Retrieved rom:

http://www.reebase.com/m/0cm8xv9

Gormley, I. (Director). (2009). Us now. [Documen-

tary lm]. Banyak Films.

Heath, C. & Heath, D. (2010). Switch: How to

change things when change is hard. Crown Publishing

Group.

Latane, B., & Darley, J. (1969). Bystander apathy.

American Scientist, 1969, 57, 244-268. Retrieved rom:

http://aculty.babson.edu/krollag/org_site/soc_psych/

latane_bystand.html

Masli, M., & Terveen, L. (2012).Evaluating

compliance-without-pressure techniques or increasing

participation in online communities. Grouplens Research.

Retrieved rom: http://www.grouplens.org/system/les/

evaluatingcompliance.pd

Pine, B., & Gilmore, J. (1999). The customer is the

product. In The Experience Economy. Boston, MA: Har-

vard Business School Press.

Rotman, D., Vieweg, S., Yardi, S., Chi, E., Preece,J., ...Glaisyer, T. (2011). From slacktivism to activism:

Participatory culture in the age o social media. CHI11, Ex-

tended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Sys-

tems. Retrieved rom: http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~yardi/

pubs/Yardi_CHI11_SIG.pd

Statistics New Zealand. (2013) Household use o in-

ormation and communication technology: 2012. Retrieved

rom: www.stats.govt.nz/~/media/.../HouseholdUseo-

ICT2012HOTP.pd

Best Practice Links

All Our Ideas.

Digital survey platormwww.allourideas.org

If We Ran The World.

Micro activist platorm

www.Iwerantheworld.com

Rio+20 Dialogues.

Generation and prioritisation o discussion points

www.worldwewant2015.org/pt-br/node/302732

The Green Machine.

The Green Party (NZ)s gamied campaign volunteer

strategy

my.greens.org.nz/greenmachine

Loomio.

Online collaborative decision making tool

www.loomio.org

On the fence.

Interactive voter education toolwww.ontheence.co.nz

We the People.

The White Houses online survey platorm

petitions.whitehouse.gov

Better Reykjavik.

Local body election discussion generation and prioritisa-

tion tool

betrireykjavik.is
http://www.allourideas.org/http://www.ifwerantheworld.com/http://www.worldwewant2015.org/pt-br/node/302732http://my.greens.org.nz/greenmachinehttp://www.loomio.org/http:///reader/full/www.onthefence.co.nzhttp://petitions.whitehouse.gov/http://betrireykjavik.is/http://betrireykjavik.is/http://petitions.whitehouse.gov/http:///reader/full/www.onthefence.co.nzhttp://www.loomio.org/http://my.greens.org.nz/greenmachinehttp://www.worldwewant2015.org/pt-br/node/302732http://www.ifwerantheworld.com/http://www.allourideas.org/

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