Participation 2.0: A Case Study of e-Participation within the New Zealand Government

Abstract

This paper outlines the innovative engagement process used to develop a Guide to Online Participation for New Zealand government agencies. The Guide was intended to improve opportunities for New Zealanders to engage in policy development and service design and delivery through ICT applications, within the context of the long term Development Goals for the New Zealand State Services. In an interesting process of self-reflection the development of the Guide itself forms the basis for one of three case studies of online participation in NZ agencies where the principles outlined in the Guide have been applied and tested. The case study concludes with some evaluative frameworks that have been developed as part of the ParticipatioNZ wiki, the online forum used to develop the Guide, and uses these to assess the effectiveness of the three online participation projects.