Building Britain's digital future

Friday, January 22, 2010

Writing in advance of data.gov.uk's launch, the government's director of digital engagement, Andrew Stott, outlines how the government is working towards improving digital engagement and the challenges ahead

Knowledge is power. The fundamental driver behind citizen engagement is that only those with access to knowledge are truly empowered. The great democratisation comes not from allowing people to access data, but from letting them use it in a way they see fit.

The internet has had an enormous impact on how we obtain that knowledge. In the UK, 65% of households have internet access and 7 out of 10 of us go online every month to find out about public services and information, whilst the use of social media in the UK has grown exponentially, making London the most Twitter-connected city in the world.

As a result, the use of all forms of digital media – not just the internet – allows for tremendous influence on public policy and services. It is not 'communication' in the conventional sense. We must start with informing and doing so in ways that fit the needs of modern citizens who expect to find the information when and where they need it, rather than when an agency wants to broadcast it. However, the informing must allow engagement, with the ability to respond and to be seen to respond. The process needs to become two-way, and lead to a dialogue not only with the agency, but also between its citizens and other stakeholders; hearing a plurality of views is important in any evidence-based decision-making, and if a balance can emerge that commands broad support, then that can help the eventual decision to be more sustainable.

The government's Digital Engagement journey began three years ago with the independent Power of Information Report. Tom Watson, former Minister for the Cabinet Office, then established the Power of Information Taskforce, which reported in February 2009. The report contained 25 recommendations. The government response to this report split the recommendations into four themes:
• Open information: To have an effective voice, people need to be able to understand what is going on in their public services. Government will publish information about public services in ways that are easy to find, use, and re-use;
• Open feedback: The public should have the ability to have a fair say about their services;
• Open conversation: The promotion of greater engagement with the public through more interactive online consultation and collaboration, and empowering professionals to become active in online support networks in their area of work;
• Open innovation: Being innovative in the delivery of online public services to respond to changing expectations.

One part of the agenda is about how we use internet communications and 'social media' to turn communication into collaboration – collaboration in which citizens can make their voices heard, policy-makers can detect areas that really concern the public, service administrators can streamline delivery, and the leaders of government can use these new channels to work across organisational and geographic boundaries. By expanding beyond the traditional internet – into 'Web 2.0' country – we reach a generation for whom websites are considered too conventional, the same generation to whom it is most important to engage in longer-term change – on sustainability and climate change, on fighting obesity and promoting health, and on developing skills.

In doing so, we are looking not only at the government's own website to improve links between government bodies and between government and citizens, but also at how we use well established platforms like MySpace, Facebook and Bebo (such as the recent use of Bebo to engage young people in Building Britain's Future), and at how we contribute to community networks such as, in the UK, Mumsnet and Netmums – where hundreds of thousands are already participating in discussions about things that matter to them.

The other main part of the Power of Information agenda is about releasing data in re-usable form that others can use to hold public bodies to account, to empower citizens to make choices about public services and drive improvement, and to create new economic growth and social value. In his Constitutional Renewal statement on 10th June 2009, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that an open data policy will help to "do more to spread the culture and practice of freedom of information" and to ensure that "government information is accessible and useful for the widest possible group of people", and he announced that he was appointing Sir Tim Berners-Lee, of MIT, and Professor Nigel Shadbolt, of the University of Southampton, to advise the government on the release of re-usable data.

The 'Making Public Data Public' aims to release data in re-usable, standard open formats – increasingly using a linked data approach – for others to use on simple, liberal terms. Over 1,000 people are already taking part in our development programme, with a preview of a single point of online access to UK government data already containing over 1,000 datasets, and some innovative applications using government data have already been demonstrated. Over the next few months, we plan to increase the number of datasets available, establish further standard approaches to converting government data to linked format, and to enhance the facilities available to developers.

The Power of Information report set out some clear principles, and some overriding policy changes that we have made. We are now firmly making progress on the journey of moving digital engagement towards giving the citizen a voice. However, there remain challenges ahead. First, to ensure that the learning and knowledge of what works spread quickly and effectively between levels and agencies of government; second, to ensure that engagement is embedded as a normal part of the policy and the service design processes (as we have set out in 'Working Together: Public Services on Your Side'); and finally, to ensure that we look at new technologies as they emerge as new opportunities and new tools to apply the principles of good communications and engagement between government and citizens.