(c) W. Cellary 2010 slide 1 Wojciech Cellary Department of Information Technology Poznan University of Economics Mansfelda Poznań, POLAND Non-Technical Aspects of Citizens Engagement in e-Government

(c)W. Cellary 2010, slide 2 Government A government is required to find solutions to problems of a certain community Classical notion of a community is related with a territory A territorial community shares some common values, however, it is not homogeneous in all the aspects A community is a result of communication Smaller territory, easier, more frequent and richer (multi-aspect) interpersonal communication More frequent communication, stronger relationships

(c)W. Cellary 2010, slide 3 Internet Features of Internet communication: everybody may publish his/her own information, including comments to information published by others information is available everywhere information is available forever – asynchronous communication information may be individually searched information leads to people interested in this information Internet facilitates creation of content communitiescontent communities Internet changed the communication, so changed communities too

(c)W. Cellary 2010, slide 4 Communities Territorial communitiesContent communities Those consequences are not the same Communities being a consequence of living together on a common territory Communities being a consequence of Communities being a consequence of the interest in common content

(c)W. Cellary 2010, slide 5 Relationships multi-aspect relationships transitivity identity known past emerging authorities following leaders views (knowledge or trust) hierarchical structure difficulty in leaving a territory common interest and common threats (long-term) aiming at compromise view unification single aspect relationships non-transitivity anonymity hidden past everyone is authority for himself manifestation of distinctness equality easy leaving a community common interests (short-term) keeping own opinions keeping view diversity Territorial communities Content communities

(c)W. Cellary 2010, slide 6 Content communities The content communities on the Internet allow their members to learn about a variety of views and opinions from different perspectives Content communities serve rather to exhibit peoples own opinions acquired elsewhere than to accept opinions of others or to unify opinions Anonymity of the content community members leads to the lack of responsibility for ones words unlimited possibility of changing opinions and positions, a possibility to present contradictory opinions by the same person using different nicknames Single-aspect relationships conduct to the radicalization of opinions on a given subject unconsidered contexts unconsidered multiple aspects of a problem Lack of social pressure no drivers to achieve a consensus Lack of the hierarchy a word of a fool equal to a word of a sage

(c)W. Cellary 2010, slide 7 Citizens engagement Citizens engagement is required to: 1. Elect a government 2. Guide the government how to solve problems During government election content communities (which are single-aspect) aim at convincing many voters each voter decides on behalf of him/herself the result of many votes is a single government During guiding the government how to solve a problem content communities (which are single-aspect) aim at convincing a single government the result of government decision influence the whole territorial community only partially represented by content communities

(c)W. Cellary 2010, slide 8 Conclusions content communities does not represent the whole territorial community content communities easier represent negative opinions than the positive ones When talking about citizens engagement via Internet, it is necessary to take into account characteristics of content communities

(c)W. Cellary 2010, slide 9 Conclusions Content communities may provide a government with a variety of partial views, but cannot exempt a government from a harmonized solution for the benefit of the whole territorial community

(c)W. Cellary 2010, slide 10 Thank you Wojciech Cellary