Identify the pitfalls of involvement
Citizens and population groups participating in the design and implementation of digital public sector services is useful and promotes equality, among other benefits.
Whenever we make a genuine effort to involve citizens in development, we also encounter challenges:
- The lack of money, time and competence is the most common justification for organisations’ non-existent involvement efforts. The risk is ignoring end-users or not having a large enough group of testers.
- The fear that citizens will not understand what the project is about or expect too much or the wrong things from it. Citizens can criticise a development project and its objectives in a way that endangers the entire project. In other words, the public sector’s responsibility for its relationship with citizens may lead to overcaution, which may in turn lead to avoiding involvement.
- Organisations’ ability and active approach to communication about participation opportunities often leaves much to be desired. Citizens may not necessarily know where they could influence matters that concern them.
- It may be difficult to find and motivate people who want to get involved, especially if participation requires learning new things. It is precisely the topics related to new technologies that impact people’s everyday lives where involvement would be particularly important, but citizens feel that things may be difficult, unfamiliar and even a little scary.
Updated: 9/11/2023