Clearly there is a vibrant movement. Citzens organize themselves effectively around public issues horizontally. And, citizens and governments organise themselves from top-down to bottum up. In this third blogpost we would like to address the question on what challenges there are for the near future. Although the real pioneering has been done, Open Governance is still far from mainstream. The theme has gained momentum in the last couple of years and hardly anyone would argue against the importance of it in the near future. But, how to realize concrete change?

There are still many obstacles and problems to solve. The initial enthusiasm of entrepreneurs seems to transform into a question mark. One of the important contradictions to solve is the fact that the Open Governance movement will only be sustainable if a fruitful coalition is realized between grass roots organisations and the government. The early initiators feel that certainly some civil servants and politicians embrace the idea of Open Governance, but at the same time the theme easily slips from the agenda. One of the direct consequences is the disappearance of funds. On top of that, the scene is still fragmented and without a strong collective voice. And last but not least, quite some citizens need to be schooled and convinced of the relevance of Open Governance.

1. Cooperation with governments

A total of seven projects were supported within the eParticipation round of the Digital Pioneers Porgramme, four eParticipation plus projects and three eParticipation projects. The eParticipation plus projects actively sought collaboration with the government. But eventually there was less intensive collaborations between the projects and the government than was expected and hoped for. Collaboration took a long time to establish since governemental organisations acted slower than pioneers, who can move fast.

However, in 9 months there have been made some first steps in setting up collaboration between pioneers and governmental organisations in some projects. In the case of the projects Polidocs.nl and Openkamer.tv, there was the provision of data by the partner, who in exchange got access to the academic research. In the case of HNS dev, three municipalities participated in the project by targeting their data available. Collaboration in the project Democatiespel was realised by having the Institute for Public Policy playing a role in the promotion and testing of beta- versions of the game.

Pioneers know where to find each other in the public domain. But, as we have conversations with a number of pioneers, cooperation with governmental organisations is often perceived as a stumbling block. There is a clear need for partnership with governments, because in theory this offers a lot of opportunities for the sustainability of pioneer projects, but pioneers seem to often lack the knowlegde and network to succeed.

In addition, more and more officials and civel servants are aware of the importance of digital resources to increase and improve contact with citizens. The government has launched initiatives to stimulate this. A good example is Ambtenaar 2.0 (www.ambtenaar20.nl), a Dutch platform and a network of people, both officials and citizens, who investigate the effects of Web 2.0 for the government, exchange ideas, knowledge and practical experience. Many officials would like to integrate the use of social media and Web 2.0 in their daily working practice and projects. But they are often subject to regulation, procurement limits or have limited technical knowledge needed to perform such projects.

As pioneers in Open Government-initiatives are looking for ways to get their project sustainable with the help of governements, officials might benefit from connections with promoters who have technical expertise and know-how of reaching citizens.

2. Fragmentation

The momentum and enthusiasm of the first directors and decision makers in the field of Open Governance is passing by in the Netherlands. The future of Open Governance in the Netherlands is under pressure. Budgets are likely to disappear and Open Governance is no longer on top the political and administrative agendas. Although there are many promising developments and operating products, the field is deeply fragmented.

There is a need for more focus, budget and attention in stimulating participation of citizens in political and policy issues online and anchor Open Governance in the Netherlands. This is also why the Digital Pioneers eParticipation round, with support of Ministry of Internal Affairs was followed up by the Digital Pioneers eParticipation Academy, as mentioned earlier on this blog. Different pioneer initiatives work on a platform that must ensure the continuity of the development of Open Governance initiatives in the Netherlands and organise the fragmented field.

3. Sustainability

One of the big challenges ahead is how the Open Governance initiatives can be sustainable. Some initiatives die a silent death because there is no money or goodwill left to run it. There is a big struggle for finding a working ‘business model’. The project Petities.nl experiments for example with asking people who start a petition to pay a little contribution. Verbeterdebuurt delivers services for different municipalities for which they are willing to pay. The model based on delivering extra services now looks most promising for this field, but will it be enough?

Complicating factor is that the financial support from both national and local governments is now under pressure in the Netherlands. For example, the Digital Pioneers subsidy fund will stop in 2010 and on regional level lots of innovation budgets will disappear. Many Open Governance initiatives are developed based on subsidies. This is cause for concern and the need to generate for generating cash flow in different ways.

4. Schooling and convincing citizens of the possibilities of Open Governance

During the elections of Dutch Parliament last June, more than twenty services emerged where citizens could get help in the process of deciding whom to vote for. Three million people used Stemwijzer.nl, filled in a few theorems, which eventually led to the party on which you agree on most of their programme. However, there is a world to win in convincing the bulk of the citizens of the possibilities of online interaction with their government.

There are a lot of active citizens but there are a lot of ‘sleeping’ citizens as well. There may exist interesting tools and energetic pioneers but changing the mindset of the people who eventually have to use the new technology might prove to be a hell of a challenge as well. Altogether, though participation is getting common, massive cooperation between citizens and their government is still not reality at all.

Researching the state of Open Governance

So in our analysis of the rise of Open Governance initiatives, cooperation with the government, the fragmentation of the field, sustainability and schooling citizens are the main challenges we see for the field for further development. We are very curious in your opinion on this analysis of challenges for the future.

And building upon these challenges, what are the general recommendations for a vital open governance movement the following years? What is needed for example to unite the fragmented field of initiatives? How to convince citizens of the possibilities to participate online in political and policy issues?

How have Open Governance initiatives activated participation of citizens in politics, government and governance? Hereby a first attempt to answer this question. In our search for the state of Open Governance we can define three ways in which initiatives try to engage citizens with politics and government. These three clusters provide for three different directions of communication: top-down, bottom-up and horizontal. In other words: from government to citizens, from citizens to government and citizens amongst each other (see Geraci, 2009, 4 pillars of an open civic system):

1. Transparency of government information (Top-down)

Up until recently people had to put a lot of effort in communicating with civil servants or politicians if they were interested in information about government activities. Or they were forced to rely on secondary information, mediated by a few journalists. Who ever took the effort to attend town hall meetings (let alone meetings in national parliament), or to phone her local representative about certain day-to-day decisions? All in all, government and governance was something out there, not something citizens could participate in on a day-to-day basis.

Several initiatives provided solutions for individuals who want to be informed about what actually happens in the arena of politics and government, who deserves their vote and what happens after they voted. There is, for example, 150volksvertegenwoordigers.nl (150representatives), which provides a database of information about all members of parliament. Politix.nl, which gives insight about the (historical) voting behaviour within the parliament. Democratiespel.nl (democracy game.), which explains by means of a gamesetting about how the Dutch political process actually works. Polidocs.nl, a search engine for political documents and openkamer.tv (open chamber) which streams debates in the chamber.

All of these initiatives create revolutionary change in the possibilities for any citizens to be informed and understand what exactly is going on in the political arena. As a consequence administrations might gain more legitimacy and credit. Moreover, people might see more possibilities to participate.

2. Communication between citizens and government (Bottom-up)

It is a hot debated issue (of all times probably): the gap between citizens and government. It does not need any explanation that this is an issue par excellence for contemporary social media entrepreneurs. Connecting citizens, public servants and politicians by means of new media applications. And whereas the topic elaborated above about transparency is more about top-down communication; these initiatives give citizens a voice; bottom-up.

People who want to inform politicians directly can use several new Open Governance tools. With maildepolitiek.nl (mail politics) they can contact any politician throughout the Netherlands directly. The initiative verbeterdebuurt.nl (improve your neighbourhood) provides for the possibility to report issues to the local government. Another initiative, burgerbuddy (civil buddy), mediates relations between politicians and citizens s who meet up every now and then to exchange ideas.

Social media have created innumerable possibilities to create new forms of relationships between citizens and politicians. This might facilitate a more direct, efficient and transparent political process. On top of that it provides possibilities for a more direct form of co-creation between citizens and the government.

3. Citizens share knowledge, discuss and organise around public issues (Horizontal)

Since the rise of digital media citizens can discuss all kind of issues on different forums. They share information and might even organise themselves around particular public issues online and offline. They can, for example, assess the quality of government and public services. Or they connect to initiate neighbourhood activities. Of course these forums doe not necessarily exclude politicians to participate as well.

One of the pioneering forums in the Netherlands (but actually Germany based) was politiek-digitaal.nl (politics digital), where participants discussed issues of government, ICT and new media. Another interesting initiative in this regard is ocosterren.nl (oco stars) which assesses schools on a users generated basis. A third example is buurtlink.nl (neighbourhood link) where people are facilitated to find each other based on their area code.

These initiatives enable people to organise themselves effectively and interactive around public issues. An interesting development, which points at new possibilities of grass roots civil society organisation.

Researching the state of Open Governance

It can be said that the first wave of pioneers has set its mark. The first technological and organisational difficulties have been overcome. Most survived, some faded. However, together they formed the field of Open Governance as it is today. But it is just a start.

Together with you we investigate the rise of Open Governance pioneers. We initiate this discussion on the state of Open Governance and hope to find  answers on the questions that are presented in these blogposts. Your comments are expected and integrated the program of the Summit and the State of Social Media publication we are preparing to publish afterwards.

Together we will set the agenda for meeting the challenges in social media in the future!

The term eParticipation is often used in the Netherlands to refer to this movement. After discussion in the eParticipation Academy and long deliberation with the editorial staff of the State of Social Media Summit, we think we need to come up with something else. The term eParticipation proved to be confusing. On the one hand, eParticipation might be interpreted more broad than what is intended in this context, namely citizens taking part in policy and politics. On the other hand, it might also imply that there is a one way communication stream between citizens and government and that this relationship is a dualistic one. We certainly doubt this, as this relationship is slowly dissolving…

So, we came up with the working title Open Governance, of course inspired by Obama and his Open Government Directive. We would love to hear your comments and suggestions on this. Because we see a clear movement in this field, in the Netherlands, but certainly also in other countries, we would like to discuss the state of open governance during the State of Social Media Summit. Together with you and the Digital Pioneers Academy participants we investigate the rise of open governance pioneers. This blogpost will reflect on the rise of open governance pioneers in the Netherlands and will be the first in a series of 3. Any content published here is open for discussion. The final goal is to publish a manifesto with recommendations to empower this movement.

Democracy enters a new phase

The emergence of new technologies in contemporary society results in a significant change in the relationship between government and citizens. Citizens are no longer passive recipients of government, but are more active and assertive. They mobilize around public issues, discussing the functioning of government and co-shape policies that concern them. Internet applications play in the process a facilitating role.

New forms of communication, organization and government are not only possible. In a society where more and more people use new media, they have become necessary. They are necessary for contributing to the improvement of public services, public space and the functioning of our democracy. The general challenge of open governance is to prevent a misfit between the needs, expectations and capacities of citizens and government activities. With the possibilities of social media democracy enters a new phase.

Open governance in the Netherlands

Over the last decades open governance initiatives have sprouted around the world. Sometimes initiated by governments, sometimes by citizens. The US, Australia and UK are probably the best examples of governments which have been successfully stimulating initiatives and successfully formulated a strategy. With President Obama in office, the United States became the most popular example since the enactment of the Open Government Directive in 2009.

In the Netherlands Open Governance is on the rise as well. There are several grassroots initiatives in the Netherlands that support the development of Open Governance. Like Hack de Overheid (www.hackdeoverheid.nl), a movement started in 2009 that advocates more open governmental data produced by the Dutch government. Social Strategy Talk (www.socialstrategytalk.com), where the influence of social media for federal agencies, (non profit) organizations, scientists and individuals is discussed. Or initiatives like de Publieke Zaak (www.publiekezaak.nl), a platform focused on social innovation. All confirm a clear awareness of the importance of supporting and collaborating in online projects.

In 2007 the Executive Board of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (BZK) adopted the research program ‘Government and new media’ because it saw the need to investigate the influence of new media on the functioning of public administration, new opportunities and obstacles for a safe and efficient public administration in an open democracy. In recent years a rich variety of initiatives, supported by governmental and non-governmental institutions, have been experimenting with different forms of participation. Many successful open governance initiatives have emerged from that endeavor.

Digital Pioneers eParticipation

The Digital Pioneers fund has supported a number of open governance projects. Projects that aim at improving citizen’s access to information and services provided by government agencies or to organize around public issues. In 2009 Kennisland (KL), commissioned by BZK, supported seven open governance projects within a special Digital Pioneers eParticipation round. This was an experiment that met the demands of BZK on “how ICT can be used to support existing forms of participation and new forms of participation with the use of new ICT applications”. BZK used the innovative power of the society to create new applications. Central to this was the citizen, who in some projects has also worked closely with governments.

The Digital Pioneers eParticipation round proved a good tool for citizen involvement in improving services and democracy and accelerated the developments. In nine months lead-time, seven initiatives were launched, valuable publicly accessible services or products. To further sustain the grass root eParticipation projects and grass root movement, the eParticipation round was followed up by the Digital Pioneers eParticipation Academy. A learning network of active people in eParticipation, that is currently underway.

Furthermore, BZK also initiated the project Dat zou handig zijn. A competition for generating ideas around the reuse of public government data modeled after Show Us a Better Way in the UK. Launched May 2009, running until September 2009. ‘Dat zou handig zijn’ means ‘That would be great to have’ and made 20.000 Euro available to help realize the best idea(s). Recently BZK launched the Dutch Open data Catalogue, modeled after the successful catalogues in the US and UK.

Researching the state of open governance

Together with you and the Digital Pioneers Academy participants we want to investigate the rise of open governance pioneers. We would like to start an open discussion on the state of open governance and the following questions that will be presented in upcoming blogposts:

* How have open governance initiatives activated participation of civilians in politics and government?

* What are the challenges for the near future?

* What are the general recommendations for a vital open governance movement the following years?

In the next blogpost we will focus on our first findings on the first of these three questions. Your comments are expected and integrated the program of the Summit and the State of Social Media publication we are preparing to publish afterwards. This particular blogpost is open for remarks as well. If there are any other interesting examples that illustrate this moment, let us know!

Together we will set the agenda for meeting the challenges in social media in the future!