E-consultation and participation

The use of Internet technology to undertake consultation and participation is relatively new and brings challenges as well as opportunities.

There are several e-consultation and participation tools available, including chat rooms, forums, bulletin boards, online questionnaires and the structured template approach used by Dialogue by Design.

We believe this field is still in its infancy. We continue to develop new tools and approaches based on the belief that e-consultation and e-participation processes should be designed and run on the same principles as conventional consultation and participation processes.

There has been relatively little written on e-consultation and participation in the United Kingdom. The Hansard Society (www.hansard-society.org.uk) and the International Teledemocracy Centre (http://itc.napier.ac.uk) have produced a number of academic papers based on their work with forums and petitions.

We have produced some brief papers based on our recent experience of designing and running a range of electronic participation and consultation processes in the public and private sectors.

Designing and managing electronic consultation processes – Andrew Acland

E-participation and the future of democracy – Andrew Acland

E-consultation and e-participation – learning from experience – Andrew Acland

E-consultation and participation

Further reading