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Online Consultation Top Ten Tips 1. Political Support Required. 2. State Purpose, Share Context. 3. Build an Audience. 4. Choose Your Model and Elements Carefully. 5. Create Structure. 6. Provide Facilitation and Guidelines. 7. Disseminate Content and Results. 8. Access to Decision-Makers and Staff Required. 9. Promote Civic Education. 10. Not About Technology. Access the final version of my full online consultation article from: http://www.publicus.net/articles/consult.html Below is the full text for tips 1-3. Sincerely, Steven Clift Democracies Online P.S. If you find this article particularly useful or it would like to print this article or distribute it to others on paper, you can now donate online for each copy to my "Steve, write a book fund." Online Consultations and Events - Top Ten Tips for Government and Civic Hosts V1.1 By Steven Clift Online Strategist and Public Speaker http://www.publicus.net Copyright 2002 Steven Clift Discuss this article with your government and civic peers on the Democracies Online – Online Consultation and Civic Events e-mail list <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. As the concept of "e-democracy" builds momentum, interest in the use of online consultation in government and civil society circles is growing significantly. Online consultations, online public hearings, or online civic events can all be defined as the structured, often time-limited, use of online tools to inform public policy processes and encourage civic participation. By time-limited, I mean an online event with beginning and an end. This article provides online consultation tips geared toward prospective online consultation organizers. Most of the tips assume an asynchronous event (not real-time or live). Most lessons can be generalized to different models and elements I share below. At the very end of this article I share key links to resources related to online consultation. Let's get started. Online Consultation Top Ten Tips In summary … 1. Political Support Required. 2. State Purpose, Share Context. 3. Build an Audience. 4. Choose Your Model and Elements Carefully. 5. Create Structure. 6. Provide Facilitation and Guidelines. 7. Disseminate Content and Results. 8. Access to Decision-Makers and Staff Required. 9. Promote Civic Education. 10. Not About Technology. In full details ... 1. Political Support Required. Online consultations with strong and sincere political support are the only ones worth hosting. There must be a political desire for input and a willingness to consider that input in the decision-making process. Expecting that an online consultation will dramatically change the outcome of decision-making process is not generally a requirement. Political listening is a first and reasonable step. We are talking about evolution, not revolution. 2. State Purpose, Share Context. Citizens want to know the purpose of an online event. They will be skeptical. Share concise and readable information that shares the context of the event. Where in the policy process is this event being the staged? The beginning? The end? Let people know in order to establish reasonable citizen expectations. If it is an experiment or "public awareness" exercise that you know will have limited impact, simply be upfront and say so. You have to start somewhere. 3. Build an Audience. Recruit your participatory audience before the online event starts. Most online consultations fail due to the lack of citizen participation. Why? The public relations engines are not revved up until the event starts - bad move. The pragmatic approach is to recruit participants one at a time. Don't be fooled by the Internet myth that if you build it they will come - they won't. Create specific audience goals from 50 to 1000 people or more. Encourage all prospective participants to join an e-mail announcement list for the event and future events. Carry your audience from one event to the next whenever possible or appropriate. Recruit participants at in- person events and through the traditional and online media for at least two to three weeks before an online consultation starts. Even with an audience, many discussion-oriented events fail in the first three days because those attracted to the online event are thinking the same thing - "No one has posted yet, this event must not matter." Seeding the early hours of an event with “authentic” posts encouraged behind the scenes combined with e-mail highlights and encouragement to participants will make it a "happening" event. For the full article, see: http://www.publicus.net/articles/consult.html ^ ^ ^ ^ Steven L. 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