E-Tunisia / e-consultations: overview

Continuation from the previous post - E-government for Tunisia (E-Tunisia) : Help to move forwards

We, the people, are the government

E-consultations constitute interactive “tell-us-what-you-think” on-line services where ordinary citizens, civic actors, experts, and politicians purposively assemble to provide input, deliberate, inform, and influence policy and decision making. E-consultation is complimentary to existing practices.

E-consultations are also more formal and structured than discussions in the informal virtual public sphere. They tend to have a set duration, agenda, employ the use of moderators, with topics for discussion pre-defined by the host.

There are five common types of e-consultations:

1. question and answer discussion forums
2. on-line polls
3. e-petitions or on-line testimonies
4. e-panels
5. editorial consultations

Usual challenges:

1. population coverage
2. integrity
3. visibility
4. transparency and disclosure obligations are vital (with confidentiality only applying on matters of a personal nature)
5. usual distrust towards new electronic applications
6. balance of central and local power

Local challenges:

1. 10 million people
2. huge diversity in education and income
3. political instability
4. lack of a comprehensive Internet infrastructure

Local opportunities:

1. the top African country in the UN e-government study 2010
2. high level of the IT local resources

Solution architecture will be another post .

Thanks,
AS