AlphaGov: A new era for Government consultation?

There’s been much discussion and blogging about AlphaGov - a new prototype for a single, multi-departmental website for the UK Government to replace direct.gov. The AlphaGov team suggests the platform could dramatically change the way that citizens engage with Government. The team’s blog on the issue suggests the site could ‘raise the floor’ by setting minimum standards for every engagement exercise, creating 'layers,’ helping different people participate in different ways with much more flexible participation tools and ‘keeping it real’ by making sure engagement really is genuine.

So far, most of the ideas focus on communication of information to citizens or on citizens feeding opinions back to Government. There is less focus on the potential for dialogue within AlphaGov, either between citizen and Government officials or between citizens themselves. There are many ways that this can be done, but it must be flexible and focused on how citizens want to engage as well as what suits officials and Government departments.

As the AlphaGov project moves forwards, the team is asking for feedback and input. At Sciencewise-ERC, we’re particularly interested in:

• how could the site develop to host genuine two-way dialogues?
• what methods would be needed?
• could an online space, which is largely focused on information provision and service improvement, be appropriate for complex dialogues about science?

Share your thoughts on the Sciencewise-ERC forum.