The opinions and thoughts of the Australian public were gathered and harnessed using wiki technology in order to improve upon the ten year strategic vision plan the government wants to undertake for the city of Melbourne.
Business Challenge
A wiki site was thought of as the best tool to harness the opinions of citizens regarding the Draft Plan, which encompasses the strategic 10 year vision for Melbourne, Australia. The wiki allowed registered users to contribute, add or edit to the strategic plan document, which was brought forth by the Future Melbourne panel. This enabled many users at once to contribute their own ideas and thoughts while at the same time creating a single coherent document made up of many coexisting opinions.
The phase of editing the Future Melbourne Draft Plan was actually secondary to a phase that included twelve months of collecting online submissions and corresponding with citizens through online discussion forums by the Future Melbourne team. Most of the submissions (7 out of 8) appear to be from a organized group who came to a consensus regarding their thoughts for the future of Melbourne, Australia rather than individuals writing their own personal ideas.
Approach Taken
Wiki technology was used in creation of the Future Melbourne webpage. This allowed the public to change, comment, discuss or edit the content of the Draft Plan during a time called the public consultation period which lasted from May 17 to June 14th. Any registered user could add or change content to the Draft Plan during the public consultation period, however, other users had the ability to reword or change whatever you edited.
The discussion page was used to throw back and forth ideas for the plan and to specifically talk about certain sections of the document and generate support for your idea. By discussing why you want to change or add specific content and backing it up with solid evidence/support, your changes within the actual Draft Plan were unlikely to be changed. The public also had the ability to create groups to garner support for their specific ideas. Throughout this public consultation period, the Future Melbourne Team corresponded with the public through the discussion forum.
This short documentary, which was part of the Future Melbourne project, features citizens discussing what they love about their city.
The Future Melbourne Team is currently reviewing the public-edited Draft Plan and will make any adjustments to the actual Draft Plan they believe is necessary. July 30th is when the panel will formally hand over their final Draft Plan to the Melbourne city council.
Future Melbourne also coordinated face to face meetings where they would teach people how to use a wiki.
6,500 people visited the Future Melbourne website during the public consultation period (May 17th -June 14th).
Future Melbourne is at the time of this writing reviewing the public-edited Draft Plan, so the results and the extent of public contribution to the plan have yet to be disclosed.
Lessons Learned
The public can be harnessed and can have a voice regarding the development of their city, and a wiki is a great tool to use for that purpose.
Future city planning using public contribution might want to consider how to get more individual opinions/submissions leading up to the creation of the Draft Plan.
Federal Agencies Create 23 Open Gov Sites – 23 Federal agencies have just created new open government websites to engage the public and discuss open government initiatives. Learn more and check them out today\!
