Collaborative law
New Zealand police have been running a novel campaign intended to make the law more open and accessible to members of the public.
Using 'wiki' technology which allows people to quickly and easily edit online documentation, the New Zealand police have made the wording to a new police act open and accessible to everyone. The idea is that the thoughts and input from the public will be submitted to government, along with consultation work next year.
This project seems to be more of an experiment than a complete opening up of the New Zealand constitution. From reading their home page, it would appear that the document was only editable by public input for one month. However one month is better than nothing! On the home page they allude to the international recognition the initiative has gathered. Hopefully this means that other governments will pay attention.
Why I blog this
I think that this is an excellent example of how civil bodies can employ emerging communication technologies to create a more open and transparent relationship with the populations they are answerable to. It goes to show that co-creation strategies are not simply the domain of commercial enterprise, but can be used to engage in all facets of day-to-day lives.
I also really like that they've thought about the user experience. An interview with Supt. Hamish McCardle, the man responsible for the initiative, on the BBC website notes that they went to the effort of employing a 'sandbox', where new users could experiment with the service before they made edits to the documentation for real.
There is every reason to get excited about this sort of idea. The public sector has as much to gain from the opportunities and benefits of inviting people into the heart of their establishments as the commercial sector does inviting audiences into the heart of their business. As always, what is key is that technology is not allowed to dominate. It's usable technology that supports a well planned and executed idea that makes or breaks such.
via BBC news
Categories: Co-creation.
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