This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Web of Science (4) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Whyte, A. Articles by Macintosh, A. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Transparency and teledemocracy: issues from an ‘e-consultation’

International Teledemocracy Centre,Napier University, Scotland, UK

Ann Macintosh

International Teledemocracy Centre, Napier University, Scotland, UK, a.whyte{at}napier.ac.uk

Transparency is a term common to distributed computing, communications studies and other fields that information science draws upon. Its everyday uses and connotations are carried over into these domains, coalescing around some common issues relevant to knowledge management. Transparency is also a common term in political theory and practice and one that has been associated with teledemocracy: the application of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to support democratic processes. For example, ‘greater transparency’ is commonly used to justify the use of ICT by governments to consult with the governed; the topic of the work in progress reported here.

Transparency is an abstract benefit, perhaps more so than ‘knowledge management’ itself. It promises gain for all, but risks being lost between expectations first raised by political and managerial ‘spin’ and then deflated by the same corporate forgetting what it is meant to address. The paper explores some of this dangerous territory, reflecting on how everyday notions of ‘transparency’ relate to two current issues in knowledge management and social informatics: firstly, the design of systems to promote shared awareness of activity and identity; secondly, the study of ICTs to illuminate the invisibility of the ‘social infrastructure’ that they depend upon.

The paper briefly reviews uses of the term ‘transparency’, drawing on literature from the fields mentioned above. The aim is to delineate dimensions of transparency that may help designers, policy makers or citizens to evaluate what can or should be made transparent in the interplay between technology and due political process. Ethnographic methods were used to document outcomes of an ‘electronic consultation’ project that contributed to a Government consultation of eleven to eighteen year olds in Scotland. A website ‘econsultant’ was developed and its usage monitored online and offline, including in events leading up to a ‘Scottish Youth Summit’. Using brief extracts from field notes, the website itself and audio and video transcripts of the site in use, the paper will show how those participating in the consultation collaboratively shared and managed awareness of their activities and identities. Reflecting on what was made visible through the e-consultant site, and wha was hidden by it, the realised and potential ‘transparencyenhancing’ effects of this and similar prototypes will be discussed. The discussion focuses on the roles of intermediaries and social infrastructure in the project, illustrating the trade-offs between transparently simple design and transparency of information in the collaboration between consultants(those doing the consulting) and consultees (those consulted). Finally, indications are given of the direction the authors’ ongoing research.

Journal of Information Science, Vol. 27, No. 4, 187-198 (2001)
DOI: 10.1177/016555150102700401


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?