Communicating local

governments: Implementing

community informatics

Knut H. Sørensen

NTNU

Briefly about the project

The project examines the visions and strategies of Norwegian local governments with respect to the implementation of advanced ICT-based communication. We study the challenges local governments and local firms meet through such efforts and identify characteristics of successful efforts to improve services and increase their social value.

Two sub-projects: Local governments’ strategies to support local industrial

development based on advanced ICT (to be finalised by summer, 2011)

Vision and strategies of local government with respect to implementing ICT to improve services (PhD project to be finalised fall, 2012)

In this talk

Local governments’ strategies to support local

industrial development based on advanced ICT,

based on interviews and analysis of documents,

newspapers and professional journals.

Analysis of local governments web pages, based

on quantitative content analysis of all such web

pages, and in-depth qualitative analysis of the

web pages of 10 municipalities

I. Local governments’ strategies to support

local industrial development based on

advanced ICT

Main finding: Most local governments are not

very active, but there are some exceptions

We have studied four local communities,

pursuing different strategies.

Strategies differ along two main dimensions:

Technological integration – the degree to which ICT is

woven together with established industry or is a

prominent feature of local industry.

Degree of engagement of local government – seems

most decisive in terms of outcome

Two main forms of local

government engagement Ambassador Engaging in talent scouting and networking

Demanding in terms of level of activity

Depends on a strong interest in innovation and local development

Usually carried out by the mayor in small communities

Results in a feeling of empowerment with respect to coping with technological opportunities

Substitute chief officer Less demanding and thus more tempting

Does not require innovative thinking of local politicians

Initiatives are delegated to consulting companies

Hired expertise tend to be transitory, making local politicians frustrated and helpless with regard to identifying ways of making new ICT contributing to local value creation.

II: Web pages of local communities

Some findings

All 430 municipalities have Web pages

All offer information, but with large variations in terms of quantity and quality

All offer at least a simple form of communication (a common email address)

Only 9% offer more advanced forms of communication (chats or instant messaging services)

60% offer at least one type of electronic service

18% offer interactive access to several local community services (kindergarten application, job vacancies, building licenses, after-school programmes)

Almost all Web Pages offer electronic contact with politicians, but there is nearly no interactive access to politicians

14 % of the municipalities offer electronic forums for political matters.

A new geographical digital divide?

Web pages as assemblages

Three main types of assemblages:

Information assemblages – web pages mainly offering information, configuring users as information seeking

Citizen assemblages – facilitating mediated democratic participation, configuring users as politically active

Client assemblages – offering interactivity with respect to municipal services, configuring users as ICT competent clients

What characterise the web pages

of local governments

The majority is based on more or less

comprehensive information assemblages

A growing number display a hybrid of

information and client assemblages

Only a small number of the municipalities

offer a hybrid of all three assemblages

Some conclusions

There are very substantial differences

between national visions about local

governments’ use of ICT and the actual

practice

There are very substantial differences

between local governments in terms of

level of activity, strategies and what they

offer to the public

As a consequence, there are

geographically caused digital divides that

do not seem to be diminished.