Teledemocracy: using IT ... - Basic project activities

Teledemocracy by Ytterstad, Akselsen, Svendsen, and Watson

Basic project activities

Project definition
Telenor Research's 1993 preproject "Telecommunications within the local public sector" identified IT support for political work as an interesting area for research. Contacts were made with representatives for a number of municipalities. The Salangen mayor responded with enthusiasm to the idea and in a local council meeting on March 17th, 1993, the Salangen municipality decided to participate in a field trial including 33 politicians and their administration for some two years. The project was shaped in close cooperation between Telenor Research and the Salangen politicians. The focus was on Teledemocracy and especially IT support for local government politicians.

Charting
The work of politicians was selected for investigation. Data were gathered from interviews, questionnaires, document analysis, and measurement of telephone traffic. The main part of this activity was done during the first, second, and third quarter of 1993. Of course, our insights into the nature of local political work have continued to grow throughout the project.

Design
The initial choice of functionality was done in accordance with the findings of the charting activities. The focus of the design was the need to provide an intuitive and easy to use interface.

Evaluation of the design
The politicians participated in the initial specification of the interface. Later, prototypes were tested and commented on by the board.

System development

The pilot version of the software was developed during some busy summer months of 1993. Most of the coding was done Mikrosys, a Tromsø based software house. The development project was run with weekly status and discussion meetings and without a formal program specification. This allowed for a creative and dynamic development process where ideas for design could be rapidly tested (prototyped).

Later versions of the software have been guided by the experiences gained and needs and opportunities revealed through the Salangen field trial. The substitution of double-clicking with single-clicking where possible is one example of a software revision initiated by feedback from and observation of the politicians.

The software is written in the programming language C++.

Training the pilot group
The main training session for the pilot group was held on November 5th 1993. The seven hour course covered computer hardware, word processing, filing, and POT system. The first three authors served as instructors, and one Mikrosys system developer assisted.

Deployment of the pilot group
The pilot group used POT extensively for a couple of weeks and provided valuable feedback that helped us improve the program. The close contact with the software house Mikrosys in Tromsø allowed us to introduce a more stable version to be distributed to the entire group of politicians on November 25th 1993, only three weeks later.

Training the user group

The group of 33 politicians and one administrator gathered in Salangen municipality's Hall of Culture were the training session took place November 25th 1993. The preparations beforehand included, among other things, setting up 35 PCs. Instructors at this course included a total of seven research scientists from Telenor Research and one systems developer from Mikrosys.

The training session and deployment of technology attracted a lot of interest from local and national media (newspapers, magazines, radio and television broadcasting), see the project scrapbook.

A second course was held in March 1994.

Deployment of the user group

After the training session, the politicians took the equipment to their homes. They were given an extra telephone line for connecting POT. Much effort was spent on following up with the users in order to assist whenever they had technical problems, to receive feedback for further adjustment of the POT software, and to compile data for a continuous evaluation of the project. Software updates were done on site, and this presented the team with an opportunity to provide additional assistance and training to the users.

Efforts were also put into assisting the administration develop POT-based routines for distribution of material from the municipality's issue information system.

Evaluation
The evaluation will run throughout 1995. Data have and will be gathered from interviews, questionnaires and measurement of telephone traffic. In addition, special software was implemented to capture data on systems' usage.

Images
Images from some of the different activities are available in the scrapbook.

Basic project activities
Project definition	Telenor Research's 1993 preproject "Telecommunications within the local public sector" identified IT support for political work as an interesting area for research. Contacts were made with representatives for a number of municipalities. The Salangen mayor responded with enthusiasm to the idea and in a local council meeting on March 17th, 1993, the Salangen municipality decided to participate in a field trial including 33 politicians and their administration for some two years. The project was shaped in close cooperation between Telenor Research and the Salangen politicians. The focus was on Teledemocracy and especially IT support for local government politicians.
Charting	The work of politicians was selected for investigation. Data were gathered from interviews, questionnaires, document analysis, and measurement of telephone traffic. The main part of this activity was done during the first, second, and third quarter of 1993. Of course, our insights into the nature of local political work have continued to grow throughout the project.
Design	The initial choice of functionality was done in accordance with the findings of the charting activities. The focus of the design was the need to provide an intuitive and easy to use interface.
Evaluation of the design	The politicians participated in the initial specification of the interface. Later, prototypes were tested and commented on by the board.
System development	The pilot version of the software was developed during some busy summer months of 1993. Most of the coding was done Mikrosys, a Tromsø based software house. The development project was run with weekly status and discussion meetings and without a formal program specification. This allowed for a creative and dynamic development process where ideas for design could be rapidly tested (prototyped). Later versions of the software have been guided by the experiences gained and needs and opportunities revealed through the Salangen field trial. The substitution of double-clicking with single-clicking where possible is one example of a software revision initiated by feedback from and observation of the politicians. The software is written in the programming language C++.
Training the pilot group	The main training session for the pilot group was held on November 5th 1993. The seven hour course covered computer hardware, word processing, filing, and POT system. The first three authors served as instructors, and one Mikrosys system developer assisted.
Deployment of the pilot group	The pilot group used POT extensively for a couple of weeks and provided valuable feedback that helped us improve the program. The close contact with the software house Mikrosys in Tromsø allowed us to introduce a more stable version to be distributed to the entire group of politicians on November 25th 1993, only three weeks later.
Training the user group	The group of 33 politicians and one administrator gathered in Salangen municipality's Hall of Culture were the training session took place November 25th 1993. The preparations beforehand included, among other things, setting up 35 PCs. Instructors at this course included a total of seven research scientists from Telenor Research and one systems developer from Mikrosys. The training session and deployment of technology attracted a lot of interest from local and national media (newspapers, magazines, radio and television broadcasting), see the project scrapbook. A second course was held in March 1994.
Deployment of the user group	After the training session, the politicians took the equipment to their homes. They were given an extra telephone line for connecting POT. Much effort was spent on following up with the users in order to assist whenever they had technical problems, to receive feedback for further adjustment of the POT software, and to compile data for a continuous evaluation of the project. Software updates were done on site, and this presented the team with an opportunity to provide additional assistance and training to the users. Efforts were also put into assisting the administration develop POT-based routines for distribution of material from the municipality's issue information system.
Evaluation	The evaluation will run throughout 1995. Data have and will be gathered from interviews, questionnaires and measurement of telephone traffic. In addition, special software was implemented to capture data on systems' usage.
Images	Images from some of the different activities are available in the scrapbook.