Comments on: Public consultation or user testing? http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/07/08/public-consultation-or-user-testing/ Michael Grimes lives in Birmingham (UK). This is his blog about anything that he fancies. Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:43:25 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Michael http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/07/08/public-consultation-or-user-testing/comment-page-1/#comment-19154 Michael Mon, 12 Jul 2010 21:30:45 +0000 http://citizensheep.com/blog/?p=2413#comment-19154 <p>Paul, I agree with you that it is hard to do that monitoring. But I don't think it's at all helpful for us to expect MPs and councillors to use lots of new tools. On Wednesday a lady from Public Zone (I forget her name) interjected a few of times during the questions, and at one point said that MPs need to be monitoring all of these services, not just using one. That alone made me wonder quite what MyMP (which Public Zone part funds) thought it was doing; I should have thought it would be far more productive for MPs to use <em>one</em> monitoring tool than several bespoke ones.</p> Paul, I agree with you that it is hard to do that monitoring. But I don’t think it’s at all helpful for us to expect MPs and councillors to use lots of new tools. On Wednesday a lady from Public Zone (I forget her name) interjected a few of times during the questions, and at one point said that MPs need to be monitoring all of these services, not just using one. That alone made me wonder quite what MyMP (which Public Zone part funds) thought it was doing; I should have thought it would be far more productive for MPs to use one monitoring tool than several bespoke ones.

]]> By: paul johnston http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/07/08/public-consultation-or-user-testing/comment-page-1/#comment-19144 paul johnston Mon, 12 Jul 2010 17:37:03 +0000 http://citizensheep.com/blog/?p=2413#comment-19144 Michael - I don't get how you might make this "meet people where they are" real in the political/policymaking process. How many people are we going to employ monitoring how many social media to gather opinions on anything that might in some way relate to a public sector responsibility? And even if this was possible what would they do with whatever they had collected? I just don't see how it might realistically work. can you help? Michael – I don’t get how you might make this “meet people where they are” real in the political/policymaking process. How many people are we going to employ monitoring how many social media to gather opinions on anything that might in some way relate to a public sector responsibility? And even if this was possible what would they do with whatever they had collected? I just don’t see how it might realistically work. can you help?

]]> By: Jon Bounds http://citizensheep.com/blog/2010/07/08/public-consultation-or-user-testing/comment-page-1/#comment-19032 Jon Bounds Fri, 09 Jul 2010 13:19:59 +0000 http://citizensheep.com/blog/?p=2413#comment-19032 I don't know too much about the myMP app, but often the problem with online consultation exercises isn't the collecting but the bottleneck at the place where the comments are directed. Patient Opinion has a very different form of consultation — wide, ongoing, informal — to direct contact with MPs or any public figure. It's much harder to see how they can scale without the burden of feedback or any contact back becoming too much. In more conversational consultation those receiving the comments need to have the skills to be able to deal with comments that are possibly not responses to direct questions, but may also be part of a wider conversation. There also need to be feedback mechanisms in place. We're already seeing MPs particularly complaining of being buried under the weight of campaigning emails — something will snap if we (they, someone!) don't think about how to deal and respond with mass communication. I don’t know too much about the myMP app, but often the problem with online consultation exercises isn’t the collecting but the bottleneck at the place where the comments are directed. Patient Opinion has a very different form of consultation — wide, ongoing, informal — to direct contact with MPs or any public figure. It’s much harder to see how they can scale without the burden of feedback or any contact back becoming too much.

In more conversational consultation those receiving the comments need to have the skills to be able to deal with comments that are possibly not responses to direct questions, but may also be part of a wider conversation. There also need to be feedback mechanisms in place.

We’re already seeing MPs particularly complaining of being buried under the weight of campaigning emails — something will snap if we (they, someone!) don’t think about how to deal and respond with mass communication.

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