The group project that serves as the capstone for the Maxwell School’s Executive Master of Public Administration Degree led a paper we titled Promise and Pitfalls: In Search of Best Practices in E-Participation.
E-participation refers to the growing practice of government agencies soliciting opinions and ideas directly from citizens in order to better direct resources, improve customer service, and formulate better public policy.
We studied the literature and wrote four case studies as part of the paper. We then developed a set of criteria that we applied to the case studies to help us determine where they were succeed, and where they feel short.
Here’s a PDF of the report. Here’s a look at the summary grid that was attached to the paper as an appendix. Here’s a copy of our PowerPoint presentation to the class. I have also written a blog post that summarizes the lessons we learned from Manor, Texas — one of the parts of the paper I headed up.
