Affiliations: [a] City University of New York-College of Staten Island,
NY, USA | [b] Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul,
Korea | Fundacion Universidad de las Americas Puebla, Business
School, anta Catarina Martir, San Andres Cholula, Puebla, Mexico | City University of New York, Staten Island, NY,
USA
Correspondence:
[*]
Corresponding author: Soon Ae Chun, City University of New
York-College of Staten Island, NY, USA. E-mail: soon.chun@csi.cuny.edu
Abstract: In this study, we investigate the implementation, benefits and
results of an online participation tool, called Cyber Policy Forum, and other
for e-participation tools, by the Seoul Metropolitan City Government (SMG) in
Korea, used for citizen participation in the policy making process. The Forum
has not only shifted the paradigm of city governance by easing SMG's burden of
policy planning, but also has raised public awareness and understanding of
municipal issues. However, we do not think the Policy forum tool has enough
features for "shared governance" to achieve a true citizen-government
partnership in policy decision making. We recommend a provenance data
based policy transparency model} that captures and makes the policy
decision making data transparent to citizens to be used in the deliberation
process. The provenance data-based policy transparency model implies
transparency in policy data, process, role and context information
generated in the policy decision making lifecycle by the government. In
addition, we advocate augmenting citizen participation tools with personal
decision support system functionalities, such as content management and social
analytic tools. Such tools can help enhancing the efficient management of the
deliberation data to overcome information overload. They will also make it easy
for citizens to understand the interactions among participants, and to grasp
the conditions and contexts related to policy decision making.
