Open Government Communities: Does Design Affect Participation?

Abstract

Governments in more than 55 countries have signed the international Open Gov-ernment Partnership and are currently implementing open government initia-tives, aiming to make governments and public sectors more collaborative, participatory, transparent, and technology-driven. If successfully implemented, such open government initiatives can improve democracy, efficiency, and innovation. As history demonstrates, it is hard to build sustainable online participation. Merely 25% of online communities gather more than 1,000 members in their lifetime. Most of the other 75 % fail due to lack of participation. Many open gov-ernment communities have shared or are likely to share the same destiny. Giving citizens, companies, and non-governmental organizations the chance to participate in government does not necessarily mean they will do it. Consequently, open government communities face a participation challenge. Current research shows that the design of the community plays a critical role in participation. Some design patterns foster participation while other patterns discourage it. Existing research also demonstrates that insights from the social sciences can be translated into design ideas and thereby help solve the participation problem.