Canadian Government Executive - Volume 22

Governing Digitally

Jeffrey Roy

rofessors are obliged to set regular week-

ly office hours, something most students

today find rather quaint. It’s often a time

to catch up on email or chat with col-

leagues, awaiting clients that never arrive. Dur-

ing one such recent occasion, a colleague was be-

moaning this loss of real-time interaction, noting

that the Internet’s efficiency in sharing does not

extend to a capacity for meaningfully conversing.

Of course, most students see things a bit dif-

ferently (and to be fair, the same can be said for

more and more younger faculty as well). Always

connected and always online, today’s mobile co-

hort of learners (and tomorrow’s public servants)

are plugged into a ubiquitous conversation that

never ceases.

This new form of conversation is both open and

porous and driven by a growing deluge of con-

tent. It is now being analyzed by others through

algorithmic means. Such is the basis of big data

and the growing usage of analytics to find value.

The means of expression and exchange are also

shifting: Facebook reports that its’ users alone

consume more than one hundred million hours

of video each day.

The personal and collective costs of this virtual

tsunami are well known. In

Reclaiming Conversa-

tion: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age

, MIT Pro-

fessor Sherry Turkle, for example, exposes the

loss of empathy and other socializing traits occur-

ring across today’s society and in younger people

especially - and the deterioration of conversation

as a result.

Whether at the family dinner table or in the

classroom, Turkle calls for the creation of “sa-

cred spaces” – technology-free zones where

human interaction and thoughtful discussion

can be nurtured. Interestingly, many leaders

in Silicon Valley have long concurred with this

viewpoint, sending their children to the Waldorf

School, a learning academic emphasizing imagi-

nation and banning all digital devices from their

classrooms.

These new dynamics and new tensions pres-

ent huge challenges to the public sector, within

both the legislative and executive branches. Par-

liaments were established as a sacred space, in a

time without television or radio much less the In-

ternet. Today it is an echo chamber of mere parti-

san talking points whereas the crucial conversa-

tions take place in a myriad of ways all around it.

Less shackled by formal partisan structures, lo-

cal councils are experimenting with new ways to

both connect elected officials and the public and

create new dialogue. Participatory budgeting is

one such example: the City of Halifax deploys in-

expensive online videos to better explain budget-

ary spending and choices and to solicit feedback

and input accordingly.

A few Councillors have gone further and

crowd-sourced their discretionary spending

choices. Similarly, the City of Edmonton has in-

vested significantly in public engagement, mix-

ing an array of channels and methodologies to

share power with the local citizenry (see their

July 2015 report online,

Strengthening Public En-

gagement in Edmonton

Provincially and federally, governments remain

tentative in their exploration of this new partici-

pative terrain. Social media is viewed largely as

a communications platform rather than a means

of engagement and inclusion. The governing

mindset of risk aversion is shaped much more

by a television apparatus and traditional media

culture than by the new possibilities of collective

awareness and involvement.

Such trepidation is understandable when

viewed through the prism of conversations that

are generally place-based and highly structured.

Consultation is similarly linear and codified via

texts presented orally or submitted online (typi-

cally by special interests rather than average citi-

zens), rarely a collaborative basis for collectively

sharing ideas and building innovative solutions.

The challenge going forward for the public sec-

tor is to devise new forms of sacred spaces that

are in tune with the new tenor of conversation

and connectedness all around us. As we witness

with some newspapers closing their online com-

mentary, merely inviting input cannot suffice.

The deepening and unrelenting impacts of Don

Tapscott’s four principles of openness (collabora-

tion, transparency, sharing, and empowerment)

necessitate more creative and inclusive ap-

proaches to governance.

In 1999, social theorist Daniel Yankelovich pub-

lished an influential book entitled

The Magic of

Conversation

as a basis for transforming conflict

into cooperation. Today we are both losing and

re-discovering such magic and a significant refur-

bishment of our public institutions is called for.

While a new political tone nationally can surely

help, looking to Ottawa to lead such an effort is

unrealistic: public imagination and local experi-

mentation are the keys to cultivating democratic

and discursive renewal.

effrey

is professor in the School of

Public Administration at Dalhousie

University

(roy@dal.ca)

Rethinking Conversation

/ Canadian Government Executive

// March 2016

While a new

political tone

nationally can

surely help,

looking to Ottawa

to lead such an

effort is unrealistic:

public imagination

and local

experimentation

are the keys

to cultivating

democratic and

discursive renewal.