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Good Practices and Innovations in Public Governance 2003-2011

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<strong>Good</strong> <strong>Practices</strong> <strong>and</strong> InnovATIONS <strong>in</strong> <strong>Public</strong> <strong>Governance</strong><br />

Asia <strong>and</strong> the Pacific<br />

Republic of Korea<br />

2008 Category 3 F<strong>in</strong>alist<br />

Information System Plann<strong>in</strong>g Bureau<br />

Seoul Metropolitan Government<br />

Republic of Korea<br />

Description<br />

Boost<strong>in</strong>g onl<strong>in</strong>e citizen <strong>in</strong>volvement <strong>in</strong> public affairs <strong>and</strong> br<strong>in</strong>g<strong>in</strong>g cyber<br />

<strong>in</strong>novation <strong>in</strong>to the city adm<strong>in</strong>istration through the establishment of the Cyber<br />

Policy Forum by the Seoul Metropolitan Government of the Republic of Korea.<br />

Summary<br />

Seoul Metropolitan Government’s <strong>in</strong>itiative Cyber Policy Forum has served as an <strong>in</strong>novative<br />

means to boost communication between the government <strong>and</strong> its citizens by<br />

provid<strong>in</strong>g the people with an onl<strong>in</strong>e discussion ground where they can participate <strong>in</strong><br />

heated debates on wide-ranged policy issues.<br />

The Problem<br />

The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) has made cont<strong>in</strong>uous efforts to reflect<br />

citizens’ op<strong>in</strong>ions <strong>in</strong> its policy-mak<strong>in</strong>g process by collect<strong>in</strong>g various data.<br />

However, it has never been an easy task to elaborate <strong>and</strong> <strong>in</strong>tegrate the data. Although<br />

each bureau/division of the government sought to collect op<strong>in</strong>ions on<br />

various public matters from its people by conduct<strong>in</strong>g different polls, their results<br />

were not always adequately elaborated <strong>and</strong> did not meet the SMG or citizens’<br />

expectations.<br />

To top it off, surveys that did not require disclosure of identity, i.e., were conducted<br />

on an anonymous basis, were repleted of either unsound critiques or politically-biased<br />

op<strong>in</strong>ions. S<strong>in</strong>ce people tend to respond to the survey questions more positively<br />

when it is anonymous, a significant number of the polls were conducted <strong>in</strong> this way.<br />

As a result, most of the collected data conta<strong>in</strong>ed rather prejudiced ideas, which did<br />

not quite achieve the city’s objective of gather<strong>in</strong>g public suggestions through data<br />

collected from surveys.<br />

There was therefore a need to develop a virtual space where citizens could express<br />

their thoughts <strong>and</strong> views <strong>in</strong> order to gather more accurate suggestions from the people.<br />

Apart from such need, as society has become more diversified, there has been an<br />

<strong>in</strong>crease <strong>in</strong> dem<strong>and</strong>s <strong>and</strong> expectations for better policies without a correspond<strong>in</strong>g<br />

channel where citizens can discuss these issues freely.<br />

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