Good Practices and Innovations in Public Governance 2003-2011

Good Practices and InnovATIONS in Public Governance
In terms of the strategic operation of the Cyber Policy Forum, the ISPB focused on
making sure that the topics selected for discussion were relevant, and on reflecting
citizens’ opinions as much as possible in order to draw more civil participation.
Three main strategies have been developed.
First, topics of the Forum are selected among citizens and experts’ suggestions every
month to ensure that the Cyber Policy Forum is on the right track with relevant social
issues. Those topics have to be hot issues that directly affect citizens’ lives. To this end,
the ISPB posts experts’ opinions on the website of the Forum to guide the citizens
about topics and to highlight pros and cons on issues. Anyone can put their own opinions
and comments on the website. Every month, the SMG posts different topics for the
Cyber Policy Forum along with experts’ opinions on the selected topics on the website
of the Forum so that citizens can have in-depth discussions with other members of the
society with varied viewpoints. In doing so, citizens could feel that they are not just
mere recipients of government services. This recognition has resulted in increasing
citizens’ active participation and interest in city affairs. Moreover, the Forum has amplified
the level of publicity regarding the city’s policies since these were discussed
through the Forum leading to a more concerted action between the SMG and citizens.
As for the second strategy, the SMG actively promotes and advertises the Forum to
draw more citizens’ participation by using diverse means, including press releases. In
addition to this, the city government also emails 90,000 registered members of its
website notifying them about each month’s topic.
The third strategy for encouraging citizens’ participation consists of rewards (small
gifts) that the SMG gives to eight best discussants every month. Among them, three
best discussants are selected through online voting cast by the citizens, whilst the rest
of the discussants are selected by public officials of the SMG.
Since the inception of the Cyber Policy Forum in 2003, the Forum has been a marketplace
where Seoul’s citizens can freely discuss various policy issues. In doing so,
citizens have proven that ordinary people have the capacity to understand sophisticated
issues and to come up with brilliant ideas.
However, despite of the SMG’s endeavour in promoting the Forum, it did not appear
to be an easy task to get people actively use this program. Therefore, the most urgent
matter that the SMG had to deal with was to find ways of encouraging people to login
to the website as often as possible. Indeed, the low rate of the citizens’ participation
was rather problematic at the beginning stage of the Forum.
In sum, the Forum has not only shifted the governance paradigm of the city by easing
the SMG’s burden on planning policies, but it has also raised its public awareness
and understanding about the municipal issues as well. In addition, this online
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