Empowering Society Participation in Public Service Processes

Abstract

Several discussions enforce the need for a greater engagement of society in public issues and show how ICTs can enhance it. This chapter presents the idea of conversations about public services. It is argued that by making society aware of how a service is provided—its process—citizens may develop a better attitude for interacting with government and other service users. Both society and governmental service providers can discuss problems, correct available information, and increase their knowledge about the processes, thus providing closer ties between them. This chapter also presents a tool designed to support these conversations and the results obtained with a case study of its use. The results suggest that conversations have stimulated interaction among citizens and services providers as well as allowed service improvement opportunities.