Evaluating public engagement online

2012 EEN Forum

Led by Laurie Maack

“It’s not the technology, it’s the hurdle…The challenge of people working with people” –Laurie Maak

Tools: The Internet As social media involves, Laurie sees the public engaging in more of agency processes instead of the just the end, especially with the current worldwide environmental situation. This includes dialogues, even multilingual dialogues, that simply take development and testing. This would increase the people and countries of the world interacting without the medium of the government.

Challenges Public Barriers. Example: Looking toward technology for teachers to enhance environmental learning. The more you collect more information about the audience, the higher barrier to entry there is. This trade-off is a challenge.

Some state that people aren’t receiving feedback despite their involvement. Agencies use their information and opinion, but these people rarely get anything back. The engagement piece is coming at the end and we should strive to make it a continuous process. People don’t know if their input is having an impact, creating disengagement and almost defeating the purpose of inclusion.

EPA has difficulties with wikis, blogs, facebook sites. Some government agencies are struggling to strategize a plan when the agency leadership might change.

1 Comment

  1. Eric Abdullateef
    02 August 12, 6:56am

    Great post! I’d like to hear more about your presentation/session please forward it to eric.abdullateef@mac.com.

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