The Public Web That Is Answerable to Citizens

Web sites and portals have traditionally been considered by public administrations as one way among many to communicate with their citizens. Often these sites are little more than window-dressing. There seems to be a lag between citizens' expectations of open access in administrations and the reality of the majority of Italian cities, which have not adequately reorganized their activities around the Internet.
The issue concerns local administration and urban systems especially, which are closest to the daily lives of citizens. In this relation, the value driver for the citizen-customer is represented by the possibility of accessing information and services in a rapid and personalized way. Also, the opportunity to have a quick and informal contact with the local administration and its representatives is prized by citizens. City dwellers display the will to have a certain degree of control on what happens in their territory, and are ready to express their opinions and share them with others.
The Bocconi CERMES research center has developed an indicator named Citizen Web Empowerment Index (CWEI), which detects either the presence or absence of the elements that are expected by citizens from the websites of city administrations. What are these?
Firstly, information must be relevant for the specific needs of citizens: it must be customized and not overabundant; it must be indexed and accessible. In general, the information displayed must be less and less linked to the organizational structure of the administration, and more and more linked to citizens' life events: this presupposes an adequate segmentation of the targets of information.
Also the administration's open datasets must be easily accessible, with the willingness to promote their use among the citizenry. Only an articulated strategy on open government data on the web manages to attain the complete transparency aimed for by progressive administrations. Data and information must also be geo-referenced, i.e. must be integrated with Google maps and other similar systems, in order to tie information to the territory.
In addition, effective tools for direct online participation must always be available. These can be forums, polls, petitions, complaints, as well as social networks and private channels of dialogue with the mayor and other city officials. On social media, a debate is raging. Some fear that e-government can turn into 'emotional government', others emphasize that these tools are integral to a web strategy that promotes the citizens' active participation.

However, two are the truly crucial features that warrant actual citizen empowerment via the website of the city administration. First of all, there must be actual evidence of residents having a role in political decision-making. This can mean total transparency in the contributions made by citizens and how the city responds to them, or making all the complaints visible to all and report what the city is doing to address them. Secondly, today it is unavoidable to have full access to public content also from mobile devices: the city site and its services must literally be at the fingertips of any citizen: smartphones and tablets are powerful tools to foster good city government.