In Australia and around the world an increasing movement is evolving in the establishment and application of an e-democracy approach to enable community participation, engagement and empowerment through the use of technology in the democratic process. For example the Australian Government Information Management Office state that:

"With the advent of e-government and the increasing use of information and communication technologies to enhance government delivery, opportunities arise for agencies to engage and involve citizens and community through new channels. While traditional ways of engaging will still occur, agencies are also exploring online and electronic avenues of involving the community."

Researchers from Queensland University of Technology, Australian Catholic University and University of Queensland are collaborating with representatives from Quest Newspapers on a QCIF Technology Diffusion project designed to further enhance and extend an e-democracy/e-participation vision and model from the community perspective.  This will be achieved through the piloting of an application model and associated tools, the results of which will provide a replicable process linking and engaging government, industry, community groups and individuals in debate on current issues raised by or of concern to community.  This will allow regional and local issues and current events to be identified by the various community members, disseminated for general discussion, commentary and appropriate action integrating social and economic outcomes.

Technology

Online access to Quest newspapers published from as far back as 1995 will allow data such as letters to the editor and themes of major articles to be extracted and mined for analysis.  This will provide a benchmark for an artificial intelligence system based on computational analysis of data and resultant thematics to allow an interactive response model for the future which includes thematic visualisations.  The test pilot will initially be analysing data from three Quest newspapers from Brisbane's northern suburbs, however it may be extended to other news bodies.

Use of complex software algorithms for data and text mining such as neural networks and binary tree searching will allow for identification of themes and temporal analysis of this historical data.  This will provide the basis for identifying relevant issues for an interactive system that will allow for building a model for responsive testing of a theme over spatial area which equates to the distribution areas of the various papers. This allows spatial comparisons and analysis to be made using Geographic Information Systems technologies including the CIS (Community Information System) developed with QCIF support in 2004/5.

The outcomes of this technology diffusion project will provide Quest Newspapers and the researchers with a comprehensive set of tools and techniques for interpreting, analysing and displaying the complex data sets. It would also allow key findings to be disseminated in a way that is accessible to management, other Governmental bodies and associated local community groups.

Community Consultation Tools

Community consultation and information is an important part of planning and this project also proposes to develop visualisation materials that are suitable for such activities. It is envisaged to include the development of interactive Web based models for viewing over the Internet and including interactive models and GIS maps. These would be generated from the visualisations produced by the software. This would also provide evidentiary based data for community leaders to pursue a desired expressed outcome which in turn extends the level of community democracy.

Participants

Wayne Delaforce, Dr Bruce Rich, Queensland University of Technology
Dr John Harrison, University of Queensland
Assoc. Prof. Nasir Butrous, Australian Catholic University

Industry Participant

Quest Community Newspapers