Good practice: Munich as a city for children and families 10. June 2008 – 22:05 by Bengt Feil (TuTech Innovation GmbH)

The online consultation in Munich concerning the role of families for the city is a prime example of engaging the public authorities in direct communication with the citizens. A profound learning process on the side of the individuals working for public institutions could be observed. In the course of the discussion there were many cases of direct and productive communication between citizens and public officials which led to a deeper understanding for the issues and attitudes on both sides.

The purpose of the discourse was to discuss the state of families in the city of Munich, to collect the attitudes and ideas of parents and couples planning to have children about the situations of live for families in the city, to inform the citizens about the ongoing program to make Munich a more attractive city for families. From May 10th to 31st 2006 the DEMOS method and platform developed by TuTech was used to fulfill these tasks. A total number of 36 proposals were developed by the participants and will be integrated into the long term plan for policies on children and families.

In 1.533 contributions the 316 registered participants discussed the topic and exchanged useful tips and additional information. The general atmosphere of the discussion was very open and constructive, so that the team of moderators only had to intervene once.

In the first phase (May 10th to 14th) of the three part discussion the main aspects of the topic were identified by the citizens and discussed in general. Already in this phase many innovative ideas and suggestions were articulated by the participants. After the filtering of the main topics by the team of moderators, the discussion went into more specialized sub forums in the second phase (May 15th to 28th). The wiki-technology was used to carry over the discussion into the 36 concrete results mentioned above. In the last phase the discussion was summarized and additional information was added to the results.

In summary the project fulfilled the given tasks and produced a number of concrete results that are brought into the process of political decision making. Especially the intensive exchange of information and arguments both among citizens and between citizens and public officials was a major advantage for the city of Munich.

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Tags: family, good practice, inenglish, munich, online consultaion, public administrations