WikiPoliSee
= (project for a) Vehicle for Web-Based Co-Creation of Public Policy
URL = http://communiplexity.wikispaces.com/page/view/WikiPoliSee/
Description
WikiPoliSee is a proposed system to make it possible for everybody to be more involved in public policy making. The first effort will involve policies regarding the treatment of vulnerable youth. The plan is to create an opportunity for young people, their families, youth service providers, and others involved in safeguarding the well-being of vulnerable youth to become more involved in policymaking.
In proposing this system, we make a distinction between involvement in policy advocacy – expression of support or opposition to a policy that is designed by a legislator or other traditional policymaker – and policymaking – active contribution to the content of policy proposals. We plan to orient policymaking activities around a youth mental health services issue that is beginning to receive wider attention from traditional policymakers, an issue that is therefore apt for piloting of a new policymaking approach: transition to adulthood of youth with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD).
Activities of the initial demonstration of the system will seek to engage stakeholders in a policymaking process focusing on service gaps and/or perceived injustices associated with transition to adulthood of youth with EBD. The ultimate intent of the demonstration, however, is to describe mechanisms through which the breadth and depth of stakeholder involvement could be increased in policymaking on other problems faced by youth with EBD or other subpopulations of vulnerable youth and their families.
Architecture of WikiPoliSee
The proposed system will be organized into modules. All modules will offer similar policymaking-related activities, but each will serve a specific type of stakeholder. Users will access the system through a common portal, which will grant access to individuals specifying a unique username and either a pre-specified or a user-specified stakeholder category (e.g., youth with EBD presently receiving transition support services, program administrators and staff of transition support services, mental health experts, legal experts, legislators or other traditional policymaking professionals, etc.) Multiple "activity rooms” will be made availave, such that members of each stakeholder group will have their own "room." Within each of the rooms will be multiple "activity areas." The first activity area within each activity room will be devoted to storytelling – an exchange of experiences of participants within a given stakeholder group. The second activity area within each room will be devoted to the creation of a consensus statement, a brief statement representing the views of each participating stakeholder group on transition issues of youth with EBD. The third activity room will provide opportunities for policy modification, an activity that will consist of commenting on and/or directly modifying proposed legislation or other policy codifications related to transition of youth with EBD." (http://communiplexity.wikispaces.com/page/view/WikiPoliSee/)