1. Open Policy Making: LinkedIn “interview” with Ms Huber, Chief of staff to the
Mayor of Heidelberg
“German university town goes online to talk to the next generation”
Guardian Professional, Monday 12 August 2013
Last year we spotted an article in the Guardian about a German initiative to
increase genuine public engagement in the town of Heidelberg – here's the link to
remind you.
We asked you for your questions to put to Ms Nicole Huber [Chief of Staff of the
Mayor of Heidelberg]. With thanks to Ms Huber and her team, here’s a summary of
what you asked, and the responses:
Question 1: Does the input from social media alone form the basis of decisions or
are there mechanisms by which people not on social media still contribute? - Tim
Ford, Better Regulation at DVLA
Answer 1: Social media is only the newest of several, more traditional
mechanisms used to aggregate public opinion in Heidelberg. Of course, we
haven’t abolished City Council, town hall meetings, elections or petitions, etc.
However, in order to consider the growing role of social media debates, we’ve
supplemented existing mechanisms with a digital mechanism. In this way, we
hope to make both our debate and decision-making processes more
representative.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Question 2: In the Guardian article you mention that you can get 6.000 responses
within just a few hours. How do you cope with that level of engagement? Have
you increased your budget and staff, made cuts in other areas, or invested in
tools that help analyse responses?- Anais Reding, Cabinet Office
Answer 2: A few years ago, Heidelberg began updating its online services to
include an interactive web platform and an app to offer proactive services. To do
this, we invested in a social media team, but we’re far from a capacity to handle
thousands of detailed responses. This still remains a limitation for us. Currently,
we use analytic software to follow the online debate in terms of sentiment
taxonomy. The tool helps us to get a grip on the flood of information and to
categorize it. This saves a lot of time and gives us a better understanding of the
nature and overall trends in public debate. Overall, coping with social media
feedback remains constrained by limited resources.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Question 3: Did you just allow one-off inputs from citizens? Or did you find a
way of enabling conversations between citizens e.g. allowing for people’s views
to evolve in the light of others’ comments and perspectives, and capturing that. Jill Rutter, Programme Director at Institute for Government
Answer 3: The citizens of Heidelberg debate local issues in their own blogs and
forums, and their views naturally evolve in light of others’ opinions. The city

2. Open Policy Making: LinkedIn “interview” with Ms Huber, Chief of staff to the
Mayor of Heidelberg
doesn’t run this debate; it just follows it. We can’t really influence their opinions
much, but we can provide them with reliable information about ongoing and
future projects. Heidelberg’s own interactive platforms are one way to inform
citizens and to put out the relevant facts. Our Twitter and Facebook accounts
have allowed us to take part in the social media debate. While citizens’ opinions
do evolve there, they actually enter into the decision-making process at civic
participation events. Depending on the issue at hand, we might ask for one-off
input, provide more information or just let the debate unfold.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Question 4: It could be argued that social media engagement is a very biased
approach; it only presents the views of people who have a very specific interest
and are willing to take the time and make the effort to engage through social
media. How do you make sure that information you capture represents the
views of the "average" person? - Liz Muggeridge, owner of Activate Software and
Consulting Africa
Answer 4: In parallel to our interest in social media, Heidelberg has embarked
on a path of civic participation. In 2012, Heidelberg developed its very own
model with many grassroots formats and different phases for public debate and
decision-making. We use this approach to arrive at policy for those issues that
are most contested: urban planning, infrastructure, architecture, etc. Actually,
we’ve found that in Heidelberg many of those active in civic participation also
tend to be engaged in the social media debate.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Question 5: What value was attributed to each of the social media platforms? i.e.
did you give more credibility to one platform over another? - Helen Anderson,
Civil Service Learning
Social media platforms work like an orchestra of public opinion, and this is
where our interest lies. Our interactive web platforms offer the best options to
debate public issues. Our app is almost exclusively used en route by people with
mobile devices. In general, we can say that the faster and more broad-based a
platform is the more unpredictable its debates tend to be. Trends on Twitter can
be fierce – hence the term “shitstorm”, but they are also prone to sudden
changes. The spatial and visual possibilities of Facebook allow for more of a
discussion than a hashtag. Despite this the volume of hashtags seems to be
steadily growing, while Facebook is stagnant. As a city, we try to moderate the
debates on both these platforms. Crucial to this is our own credibility as a source
for accurate information. Of course, it helps here that Heidelberg isn’t just an
anonymous user.
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3. Open Policy Making: LinkedIn “interview” with Ms Huber, Chief of staff to the
Mayor of Heidelberg
Question 6: What happens when the feedback relates to a responsibility of
central rather than local government? (The most criticised services in New
Zealand are centrally determined and locally delivered and often neither takes
responsibility) - Zoe Wyatt, Senior Analyst New Zealand Treasury
Actually, nearly all of the questions that reach us in Heidelberg deal with our
municipal sphere of responsibility. We try to answer these questions quickly and
as best we can. As for the remaining questions, we simply point out to citizens
who the competent provincial or federal authority is for their specific case.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Question 7: What sort of feedback did you get from social media - how was the
information you received and the conversations they had different from other
methods (survey, focus group, deliberative workshop etc)? Were there any types
of decisions/topics where this method was more or less useful?
The main difference we’ve found is that information on social media is faster,
shorter-lived and riveted with inaccuracies. Our own methods (statistics,
workshops, surveys) actually compare as quite reliable. The flood of feedback
from social media is not easy to deal with. Here, we see ourselves as a
moderating influence that provides impartial facts. When public tempers fly it
can often be traced back to incorrect claims that got out of hand. This
susceptibility to rumors and misinformation is what brought Heidelberg to social
media in the first place. We feel that cities should play a visible role in clearing up
controversies over public projects and issues. As for an example for when social
media has been very helpful… the most immediate benefit has come from our
feature for “general grievances”: bad parking, broken infrastructure or soiled
playgrounds. Our complaint management and reaction has become quite
efficient this way.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Question 8: In the UK, we are encouraged to engage via social media in our work
as policy advisers, but we often question the impact, or real added value, of that
engagement. How have you approached measuring the impact of initiatives such
as your web platform, app and ‘social listening’ (by that I mean listening to
people and analyzing that information based on where they are already having
the conversation, rather than citizens directly engaging with you)? Have you
been able to demonstrate added value and how? – Rachel Pascual, Cabinet Office
We believe that engaging in social media helps Heidelberg to find and apply
measures against public disenchantment. The success of this must be measured
against a backdrop of several bigger shifts in German politics and society over
recent years: young people being less inclined to vote; a whole generation that
uses little else than digital media; more grassroots democracy; a public that
insists on a direct role in public projects; citizens that are much better informed
than a decade ago…
German cities stand at the forefront of such challenges and they’ve become quite
difficult to administer. Yet, we have to come up with workable solutions. To deal

4. Open Policy Making: LinkedIn “interview” with Ms Huber, Chief of staff to the
Mayor of Heidelberg
with hardened positions within city council, the city administration and among
citizens groups, Heidelberg developed its own brand of civic participation. At the
same time, we try to prevent grassroots methods from turning into an
instrument for spoilers - NIMBYs (“not in my back yard”) should not dominate
the democratic process. Thus, we tried to foster more broad-based support for
public projects - engaging in social media is an important part of this effort to
build more transparency and trust. Heidelberg also sees its obligation to provide
citizens with impartial information where it’s most needed – in social media.
However, social media can certainly not replace the direct engagement with
citizens. But it does contribute to an improved political atmosphere overall … a
“soft factor” that definitely has added value for Heidelberg. Yet, it’s mostly
preventive and thus not easy to measure.