Delvinia in the News: Canadian Government Executive Profiles eDemocracy in Markham

Delvinia’s work around eDemocracy in the Town of Markham is the subject of a feature story in the January issue of Canadian Government Executive, published by IT in Canada.

“Voting digital: Markham connects through tech,” authored by Delvinia CEO Adam Froman and Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti, is based on a presentation delivered by the pair at the GTEC 2011 conference in Ottawa last fall. The article tells the story of Markham’s journey in using digital technologies to engage with citizens.

“Technology has fundamentally changed the way governments and their citizens interact. Governments are realizing that the future of eDemocracy is more than offering citizens a means to transact or obtain public service information; it is about listening to citizens and becoming part of the conversation,” the article states.

“This is something the Town of Markham understands. Through the use of Internet voting and the implementation of multiple interactive online initiatives, Markham has become a leader in eDemocracy.”

With Delvinia’s support, Markham became the first major Canadian municipality to introduce Internet voting in 2003. Since then, Delvinia has conducted three online surveys to gather data on the attitudes and behaviours of Markham residents, the findings of which are outlined in three reports chronicling voter feedback and preferences collected following the 2003, 2006 and 2010 municipal elections.

The Delvinia Report on Internet Voting in the Town of Markham, released in September 2011, can be downloaded here.

To read the Canadian Government Executive article in its entirety, please see the January issue.

In the News: Vue Magazine Profiles Delvinia’s Work with the Town of Markham

In the December issue of Vue Magazine, published by the Market Research and Intelligence Association (MRIA), our CEO Adam Froman shares the story of our work with the Town of Markham.

Adam’s feature article, “How Marketing Research is Helping Canada Gain Recognition as a Global Leader in eDemocracy,” illustrates how the municipality has successfully used digital technologies, including Internet voting, as a means to engage the public with local government. The article also speaks to the role of our research initiatives in helping the Town gain an understanding of its citizens.

Delvinia has worked with the Town of Markham since 2003, when the municipality chose to introduce Internet voting. Markham engaged our firm to help the Town communicate this new and innovative voting option to its residents.

In developing and implementing the voter outreach campaigns for the 2003, 2006 and 2010 municipal elections, our role has been that of a participant in the process as well as an observer. In 2003, we began collecting surveys and publishing reports about the attitudes and behaviours of Markham residents as they experienced Internet voting.

“The research has been fundamental in helping Markham understand the habits and behaviours of residents – in the ways they use technology in their lives and in the ways they interact with government. It has also been instrumental in validating Markham’s decision to continue to offer Internet voting in future elections,” Adam writes.

To read Adam’s full article, please see the December issue of Vue magazine.

Sharing the Story of Markham’s Journey at GTEC 2011

I just returned from speaking at the GTEC 2011 conference in Ottawa earlier today. This is the largest government technology conference in the country. It was held at the new Ottawa Convention Centre next to the Westin Hotel and the conference took over the entire building. All of the major technology providers were in attendance. The trade show floor rivalled any major technology conference that I have attended. The major difference was that that this conference was entirely dedicated to the use of technology in government.

This year the theme was Connected Government – Working Together to Better Serve Canadians, which was perfect for our session about Using Digital Technologies to Connect with Citizens in the Town of Markham. I had the honour of presenting with Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti. Much of the vision that is emanating from Markham to utilize digital technologies to increase citizen engagement, comes from the Mayor’s leadership.

We were there to share the journey that we have been on together since 2003 when Markham first introduced Internet voting, and the projects that we have helped Markham to realize since.  Our core message was about utilizing technology to create relevant experience for residents so that they are more engaged with their government—and not simply implementing technology because it should work.

Our presentation as well received and we had a lot of people come up to speak with us afterward.  What I found incredibly interesting was that while I took Delvinia’s story of being “customer-centric” and referred to it as “citizen-centric” to ensure it was more aligned to the audience, the Mayor did the exact opposite.  He was constantly referring to something that was “citizen-centric” and saying it was “consumer-centric.” It really just shows you that under Mayor’s Scarpitti’s leadership, the Town of Markham is taking their residents’ attitudes and behaviours into consideration when they are implementing technology in government.

While the Mayor provided an overview of how the municipality has implemented technology to create relevant experiences for its residents, such as Internet voting, Click with Markham, and the GreenPrint strategy, I focused on providing the context about how we assisted in creating these relevant experiences and how we overcame the obstacles along the way.

We ended the presentation with the vision of implementing a Voice of the Customer program in Markham aligned with AskingCanadians™ to further enable Markham to listen,  engage and measure the attitudes and behaviours of Markham residents in order to better engage them in policy and participation with government.

We’ll post some video footage from the presentation here on our blog in the coming days.

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