Preparing to Engage the Electorate: Assisting a Politician Make the Online Transition

Abstract

The Internet is recognized as changing the way people, businesses and government communicate. In Western Australia, like many other jurisdictions, elected members of government have yet to fully embrace the Internet to campaign and to interact with constituents. However, there is interest in gaining political benefit through the use of the Internet, but little evidence of a sustainable solution being developed. This paper documents activity taken to assist an elected member of state parliament take their initial steps online for interacting with constituents. These activities were based on the use of a project management framework being developed based on four dependent variables to guide the online transition: management, culture, processes, technology. The paper also discusses issues related to the planning and sustainability of the proposed solution.