E-participation and e-governance at Web 2.

0 in Local Governments of Colombia

Juan Manuel Rojas, Carolina Farfn Romero, Carlos J. Ruiz
AGEIA DENSI Colombia +57 316754 3786,

ageiadensicolombia@gmail.com ABSTRACT
The present paper builds on questions like: What use is providing local governments to social media in Colombia? It presents general information about the interaction that Colombians keep with 6 territorial public entities through two of the major social media available on the internet (Facebook and Twitter). What it was looked for with this study was to determine the use and appropriation that of social media keep some public entities located in various parts of the country (in intermediate cities in this case) reviewing the guidelines that in this regard establishes the strategy of "Government online" driven from the central level by the Ministry of Information and Communications Technologies. At the end certain recommendations are made to encourage citizens participation through these tools. For the study we have taken a sample random base of six departments in the Republic of Colombia (spread over three to the Centre, two to the North and one South of the country), being chosen their capitals by demographic similarity presented between them and whose official figures of the population according to the National Department of Statistics (DANE) 1 estimate the number in an average of between 300,000 and 400,000 inhabitants. Accordingly we talked in particular about the cities of Villavicencio, Montera, Valledupar, Pasto, Manizales and Neiva.

2. BACKGROUND
According to statistics of the "Internet World Stats", the penetration of internet in Colombia during the year 2009 reached 48.7% of the population meaning this that the country occupies a significant third place (after Brazil and Argentina) in number of users connected to the network of networks. According to StatCounter Facebook, has the greatest number of users of social media in Colombia, followed by YouTube and third Twitter. Colombia has (at December 2010) more than 300 thousand registered users in Twitter, ranks as the fifth country in Latin America with the largest number of hours online per user per month with 20.6%. It also has the higher rate of population growth on the Internet with 33%. According to ComScore Social Media Metrix women spend more time online than men. 71% of Twitter users are under the age of 34. Users of Facebook in Colombia have tripled in the last 2 years, in 2008 it had 3,227,260 users, for 2009 the number increased to 6,488,200 and in 2010 already had 10,725,740, the number of users of Facebook in Colombia is currently around 12,675,160 2, it ranks as the third country in Latin America by the number of users in this social media. Additional figures indicate that 64% of users are under the age of 34 years, of which 37% are 18-24 users. The greater use of Facebook remains in women 51% though we could say that it is used equally by both sexes (compared to 49% of men). At the same time, there is no a clear policy of use for social media in Colombia, being the existent policy limited through a "Handbook of Implementation"[11] to indicate that State entities must maintain some kind of interaction with the community through forums, chat rooms, blogs or mailing lists. Currently,
1 2

Categories and Subject Descriptors

K.6.1 [Management of computing and information systems]: Project and People Management - Strategic information systems planning, Systems development. J.4.[Social and behavioral Sciences]: Sociology. K.4.1 [Computers and Society]: Public Policy Issues

General Terms
Management, Measurement, Documentation, Performance, Experimentation, Human Factors, Standardization, Legal Aspects, Verification..

Keywords
Social Media, Governance. Local Governments, e-Participation, e-

1. INTRODUCTION
Social networks are being adopted more and more forcefully by Governments around the world in order to get closer and offer more comprehensive services to citizens, obtaining at the same time due feedback from them to adjust Policies, Plans, Programs and/or Projects due to particular requirements of the community. However, lot of times these new spaces are offered without any structure or institutional communication plan so its purpose of benefit on the final State client (the citizen) ends blurring because it is not clear that the "citizenship through electronic media" is much more than enable infrastructure tools within a website and whose reason for existence is precisely do transcend from virtual to reality, the needs and views of all those that behind a nickname or an avatar, try to be heard by those who have been elected to represent them.

Accesed in all cases from: http://www.dane.gov.co Dates from: statistics/colombia http://www.socialbakers.com/facebook-

this document is undergoing revision toward a 3.0 version of the same and one of the criteria of the initial level of the strategy of E-Government which seeks to support, reads that the institutional websites should "enable" the use of social media without a clear reference to real or everyday life management of them. To achieve effective electronic governance it would be logical that the different audiences intended to address be segmented and this will not be solved with a mandate from the central level. Entities must have database of citizens who come to use the services to know and motivate the participation of the same.

can be seen with concern that the text does not specify anything about social media. Villavicencio created its Twitter account on April 16, 2010 and at the date of starting this study counted with 118 followers. The creation of the Facebook account is not available but the first message is dated May 4, 2010; at the beginning of this study had 133 friends on Facebook. The accounts are officially handled as entity. In Ttwitter is @AlcadiaVillavo and in Facebook City Hall of Villavicencio. The publication of messages is linked to the information produced according to the activities of the Municipal Administration. In Villavicencio the priority has been given to Twitter account more tan to the Facebook one, which is reflected in the number of users of each media.

3. METHODOLOGY
The methodology used in this paper consisted of the systematic observation of the growth of social media Facebook and Twitter in the six selected experiences. In the analysis it was observed number of followers, number of posts, date of updating of content and type of posts. Later became an analysis for every city and a comparison between them and by type of media used. At the start of the research it was reviewed the text published by CTG on policies for social media [3] and verified the existence or not, of a framework defined for them. Once done this, an analysis was elaborated, by separate, of each one of the institutional websites in selected cities without including, for the purpose of the study, the YouTube network because it was confirmed there that only in one of them exist an associated account which of course, it does not occur with Facebook and in most of the cases with Twitter. It was also found that sometimes accounts are created to make visible the Mayor in turn, there is no interest (perhaps influenced by political issues) about the importance of institutionalizing them suggesting a "personalization" of public management in head of the local authority who consequently rejects the continuing efforts the central level seek to achieve a more entrepreneurial or management consciousness and less administrative, media or "Parish" to the public sector in Colombia. This is especially evident in networks such as Twitter.

4.2 Pasto Experience

The city of San Juan de Pasto, according to the latest census, has 382,618 inhabitants. It is located at the southwest of the country in the Department of Nario, in the middle of the Cordillera de los Andes, at the foot of the Galeras volcano and very close to the line of the Ecuador. The city has been administrative, cultural and religious center of the region since the colonial era; it is the second largest city in the Pacific region after Cali (Capital of the Department of Valle del Cauca). In its Development Plan [5], there is a goal which reads: "Implementation, application and update in new technologies of information, communication and use of media." According to this, the use of social media is absent unless the legislator has sought to include them tacitly in interpretive breadth which suggests the aforementioned text. Pasto created its Twitter account on March 2, 2010 and at the date of this study had 97 followers. The first message sent from the Facebook account was on November 29, 2009, it counted with 3811 friends. Accounts, which also reflect institutional framework, lead by name @alcaldiapasto on Twitter and on Facebook City Hall of Pasto. The posts are noticeable associated with government activities carried out by the Mayor's Office observing that it is given more relevance to the account of Facebook than that to Twitter what is evident not only with the rapid increase in the number of users on Facebook (261) contrasted with the Twitter (76) within a very short period 5 months - measurement taken between November 2010 and March 2011, but with the permanent updating of content in the first. The Twitter account was its last post on January 26, 2011, and the only institutional website includes a link to the account on Facebook showing marked preferences for this network to interact with citizens.

4. LOCAL EXPERIENCES 4.1 Villavicencio Experience

The city of Villavicencio has 384,131 inhabitants according to the latest census. It is located in the Department of Meta at the East of the country; it is the largest commercial center in the West Plains, 90 km south of the capital of Colombia, Bogot. Villavicencio has in its local Development Plan [8] a goal that says: "Communications Stimulation: strengthening the work of dissemination of the programs and activities of the central administration and the decentralized institutions (...)"(...)". It

4.3 Montera Experience

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The city of Montera is the capital of the Department of Cordoba. It is located at the Northwest of the country, on the banks of the Sin River; it is considered the cattle capital of Colombia and is also an important commercial and university Center. Its population according to the DANE is 378,970 inhabitants. "MONTERA, A DIGITAL CITY has as solid purpose the linkage of the city within the global system of information y and communications technology - ICTs-, in order to provide diverse and permanent opportunities for access to the

virtual communication from and after adapting, expanding and strengthening the coverage of information technology, internet and communication, as well as, the physical infrastructure of its points of location at the local level[6]. Understanding what was written, enough emphasis is made to the issue of infrastructure but nothing of attention is paid to the issue of what it allows, that is, the interaction between those who use it. Montera has not created a Facebook account and Twitter was created on May 20, 2010. At the beginning of this study there were 990 followers in the network. It is necessary to clarify that Montera does not present an official account of the entity as the two cities previously mentioned. The account used to inform the community is the one created by (or for) the Mayor of the city @MarcosDanielPG. The quality of the published messages is very diverse because as it has seen in the analysis that account is used by the Mayor as his personal account and also to inform the activities carried out within his management. It is important to note that there is no reference whatsoever to the Mayor Twitters account on the official website of the municipal administration. The only available participation is the inscription on the forums that are in the same.

4.5 Neiva Experience

Neiva is the capital of the Department of Huila. It has a population of 352,859 inhabitants. It is located between the Cordillera Central and Eastern, in a plain on the Eastern bank of the Magdalena River, the most important of the country. It is one of the main cities of the south of Colombia because is the connection port for the capital cities of Florencia, Mocoa, Popayn and Pasto. The closest reference in its Development Plan [9] is the project called "appropriate technologies of information and communication use in the educational institutions (ICT)"in which there is a goal that says: "form 100% of teachers in introductory levels and deepening in the use of the TIC." Unfortunately, there is no reference more than the quote above on the "correct" use of technologies for approaching citizenship, what generates emptiness as to whether the social media were contemplated. Neiva has two accounts in operation. At the start of this study, the Twitter account @alcaldianeiva had 92 fans; it was created on July 12, 2010. The account of Facebook, City Hall of Neiva, had 795 friends. The City Hall of Neiva accounts are linked, so that most of the messages sent to users of Facebook also reach Twitters. Typically, the information more published is the one contained in the bulletins of the Mayor's Office press.

4.4 Valledupar Experience

Valledupar is the capital of the Department of Cesar, is located northeast of the Colombian Caribbean Coast, on the banks of the Guatapuri River, in the Valley of the Cesar River formed by the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the serrania (small hill) of the Perij. It has a population of 354,449 inhabitants. It is one of the main cultural and folkloric musical epicenters of Colombia for being the cradle of vallenato music. In the Municipal Development Plan [7] it is captured that one of the objectives under the subprogram of Science and Technology is: "Guarantee the development of initiatives on science and technology, involving mass communication and information tools. Also, to integrate the role of the company, with universities and institutions, tending to improve and transform the local and regional productive apparatus. Also the conditions so that Valledupar can be a digital territory should be created". This speech seems quite legalistic but totally impractical at the time of promoting citizen participation through electronic media. Valledupar has running its two accounts. The Facebook account is used as official, the Twitter @luisfabianf is used by the Mayor of the town, created on June 6, 2010, which at the beginning of this research counted with 348 followers. The first is fed by the Press Department of the City Hall and at the end of this study had 594 friends. On the wall of Facebook it is published relevant information for citizens and usually information that is released through press releases. The account of the Mayor is virtually forgotten, proof of this lies in that the last post published by this means was sent on January 10, 2011. However, the number of followers of this social media continues to grow. There is no reference whatsoever to this Twitter account on the official website of the municipality.

4.6 Manizales Experience

Manizales is the capital of the Department of Caldas; it is located in the Center West of Colombia, near the Nevado del Ruiz. It is part of the so-called Colombian coffee zone. It is called the "City of the open doors". It has a population of 386,931 inhabitants. Its importance stands out by its cultural activity which highlights its annual fair, the International Festival of theatre and numerous shows and conventions. In its Development Plan [10] it is found the project: "implementation of the strategy of community online" which aims: to facilitate contact of the administration with citizens, encourage their participation and generate confidence; this Administration intends to ensure total transparency." "The mechanism of Government online, associated with online community will contribute to facilitate inter-institutional work in network, to achieve the benefits of a Government characterized by the dominance of the technologies of information and communication." Accordingly, Manizales is one of the few places in Colombia, where already begins to speak of networks and participation with the help of technology. Even so and despite expressing a degree of consciousness something more advanced than in other cities on the usefulness of the electronic media for certain activities such as the increase of citizen participation, Manizales has not created its Twitter account, and in its Facebook account City Hall of Manizales had 467 friends when this investigation was initiated. Also, there is no reference to the above account in the official website which is updated weekly with news about the missionary management conducted by the Mayor's Office and the calendar of coming events.

5. RESULTS 5.1 Twitter Usage

The first thing that stands out in this analysis is that most part of the sample -5 of 6 cities- created it Twitter account last year. This may be because at the beginning of 2010 was reformulated the Handbook for the Implementation of the Strategy of eGovernment in the republic of Colombia " (fixed parameters that must comply the State institutions regarding to the fulfillment of the Decree Law 1151 of 2008 that governs the development of e-Government in the country) setting in one of its multiple criteria - called "mechanisms of participation" - for State web sites, that institutions: may implement additional spaces related to social media as participatory mechanisms." Said standard however and according to the document, included tacit retroactivity to be totally fulfilled by the end of the year 2009, reason why many institutions were forced to rush the steps to avoid the legal problem that leads to neglecting the stipulated regulations but without real interest go beyond. On the other hand, it was noted that the oldest account is the one of the City Hall of San Juan de Pasto and the more recent, the one of Neiva but if the purpose was that networks such as these will serve the objective of improving communication with citizens or motivate their participation in public affairs, sadly the number of messages does not exceed in any case the 1,000 (case of Twitter which allows for a faster response) meaning in addition that the interaction of people with accounts they follow is practically null. Just 3.73% of the users have commented or interacted with any of the entities. For entities studied the tweets average per day is 2.55 and monthly, 28. (Table 1) Table 1. Statistics about Replies and Tweets day/month City Villavicencio Pasto Monteria Valledupar Neiva Manizales Total Replies % 2,86% 0,00% 8,50% 0,00% 11,04% N.A. 3,73% Tweets day 4.5 1.3 2,6 4,1 3,5 N.A 2,55 per Tweets per month (average) 59 3 49 25 32 N.A 28 Figure 1. Number of Twitter followers by city . . It is really valued the opinion and participation through electronic means in contexts where govern closed political interests that do not want to open spaces to empower the average citizen representing himself?; 3. What is the truly effective technology - as a means of expression and exchange of views in front of "deafness" which for years have practiced public entities with respect to citizens feel?; and 4. How can be improved and/or expand the government-citizen interaction through the "Social Media"?

5.2 Facebook Usage

Seen that Facebook does not allow to check the date of creation of a user account, we take the messages of the first "friends" as a reference to focus the eyes on the year 2009 as a moment in which most cities began to join this network (5 of 6), something that was also impelled by the requirement of the new "Handbook for the implementation of the strategy of Government online in the Republic of Colombia" in regard to encourage citizen participation through electronic media which led to many state entities in Colombia - different from the study - to have now links direct to social networks on their web sites. Interaction in Facebook is customary performed through the wall and very likely by its awareness and familiarity among Internet users, is that they are encouraged to click the button "I like" or eventually to participate through a comment on any publication that very rarely is answered from the entity with the consequent perpetuation of bad image that citizens have with respect to the service provided by official institutions in the country Expressions like: "Oh, they responded!", are still the common denominator among millions of skeptics Colombians accustomed to the bad treatment by the State, they see with astonishment any gesture of efficiency from their part (the government). Also and being Facebook a very important space for the construction of links, the network is highly misused by local governments in the absence of "rules" on "how and what to do once is determined using a social network that for the civil officer average only means "another one of the requirements that must fill to avoid sanctions if not fulfilled what ordered the law" because on many occasions does not understand or not care to learn what thinks the recipient of his work, the citizen to which must render accounts, in spite of all. The information published on Facebook by local authorities is not different from the one published on Twitter. There is only one case, in Manizales, where they take advantage of Facebook space to generate a participatory process of creating questions for accountability made by the Mayor of each city once a year. However the interaction of the entities is poor or practically null. Then the famous web 2.0, ends being used nothing more than as a means of "unidirectional" content (and besides inconsistent) generation for the community and for what could

In the same way in the Figure 1 surprises that "personalized" accounts (meaning those containing the names of the mayors) have more followers on average than institutional which stronger topics to post on any of the cases are derived from management activities to be shown to the community. Apparently there still exist one way direction in the information (the entity to the outside) because unless are certain events, the citizens do not interact. Only 2% of the messages are Re-Tweet (RT) and shared by other users with their own followers. According to Akdogan [1] the use of social media could improve the local e-governance and e-participation. The question that arises then is: 1.Is the information published by entities relevant enough to substantiate the reply of citizens?; 2.

should understand is that the same result will not be achieved as citizenship participation is concerned if the right tool is not used for what it would be advisable a pedagogical process encouraged by the central level in this regard. Finally and although in Colombia local governments continue to make efforts to modernize within a public policy structured within the strategy of "Government online", it just begins to understand and follow the path toward an "open government" to define renewed communicational practices between the state and its partners in order to ensure the effective participation of those in the processes of efficiency, decision and control the transparency of the first.

Figure 2. Number of Facebook friends by city . . be developed further supplementary concerns in this regard, as for example: 1. What preparation have local governments to take the responsibility to use a social network on electronic media beyond publish one or another news as it does today?; 2. What is the fear of local governments if they allow citizens to freely express their feelings?; or, 3. Why is generated so little advertising to promote this type of networks from the local governments?

7. RECOMMENDATIONS
Following we offer some simple recommendations to improve e-participation on Social Media. Local governments should: Advance from web 2.0 to Internet 2.0. Understand the concept of web 2.0 to transform it into a practical model of internet 2.0 to provide the "conversation" between state institutions and the citizens. Understand the purpose of social media. Differentiate punctual and objectively uses, features, applications and scopes of each network separately to seize them, segmenting audiences and implementing stringent controls both the language and the type of information posted. Establish policies exclusive to the use of social networks. Design and implement from central levels of Government, standardized but at the same time "flexible" directives for the responsible handling of information via these tools of communication, allowing its adoption in local with some degree of accommodation (respecting multiculturalism in the country) to continue favoring the "unified view of the State" among citizens. Accelerate the adoption and implementation of standards to ensure the security of the information. Evaluate the quality, amount and conditions of use for open data and implementing policies or standards - example the series ISO/IEC 27000 to reduce the associated risks to the integrity or confidentiality of the information. Practice humility from the State. Training public officials on how to be "followers of their followers" within the social media not only for feedback the information published by the entity, but above all to "hear" what the citizen has to say avoiding so the bad image of the State with regard to the services provide, grow or spread uncontrollably through the web. Do not be afraid to change. Leave the customary "unilateralism" they handle with respect to the information supposedly is the one the citizen wants to know. Enable and facilitate the two-way communication as a gesture of contribution towards egovernance Practice the three axes of an open government. Specify with the help of social media the collaboration, the transparency and the citizen participation that requires achieving certain results, measurable and achievable within the complex process of modernization that urges public management.

6. DISCUSSION
How much contribute social media to e-governance? We know that they allow administrations to open spaces for the participation of stakeholders in the creation of policies, but at least in Colombia those spaces in the local governments have barely been contemplated and possibly has this to do with traditional culture in which the decisions of general interest continuing be taken behind closed doors without consultation with the interested parties. In addition to this, it should be noted that social networks are used mostly by young people under the age of 34 years who despite having structured views in front of multiple issues of the public events, they have lost the interest in participating due to worn customs and/or political traditions of their preceding generations that still today in 21st century annihilated all effort of citizen participation when constitutionally it has full guarantees to be exercised. Then, serving to motivate participation and interest of the target audience, special care in the language used for the web has to be taken, that obviously should not be the same used in other communication media having to be further clarified differences and the treatment required by each network not being the same to use indiscriminately Facebook or Twitter for the same purposes. In the words of Laura Gomez (Manager of internationalization of the Twitter network) in a recent interview [4] "Twitter is not a social network but an open information network"; claim which has been defended since always by its creator, Jack Dorsey[12]. On the other hand, for Mark Zuckerberg creator of Facebook the mission of his invention is: "to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected"[23]. Consequently we infer the perspective that promotes each of these networks. If Twitter is a network of open information it means that its primary focus is not a network connection as pursues Facebook. Therefore, the first thing local governments

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