Department for Transport Road Safety Webchat
URL
CASE STUDY OWNER
Department for Transport (DfT)
LESSONS LEARNT
Strengths
- The interaction between the Minister and the users was in real time;
- There was no need for the users or the managers to download or install software to take part;
- Discussion was structured but the Minister could participate in more than one webchat simultaneously;
- The case study team had a specific audience they wished to engage, and worked with an appropriate partner organisation for promotional and recruitment purposes;
- Practice sessions were held to familiarise the case study team with the platform;
- There was a good depth and breadth of discussion – even when simultaneous conversations were taking place;
- There was a sense of the webchat being an event;
- An instant transcript of the discussions was available to anyone who required a copy.
Potential for improvement
- The Minister was initially unfamiliar with the webchat dynamics and platform, and would have benefited from a simulated practice exercise beforehand;
- Over time, an increased familiarity with the platform will enable the department to reduce the size of the ministerial support team even further;
- The length of the moderation process could be reduced where known stakeholders are the only users, by switching to post-moderation.
OVERVIEW
Dr Stephen Ladyman MP is Minister of State for Transport. On November 9 2007, the Minister responded to questions from members of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) about a range of road safety issues.
This was the Department’s first webchat.
POLICY PURPOSE
The webchat was not held as part of a formal consultation. Its aim was to engage a key group of stakeholders on a topic that concerns them and to gather experiential feedback on policies.
Issues discussed included:
- Young drivers;
- Driving for work;
- Safety education and training;
- The Road Safety Act 2006;
- Motorcycle safety.
MODEL
Real time webchat based on blog/instant messaging hybrid (third-party build and hosted on external servers).
The webchats were readable by anyone but registration was required to contribute and restricted to RoSPA members.
This webchat was run on a question and answer format. Participants could submit a question and follow up on the response to it from the Minister. There was no technical limit to the number of questions a participant could ask. Participants could not respond to questions posed by other participants, or to the Minister’s response to these questions.
The site was real time but pre-moderated. Moderation was carried out by the DfT web team. Moderators checked each question against the terms of the site before publication. Moderators staggered submitted questions to ensure that all participants had at least one question published and answered.
DURATION
November 9, 2007, between 16:00 and 17:00.
PUBLICITY
Invitations to participate were issued in advance via the RoSPA member newsletter and email list.
The webchat was advertised to a general viewing audience on the DfT and RoSPA websites.
OTHER METHODS
N/A
USER PROFILES
26 registrants: 13 were male, 7 were female; 6 did not say.
Webchats were new to the majority of users, who were drawn into this particular exercise because of their professional interest in the subject being discussed: 21 said that they had never taken part in a webchat before.
All those who responded to our evaluation survey (n=9) said that they were frequent internet users; and the majority said that they had access from a range of locations.
USAGE TRENDS
The Minister and participants took part in 12 separate discussions. Twenty-six comments were posted in the discussions over the course of the hour-long chat – 17 by the Minister.
There were significantly more spectators than registered participants, as the table below illustrates:
USER FEEDBACK
Responses to the feedback survey (open to participants and spectators) were limited.
The majority saw webchats as a useful engagement method. On the whole, respondents said they would consider participating in a similar webchat in the future (although they were not unequivocal in this belief). The following table illustrates users’ attitudes about the webchat and further engagement online in more detail:
DETAILED FEEDBACK
The time between deciding to hold a webchat, the site being built, the event being advertised and the chat actually taking place was too short (under a month). A longer lead-in time would have undoubtedly benefited this webchat. Nevertheless, the ministerial support team used their limited resources and time well by coordinating closely with one another. The team avoided the temptation to forego practice sessions, as a result the webchat proceeded without technical error.
Pre-moderation was used in the chat; this meant that all questions and participant comments were checked against the site’s terms before being published. This moderation strategy diluted the ‘real time’ pace to the interaction. Participation in the webchat was by invitation-only; therefore, it may have been possible to adopt a post-moderation strategy to improve the interactivity of the webchat. Similarly, it may also have been possible to open up each question and answer discussion to all participants because of the participants’ level of expertise.
In feedback, users welcomed the opportunity to enter into dialogue with the Minister online. Many said that they had expected to post to the chat but not to receive a response and were surprised by the nature and number of discussions eventually taking place.
FOLLOW UP
Following the road safety webchat, the Minister participated in a webchat convened by the Prime Minister’s Office on the subject of road pricing. This webchat was arranged in response to an online petition on the Downing Street website in opposition to any proposals for road pricing. The chat attracted over 6000 questions. Over the course of one hour the Minister answered 32 questions.
