URL generationxperience.wordpress.com
CASE STUDY OWNER Department for Work and Pensions
Overview
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is the government body that oversees welfare benefits and employment practices across the UK. It has seven sub-divisions, one of which is the Pensions Service. This was set up to ensure that current and future pensioners have access to services and financial support and promotes the rights of older people: it is guided by the Department’s 2005 Framework (1).
In March 2005, the Pensions Service established Opportunity Age (2). Thus named, the DWP’s ‘strategy for older people’ aims to challenge stereotypes about older people and ensure that the over-50s are able fully to participate in society and lead a decent quality of life. From Opportunity Age have emerged eight pilots (called LinkAge Plus) designed to coordinate services bringing central government, local authorities and civil society bodies into strategic partnerships. GenerationXperience was launched in 2007 with the first UK Day for Older People taking place on 1 October 2007. Led by the DWP and the Department of Health (DofH), GenerationXperience is a partnership with government departments and a number of stakeholders, which aims to:
- Inspire action;
- Involve stakeholders;
- Respect experience;
- Expand horizons;
- Increase knowledge.
Policy purpose
The GenerationXperience campaign was designed to broaden the DWP’s participation base and enhance its Older People’s Strategy. By combining offline and online activities, the DWP hoped to appeal to the increasing number of older people already using the internet (3), and encourage late adopters to harness new technologies to connect with government. Offline events around Older People’s Day were mentioned on the blog.
Model
The blog was set up using WordPress with a standard interface incorporating campaign branding; the DWP logo was low-profile for positioning purposes. GenerationXperience groups were also set up on YouTube, Flickr, Facebook and MySpace (although they were never used); it was intended that these would form networks around the blog (which would then operate as an aggregating hub). The idea was to encourage grass-roots engagement, with participation extending beyond the usual suspects. The network’s aims were to:
- showcase videos and images from satellite sites;
- encourage visitors to form local community groups and support on- and offline;
- solicit feedback on issues covered by the government’s Older People’s Strategy;
- link to and comment on media stories about older people;
- engage with other online communities and networks serving older people.
Publicity
The DWP issued press releases to publicise Older People’s Day and the GenerationXperience website: the latter was discussed on related blogs and forums over subsequent weeks (see discussion later on).
Other modes of engagement
The DWP seeks to involve stakeholders (such as charities working with older people, and other government departments) in the development of its Older People’s Strategy. Individuals can write to the DWP about policy issues or respond to consultations.
User profiles
Visitors were not required to register with the site. However, the pre-engagement survey captured demographic data which – while not representative of all site users – is useful in identifying dominant trends amongst the readership of the blog and in finding out about their experience of online and political engagement.
The majority of respondents (over 90 per cent) were from the UK; the blog also attracted interest from British citizens living abroad who were concerned about the pension rights of expatriates. As can be seen from the table below, the majority of respondents were within the target age-range; interest from younger people was stimulated by coverage on policy/trade websites (see discussion later on).
Respondents were predominantly male (69.2 per cent), reflecting the prevalent gender balance across the internet. Most respondents (96 per cent) were frequent users of the internet, with the majority (75 per cent) accessing it from home.
Such patterns suggest that the GenerationXperience website reached those who were already online and politically engaged: 14 per cent of respondents claimed to have their own blog; 32.7 per cent were familiar with politics related websites, including The Guardian, They work for you, David Miliband’s blog, Order-Order/Recess Monkey, Simon Dickson, Paul Canning. Moreover, 58 per cent had been in touch with the DWP before – 73 per cent with their MP or councillor.
For the majority of respondents (71 per cent), there existed a general (rather than issue-based) interest in politics that exceeds the national average (4).
A significant proportion (53 per cent) said that they came by the GenerationXperience blog via links from other websites; fewer (29 per cent) were alerted to its existence by media coverage, while word-of-mouth was significant in promoting the blog (11.5 per cent of respondents heard about it that way).
Much of the web-based discussion about the GenerationXperience blog came about because of the media campaign around its launch, often paraphrasing or reproducing the DWP’s press releases. This would suggest that offline press strategies proliferate online, but there is little evidence that this guarantees more than a cursory interest. The table below indicates that by far the most significant reason for people visiting the site was ‘curiosity’ (67 per cent).
Although 25 per cent of respondents said that they used the site to post comments (see below), fewer expressed interest in deliberation; only 23 per cent read the other visitors’ contributions and fewer (11.5 per cent) looked at blogger posts. This suggests that respondents were more interested in making comments than in hearing those of others, although this may have changed if there had been a greater volume of posts by the case study owners.
Site activity/performance
The table below indicates the number of visits to the GenerationXperience website during the pilot. There are five periods during which the number of visits peaked: the first corresponds with the launch – subsequent peaks correspond with discussions about the website that took place on the internet.
Initially, the blog authors posted regularly: the first entry was put up before the site was launched; two, the day after, and one the week after that. These initial entries solicited responses from site visitors – the first attracted 15 comments and one response from the blog authors; the second received 21 comments and two responses. The third thanked people for participating and outlined plans for the site over the coming weeks.
The fourth entry attracted nine comments (one noting that the DirectGov link to GenerationXperience was not functioning) and two responses – one saying that the broken link would be investigated. However, the link was never reinstated and, according to the administrators of the DirectGov site, the GenerationXperience campaign had ended.
The next blog entry was a month later – coinciding with the surge in (often critical) web-based articles about the site: it attracted three comments and one response. A month later, two entries were posted – one tackling a question raised by users regarding the idea that ‘over-50s’ could be included in one category: it received one response. A few weeks later, a ‘season’s greetings’ post received two comments and one response. The penultimate entry, posted two months later has, to date, received 12 comments over the course of several weeks; the final entry, posted over a month later, has received one.
The blog authors did not make use of the cross-fertilisation opportunities presented by the large volume of incoming links (5). Their lack of engagement had a crucial impact on the way in which the blog was perceived by its critics. Specifically, they started to raise concerns that it engaged only those who were already involved (6), and even then at a cursory level; and that it categorised the over-50s as ‘older people’ (7). There was an overriding sense that this initiative wouldn’t deliver on its promise (to listen) (8). Printed and online media described the campaign as an attempt to ‘spin’ old age (9).
User feedback
Respondents to the first survey mentioned particular issues with the site, from the broken DirectGov link to problems with navigation.
They suggested that the blog could have provided information about how the policy issues raised by users were (already) being tackled; there was some criticism of content and tone (respondents felt that they were talked down to) and expressed a general frustration about the lack of interactivity: although comments were published quickly, they were not always responded to and as illustrated above, the site had little momentum.
71.4 per cent of respondents said that they visited the site infrequently. Although the majority of survey respondents did not contribute to discussions, they were interested in reading the content of the blog (the table above suggests that around 80 per cent of site visitors did so); some were also looking for information and links to other sites.
Despite hoping to learn something about the opportunities for older people from reading the content and following links, 74.1 per cent said that they did not; 85.7 per cent felt that blogging was not making a valuable contribution to policy relating to older people and 71.4 per cent said that it was not making them feel more confident about using new technologies.
These misgivings aside, 42.9 per cent of respondents said that they would visit the site in future – while they felt there were not at present many inducements to do so, they expressed hope that the purpose of the blog would be fulfilled; as it stood, however, 85.7 per cent said that they wouldn’t recommend the blog to others.
Specific feedback concerned content and style (there were not enough responses; the layout was not user friendly; there was too much jargon and government spin; there wasn’t enough attention given to the real concerns of older people).
Follow up
Soon after the launch of the site, the DWP had to divert resources away from the blog to meet other demands. This unavailability soon after launch was not explained to users; accordingly, the DWP were judged harshly by those visiting the GenerationXperience site.
The DWP still hope to continue using the site to promote other offline initiatives and to host guest commentary from stakeholders, and there is some general interest in using new technologies to engage older people. However, the main learnings from this pilot (see beginning of case study) must be incorporated in future.
Notes:
- Information about the Framework can be accessed via the following URL (which also links to a PDF of the Framework): www.dwp.gov.uk/aboutus/departmental_framework.asp
- Information about Opportunity Age (including links to the strategy’s first report) can be found on the following URL: www.dwp.gov.uk/opportunity_age
- See ONS report: ‘internet access 2007: individuals and access’ www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/inta0807.pdf (downloaded 12/02/08).
- Hansard Society & Electoral Commission (2007), Audit of Political Engagement 4 (London: Hansard Society & Electoral Commission).
- From: www.which.co.uk/reports_and_campaigns/computers_and_internet/reports/internet/Generation_Xperience_news_ article_557_124966.jsp (accessed on 26 Feb, 2008).
- From: www.computeractive.co.uk/computeractive/news/2202391/generation-xperience-connect (accessed on 26 Feb, 2008).
- From: www.grahamjones.co.uk/2007/10/does-social-networking-mean-anything-to.htm (accessed on 26 Feb, 2008).
- From: www.maturetimes.co.uk/node/4205 (accessed on 26 Feb, 2008).
- From: www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=484732&in_page_id=1770; and www.20plus30.com/blog/2007/10/only-show-nice-pictures.html (both accessed on 26 Feb, 2008).
