United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

Seoul City’s Oasis (oasis.seoul.go.kr) is a portal in which citizens are encouraged to suggest ideas and participate in the city government decision-making process through open discussions. Designed to bring useful ideas to light and reflect them in city government policy, Oasis differs from other idea suggestion systems in that it emphasizes communication between the Seoul City government and its citizens in line with the Web 2.0 spirit of creativity, sharing, and collaboration.

Oasis is an excellent example of e-governance that provides citizens with faster and better services through information technology. It is a noteworthy site in that it is operated by Seoul City and boasts the world’s best online administration.

Seoul City ran a citizens’ creative idea suggestion system from 1997 to 2007 in order to urge citizens to participate in the policy making process of the city. However, it was a rather closed system in that citizens filled out a suggestion form and submitted it in person or by mail and were notified whether their ideas would be adopted or not a month later. Since those ideas were reviewed in closed-door meetings without the participation of the idea providers, the system was bound to have limited success and naturally drew little interest and participation from citizens. The ideas adopted were supposed to be developed and put into practice under the supervision of the relevant departments, but most of them were not brought to life, due partly to frequent staff shakeup and civil servants’ lack of interest in the system.

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
With the inauguration of the 4th elected mayor of Seoul, Oh Se-Hoon, Seoul City started creating a system that serves as a channel through which citizens actively participate in the city government and suggest fresh ideas for improvement, realizing that “creativity” and “imagination” were the only options for its survival in the midst of fierce global competition. Oasis (oasis.seoul.go.kr), which opened on Oct. 10, represents creativity and imagination as Seoul City’s vision. Created on the basis of the fact that more Koreans have Internet access than ever before, Oasis was greeted more enthusiastically than expected and became established as a citizen’s governance model. A total of 3,585 ideas were submitted and 87 of them were adopted through the previous citizens’ creative idea suggestion system during the period of 1997 to 2007, but the system was not well-managed enough to show the exact statistics as to how many of the suggestions were put into action and how many of them were in progress. In the case of Oasis, however, 2.9 million citizens had visited the site, some 20,000 ideas were submitted, and 70 of them were adopted as policy after 13 instances of meetings and discussions as of Dec. 31, 2008. Also, the process of putting the adopted ideas into action was monitored every other month. Fifty-two of the adopted ideas were brought to life, 15 were in the making, and 3 were under consideration last year. The ideas that became solid reality include the pedestrian bridge across the Han River, the floating island, the wall for marriage proposal, and movie theaters with English-captioned movies.

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
Oasis was created with strong support by Seoul Mayor Oh Se-Hoon, who was determined to actively respond to the demands of the 21st century, when originality and imagination are synonymous with competitiveness, and to reform Seoul City’s organization culture with passion and creativity. As soon as he was sworn into office on July 1, 2006, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-Hoon launched the “100-Day Creative Seoul Promotion Headquarters,” a temporary organization designed to lay the foundation of the “creative city administration” consisting of a group of civil servants and civil experts. Oh concentrated on spurring creativity and, as a result, created Oasis. He designated a civil servant in each department to manage and monitor citizens’ ideas and had the Management Planning Office provide support for budget formulation, organizational reform, and legal revision. In addition, a civilian group named the “Imaginative World Club” operates the site by reviewing various ideas citizens suggest in terms of their quality and value and discussing them with experts and Seoul City. The “Imaginative World Club” was opened by a citizen named Choi Jeom-Yong on Nov. 9, 2006. Since then, over 340 citizens have become active as members of the community (club.seoul.go.kr/sangnuri). The club serves as a think thank and plays an essential role in vitalizing Oasis by reviewing ideas posted on the site, replying to posts, recommending them to others, and offering site operation-related ideas to Seoul City.

Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
a. What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
Seoul City drew up the “Plan for the Creation of Oasis” and the “Plans for the Improvement of Oasis” in Aug. 2006, and set up a budget and formed an organization necessary for the creation and promotion of the portal site. Seoul City then supplemented and developed Oasis by formulating the “Plan for the Improvement of the Oasis System” in Aug. 2007, and the “Plan for the Improvement of the Creative Idea Suggestion System” in Sept. 2008 to reflect citizens’ various ideas on operating the site. In order to attract citizens’ voluntary participation, Oasis should be unique enough to set it apart from other Internet sites. Seoul City simplified the membership process so that citizens could have easy access to the site and post their ideas, pictures, and other sources, and added various content to the site, including an animation theater, flash games, emoticons, and reward mileage. Also, Seoul City reviewed various ideas suggested by citizens in a meeting held every other month in a casual environment entirely different from ordinary meetings in a formal atmosphere. It also strived to reach out to citizens for their active participation. In addition, Seoul City made every effort to promote Oasis and improve its public recognition by attaching advertising posters to the interior of subway cars and buses, airing advertisements on radio (Seoul Traffic Broadcasting System) and electronic boards, and sending direct mail to the members of the Seoul City Homepage.

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
Once citizens post their ideas on Oasis, members of Oasis and civil servants read them and reply to the posts. Seoul City reviews them and selects some ideas with creativity, and a high number of votes, replies, and hits. It then holds a discussion with citizens, civil servants, and civilian experts, who engage in open debate on the viability of the ideas and seek ways to bring them to life. After the discussion, Seoul City holds a working-level meeting and selects the ideas that will be brought up for further discussion. Finally, it holds a meeting to make decisions on those ideas with the Seoul mayor, idea providers, experts, civil servants, and citizens in attendance. While building the system (Aug.~Oct. 2006), Seoul City accepted ideas from citizens through portal sites in order to reach out to them, and placed animated teaser ads to attract attention from citizens, which resulted in the name “Oasis” becoming carved in their memories. Since the opening of the site on Oct. 10, 2006, the number of visitors to the site and public interest in it has been growing. Seoul City continues to hold a meeting every other month to bring fresh ideas to light, since the first meeting on Nov. 21, 2006. On Feb. 12, 2007, Seoul City added the “Wow Seoul” menu to the site into which citizens can upload their video clips and pictures and gain information on major tourist attractions in Seoul, in addition to other features. In Sept. 2007, Seoul City revised the site for a 3rd time and added new content, such as the “Guide to Oasis” and “Seoul City Policy” to encourage citizens’ active participation. In Dec. 2008, Seoul City redesigned the main homepage for site visitors to create easy access to a variety of information on the city government, so that they can refer to it when they suggest ideas.

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
Oasis is operated by two major groups: the citizens as idea providers and the civil servants who reply to the ideas posted by citizens and put the ideas in action. However, the civil servants working in relevant departments are bound to face various problems, such as insufficient funding, a lack of workforce, and excessive workload, when pushing forward with new projects based on the ideas selected, with the eventual result of taking more passive action. In order to solve this problem, Seoul City drew up a plan to promote civil servants’ active participation in May 2007 and assigned the duty of replying to the posts on Oasis to staff in the Creativity Promotion Division so as to relieve the workload of the civil servants of other divisions and departments. It also introduced the “Oasis Keeper of the Month” system to reward the civil servant who posts the most replies. This motivated civil servants to participate in replying to citizens’ posts more actively. Oasis is expected to grow more. To boost the participation of civil servants, Seoul City plans to reflect the “Oasis Project” in the Seoul Creativity Awards and the performance point system that will give rewards to hard-working civil servants, starting 2009.

d. What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
Seoul City built “Oasis” with an emergency fund as the budget for fiscal year 2006 was finalized the previous year. However, it included Oasis in the budget for fiscal year 2007 to cover various expenses for portal development and operation, events and promotional activities, hardware (web server, data server, etc.) site maintenance, and site management. On Aug. 3, 2006, Seoul City created a task force team of three in the PR and Planning division to develop the Oasis website and its system. On Aug. 31, 2006, three more staff joined the task force team to oversee the idea suggestion system, communicate with staff in relevant departments, review the viability of the ideas selected, and discuss with related departments. Three of the six task force team members were outside experts who were responsible for designing the site, designing and managing the site operation process, and marketing. They also consulted with the Hope Institute, a site for idea suggestion similar to Oasis, operated by Korea’s leading non-government organization, and held public hearings to reflect citizens’ opinions on the operation of Oasis.

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
It is necessary for Seoul City to secure consistent funding for prizes to the citizens whose ideas were selected (prizes are gift certificates worth approx. USD 73.00), rewards given to the civil servants who actively participate in the Oasis project by replying to posts and putting the selected ideas into action, and site upgrade and maintenance. Seoul City expects that public interest and participation in Oasis will grow consistently, and plans to come up with a legal basis in order to award the citizens and the civil servants who contribute to the development of the Oasis project. Oasis has been benchmarked by many institutions, as provides both citizens and the local government with an opportunity to suggest their creative ideas for administrative reform and to communicate with each other, unlike other participatory systems that tend to be one-off and mostly for airing complaints and administrative grievances. The institutions that have benchmarked Oasis vary from public institutions, including the Presidential Transition Committee, Northern Chungcheong Province Office, Korea Coast Guard, Busan City, Daegu City and private institutions, including Samsung Electronics, Samsung Fire, Woongjin Coway, Yonsei University, and Ewha Womans University. Oasis offers citizens the opportunity to demand creative change and improvement in various systems and areas from Seoul City on the one hand, and allows Seoul City to utilize various citizens’ ideas for its policy development and inform citizens of its policy development and adoption on the other hand. Accordingly, Oasis serves as a model for other institutions as it was conceived as a portal that thrives on citizens’ participation and interest and thus sets itself apart from other similar sites.

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
Oasis is drawing positive responses from citizens, as they are proud of the fact that their ideas are adopted as city policy and have more opportunities to communicate with the city and understand city administration better. The site also contributed a great deal to the public conception of the civil servants in general in a positive way as it is Korea’s only site that listens to citizens and serves as a channel through which citizens can express their opinions freely. The success of the Oasis project can be attributed to various factors. Above all, the site urges citizens to participate in the city government’s policy making by suggesting ideas, and reflects their ideas in city policies through discussions among citizens, civil servants, and experts, which attracts public attention to and interest in the site. Also, the site proves that Seoul City takes citizens’ ideas seriously enough, for the Mayor himself leads discussions about their ideas. The continuous development and success of the Oasis project lies in the Seoul Mayor’s leadership and determination to keep up with historical demands for change, citizens’ active participation, and civil servants’ passion for bringing citizens’ ideas to reality.


Institution Name:		Seoul Metropolitan Government
Institution Type:		Government Agency
Contact Person:		Seeun Chun
Title:		Public Officer
Telephone/ Fax:		82-2-2171-2108
Institution's / Project's Website:		82-2-2171-2190
E-mail:		thousand74@seoul.go.kr
Address:		63, Euljiro 1-ga, Jung-gu, Seoul, Korea
Postal Code:		100-842
City:		Seoul
State/Province:
Country:

The Problem

Solution and Key Benefits

Actors and Stakeholders

(a) Strategies

(b) Implementation

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

(d) Use of Resources

Sustainability and Transferability

Lessons Learned

Contact Information