Questions/Answers

The term “mVoting,” a portmanteau of “mobile” and “voting,” refers to Seoul City’s mobile voting system, in which over 1.68 million Seoul citizens are participating (as of January 2018). Since the launch of the mVoting service, over 5,460 voting agendas have been suggested by citizens and 630,000 Seoul citizens have become official members. Seoul City introduced the mobile voting service with the aim of ensuring that the opinions of citizens from all walks of life are heard in the policymaking process. Modern society is changing too much too fast, and Seoul citizens are too busy to participate in the city’s policymaking activities. Taking advantage of the high mobile Internet penetration rate in Seoul, the city government is offering a service through which Seoul citizens can express their opinions on public policy through their mobile devices, removing all temporal and spatial constraints. Seoul City uses mVoting to hear citizens’ opinions on a wide array of matters, from serious policymaking and policy implementation to simple preference surveys. To give an example, Seoul City assigns relevant departments to carry out feasibility studies for the plans proposed by citizens and decides whether to invest money in the plans based on the results of votes. In 2017, Seoul City decided to carry out 766 projects worth KRW 59.3 billion based on results provided by mVoting. Not only that, Seoul City collects citizens’ feedback on their satisfaction with various events, preferences for public design, and selection of books at public libraries, and incorporates that feedback into policymaking. In the past, Seoul City collected citizen input through regular mail, telephone, face-to-face surveys, and street advertising. Now, however, the relevant departments simply register the agendas requiring a vote using mVoting whenever they want to get the opinions of citizens from all strata of society in the policymaking process.

Seoul City is committed to providing public services that increase public satisfaction by building a cooperative platform between the city and its citizens and reflecting citizens’ opinions in policymaking. Seoul City’s determination to work together with its citizens, going beyond ideology, class, and region, is driven by its vision, “People Centered Seoul, City with Happy People.” Seoul plans to use mVoting as a medium through which to communicate with citizens and reflect their opinions in every step of the decision-making process, from planning and implementation to policy evaluation. In addition, the city plans to provide its citizens with the opportunity to participate more actively in city governance by sharing their opinions on city policy with others and suggesting their ideas to the city. As mVoting allows people to easily create a poll and take the opinions of a group of friends, colleagues, and members of the organization with which they are affiliated into account when making decisions, Seoul expects that mVoting will contribute to cultivating a mature sense of democracy and reduce inequality among citizens by spreading democracy as a way of life.

Through mVoting, Seoul City ensures the equal rights of every citizen to participate in the city’s decision-making process. Regardless of sex, age, race, and ethnicity, anyone can participate in the city’s policy decision-making process. To prevent illegal and duplicate votes, mVoting is designed to allow the casting of only one single vote for each phone number. The mVoting service is open to anybody. However, its “limited voting” function limits the users able to vote to a particular group of people who are related to the given issue, thus ensuring the objectivity of the voting results. For instance, voting on an agenda for the foundation of a youth training center would be open only to the teenagers who will use the facility. In addition, mVoting offers diverse functions designed to encourage user participation. For instance, anyone who has installed the mVoting app can write comments on agendas being put to a vote, share their thoughts and feelings about the agendas with others, and invite others to join. When a vote is closed, participants are ensured that the results are reflected in policy, which keeps them engaged and motivated.

With a smartphone penetration rate of 85 percent, South Korea boasts a mature mobile environment. Seoul City is taking advantage of this strength to collect citizen input using mVoting and provide the best possible public services to its citizens. Seoul City has collected public opinions on 30 projects and reflected them in the promotion and implementation of related projects. For instance, by using mVoting, the city government found out that the school facility children felt the most inconvenient was the restroom. In response, the city launched the “Visitable Restroom” project and asked citizens’ for input on the project again. As a result, the city reflected citizens’ suggestions on how to remove odors from school restrooms and improve restroom design in the restroom improvement project. To give another example, Seoul City chose five innovate policies based on the results provided by mVoting in an effort to spread the city’s exemplar policies to other regions and cities in Korea. The city went on to hold a policy expo and chose several policies among the proposals submitted by citizens, including: “Reduction of Ultra-Fine Particles by 20%” to make Seoul a place with breathable air; “Late Night Owl Service,” a bus service operated after regular bus hours to help people return home safely.

The most important and attention-grabbing voting agenda for public services covered by mVoting is the “Participatory Budgeting for the Decision on Public Spending Projects,” which involves citizens directly in the entire decision-making process related to budget issues. Since 2015, Seoul City has allowed citizens to identify, discuss, and prioritize public spending projects worth over KRW 50 billion every year via mVoting, and the number of citizens participating is growing steadily. - 2017: 766 projects chosen from among 3,432 (KRW 59.3 billion) ▸ 220,000 citizens voted for 766 projects (31 on women’s issues, 86 on economy and employment, 77 on welfare, 43 on transportation, 223 on culture, 133 on the environment, 14 on tourism and sports, 69 on urban safety, 11 on housing, and 79 on parks) - 2016: 804 projects chosen from among 3,979 (KRW 50 billion) ▸ 170,000 citizens voted for 804 projects (76 on welfare, 77 on women’s health, 16 on youths, 30 on culture and tourism, 52 on transportation and housing, 62 on employment, 31 on the environment and parks, 31 on urban safety and so on.) - 2015: 524 projects chosen from among 3,593 (KRW 49.8 billion) ▸ 110,000 citizens voted for 524 projects (96 on construction, 94 on the economy and industry, 71 on parks, 52 on transportation and housing, 64 on culture and sports, 63 on public health and welfare and so on)

Various public offices, including Seoul City and its affiliates, local districts, and city-invested institutions, conduct surveys of various groups of people or organizations as a way of collecting public opinions and incorporating them into decisions on city policy. In 2017, for instance, the Childcare Division of Seoul Metropolitan Government conducted a survey of daycare center teachers regarding their working conditions, including unfair treatment by directors or sponsors, discrimination at work due to pregnancy, refusal of requests for paid annual leave, and lack of financial support for better treatment at work, as well as support for substitute teachers and nursery assistants, career change, experience accumulation, wage growth, and types of preschools and childcare centers. It then used that data to formulate the “Workable Daycare Center Policy.” In addition, the Eco-friendly Meal Division of Seoul Metropolitan Government invited citizens to voice their opinions on the reliability of the eco-friendly school meal program in terms of safety management, sources of the ingredients, and safety inspections. After citizens pointed to food safety (70 percent) as the most important factor of the school meal program and indicated that the safety of ingredients (58 percent) should be tightly controlled, Seoul City reflected those opinions in the school meal program policy.

Seoul City is committed to providing citizen-centric public services based on mutual trust and communication and creating a city government that encourages active citizen engagement rather than making unilateral decisions. The mVoting service is divided largely into four types of voting: “issue voting,” where Seoul City asks citizens for their opinions on particular issues and then applies that data to a wide array of administrative areas rather than making unilateral decisions; “in-house voting,” where the city collects opinions from its own employees; “on-the-spot voting,” which is used at particular events or during meetings; and “public voting,” where a citizen asks other citizens to give their opinions on particular issues. Seoul City made the mVoting service accessible to all citizens via both smartphone (mobile app) and computer to make sure that non-smartphone users are not left out. Seoul formed the “mVoting Citizens Promotion Team,” consisting of citizens with great interest in city government affairs, to serve as a means of communication with citizens even after the completion of mVoting. The mVoting Citizens Promotion Team offers consultations on the operation of the mVoting service on a regular basis and promotes the mVoting service, complementing any shortcomings that may be caused by the operation of mVoting solely by Seoul City.

Seoul Mayor Park Won-Soon gave the order to develop a communication channel befitting “Seoul’s status as an IT powerhouse” that would also meet the needs of the “mobile environment.” Led by the Information System Planning Bureau, the city embarked on the development of mVoting, a channel of communication ideally suited to the mobile era as it is able to collect citizens’ opinions quickly and easily through “on-the-spot” votes held at policy meetings. After the launch of the service, Seoul City applied for a patent for the mVoting service, equipped with an on-the-spot voting function combined with location information. The mVoting service has been well received at home and abroad for its originality and quality. ▸ Selected as a representative and leading initiative of Government 3.0 and won a government award (Dec. 2014) ▸ Won the grand prize in the public service category at App Award Korea 2014, held by Digital Chosun (Apr. 3, 2014) ▸ Selected as a finalist in the Smart City Expo Awards, held in Barcelona (Nov. 19, 2015) ▸ Presentation on mVoting given at Metropolitan Solutions 2016, held in Berlin, Germany (June 1, 2016) ▸ Presentation on mVoting given to a group of visitors from Sidoarjo, Indonesia (Sept. 20, 2016) ▸ Presentation on examples of participatory e-government given in Eindhoven (EU World Cities), the Netherlands (Nov. 29, 2017)

(Financial resources) Seoul City set aside a portion of its budget for the upgrade and maintenance of the mVoting system, allowing it to support more users. (Human resources) The city employed a group of experts and a group of general citizens (to act as users) throughout the entire mVoting service development process. The expert group provided consultation services regarding the mVoting development strategy, the method for collecting citizens’ opinions, PR geared toward service expansion, and application of the latest IT, among others, while the general citizen-user group made sure that the mVoting service had a user-friendly design, monitored the website to keep out low-quality content, and promoted the service online. (Material resources) The Seoul City Data Center provides technological support through cloud systems and information systems (hardware and software), ensuring the stability of the mVoting service.

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'mVoting' has been selected as a representative and leading project of Government 3.0 by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and has been disseminated to other institutions. Government 3.0 emphasizes the values of “openness, sharing, communication, and cooperation,” all of which mVoting embraces. In other words, Seoul City “opens and shares” the policymaking process with citizens, “communicates” with citizens through mVoting, and reflects the results in city policy as part of its effort to “cooperate” more closely with citizens. 'mVoting' has been well received in other nations around the world, and has been benchmarked by various countries in Asia and Europe. The Netherlands plans to sign an MOU with Seoul City in March 2018 to import the mVoting service as part of the EU World Cities project.

(Social aspect) There is a growing tendency in many nations around the world to emphasize communication between the central and local governments and citizens. mVoting is one of the best communication channels in the mobile era as it connects the government with its citizens using a mobile medium that is prompt and convenient, freeing users from all temporal and spatial constraints. (Economic aspect) 'mVoting' is economical. It can be run using various features found on most computers, and it does not cost much to develop the mVoting software, as all it needs to do is vote generation and aggregation. Also, mVoting makes it possible to reduce the enormous social cost of collecting public opinions through direct interviews, telephone surveys, and the like. (Environmental aspect) With the popularization of smartphones, mobile social networking through social media channels such as Facebook is now an essential part of modern culture. In this respect, communication between Seoul City and its citizens using mobile devices and sharing ideas and opinions with other people using voting software seems quite natural.

Since the launch of mVoting, the number of people using the service has grown steadily every year. The members of the service increased drastically from 30,000 in 2014, when the service was launched, to 620,000 by the end of December. Based on the growth over the past few years, Seoul City expects that the number of members will reach one million in 2018. ▸ No. of members (cumulative): 30,000 in 2014, 170,000 in 2015, 340,000 in 2016, 620,000 in 2017, and one million in 2018 (tentative) ▸ No. of members voted (cumulative): 330,000 in 2014, 720,000 in 2015, 1.15 million in 2016, and 2.28 in 2018 (tentative) ▸ Voting agendas (cumulative): 1,795 in 2014, 2,728 in 2015, 3,472 in 2016, 5,460 in 2017, 7,500 in 2018 (tentative) A growing number of public institutions are using mVoting to collect public opinions. After it was first introduced, the mVoting service was used mostly in Seoul, but it is now widely used by local district offices, the Office of Education, and public enterprises. ▸ Seoul City: selection of public artworks, winners of the Seoul Architecture Awards, winners of volunteer awards, survey on public awareness of welfare policy, and operation of the ice rink in Seoul Square ▸ Local district offices: finalization of participatory budgeting projects, public satisfaction with childcare centers, and voting on community projects ▸ Office of Education: on-the-spot voting at parent roundtable meetings and selection of winners of the integrity slogan contest and books for reading lists ▸ Seoul Metro Corporation: subway-related inconveniences, installation of shelves, subway seats, etc. The mVoting results are accessible to anyone on the website. Voters have access to the list of votes in which they participated and the results, allowing them to see how their opinions have been reflected in city government affairs and policy and thus keeping them engaged and interested in policymaking.

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(Assessment by Ministry of the Interior and Safety) The Ministry of the Interior and Safety evaluates the results of the Government 3.0 initiative (openness, sharing, communication, and cooperation) in cooperation with a private consulting group in terms of the results of citizen-customized services and citizen engagement projects. (Assessment by Seoul City) The assessment division makes sure that Seoul City listens to citizens when pushing its major projects. It evaluates the progress of major city projects twice a year, identifies problems, and encourages the city to find solutions to problems to ensure the success of the projects. When necessary, the assessment division uses both mVoting and surveys to check if the city reflected citizens’ opinions. (Assessment by mVoting management division) The Information System Planning Bureau monitors the entire voting process, from the beginning to the end, and suggests that the city make its decision to incorporate the results into its policymaking decisions accessible to citizens.

mVoting has been selected as a representative and leading initiative of Government 3.0 by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and disseminated to other institutions. However, the evaluations have shown that the relevant offices must make special efforts to solve local problems in partnership with local residents. The assessment of Seoul City’s major projects has shown that the following projects serve as models of citizen engagement in policymaking. ▸ A survey of citizens’ opinions on the no-smoking areas in Seoul City, survey of citizens’ opinions on the designation of no-smoking areas near subway station entrances and around the Hangang River, and survey of Seoul City’s policy on outdoor no-smoking areas, no-smoking area signs, and citizens’ ideas on the prevention of smoking and quit smoking programs ▸ Adjustment of the Seoul Museum of Art opening hours, selection of the winners of the Seoul City Volunteer Awards, and survey on the restriction of car use to fight air pollution caused by high concentrations of ultrafine particles The evaluation of mVoting identified a few problems with the service that need to be addressed, including low public recognition (29%), lack of entertaining content (20%), and weakness of login and verification methods (18%). Seoul City plans to improve the service by adding more diverse features to attract more public attention.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety uses the evaluation index of the Government 3.0 evaluation plan to assess the performance of citizen-centric services, solutions to community problems through resident engagement, and the public service list update Seoul City uses the performance index of the Seoul City evaluation plan, which includes satisfaction with each item in administrative service areas, causes of dissatisfaction, number of agendas for mVoting, number of agendas that reflect the results of mVoting, and number of participants. The division responsible for the operation of mVoting conducts a survey of mVoting users regarding their satisfaction with the service in terms of convenience/inconvenience, promptness of responses, and accessibility.

Seoul City invited citizens to participate in the entire process of planning and developing mVoting. As a result, a group of citizens with expertise in diverse fields, including civil servants, professors, legal experts, city council members, PR experts, and developers, drew up policy and PR guidelines, while a group of other citizens, including civil servants, experts in service fields, and designers, among others, participated in checking the user-friendliness, design, and requirements. Various people and institutions, including government organizations, schools, civic groups, private organizations, and the general public participate in mVoting in order to collect and balance citizens’ opinions and reach an agreement. For instance, teachers, parents, and educational institutions use mVoting to voice their opinions on school policy regarding parent participation in school affairs, improvement of students’ human rights, and prevention of school violence. Sponsors and volunteers of social cooperatives use mVoting to elect representatives, while the general public expresses their ideas and thoughts on social issues through mVoting so that their opinions can be reflected in policymaking. Seoul City uses mVoting to make decisions on future projects based on evaluations of projects undertaken by various divisions, consultations with experts, and citizens’ satisfaction with the projects with the aim of improving the quality of public services. The city also holds a meeting with a group of IT experts three times a year to discuss future directions of and upgrades to be made to mVoting and how to apply the latest technologies. Citizens express their satisfaction with various city government affairs and projects and disseminate the agendas registered on mVoting using social media and YouTube, thus bringing greater public attention to city government affairs.

While providing the mVoting service, Seoul City has learned that many more citizens than expected are interested in city policies and projects, especially those directly affected by such policies, projects, and social issues. We believe that the mVoting service is an effective means of promoting city projects. mVoting plays a vital role in collecting public opinions during the policymaking process. It can be useful when conducting various surveys, but it is even more effective in increasing citizen engagement and allowing the city to take more diverse plans into action in policy implementation. It is imperative to create a policy that allows the city to turn an agenda that gains the votes of 300,000 of Seoul’s population of 10 million or the issue that meets certain criteria, such as the fixed number of people who cast ballots, into reality.