Missed Advantage?

Posted on | November 23, 2008 | No Comments

I am fortunate to be working with a group who are trying to re-design public policy as it relates to urban planning in Dubai.

WOW, it is cool.

But the group seems to be very much fixated on getting public opinion via small focus groups.

What is the problem?

I wonder if the money and time spent on bringing the people together might not be better used setting up a group on FACEBOOK or TWITTER or a local blog and getting people to comment, YouTube, add their ideas in a rich and textualized manner?

When I introduced the idea that the focus groups might not be the best option I all bit lost my arm, that was shielding my neck… could have lost my head.

So we are now at the stage where the stakeholder is going to generate a master list of questions to be fashioned into a focus group to then spur on policy generation.

Seems slow, old and full of ambiguity that might not lead to any policy at all.

(and who is going to write the policy document and push it on the other policy bodies)

My other idea? Go and talk to people in coffee shops, coffee mornings, play areas, burger joints and gas stations… maybe the guy walking, sitting in the bus, hey at the bus stop.

The result? A very broad range of answers to the question.

And I suspect if you ask most people, 50% , have a solution!

How do I know?  I asked a few people and they had ideas and answers and were happy to be listened to!

Hey that is talk radio land isn’t it!

Price? Coffee, bus fare and your time.

Result… imagine.

What will we do? Ask 10 people questions in a room and cross our fingers.

Maybe our toes as well.

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