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This document describes various tools that may be considered by Members of Parliament and Committee's clerks as a means of providing opportunities for the formation of new interactive spaces between citizens and themselves leading to higher degrees of transparency and at the same time improving the understanding of citizens concerns.

These tools provide direct modes of communication between citizens and political actors hence the name interactive tools. The users become simultaneously authors, dispatchers, receivers, and controllers of communication. They enable multi-level communication (one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-one) as opposed to traditional print and  media which act as one-way intermediaries.

The tools described below are meant to enhance the traditional methods for engaging constituencies. A good example being  during Public Hearings. Tools such as emails, blogs can facilitate submissions of opinion by civil society, individuals and government departments during public hearing or a constituency outreach providing a record of the submissions which can be available at a later date and to a wider audience.  Another parliamentary process that can be supported by the tools is the submission of opinions to a committee hearing by those that are not able to be physical present when the committee is sitting thus providing more opportunities for engagement and also a broad base of opinions.

In an ideal society, the government strives to achieve the following: information provision, consultation and active participation of citizens. These tools offer the possibility of effectively delivering the three. They should not be taken as being fully effective on their own and therefore they be used alongside traditional methods of engaging and informing citizens.

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