In the current public administration, new trends of managing the public development and affairs have been introduced. One of these improved ideas involves the concept of managing out the public sector. This is an area where the public gets involved directly in the management of the public sector.
This is contrary to what happened in the old days where the government took full control of the administration and management of the public sector with few opinions from the public being put into consideration.
Managing out has enabled the members of the public to be participators and contributors in the management of the sector rather than just being receivers. For instance, in Australia there have been a lot of advancements and technical changes in the public administration.
Many processes have been introduced by the governments of Australia to support the managing out processes in the public sector (Equity Crowd-funding 2013).
‘3 to 1’ crowd-funding is one of the processes used in managing out the public sector in Australia. This is a process that is establishing properly into the improved technology experienced in the world today. Its idea is based on the fact that many activities such as conferences, agreements, and payments can be made online.
Crowd-funding is an activity that entails getting financial support from various parties and different levels of the community through such an online setup as platforms set for specific projects. Some of the available crowd-funding sources include Pozible and Kickstarter, which are use in Australia significantly.
Kickstarter is attributed to the successful residential development and environmental project called the CitiNiche located in Australia (Australian Public Service Commission 2009).
On the other hand, Pozible is behind the 3 to 1 crowd-funding idea that has seen government agencies in Australia such as the ScreenWest being awarded.
When analyzing how this initiative has been used in Australia to manage out the public sector, it is important to illustrate how the idea works first of all. It is also of use to highlight the benefits that come along with the process and finally discuss the challenges faced in its implementation.
Steps Taken in the Initiative
An Australian government agency that deals with filmmakers called the ScreenWest used 3 to 1 crowd-funding successfully in managing out. Through this, the government could support the film industry.
Pozible is a crowd-funding platform started in Australian that was used in this case. The initiative ensured the film makers get an opportunity to create a page online where they can find donors to offer them financial aid in their projects.
This idea is not restricted to film makers as even business persons with innovations or start-ups can use this platform to get financiers for their projects (Burke 2014, pp. 1-2).
First, filmmakers with projects come out and declare their interest to participate in 3 to 1 crowd-funding. They form teams in which they will be recognized with when taking part in the entire activity. Therefore, a specific movie will have its own team comprised of the cast and crew in the film.
The teams apply for ‘3 to 1’ and go to the website of Pozible to declare their interest of being supported financially by the public after forming the groups.
They do this by making a distinct budget of the project they have and displaying it on the website of Pozible so that potential donors can view when the site is online.
By this time, the teams are expected to display part of their film or project so that donors may be able to have a slight idea of what they are going to sponsor (Eltham 2013).
With only the projects that meet the application requirements, the website of Pozible goes live. From this point pledges are made and well stated budgets and outstanding ideas are bound to get a lot of supports from the public.
Since it is like a competition to get more funds from ScreenWest and also win the grand support from this government agency, film makers get to ask their fans in the public to vote for them through making pledges to facilitate financing.
The teams that are successful in reaching the goals they set for the crowd-funding are considered winners in the competition and the government though ScreenWest gives them adequate support.
Such films are offered extra digital producers fully paid for by the agency. The winners are also offered more coaching to ensure that they give quality material.
Furthermore, the people make pledges to the film posted in terms of dollars they are going to donate to support the play through the website of Pozible. ScreenWest manages and directs this activity through a firm called Reliance Consulting that acts as a broker.
To show support to this initiative, ScreenWest offers 3 dollars for every one dollar that was pledged up to 250,000 dollars. This is how the name “3 to 1 crowd-funding” came to be.
This has been one process well used in Australia in managing out the public sector. This type of crowd-funding gives the community an opportunity to support the projects they prefer.
It is those projects that are supported by most of the members of the public that are given the privileges offered by ScreenWest. This process relieves some roles from the public administration managers such as that of picking projects to be offered with financial aid from the government (Malcom & Wentworth 2014, p. 2).
The working mechanism of 3 to 1 crowd-funding shows how the public administration process has been drifted towards the members of the society.
This initiative helps in reassigning some duties that were initially left for the managers of the public sector to other stakeholders in the sector such as the community.
For example, all the members of the society are given a task of assessing the performance of the public sector and choose what is preferable. Furthermore, the community is given a chance to participate in the development of the sector through offering donations.
Conditions to be met in 3 to 1 Crowd-funding
However, there are some conditions to meet for a filmmaker to enjoy participation in 3 to 1 crowd-funding and also to be considered successful after the closing period of the pledges.
First, a team has to be assessed by a board assigned by the government and minister responsible for checking whether the project will be able to deliver as per the expectations when given an opportunity (Stenstrom 2008, pp. 4-11).
This is done to avoid giving funds to films and projects that do not have long time visions of staying relevant in the industry.
It is also a condition that a team should have a minimum of forty pledges for it to be picked for this initiative,. This is important because it helps in easily short listing the teams that would participate in the activity.
This is also useful since it gives the projects sufficient time to get enough support from the public before it is presented to the society. It helps the producers to be able to grow their project faster after its implementation has started in the community.
The process is even made fairer by putting restrictions to the types of pledges that would be counted. The pledges made by family members of the cast and crew of the films are not considered when ranking them in terms of the number of pledges they received (Thomler 2014).
These are some of the conditions that clearly show that this method used by the Australian governments in managing out the public sector is effective.
Three to one crowd-funding makes sure that the projects and films are presented to the public for scrutiny. Afterwards, the most qualified ones are given extra support from the government through the agency responsible.
Forces behind Introduction of the Initiative
This way of giving the community a way to manage the public sector was introduced into Western Australia due to some reasons. Some of these factors were so urgent while some of them were just to make services better.
Making the public a participator in decision-making
One force behind this process is the need to involve the citizens in the projects and activities they want provided to them.
In the previous years, the members of the public have always been left to be spectators of what the government is doing in the public sector without even asking for detailed opinions from all the stakeholders affected.
The people of the public have the rights to pick what is best for them. It is also good for the community to choose how they want these projects implemented and presented to them.
The urgency to provide the people of Western Australia with quality and qualified projects and films pushed the government through ScreenWest to pick the idea of 3 to 1 crowd-funding (Walsh 2014).
Limited Government Funding
Many projects are available for the government to support financially, and this requires a lot of inputs in terms of finances. To make sure all this projects and films at least get some support either from the public or the government, this initiative was important to implement.
This process of managing out ensures that there is a platform for the film makers to get support from a wide source of donors thus the government would not have to strain to provide for all the projects available (Ward 2014).
Advanced Technology
With the current technological changes in the world, it was important to advance the way of marketing and to support the films being produced. The new technology enables many activities to be done electronically and online.
Making good use of this, the relevant bodies had to come up with the idea that would go online and at the same time make work easier.
The projects and films are being presented online to seek for donors to support the ideas by boosting the budgets they have posted there. This is one way of taking advantage of the improved technology.
Need for change in performance of public administration
In the 20th century, the public administration concentrated on the inputs of the different sectors involved. According to report written in the UK, this has been changing over the years and the public sector has been putting more interest on the outcome of the activities involved on daily basis.
This turns out to be the case in Australia also where the relevant bodies now look at what quality is being achieved from the activities in the public sector (The 21st century public servant: a discussion paper 2013).
For this reason, the Western Australian government has put much interest on what the film industry has to present and the reception they get from the public before offering full support to the projects they got.
In one way this puts the producers, script writers and managers of the films on the truck to make sure they always have quality material to present to the society.
There has also been a change in the transparency of responsibilities that the government has on the public sector in the 21st century and thus the need to come up with open and clear activities.
The 3 to 1 crowd-funding idea implemented by the government through ScreenWest is more elaborate showing the effort put to support the film industry and other public projects.
Benefits of the Process
There is a series of beneficial outcomes that come along with this kind of managing in the public sector. Just to prove the big acceptance that this idea of crowd-funding received, ScreenWest was awarded in the year 2013 for having implemented this initiative.
This West Australian government agency received a premier award for developing the economy because of the 3 to 1 crowd-funding initiative (Fitzsimmons 2014). Some of the benefits that this process of managing out the public sector brought to Australia include the following:
Funding of More Projects
This initiative was based on online technology that was not tired up in one part of the world. The global connection enabled by internet access made it possible for a willing donor from any part of the world to support the film or project he/she loved.
This increased the base of support and the amount of pledges that the film makers got for their projects. Since after a short while the budgets could be met by what the donors offered, the films could be released, and other new projects be supported.
Citizen ownership and participation in public sector
The whole idea behind this type of crowd-funding provides the members of the public with an opportunity to have some ownership of the projects they agree to fund. These citizens also play a big role in the management of the projects they donate to since they are allowed to help in decision-making after the pledges.
Their opinions are considered important in all aspects. This is important to the citizens as they get that feeling of being part of the project where they show passion for it. More support from the viewers of the film will also have an impact on how the producers do their work.
The cast and crew are expected to display quality action to show their donors the quality work they have while the producers do their best too.
Boosting the governments’ support on public sector
Another benefit of the 3 to1 crowd-funding initiative is the assistance it gives to the government to ensure most of the projects in the public sectors are supported. This initiative provides a clue to the relevant government bodies on how the many ideas that innovators have in the public can get support (Osborne & Brown 2011).
It does not restrict financial assistance to what the government can offer, but extends this role to the entire community. This opens up the minds of producers not to depend only on the government for the support they want for their ideas.
Developed economy
This comes as a general positive outcome of putting the initiative in use. The initiative being campaigned for here seeks to increase the number of projects supported by donors. In the process of doing this, there would be more sales made of the films in the industry and therefore more capital would be raised.
The industry would be boosted since many of the artists with projects are going to get an opportunity to showcase the talents and the ideas they have. More sales would definitely impact on the economy of the country due to increased taxes got from the sales.
Changes in government-citizen interactions
The shifts and improvements in the administration of the public sector have also impacted on the relationships of the government and the citizens.
The way that people of the public interact with the government agencies in these days is quite different from how it was back in the 20th century. Government agencies in Australia such as the ScreenWest are now more interactive with the citizens in various ways.
More collaboration between organizations and the people
Years back the government bodies did not involve a lot of private organizations and the citizens in their activities concerning the public sector (Stenstrom 2008, p.30).
Nowadays, more collaboration is made between organizations either private or public, and this shows a change in how the government interacts with its citizens in Australia. Analysts believe that this is a way of improving the public sector.
Use of multiple channels in service delivery
Through initiatives such as the 3 to 1 crowd-funding and others similar to it, the government agencies create more channels of offering support and services to the citizens.
Specialists say that the various ways used in managing out the public sectors are important since they ensure most of the crucial areas are considered by the government. In the earlier decades, the interaction with members of the public was not much, which explains the difference in the public sector performance.
Introduction of digital mode of communication
Most of the government agencies currently use digital modes of interaction when communicating to the public. An example is the 3 to 1 crowd-funding initiative. This idea entails presenting online the projects and films that seek support from donors and government agencies.
The level of interaction of these two different parties is now distinct from the type of coordination that existed before. With this technology, interaction is moved to a ‘one on one’ level since the use of online services makes communication direct and involves few parties.
References
Australian Public Service Commission 2009. Web.
Equity Crowd-funding 2013. Web.
Burke, J 2014, Crowd-funding brings creative Pozibilities. Web.
Eltham, B 2013, Lights, camera, crowd-funding: how films are made Pozible. Web.
Fitzsimmons, C 2014, Israeli equity crowd-funding platform OurCrowd launches in Australia. Web.
Malcom, K & Wentworth, C 2014, The Future of Crowd-funding in Australia. Web.
Osborne, S., & Brown, L. (2011). Innovation, Public Policy and Public Services. Public Administration.
Stenstrom, E. (2008). What turn will cultural policy take? The renewal of the Swedish model. Routledge.
Thomler, C 2014, Can governments support crowd-funding? Web.
The 21st century public servant: a discussion paper 2013, Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet, London.
Walsh, L 2014, By the masses: the emergence of crowd-funded research in Australia. Web.
Ward, M 2014, Crowdsourcing the city. Web.