This represents some adjustments to the correspondence and communications procedures in place, where many levels of approval are needed before an official position is released. When an official response is not necessary, self-help user groups to support product information have shown that response time is considerably improved. The private sector has been quick to encourage them. It might be worth exploring how the same philosophy can be applied to government services support. In the British parliamentary system public servants are expected solely to explain and inform.
Debate is the responsibility of elected officials.
Public servants acting as moderators of discussions have reported an uneasiness in the definition of their roles and responsibilities. How they phrased their intervention in order to remain neutral was unclear to them. The impact of collaborative policy development on public servants is still largely unexplored. Some interest groups are experts in using the Internet to create quick, sometimes single-issue coalitions. Public participation practitioners and information officers need to learn how the Internet is used to target and interact with specific groups.