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6. December 2009 – 13:37 by Eric Legale
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“Independent but not neutral” is the self definition of Pollitika.com. Launched in 2006 by Marko Rakar, known for his political notes on his blog about the political situation of this south european country of 4.5 million inhabitants, Pollitika.com has become an inevitable website about politics. Three thousand bloggers are enrolled and contribute to the website. About 2.000 new articles are published every year for 150.000 visitors per month.
Mark Rakar is a passionate man. During the visit of the French National Assembly, proposed to the participants of the last World eDemocracy Forum, he enjoyed every moment and every picture. Curious by nature, quoting the American strategist Joe Trippi and convinced that an electoral campaign is “too serious matter to be left to political parties”, it was not a surprise that he is one of Top 10 Who Are Changing the World of Internet and Politics. During the eDemocracy Awards workshop, last october, he explained how Pollitika.com strengthened democracy in Croatie.
Posted in Interview, News, Visions | 3 Comments »
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3. December 2009 – 20:03 by Olga Lacigova - 21c
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After a successful opening of the French pilot on the 16th of October with the Sofia Café event in Sofia Antipolis the UK pilot opened its site for argument visualisation pioneers on the 13th of November.
The Wave project tests a state-of-the-art argument visualisation tool in three pilot sites – France, Lithuania and the UK – by inviting climate change enthusiasts and – during the test stage – local residents in selected regions of the pilot countries. Users are asked to read opinions of others and express their views on climate change issues such as the development of wind farms near London. Discussions are portrayed on the colour coded argument visualisation map allowing people to easily follow the flow of arguments. The results of the discussions will be feed back to government decision makers to ensure each opinion is heard.
If you want to be part of it or just want to have a look, please visit www.jointhewave.org
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
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3. December 2009 – 15:37 by Bengt Feil (TuTech Innovation GmbH)
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This is the first in series of article on the role on the evaluation of eParticipation projects and their role in participatory democracy, which will be posted by the members of the TuTech team over the course of the next weeks.
There is a general agreement among many actors in democratic societies that there is a lack of possibilities for political participation. New media and the internet especially have been heralded as solutions to this problem and while eParticipation cannot replace other forms of participation and solve the democratic deficit once and for all it can help to improve the overall democratic culture in a society.
A strong democracy has to offer different participatory processes to answer a variety of needs of both citizens and government bodies. An election for example is excellent in involving almost the whole population in a decision making process but is very restrictive in its options (e.g. parties and people to vote for) and does not facilitate deliberation. A public hearing on the other hand can only be attended by a relatively small number of people but offers an open space to discuss many different options and develop compromises in collaboration. One cannot state that one form of political participation is “better” than the other but both processes answer specific needs by citizens and government and contribute to the democratic culture at large.
To support the before mentioned point there is the need to discusses what kind of dimensions can be used to categorize a participation process. The following list of dimensions (which will be picked up in following articles) is be no means complete but shows how many different variables have to be taken into account to understand the different forms of participation processes:
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Tools, Trends | 3 Comments »
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2. December 2009 – 21:27 by POLITECH
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World’s news agencies join in interactive hub for Copenhagen climate conference!
Eleven international news agencies have launched a joint Facebook page to interact with news consumers across the globe during the United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen.
The Facebook fan page, called The Climate Pool, will bring the news agencies together in an unprecedented collaboration to spark a global conversation about climate issues. The purpose of the Facebook hub (http://www.facebook.com/TheClimatePool) will be to engage readers in direct communication with the world-class journalists covering the U.N. conference Dec 7-18.
Participating are Agence France-Presse, ANP of the Netherlands, The Associated Press, APA of Austria, APcom of Italy, Canadian Press, dpa of Germany, Kyodo of Japan, Lusa of Portugal, Press Association of the United Kingdom and RIA of Russia.
The climate page on Facebook will feature a blog format, providing a behind-the-scenes view of the event and linking out to important coverage of the talks from the agencies and the media outlets they serve. Twitter also will be used to attract followers for the blog and related coverage.
The agencies have come together for the Copenhagen project under the auspices of MINDS International, a global news agency network.
“The climate summit in Copenhagen will affect the lives of billions of people, and it is likely to grip the attention of news consumers all over the world,” said Wolfgang Nedomansky, managing director of MINDS. “The Climate Pool will provide a unique outlet for Internet users to discuss climate change with some of the world’s most experienced journalists covering the conference.”
The Climate Pool page will be produced in English and will incorporate blogposts and multimedia content from the participating agencies, along with links to coverage from around the world.
The Portugese News Agency, Agencia de Noticias de Portugal (LUSA), partner of EMPOWER, an eParticipation Trial Project co-funded by the European Commission under the EU eParticipation Preparatory Action, is a leading force behind this interesting initiative.
The eMPOWER e-Petition platform will serve as an interface between decision-makers at National and European level on one hand and NGOs and citizens on the other hand, while using and testing new forms and methods of civil participation as well as enhancing the role of National News Agencies in promoting and supporting relevant initiatives and ensuring a wider outreach of the project’s results.
Posted in Events, good practice, News, Partners, Projects | No Comments »
