Archive for March, 2010
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12. March 2010 – 13:19 by Fraser Henderson - ICELE
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The UK National Digital Inclusion Conference ’10 (note the ironic URL) concluded this week with a mixed sentiment among delegates. Get all the presentations here.
It was on the same day that the Conservative party launched their technology manifesto and that JobCentre Plus released announced an iPhone “jobs” app.
Quite frankly the latter does sound a bit odd – while I congratulate the innovation of a job-seeker iPhone App it really doesn’t seem like an appropriate solution for people dealing with an unemployment problem.
For those of you that don’t know, current plans are that the UK government will introduce a 50p monthly tax on all fixed-lines to pay for next generation infrastructure in areas that aren’t commercially viable. Of course, this wouldn’t apply to people on ‘social tariffs’. However, it could be argued that people on low incomes don’t even have a fixed telephone line. The opposition would undo this, proposing that infrastructure is paid-for through a top-slice of the BBC revenues.
So, back to the conference. The most striking session was the opener – between the digital inclusion tsar Martha Lane Fox and MP Stephen Timms, Minister for Digital Britain. Martha has dropped the title ‘digital inclusion’ in favour of race online 2012 to coincide with the forthcoming London Olympic Games. She also lobbied for fewer pilots and more action, reminding the audience that many of their digital inclusion objectives should lead to sector self-destruct. Stephen Timms lobbied for more pilots and more cash!
For me the best speakers were Tristan Wilkinson, Inclusion Lead at Intel and the brilliant Tom Loosemore from 4iP. It seemed like the technology sector had the best grasp of the severity of the problem and the narrow-mindedness of talking about website accessibility was put into perspective by the foresight of the geek squad.
I have been a sceptic about the level of interest and investment for many years – in the UK there are only 10 million people that have never used the internet. This includes 4 million people who are both socially and digitally excluded. But are the problems really digital ones or are they more fundamental, such as literacy levels?
We were all invited to make a ‘promise’ so I promptly got writing:-
“Digital inclusion is an uninteresting problem. My theory is that it will solve itself, either through the adaptation of technology or overwhelming benefits (necessity or compelling events). My promise is to ignore it and concentrate on harnessing the benefits, engaging with the enthusiastic and improving existing services for the masses.”
If the internet is to become ubiquitous it will not be a question of getting online, tapping out words, web pages or even computers. Our thoughts and our senses will be translated directly and digital will become excluded only to those who actively repel it. In other words, the internet interface will be re-invented and as such we shouldn’t worry so much about the problems that it creates. Any futurologist knows this.
SO what else did I gleam? Well, there were some ideas about ‘digital neighbours’ and lots of talk about computers in care homes and social housing [with money attached too].
I also learned of the ‘digital participation consortium’ – a UK-wide coalition of Government, industry and third sector organisations drawn from across the foundation areas of Digital Inclusion, Digital Life Skills and Digital Media Literacy set-up by Ofcom. Another network, another case study repository perhaps. PEP-NET needs to tie-up here!
I also learned about Getting British Business Online , a joint initiative by Google, Enterprise UK, BT, e-skills UK and many other partners to help small businesses create their first website and help them understand the
opportunities offered by the Internet. This includes a free domain name registration. Hmmm, a free business website without any eCommerce functions?
So, once again lots of disconnect and progress for progress’ sake but some good exhibits and a select collective of switched-on people.
Overall I enjoyed the conference – but let’s hope next year the topic can be something more interesting.
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
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12. March 2010 – 12:57 by POLITECH
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ePetitioning represents a key to eParticipation and eDemocracy services. Therefore, the European Commission is currently co-funding two projects under its eParticipation Preparatory Action: EuroPetition (www.europetition.eu) and eMPOWER (www.ep-empower.eu). However, the main problem with creating pan-EU eParticipation services, such as ePetitioning systems, is interoperability between the different eID systems amongst the Member States. It is of great importance to develop a reliable method of identification for ePetition in a cross-border context such as in the EU. As simple online identification in which only a name and e-mail address are required, are not sufficient for an ePetitioning process responding to the requirements put forward by under the article of the Lisbon Treaty referring to petitioning the European Parliament (Article 11 of the Consolidated Version of the Treaty on European Union as amended by the Lisbon Treaty).
Although the EU is currently running various cross border eIDENTIFICATION (eID) trials, there is no pan-European framework yet. In fact, implementing such framework poses several issues of interoperability between eID systems put in place by the different Member States, such as the Belgian eID is not interoperable with the Austrian one. Therefore, the issue of interoperability between Member States is crucial to create efficient pan-EU identification process enabling the provision of EU-wide eParticipation services. Several pilots, such as the STORK project (Secure Identity Across Borders Linked), are currently funded by the European Commission to solve this important issue and enable not only the provision of pan-EU services in the framework of the EC Service Directive and eGovernment, but also in regards to cross border eParticipation services, such as e-Petitionning. Such example shows how eGovernment developments are crucial for eParticipation processes and development.
Posted in Trends | 2 Comments »
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9. March 2010 – 10:00 by John Heaven (TuTech Innovation GmbH)
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Here are some news items, events and articles that I found during my first week working on PEP-NET. Apologies if some of them are almost a month old, but I found them so interesting that I thought I’d put them in anyway!
There is an urgent need to address the issue of cyber warfare attacks on the US, according to Janet Napolitano, US Homeland Security Secretary: “US urges ‘action’ needed to fight net attacks”, BBC News website.
For those who can read German, an article by Nina Schröter on politik digital (one of PEP-NET’s founding members) rounds up the news around online politics in Germany. Issues addressed include the German Constitutional Court’s ruling on mass collection of citizens’ data and the Chaos-Computer-Club’s call for an annual “Datenbrief”, a letter to citizens outlining what information is held about them and what it is used for: “Links, zwo, drei, vier“.
Involve, an associate member of PEP-NET, has co-published a literature review of participation, including eParticipation: “Understanding Participation: A Literature Review” (PDF file).
This article has already been linked from a PEP-NET article (“Internet can be muzzled?“) but I thought it worthy of another mention. It’s about Belarussian plans to introduce a law to control more strictly public agencies’ use of the internet. “Belarusian government increases its control over the Internet”, by PEP-NET associate member e-belarus.org
Michael Grimes of the Citizenship Foundation, based in the UK, contributed a thought-provoking article to Savvy Citizens: “Using the internet for effective citizenship”.
Jon Bounds, a chum of mine from Birmingham and renowned social media expert, wrote an article about the implications of social media for the Olympics and how social media threaten their ability to raise revenue through selling rights to their logo. He draws on examples from the recent Winter Olympics including companies who were told off for using the #Olympic hashtag on Twitter: “Hashtags, a new challenge to idiots” by Jon Bounds.
And finally, another social media expert from Birmingham Andrew Brightwell posted some FAQs about social media surgeries for people thinking of coming along. In case you are wondering what a social media surgery is, this post will tell you all you need to know. You might even want to try organising one! “What’s it like to go to your first Social Media Surgery?” by Andrew Brightwell on Podnosh
Posted in News | No Comments »
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5. March 2010 – 21:55 by University Bergamo
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Per chi oggi è interessato alle pratiche emergenti della partecipazione – cittadini, associazioni, partiti, apparati amministrativi, parlamenti e governi – è sempre più cruciale mettere a fuoco lo statuto giuridico, gli spazi di istituzionalizzazione della partecipazione e l’attuazione concreta delle opportunità partecipative collegate.
I vincoli o i limiti delle sperimentazioni hanno spesso a che fare con i gap fra diversi livelli d’azione e possono soffrire di un debole o ambiguo raccordo con le normative. D’altra parte i problemi non sono solo ‘procedurali’, ma si pongono anche sul piano sostanziale: l’esclusione politica dei cittadini corrisponde spesso ad una esclusione sociale e rimanda quindi ai problemi dei contenuti della cittadinanza. Una comprensibile ansia di novità – ‘nuovi’ metodi per partecipare, ‘nuove’ tecnologie applicate alla partecipazione, come nel caso del Web 2.0 – può far dimenticare questi aspetti e può condurre a trascurare sia le opportunità già presenti negli ordinamenti giuridici dei sistemi democratici e forse poco valorizzate, sia i limiti delle sperimentazioni in corso. Allo stesso tempo è necessario tener conto dei caratteri delle culture giuridiche (e politiche) che caratterizzano ciascun paese.
In due dense giornate internazionali di lavoro l’Università di Perugia propone un’occasione preziosa di riflessione e confronto su questi ed altri temi più specifici collegati.
Al link indicato è possibile trovare tutte le indicazioni sull’iniziativa.
“Le Regole della partecipazione. Cultura giuridica e dinamiche istituzionali dei processi partecipativi”.
Università di Perugia, 11-12 Marzo 2010
http://www.unipg.it/convegni/Giurisprudenza-2010/locandina.pdf
Anna Carola Freschi
(Università di Bergamo) Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Events, News | No Comments »
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3. March 2010 – 13:38 by John Heaven (TuTech Innovation GmbH)
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My name is John Heaven and I started work at TuTech Innovation on 1st March 2010. I will be working on – amongst other things – PEP-NET. Part of my role will be to work together with Bengt Feil on establishing what members would like to get out of PEP-NET membership, how we can improve what we offer to them, and ultimately ensure that PEP-NET can support itself into the future.
But before I set about that, I thought maybe you’d like to hear about where I’m from and what I’ve been doing until now, especially around eParticipation!
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in good practice, Uncategorized | 7 Comments »
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1. March 2010 – 18:58 by POLITECH
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WAVE (Welcoming Argument Visualisation to Europe) is an eParticipation Project co-funded by the European Commission and designed to improve the inclusiveness and transparency of EU decision-making at national and European levels, focusing on the issues of climate change and environment.
The Pilot Websites of the Project have been launched in the UK, France and Lithuania on 16 October 2009, 13 November 2009, and 10 December 2009 respectively. They can be accessed by going to the following websites:
www.debatclimat.eu (French Pilot)
www.jointhewave.org (UK Pilot)
www.wave-diskusijos.lt (Lithuanian Pilot)
The official launch of the first pilot (French Pilot) took place in Sophia Antipolis (France) in the form of Sophia Café which focused on the topic of Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions: How to Intensify the Efforts? The event was organised by the consortium partner Foundation Sophia Antipolis (www.sophia-antipolis.org). It was organised under the patronage of Pierre Laffitte, Honorary Senator and the President of the Foundation Sophia Antipolis.
WAVE was pleased to have an opportunity to present the Project to the audience of 81 event participants and to listen and discuss the ideas and feedback after Laurent Soulier’s (Director of International Relations & and European Affairs at Foundation Sophia Antipolis), David Price’s (Debategraph) and Deirdre Lee’s (DERI) presentations on WAVE and Debategraph, which is a tool used by WAVE.
Posted in Projects, Tools | No Comments »
