Archive for the ‘Trends’ Category
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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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25. February 2010 – 10:20 by Bengt Feil
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The idea of using the distributed web (Blogs, Twitter etc.) as a tool to identify opinions and feed them into decision making processes has been discussed on this blog before. In a recent article I also tried to suggest a rather crude tool to gather these kinds of distributed opinions using of the shelf web tools. The ThinkTank open source project by Gina Trapani and recently Expert Labs takes this idea to a whole new level in three ways:
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The project started out as a tool to just gather Twitter data and back it up on another server but has since developed into a much larger and more ambitious web app that is able to gather activity related to a specific person or subject from existing social networks and organize this information in a useful fashion. ThinkTank stores all data it gathers in its own database, which makes analysis, filtering and documentation much easier.
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One use of ThinkTank, which is especially suiting for political participation processes, is that it allows to gather the distributed answers posted to a a specific question on many different social networks. Gina Trapani uses the following example to illustrate the power of this ability: When she decided to buy a Netbook she asked her Twitter followers what the best model etc. is and got over 240 qualified results. „ThinkTank makes it easy to ask your contacts a question and find meaning in a high volume of responses.“
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Recently Expert Labs, a non-profit independent organisation which tries to „help policy makers in the U.S. Federal Government tap into the expertise of their fellow citizens“, has hired Gina Trapani as a project director to work on ThinkTank as a tool in a political context. The idea is to empower politicians and administrative policy makers to make use of the distributed knowledge and expertise represented by citizens in various social networks. In other words: Like Gina was able to ask her savvy Twitter followers about the best Netbook, politicians should be able to ask about the best policy decision and be able to make sense of the answers.
The first test for ThinkTank in the political context will be Grant Challenges initiative by the White House. The tool will be used to gather feedback on the list of scientific and technical challenges identified by the White House. It will be interesting to see how this still rather young open source project hold up to the task but it is great to see that the White House and Expert Labs are willing to make use of such an innovative tool for a real-life test.
Posted in Tools, Trends | No Comments »
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16. February 2010 – 15:42 by Danish Technological Institute
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For those of you who are not yet aware: The call for papers for the 2nd International Conference on eParticipation 2010 (ePart 2010 www.demo-net.org/epart) is now open.
ePart 2010 will take place 29 August to 2 September in Lausanne (CH). ePart is co-organised with EGOV 2010 conference so a chance to meet colleagues and peers in both fields.
ePart 2010 covers a whole range of research topics within area of eParticipation. The principal aim is to review research advances in both social and technological scientific domains, seeking to demonstrate new concepts, methods and styles of eParticipation.
ePart 2010 will in particular focuses on:
- The research landscape, directions and foundations
- Research methods, method integration and techniques
- Cultural and normative differences in eParticipation
- Comparative analyses of eParticipation practices
- eParticipation projects: design, implementation, evaluation, quality and impact
- Technologies for eParticipation, policy modelling, simulation and visualisation
- Online conversation and deliberation, eConsulation, ePoling, eLegislation, eElectioneering, eVoting, Social networking
- Education, training courses, and curricula
ePart 2010 papers submission – in line with the above focus areas – will be allowed in four distinct types of submissions:
- Completed research papers
- Ongoing research and innovative projects
- Workshops and panels on pertinent issues
- PhD colloquium submission.
ePart is closely aligned with EGOV 2010 - the IFIP eGovernment conference and the EGOV community. Note that this year both conferences will be located for the first time outside the DEXA cluster of conferences. ePart 2010 is sponsored by IFIP, WG8.5.
Important Dates
- Submission of papers: 3 March 2010
- Submission of workshop/panel proposals: 15 March 2010
- Submissions to PhD colloquium: 15 March 2010
- Notification of acceptance for papers: 30 March 2010
- Notification of acceptance for workshops/panels: 30 April 2010
Publication
All accepted completed research papers will be published by Springer LNCS. Ongoing research and innovation projects papers will be published by Trauner Druck. Outstanding research papers from the conference might be selected for further development and publication in a special issue of a relevant journal.
Conference chairs
- Ann Macintosh, The University of Leeds (UK)
- Efthimios Tambouris, University of Macedonia (GR)
- Olivier Glassey, IDHEAP- University of Lausanne (CH)
BY Danish Technological Institute/Morten Meyerhoff Nielsen
Posted in Events, News, Projects, Trends, Uncategorized, inclusion | No Comments »
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11. February 2010 – 14:55 by Bengt Feil
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In a recent post I argued that it is very promising to look at the distributed opinion expressed by people on the internet in eParticipation and other projects. One of the major challenges in doing so is to be able to know which of the many statements one can found all over the web have been made by the same person. The Social Graph helps to overcome this problem.
A Social Graph includes all the websites and relationships between websites related to any particular web user. The Social Graph for me would for example state that I am an author on the PEP-NET weblog, my Twitter account is twitter.com/bengtfeil, my Facebook name is bengtfeil and so own. The Social Graph also includes information on the people related to me as friends on the different sites. Of course only publicly viewable information can by included into the graph.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Tools, Trends | 1 Comment »
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2. February 2010 – 18:09 by ActValue Consulting & Solutions
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Web 2.0’s great power cannot be ignored.
Politicians have shown to understand this issue very well. They know that this new
way of communication can be used as a powerful tool to disseminate political programs
and to influence voters. Independent studies have shown that in the US President
Barack Obama has won the elections thanks to young people as never before. This
part of the population has voted for the democratic candidate en masse (2 out of
3 voters) and the number of young voting people has increased, for the very first
time, much more in comparison to any other voting category. In fact the influence
of the evolution in communication in the Web2.0 era has changed the way voters follow
the election campaign.
Voters are no longer simple watchers but nowadays they are proactive subjects who
determined the political programs and trends through the power of the informal web
(e.g. forum, social network, blog, newsgroup e wiki) which means that citizens exchange
opinions (positive or negative ones) in a free way , without discrimination.
Similarly politicians should use the same tools to test, detect and understand how
their programs are perceived by the voters and they can stimulate discussions and
gather useful feedback. Based upon the outcome of last year’s election, we estimate
that in Italy candidates who will be able to exploit web 2.0 can win up to 30% of
the voters aged between 18 and 25, the ones who did not vote.
The analysis and interpretation of opinions, judgments and prejudices found on the
net is a core activity for the protection and the promotion of brands, products
and services, people in terms of visibility, reputation, credibility. Candidates
should borrow this model from marketing (e.g. President Obama is a brand) to supervise,
defend and emphasize their image in order to create a competitive advantage for
the future. Audience will resonate a candidate’s name to a good feeling of deep
trust. Thus it is very important, as a political strategy, to create a feedback
between information gathered on the net and the definition of a candidate’s political
program
Here below we propose a model which can be used for web reputation analysis in the
political contest.
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Candidate
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Alliance
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Political program
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Web Voice
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Background
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Mission
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Social issues
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Social issues
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Curriculum Vitae
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Scale of value
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Economy & Jobs
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Economy & Jobs
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Relations skills
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Basic principles
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Tax
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Tax
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Communication
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Sentiment
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Foreign politic
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Foreign politic
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Empathy
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Popularity rating
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Domestic politic
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Domestic politic
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Popularity rating
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Justice
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Justice
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Health care
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Health care
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Environement
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Environement
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Security
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Security
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This model needs to be detailed and refined. The analysis outcome will then include
a Position Map of web domains, built upon their relevance, their visibility and
the tone (either positive or negative) of the conversations they host.
Participating in a few selected conversations and stimulating the right channels
a candidate will then be able to create a positive environment and influence the
voters’ feelings towards his/her political messages.
Concluding, we can say that web 2.0 is a terrific tool and it may give good interaction
opportunities to everybody; on the other hand it requires professionalism, skill
and experience to define and execute winning political strategies.
Posted in Trends | No Comments »
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27. January 2010 – 11:51 by Centre for E-Government
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The Office of Science and Technology Policy Public Access Policy Forum launched a public consultation on Public Access Policy. The Administration was looking for public input on access to publicly-funded research results, such as those that appear in academic and scholarly journal articles. From 10. December 2009 until 7. January 2010, comments on the agenda below could be posted on www.whitehouse.gov/open (forum now closed):
* Implementation (Dec. 10 to 20): Which Federal agencies are good candidates to adopt Public Access policies? What variables (field of science, proportion of research funded by public or private entities, etc.) should affect how public access is implemented at various agencies, including the maximum length of time between publication and public release?
* Features and Technology (Dec. 21 to Dec 31): In what format should the data be submitted in order to make it easy to search and retrieve information, and to make it easy for others to link to it? Are there existing digital standards for archiving and interoperability to maximize public benefit? How are these anticipated to change.
* Management (Jan. 1 to Jan. 7): What are the best mechanisms to ensure compliance? What would be the best metrics of success? What are the best examples of usability in the private sector (both domestic and international)? Should those who access papers be given the opportunity to comment or provide feedback?
Although the forum is closed, Charles Bailey collected links to 45 major institutional submissions to the OSTP consultation on OA.
And Steven E. Hyman’s, Provost of Harvard, response publicised on The Occasional Pamphlet.
Posted in News, Trends | No Comments »
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21. January 2010 – 15:11 by Sabrina Franceschini
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The United Nations releases initial results of a survey, revealing the UK has jumped several places up the table of e-government development.
The UK has jumped several places in the United Nations’ 2010 e–Government Development Index, from tenth place in 2008 (the last time the index was created) to fourth. The latest table shows < href=http://www2.unpan.org/egovkb/global_reports/10report.htm target= “_blank”>puts the United Kingdom ahead of all other European countries, and behind South Korea, the United States, and Canada, respectively.
Full results of the survey are due to be published very soon as part of the UN’s upcoming report, “2010 United Nations e-Government Survey: Leveraging e-government at a time of financial and economic crisis,” which assesses the ability of e-government during the ongoing global economic environment.
“The public trust that is gained through transparency can be further enhanced through the free sharing of government data based on open standards,” states a UN overview of the report. “The ability of e-government to handle speed and complexity can also underpin regulatory reform.”
It continues: “While technology is no substitute for good policy, it may give citizens the power to question the actions of regulators and bring systemic issues to the fore. Similarly, e-government can add agility to public service delivery to help governments respond to an expanded set of demands even as revenues fall short.”
The preliminary overview of the report also points out that in the two years since the previous report, governments around the world had made “great strides in development of online services, especially in middle-income countries,” though it acknowledged: “The costs associated with telecommunication infrastructure and human capital continue to impede e-government development.”
Global E-Government Survey 2010
News; http://www.publictechnology.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=22406
In attesa di leggere i contenuti e le conclusioni del rapporto…intanto sono disponibili le “classifiche” dei paesi sulle varie categorie prese in esame.
Per la eParticipation, spiace dirlo, l’Italia risulta solo 55esima 
Posted in Trends | No Comments »
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20. January 2010 – 23:15 by Madarász Csaba
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eCampaigning is a mass success, wherever we get a glimpse about it’s achievements - used in the for-profit, non-profit and governmental sectors. The need to communicate better, more efficiently cases, raise money, call to action, advocate on issues and to move people for support is now a fundamental issue of our society.
The eCampaigning Forum - run by Fairsay,- is an annual event, placed in Oxford in collaborative (e/non-e participative) spirit and methodologies.
A good starting point is the event website’s wiki section and the materials can be grabbed from the site.
The event is from 23-24 March, in St. Anne’s College, Oxford, UK.
For non-profits: why to adapt online communication best practices, a good article from Allyson Kapin explains the basic facts.
Posted in Events, News, Trends | No Comments »
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6. January 2010 – 13:14 by Bengt Feil
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Augmented reality on iPhone (Wikipedia)
Locations and places play in very important role in many eParticipation processes. As a matter of fact eParticipation in urban planning is one of the most successful areas eParticipation to day. In the case of participation processes which are linked to a certain place mobile participation is a very promising trend in general and in this article I would like to take a look at two specific new technologies and what their use in mobile location focussed participation may be: Augmented reality and automated image recognition.
Augmented reality
In a nutshell the term augmented reality describes the enhancement of a live picture provided by camera (mostly on phones) with additional data (commonly gathered from the internet). The data shown is located in space so that the viewer only sees the data he or she is close to. The picture above for example is an example using the Wikitude world browser on the iPhone. Here the live view is enhanced with data from Wikipedia. This kind of technology is available on most location aware smart phones today and is very easy to use. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Trends | 1 Comment »
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18. December 2009 – 14:20 by Birgit Hohberg
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while following the not very promising discussions in Copenhagen more and more people seem to prepare their Christmas holidays. But there are still some activities going on.
Eurostat survey results about Internet access and use in 2009
Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, released the results of a survey on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) usage in households and by individuals in the EU27 Member States, the candidate countries, Norway, Iceland and Serbia. In average 65% of households had access to the internet during the first quarter of 2009, compared with 60% during the first quarter of 2008. The broadband internet connection has grown up to 56% in 2009, compared with 49% in 2008. Having a look at the different Member States there is still a big gap, for instance the Netherlands (90%), Luxembourg (87%), Sweden (86%), Denmark (83%), Germany (79%), Finland (78%) and the United Kingdom (77%) compared to Bulgaria (30%), Greece and Romania (both 38%). See for more details: http://europa.eu/
The “Bobs Awards” started
In early December the 6. round of the international Bobs Blog Awards by Deutsche Welle started. Till the 14. February people from all over the world can propose and recommend weblogs, podcasts and video blogs for different sections. They can be produced in the following languages: Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, English, French, German, Indonesian, Persian, Portuguese, Russian or Spanish. This year a new category “Special Topic Award” for blogs and podcasts was introduced dealing with the issue of climate change. The winners of the awards will be selected by both an international jury of bloggers and an online voting. Have look at: http://www.thebobs.com/
European Civil Society Data Protection Award (ECSDPA)
The European Civil Society Data Protection Award (ECSDPA) to be announced on every year on the Data Protection Day, 28 January, is a joint initiative launched by AEDH (European Association for the Defence of Human rights) and EDRI (European Digital Rights), with the support of LSTS/VUB (the Law Science Technology & Society Research Group of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel) and deBuren (The Flemish- Dutch House for Culture and Debat). The prize will reward initiatives which support the visibility and effectiveness of right to privacy and the protection of personal data in Europe. Non-governmental organisations, trade unions, non-profit institutions and any other civil society actor of the 47 Council of Europe member States are invited to participate by submitting their applications till 15 January. More information: http://www.edri.org/ecsdpa
“Conversations At The Beginning Of A New Time”
is a new platform to collaboratively participate in the development of a new picture a the future. The project is focussing on 10 areas, ranging from politics, education, economy to the „clash of cultures”. The list of participating experts comprises for example Iris Brosch, Liane Gabora, Lawrence Lessig, David Weinberger, Stuart Kauffman, Ulrike Reinhard, Don Tapscott and Lee Bryant. See for more details: http://www.catboant.com/
Where does my money go?
Recently the British Open Knowledge Foundation started their project prototype “Where does my money go?”. The software visualises where the financial budget of the British Parliament is spend for – with regard to the different budget areas and the regional distribution. Coming up with a very appealing look this project is a result of hard work as the relevant documents and datasets were scattered around different government websites and at the same time required much background information. See for more information: http://www.wheredoesmymoneygo.org/prototype/
Participedia
Designed as an open knowledge wiki platform Participedia aims at accumulating continuously a database of significant initiatives in participatory governance and gather public knowledge to deepen democracy. The content should be mainly created by users describing participation projects from all over the world. See for more information: http://www.participedia.net/
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