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19. March 2010 – 09:00 by Bengt Feil (TuTech Innovation GmbH)
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In this article I would like to mention a few interesting posts related to eParticipation in the last two weeks. The goal is to give an overview of what was going on in the eParticipation realm over that time. The full articles are always linked to under the short summaries.
Andrea DiMaio over at the Gartner blog network discusses two reports by the US Government Accountability Office which state that the OpenData and Transparency websites (Recovery.gov, USAsepending.gov) are far from perfect. His take on the issue is that critic at this point in the development towards more transparency and participation to much criticism could be harmful.
Blog.gartner.com
The BBC conducted a world wide survey with over 27.000 participants and found that almost four of five respondents see internet access as a fundamental right. A majority of those questioned believe that the internet improved their freedom. On the flipside several concerns and dangers where mentioned: fraud and easier access to violent and explicit content being among them.
News.bbc.co.uk
mySociety lays out their vision for the twelve months and promises both a new citizen-facing project (FixMyTransport aiming at “connecting and empowering people who share transport problems of different kinds”) and a improved backend system called Project Fosbury (aimed at making the whole process of civic engagement simpler by breaking it down into single steps).
Mysociety.org
The Swiss canton Zug has published its eGovernment and intranet platform iZug as an open source tool which can be used by other public administrations. This is interesting for two reasons: Firstly the iZug tool seems to be feature-rich and may be of interest for other (especially Swiss) administrations and secondly this is another example of the how attractive open source in general and specifically the Plone framework (Python based CMS) has become for public administrations.
Move-online.de (German original)
Google Translation (English)
The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) plans to connect 100 million additional American homes to high-speed broadband (up to 20 times faster than today) over the course of the next years. These plans are laid out in the national broadband plan presented on March 16th. Now the plan has to be adjusted to the roughly 200 recommendations the FCC got from different players. Some of these adjustments will need involvement of Congress which might slow down the process.
Latimes.com
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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
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26. January 2010 – 15:42 by Bengt Feil (TuTech Innovation GmbH)
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The year 2010 already brought with it a someinteresting news for eParticipation. The following items where of particular interest:
The UK government launched its own version of an open data portal to be used be NGOs and other public agencies. Data.gov.uk offers many different types of open government data in standardized formats to be used for analysis and applications. It is interesting to note that Sir Tim Berners-Lee is advising the project – This hints at the willingness for true openness!
Blogs.cabinetoffice.gov.uk
The bloggers of the Department of International Development (DFID) in the UK discuss the challenges and benefits of blogging as they have experienced them in the last 15 months since their started their blog. They clearly lay out the learning curve and the challenge of free publishing by government staff as well as the “real engagement” they were able to achieve.
Blogs.cabinetoffice.gov.uk
Evgeny Morozov of the Georgetown University presented his thoughts on three key assumptions on technology and social change. He asks for a re-examination of: 1. Data will organize itself, 2. Technology will democratize our public sphere and 3. Civil society will flourish on the web.
Futuregovnetwork.com
On April 17th and 18th programmers, hackers, designers, journalists and “other nerds” will meet in Berlin to hack on and explore open and semi-open German government data. The goal is to set up a number of applications using this government data in just two days. Detailed information in German can be found at:
Opendata.hackday.net
Peter Cruickshank discusses a model of how local issues are debated which he found at e-democracy.org. He relates this model to petitions and finds that is fits in general but argues that they can empower citizens and elected representatives in relationship with the media and administrations.
Spartakan.wordpress.org
Darve Briggs points out the importance of mobile devices for government engagement. He especially addresses the fact that some people might cut their web-connected computer in a recession but keep their mobile phone.
Davepress.net
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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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