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12. July 2010 – 10:15 by Centre for E-Government
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In collaboration with PEP-NET, the Centre for E-Government at the Danube University Krems invites you to submit an article for the third issue of the eJournal of eDemocracy and Open Government (JeDEM).
Guest Editors
- Rolf Luehrs (PEP-NET, TuTech Innovation GmbH, D)
- Francesco Molinari (SmartIntuitions Ltd., CY)
Extended Deadline: 21 July 2010
Call for Papers
The past decade has seen a significant increase in the number, variety and quality of eParticipation trials, particularly in Western and Southern European countries. The impulse of the European Parliament and the financial support by the Commission have been instrumental in establishing a pan-European community of practice, made up of academia, governments and solution providers from virtually all EU Member States.
However, on the evaluative side, many projects that were seen through to their conclusion apparently failed to meet expectations. The most evident limitations are the typically low number of active participants and the relatively poor impact of the (majority of) projects.
Although it is often taken for granted that ICT-supported political participation will be of increased importance in the future, the question of how to enhance the sustainability of eParticipation projects has not yet been convincingly answered. In times where most of the European countries have to cope with a difficult financial situation, eParticipation supporters and particularly Public Administration officials will be put under even more pressure to show that the required resources lead to tangible results and create real value for the citizens.
In this volume of JEDEM we are calling for theoretical and practical papers addressing the challenges of “Sustainable eParticipation”.
- review of successful examples of implementation
- institutional, legal, social and economic aspects of sustainable eParticipation
- ICT supported co-creation of public services
- eParticipation and Gov 2.0
- Living Labs and eParticipation
Further Info: OA eJorunal of eDemocracy and Open Government
Posted in Projects | No Comments »
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17. June 2010 – 15:19 by Centre for E-Government
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Extended Call For Papers - eJournal of eDemocracy and Open Government (JeDEM)
Issue 3/ September 2010
Special Issue in Collaboration with
PEP-NET: Sustainable eParticipation
Guest Editors
- Rolf Luehrs (PEP-NET, TuTech Innovation GmbH, D)
- Francesco Molinari (SmartIntuitions Ltd., CY)
The eJournal of eDemocracy and Open Government addresses the theory and practice in the areas of eDemocracy and Open Government as well as eGovernment, eParticipation, eDeliberation and eSociety. The aim is to impact the quality, visibility, efficiency and use of research and work in eDemocracy, Open Government and related fields.
Call for Papers
The past decade has seen a significant increase in the number, variety and quality of eParticipation trials, particularly in Western and Southern European countries. The impulse of the European Parliament and the financial support by the Commission have been instrumental in establishing a pan-European community of practice, made up of academia, governments and solution providers from virtually all EU Member States.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in ICT, News, experince, good practice, open data | No Comments »
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26. April 2010 – 16:14 by John Heaven (TuTech Innovation GmbH)
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Wordle, created with wordle.net
If you have something to say about eParticipation in Central and Eastern Europe, you can still participate in the online discourse. However, the forum has closed and we have now created summaries of the discussion. Anyone can edit the summaries using Google Docs, meaning that you still have a chance to contribute until May 7th. These documents will be submitted to the European Commission in a situation paper.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Events, News, Projects, Uncategorized, good practice | No Comments »
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23. April 2010 – 09:00 by Bengt Feil (TuTech Innovation GmbH)
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I assembled a few articles form the last weeks I found particularly interesting and noteworthy.
But first of all: The second PEP-NET online discourse has been running since April 12th on www.internet-discourse.eu. This discussion about the barriers and potentials of eParticipation in the Central and Eastern European region has been very successful and featured (among other things) three very interesting live-discussions with eParticipation experts from Croatia, Estonia and Slovenia. You can still take part in the third phase of the discussion. More information can be found here.
Now on to articles:
Google made an interesting step in publishing which government requested data or the removal of data from them in the second half of 2009. They also provide the number of requests and specific information on what kind of removal was requested (Youtube videos, blog posts etc.). A short article on this topic can be found on PEP-NET.
Google.com/governmentrequests
Tristan Parker wrote an interesting post on the influence of financial constraints on digital government efforts. He argues that these constraints will drive government (he is talking about the UK) towards more digital government projects and efforts not for their democratic but for their financial benefits. I think this is an interesting point of view and would argue that even though economic pressure might be the impulse the result might also be an improvement of democratic processes. An in-depth analysis can be found on the pages of the Hansard Society.
Headstar.com
MySociety has managed to set up a very large survey with “information on where every candidate in every seat stood on what most people would think were the biggest issues, not just nationally but locally too” through its TheyWorkForYou project. This might be one of the most comprehensive gatherings on data on the candidates positions we ever had in an election. The results will be published on April 30th.
Mysociety.org
Lauren Ivory posted a good (and very comprehensive) presentation by Steven van Belleghem on the online networks around the world. No absolutely new information but good to have it all on one place.
Futuregovnetwork.com
The Centre for Public Scrutiny has published a report on “what internet communication technologies might mean for public accountability”. The full report can be found here.
Cfps.org.uk
Posted in News | No Comments »
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21. April 2010 – 09:02 by John Heaven (TuTech Innovation GmbH)
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Photo of Simon Delakorda
Simon Delakorda, founder and Managing Director of the Institute for Electronic Participation (INePA) in Ljubljana, Slovenia, will participate in a live chat on Wednesday 21st April from 10.30-11-30 CET.
This is the third in our series of Live Chats as part of the PEP-NET Online Discourse on eParticipation in Central and Eastern Europe.
Simon is a full-time eDemocracy/eParticipation practitioner and researcher. InEPa is a PEP-NET member and a regular contributor to the PEP-NET blog.
To take part in the chat, simply go to the news item on the internet-discourse.eu website. Within that article you will see a window, which will allow you to participate in the chat when it starts. (If you go to the page before the chat starts, you will see a window where you can enter your email address for a reminder to be sent.)
You can continue to participate in the general discussion on eParticipation in Central and Eastern Europe at all times until this Friday (23rd April) by registering on the site and posting comments in the forum. The results of the discourse will be presented to the European Commission as a situation paper.
Posted in Events, Interview, Partners, Trends | No Comments »
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20. April 2010 – 18:08 by Rolf Luehrs
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The first step for governments or public administrations considering setting up an eParticipation project or making use of social media for the public sector is to see what others have put in place already. But where can you find information about existing cases, tools that fit your project or even a service provider?
Here are some entry points:
ePractice.eu
ePractice.eu is a portal created by the European Commission which offers services for the professional community of eGovernment, eInclusion and eHealth practitioners. It is an interactive initiative that empowers its users to discuss and influence open government, policy-making and the way in which public administrations operate and deliver services.
Part of the portal is a database providing descriptions of cases from the different domains. If you look for cases dealing with eParticipation, eDemocracy or eVoting you have to choose the right filters (Browse by domain: eGovernment; Browse by topic: eParticipation, eDemocracy and eVoting). After that you will be presented with about 130 cases from numerous EU countries, some of which are definitely worth reading.
e-participation.net & e-participation.it
e-particpation.net was initiated by PEP-NET founding member politik digital together with the British Council. The idea was to cover cases in Germany and the UK in the first place and more than 200 projects have been listed. Unfortunately the database has not been updated since the BC funding ran out in 2009. However, it is still an interesting archive and a source of inspiration: PEP-NET member Francesco Molinari set up a copycat covering only Italian cases in Italian language. He has since collected more than 150 cases.
ParticipateDB
ParticipateDB is a collaborative catalogue of online participation tools initiated by Tim Bonnemann’s Intelletics. Although still in the “closed alpha“ phase, 134 tools, 166 projects and 70 references can be browsed by any visitor.
Participedia
Participedia is a wiki page collecting “narratives and data about any kind of process or organization that has democratic potentials”. It is not at all limited to eParticipation but quite a lot of the described cases belong to this domain.
PDF’s “who to hire”
The US based personal democracy forum (PDF) recently published the “Who to Hire” guide providing an in-depth look at 40 firms offering technology tools to clients across the political spectrum. The guide has up-to-date descriptions of each company’s software and services. It contains examples of current political clients and the results of a survey of their network of online politics professionals that the initiators used to rate each company’s pricing, software and service. The online guide is only free for PDF members – others have to pay 75$. However, PDF provides a free executive summary.
Tiago Peixoto’s participatory budgeting map
In case you are interested in participatory budgeting you should have a look at the Google map Tiago has set up. This is to my knowledge the most comprehensive collection of case studies both with and without online support
PEP-NET
Last but not least we have collected quite a lot of blogposts introducing cases and tools. Just browse by category:
tools
projects
good-practice
Does anybody know other sources? Would be happy to get some hints in the comments…..
Posted in Projects, Tools, good practice | 2 Comments »
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14. April 2010 – 22:57 by John Heaven (TuTech Innovation GmbH)
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Photo of Nick Booth by aeioux on Flickr.com
Before becoming a social-media consultant and founding Birmingham-based Podnosh, Nick Booth was a BBC journalist and then ran a government quango. He advises public administrations on using social media, is involved in many projects that promote active citizenship, and is a major player on the UK’s eParticipation scene. Nick is regularly invited to speak at conferences on social media.
JH: Hi Nick. Thanks for taking the time to be interviewed for PEP-NET. First question: what does eParticipation mean to you?
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
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12. April 2010 – 09:00 by Bengt Feil (TuTech Innovation GmbH)
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As an expert or practitioner in the field of civic engagement, the Pan European eParticipation Network would like to invite you to participate in an online discourse about electronic Participation in Central and Eastern Europe.
When the discourse starts on 12th April 2010, you can go to www.internet-discourse.eu to take part. eParticipation and civic engagement practitioners from Central, Eastern and Western Europe will discuss a wide range of issues: from opportunities and challenges, to the structural, political and cultural problems that may stand in the way of successful eParticipation in the region.
The focus of the discourse will be the development of strategies to enhance eParticipation in Central and Eastern Europe and overcome the obstacles identified. The final outcome of the discourse will be a paper, describing the situation of eParticipation in the region and making recommendations for improvement, which will be presented to the European Commission and other influencers of eParticipation.
The discourse is broken down into three phases: “broadening”, “deepening” and “consolidating”. In the broadening phase, ideas and possible topics for discussion are fielded. Some of these are then selected for a more in-depth discussion in the “deepening” phase. This means that you can decide what is discussed before you discuss it. The final phase, “consolidating”, aims to summarize the results of the discussion and to highlight both areas where consensus has been achieved as well as those where different view points remained, resulting in a situation paper. The whole discussion is moderated by a dedicated team, so you can engage in a constructive and structured discussion.
This is the second of three PEP-NET discourses. The first discourse was successfully held in early 2009 as a support action for the European eParticipation Study.
We look forward to reading your contributions on internet-discourse.eu!
Posted in Events | 2 Comments »
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7. April 2010 – 19:18 by echo source
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As we now have been PEP-NET member for about two months, we now finally would like to introduce echo to the ones who may not knows us yet - better late than never 
Motivation and image
Today humanity is facing some serious environmental, economic and humanitarian challenges never seen before. However, satisfactory solutions are not in sight. The lack of transparency in political decision making provokes a growing sense of powerlessness and political resignation among the population and weakens people’s faith in democracy. Calls for transparency and more participation are growing louder.
The current crises can thus be understood as a general crisis of democracy.
New ways have to be found, empowering people to develop constructive solutions to effectively tackle our “glocal” challenges. This is why echo has been founded: As a platform for sustainable change and active citizen participation echo enables a new form of non-partisan participatory democracy on local, regional and global level. With echo the first web-application is being developed to enable collective intelligence through democratic discourse even with a virtually unlimited number of participants.
echo offers a quick overview of interesting discussions, gives people an opportunity to voice their opinions in a deliberative discourse and to jointly find the right solutions. On echo, people can connect with allies, experts and decision makers and together turn their decision into reality.
echo consists of three clearly separated functional areas, which at the same time are tightly interwoven:
Discuss, Connect, Act!
Discuss is the core area, which contains most unique features and enables collective intelligence to emerge. The discussions taking place in the discussion area offer a differentiated overview of the different statements edited and supported by certain regions or societal groups.
Every statement is edited through a self organized democratic process (without the need of moderators or admins). Thanks to the new semantic cross-language search engine, users can find easily a comprehensive selection of relevant information. With only minimal effort thousands of users can contribute to the dynamic evolution of sound statements.
Connect offers users an easy possibility to organizes their contacts, add interesting experts and opinion leaders their personal network and to connect people with specific competences relevant to a certain subject. To enhance usability and foster a viral growth there will be interfaces connecting several external social networks like twitter and facebook.
Act! motivates the participants of discussions to proactively launch actions and projects, to jointly turn their ideas and visions into reality, and thus, make change visible in every day life. To do so, echo offers a virtual work space equipped with the necessary tools and information to efficiently plan and accomplish different kinds of actions and projects and found eco-socially sustainable businesses.
As most actions and projects will need funding, echo is based on powerful business models. “Powerful“ does not merely mean working cost-covering. It also means helping users to provide their actions with the necessary funds. This enables people to accomplish their goals and lets their virtual engagement influence our real world in a positive way, which is the key to motivate ever more people to participate on echo. Thus, the comprehensive concept of echo has true potential to free people from their sense of powerlessness, offer them a way of successful self-determination and help them restore their faith in democracy.
Create Synergies
In order to overcome the limitations of individual platforms, echo employs a distributed approach and makes its functionality available throughout the whole Internet. Accordingly, relevant discussions and actions from echo can be displayed and edited on any web page and blog. In this way, echo complements the functionality of other platforms and creates true synergies, instead of hamstringing competition.
Shared User- and Opinion Base
Through cooperation with echo, partner platforms connect their communities with each other. This way, their different user groups are joint together in a single cross-platform community. The users can now connect throughout all platforms, discuss and jointly launch actions and projects.
Moreover, echo addresses to users on a larger scale exceeding such groups from existing platforms through an extended network with further organizations. This in turn, multiplies the range and influence of each single partner platform. Projects and campaigns profit from the viral dissemination and its huge and highly motivated community.
Discussions on issues, which are relevant to the different partner platforms can be initiated on any other partner platform, thus, enriching discussions and making them more interesting and alive. This way a much broader opinion base is formed, as possibly could emerge on any single platform. New impulses and issues flow back and forth, enriching discussions and rising the attractiveness of all partner platforms.
This thematic diversity – covering different thematic fields and ranging broadly and deeply into society – rises virality enormously. The synergetic effects allow for a common development of content throughout different communities, which offers interesting information to virtually every Internet user. Thus, the influence of the proposals elaborated in this distributed system will boost its influence on society enormously.
Contact
www.echologic.org
team@echologic.org
www.blog-echologic.org
www.echonomyJAM.org
Posted in Uncategorized | 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 Uncategorized, good practice | 7 Comments »
