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9. March 2010 – 10:00 by John Heaven
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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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3. March 2010 – 13:38 by John Heaven
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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 | 4 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 »
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28. February 2010 – 22:29 by Asociacion Ciudades Kyosei / Pedro Prieto-Martin
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For those of you that read Spanish, the report that the Asociación Ciudades Kyosei just released (which can be downloaded from its website) could interest you much, as understanding “Citizen Participation” continues to be the basis to developing any “e-Participation” initiative.
The text “(e)Participación en el ámbito local. Caminando hacia una democracia colaborativa” deals with citizen participation as it was known during the XX Century.
It analyses its strengths, potential and problems from a critical, irreverent, but nevertheless thoughtful perspective. To illustrate the characteristics of citizen participation, the report provides a comprehensive and original analysis of Participatory Budgeting Experiences of the big brazilian cities (with special emphasis on Porto Alegre and Fortaleza).
Vicious cycle of participation
Based on this understanding of traditional Citizen Participation, the upcoming chapters of the report will be able to reflect on the “Participation of the twenty-first century”: our beloved “e-Participation”.
This text was prizewinner in the last CLAD Congress (the most important Latin-American congress on State Reform and Public Administration Modernization), which took place in Salvador de Bahia (Brazil).
We really expect you will find this report refreshing, and actually hope it will foster interesting reflections from your side.
Posted in Visions | 3 Comments »
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26. February 2010 – 10:32 by E-Voting.CC
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Today, on Friday 26th of February, the extended deadline for paper submission for the EVOTE2010 conference is due! The last chance to submit you scientific papers and participate in our renowned issue of our fourth issue of the International Conference on E-Voting - EVOTE2010.
The conference will take place from July 21st to July 24th in Bregenz at the beautiful lake Constance.
We are looking forward to another highly international and very interesting event!
Daniel Botz - E-Voting.CC
Posted in Events, News, Projects, Uncategorized | No 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 – 17:16 by Centre for E-Government
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When talking of digital natives and the new generation, names and definitions are changing rapidly. Thoughts on today’s Generation Z and the differences between Austria and the U.S.
The Baby Busters
Generation X, (often also named the 13thGeneration or Baby Busters/Baby Boomers) was shaped by political experiences such as the end of the cold war and the fall of the Berlin wall and defined as those born after the baby boom ended (birth dates 1961 to 1981). They are characterised by being the first generation with widespread access to television and shaped by the attention they received from the media. The term was used in a wide range of fields from social sciences to popular culture. It was popularised by the author Douglas Coupland in the novel “Generation X. Tales for an Accelerated Culture” (1991).
The Millenial Generation
The demographic cohort following Generation X is – surprisingly enough – described as Generation Y. It is also called Millennial Generation, Net Generation or Echo Boomers. Many sources have Generation Y spanning from the 1970s (during the late years of the Vietnam war) to the late 1990s, others between 1980 and 2000 (cf. Tim Walters, Ph.D. from Forrester Research). Characteristics of this generation vary, depending on region and social conditions. However, it is generally marked by an increased use of communication media and digital technologies. Shaped by the events of its time and the rise of communication technologies, it’s members, who have not yet hit 30, are familiar with almost all aspects of the internet, websites like YouTube and social networking sites. This may explain why they are rather peer-oriented due to the easy use of communication through technology. Compared to their elders, they seem to have a very different social behaviour and are often seen as spoiled children who demand good salary conditions and best time to work.
Participation vs. Command-and-Control
When conducting a survey with Swedish youngsters via Internet and Facebook (report entitle e-revolution), PricewaterhouseCoopers found out that collaboration and participation are not just words and that this generation is one of the most innovative. Attitudes and opinions are formed through the net, young people having a clear vision of it’s role. Generation Y strongly influenced the U.S. presidential election in 2008. 71% of those under 30 years went to the polls for the first time and two-thirds voted for Barack Obama. With a “speak your mind” philosophy, they are much less likely to respond to the traditional command-and-control type of management and don’t fear authorities. Plus, work-life balance is becoming increasingly important.
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Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
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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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16. February 2010 – 15:01 by E-Voting.CC
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In response to the large number of requests from the community, the organizing committee of the 4th Electronic Voting Conference EVOTE2010 decided to extend the deadline for submission of papers by two weeks from Friday February 12 to Friday February 26, 2010.
Please find further information, templates and the call for papers here.
I hope this helps to finish your papers in time!
Daniel Botz, E-Voting.CC
Posted in News, Projects, members | No Comments »
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14. February 2010 – 12:13 by Francesco Molinari
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I have just come back from an intensive 2-day workshop in Barcelona, beautifully organised and managed by QeC-ERAN - a Brussels based network of cities once affected by socio-economic breakdown - under the umbrella of a EU-funded initiative entitled Local Forums for Developing Participatory Democracy (link). The workshop aimed at highlighting the potential of multimedia tools to enhance political participation of young adults (18-30) and raise awareness of their fundamental rights and responsibilities as citizens of the Union. A notable number of young people came in from the various partner cities (the countries represented were Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain and the UK). Several EU-level experiences were presented, including PEP-NET 
and a Twitter based discussion entitled Why vote?. Sound evidence was shown regarding the creation of several Local Forums at the various partners’ locations in order to bring together ideas, make innovative experiments with multimedia tools and build new expertise to be shared internationally. An online community of practice is now being setup to further make the promotion of participatory democracy to young people more sustainable at local/regional level. Proposed instruments to facilitate the community: chat, instant messaging, whiteboard and discussion tables; voting and survey tools; document sharing facilities such as googledocs and a wiki to write together and produce text with shared visions. My comment: I spotted a lot of ingenious creativity and serious engagement in these people. Though this be madness, yet there is method in it. Worth a second look soon.
Posted in Events, Projects, good practice | No Comments »
