PEP-NET » Blog Archive » PEP-NET Newsletter Issue 3, 23 March 2010

PEP-NET Newsletter Issue 3, 23 March 2010

30. April 2008 – 12:11 by Bengt Feil (TuTech Innovation GmbH)

Dear Readers,

Welcome to the March edition of the PEP-NET newsletter, the first in 2010. We’ve got news of the second PEP-NET discourse, a brand new “success story” feature, news of some new arrivals to PEP-NET, a reminder about the EDem10 conference, and a round-up of activity on the blog.

Do not forget that we don’t just communicate by newsletter: you can keep up-to-date with us through the news digests on the blog, blog posts and discussions on the Facebook page.

PEP-NET discourse
The second PEP-NET discourse is fast approaching and preparations are already underway to ensure that it runs smoothly. The theme of the discourse will be “eParticipation in the new EU member states”. Participants from new EU member states with a background in eParticipation and participation in general will discuss opportunities, barriers and issues relating to eParticipation in the new member states. The three-phase discourse, which will make use of the existing DEMOS platform, is scheduled to commence on 12th April, and will run for two weeks.

PEP-NET success story
We’ve decided to start showcasing PEP-NET members as a regular feature in the newsletter. This will give you the chance to get to know a little bit about interesting people and organisations that are active in eParticipation and also to find out why they find PEP-NET so useful. We’d love to feature more PEP-NET members in the future, so if you are a PEP-NET member please get in touch if you would like to take this opportunity to step into the limelight.

In this issue we’re going to introduce Noella Edelmann from the Danube University in Austria.

Noella Edelmann

For PEP-NET members, perhaps the most relevant part of Noella’s job is marketing the Centre for eGovernment as a project partner and finding new projects for the Centre to participate in. As a researcher, Noella focuses on eParticipation, Open Access, internet and psychology, and user experience. She is also the Managing Editor of JEDEM, the Open Access eJournal of eDemocracy and Open Government (www.jedem.org) and is responsible for EDEM, the annual eDemocracy Conference that is also featured in this issue.

Noella sees PEP-NET as an opportunity to make contacts, find sources of information, exchange and generate new ideas, and identify opportunities for new projects - all of which are central to her work at the Danube University Krems.

Some examples of how PEP-NET has helped her and her organisation are the upcoming PEP-NET special edition of the JEDEM journal, the PEP-NET workshop at the EDEM 2010 conference and the successful bid with other PEP-NET members for the EC-funded project “Your Space”.

Selected articles on the PEP-NET blog
Here are a few selected articles published on the PEP-NET blog in February and March:

• In “Generation X, Y or Z?”, the Centre for E-Government compares the characteristics of three generations with a focus on their use of digital communication tools. • Francesco Molinari announced an Electronic Town Meeting, which took place on 6th February. Although the meeting has already happened, the article is a useful brief introduction to the concept: “Tuscan citizens reflecting on the limits of landscape policy.”

• Bengt Feil wrote several articles about collecting distributed opinions from across the web: “Empowering Politicians through crowd sourcing? - ThinkTank and Expert Labs,” “The Social Graph: Identifying statements by the same person on the web,” “Google Buzz, Twitter and Blogs: Identifying distributed public opinions.”

• Fraser Henderson wrote about the National Digital Inclusion Conference in the UK: “Digital Inclusion Confusion”. Amongst other things he prophesised that the digital inclusion problem will solve itself in the long-term.

New arrivals
John Heaven has started work for TuTech Innovation GmbH, the co-ordinator of PEP-NET. He will be working with Bengt Feil to ensure that PEP-NET continues to be a success.

Since the last newsletter several new associate members have joined PEP-NET. They are:

• European Institute for Public Participation (https://www.participationinstitute.org)

• ActValue Consulting and Solutions (https://www.actvalue.com/)

• The Democratic Society (https://demsoc.org)

• echo source (https://echologic.org)

• liberTIC ()https://www.liber-tic.com)

• Regione Toscana (https://www.regione.toscana.it)

Want to become a PEP-NET member?
Find out how at https://pep-net.eu/becoming-a-member
All the best from: