BerlinInJuly: eDemocracy professionals gather in Berlin 21. July 2008 – 15:56 by christophdowe-politik-digital.de

On July 17^th and 18^th, the BerlinInJuly un-conference on eDemocracy concregated 35 eDemocracy professionals from about a dozen countries to communicate about their field of acticity. Organized by politik-digital.de, Tom Steinberg of mysociety.com, and Christian Heise of e-demokratie.org / e-politik.de the conference took place in the premises of one of its partners, namely the British Council Berlin.

The aim was to give the attendees a chance to do some networking or even start new projects. Topics such as project funding generated lively discussions about good and bad practice in eDemocracy. In this case, a special trick by abgeordnetenwatch.de attracted some interest: By clicking away the google ads, the user starts a clock telling him how much he/she is costing the site makers to make him/her donate a little money.

Another discussion topic was motivating people and politicians for eParticipation. Users can be attracted by small gimmicks such as flash games, as Ben Whitnall of Delib from the UK explained. With politicians it’s harder, but dutch Arend Zwaneveld of maildepolitiek.nl showed that it is possible by convincing them in rational ways.

While most of the attendees came from western europe and north america, Adrian Moraru from Romania and lebanese Ayman Mhanna could tell about some quite unfamiliar circumstances. In the end, everybody agreed about the necessity of networking for eDemocracy, planning to come back next year.

A list of attendees and first outcomes can be viewed on the conference-wiki.

Finn Kirchner, politik-digital.de / pol-di.net e.V.

Tags: inenglish