It’s not surprising that any kind of a project has a set of risks that can impair the project’s results. eParticipation projects can be especially exposed to a number of various risks, ranging from poor platform developments, which don’t meet users’ requirements and preferences, to inadequate communication strategies.
Therefore, developing a risk management plan in the early stage of a project is crucial. It allows to identify certain risks, to analyse them and to develop early strategies and solutions that will help in either minimizing their impact on a project or completely avoiding them.
However, the identification of risks at the beginning of a project is not enough, because additional risks might arise during the duration of the project or the proposed solutions and strategies to overcome them might prove to be ineffective. Thus, a continuous tracking and control of such risks is very much desirable. In this respect, the Continuous Risk Management (CRM) paradigm developed by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) of Carnegie Mellon University (https://www.sei.cmu.edu/risk) can be a valuable strategy. It doesn’t only allow for continuous risk identification and management, but it also helps in assessing risk exposure by combining the impact and probability of the risk.
]]>Argument visualisation might not be seen as a suitable tool for eParticipation at first sign. However, when properly deployed, it can serve as a useful tool for eParticipation projects, where citizens can engage in stimulating brainstorming, exchange of information and knowledge, as well as in active involvement on the issues in interest.
An example of such deployment of an argument visualisation tool in an eParticipation project can be found in the WAVE Project. WAVE aims to improve the inclusiveness and transparency of EU decision making at the national and European level by using highly integrated, state-of-the-art argument visualisation techniques to make the impact of complex EU environmental legislation on climate change more accessible and easy to understand for citizens, special interest groups and decision makers alike.
WAVE has deployed Debategraph as an innovative argument visualisation platform, in a multi-lingual, cross border context. The project has launched 3 pilot websites in the UK, France and Lithuania where the tool is being tested and where the citizens engage in stimulating discussions on the environmental issues relevant to their countries and local communities. Each pilot has its own portal and argument visualisation mans in the national language, making it possible for every citizen to actively engage in the discussions.
]]>MOMENTUM launched in January 2008 and was designed to last for 30 months (until the end of July 2010). The Project aimed to monitor the existing and on coming eParticipation projects co-funded by European Commission, to consolidate their results and to provide feedback to them and to the respective EC bodies and other designated stakeholders, advancing the high-level political and institutional engagement.
MOMENTUM was acting as a support action to the ongoing eParticipation Projects funded in 3 rounds. Until the end of MOMENTUM’s activities, 2 rounds of projects have completed their actions. The last round of projects funded under the 2008 call will finish their activities at the end of 2010.
Despite MOMENTUM reaching its conclusion, the website will be kept online for anyone wishing to use the resources available there.
]]>Specifically, the first day of the conference WAVE organises a workshop titled “On the Use of Argument Visualisation Tools to support Policy Formulation”. Apart from presentations and discussion, hands-on exercise on the WAVE platform will also be offered during the workshop for elaborating on EU policies relevant to climate change.
Moreover, the second day of the conference a scientific article on WAVE’s technical details will be presented. The article’s title is “Integrating Argument Visualisation Tools in Social Platforms to Facilitate Online Political Debates: The WAVE Platform” and is authored by the following members of WAVE consortium: Deirdre Lee, Yojana Priya, David Price, Efthimios Tambouris, Vassilios Peristeras and Konstantinos Tarabanis.
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eMPOWER is an eParticipation Trial Project co-funded by the European Commission under the EU eParticipation Preparatory Action. eMPOWER aims to motivate and strengthen the involvement of NGOs and citizens in the decision-making process on environmental issues at a national and the European levels by providing tools for supporting citizens’ participation and collection of signatures to promote relevant public initiatives and demands of civil society through ePetitions.
On April 22, during the Earth Day 2010, the WAVE Consortium proceeded to the official launch of the second phase: the objective today is to reach 6,000 users over Europe. The first phase gathered more than 300 users in the pilot countries: France, Lithuania and England.
The ultimate goal for all the partners is to create a community of users and debaters in charge of testing online the WAVE platform and its innovating tool: Debategraph. This forum will use ground breaking graphical techniques to enable everyone, regardless of their level of knowledge, to exchange views and debate on complex climate change issues.
The WAVE Project will end in January 2011, after which the European Commission will decide whether this tool is efficient among others and if it should be used more intensively.
Climate change is one of the most challenging and most serious phenomenons which we must face today. Therefore citizens, special interest groups and decision-makers are invited to mobilize and subscribe, free of charge, to the following websites:
French Pilot Site (https://www.debatclimat.eu)
UK Pilot Site (https://www.jointhewave.org)
Lithuanian Pilot Site (https://www.wave-diskusijos.lt)
WAVE EU Site (https://www.wavedebate.eu)
MOMENTUM workshop presented the results of the eParticipation Preparatory Action through a sample of its projects: eMPOWER and WAVE presented by Ms. Olga LACIGOVA (Project Coordinator, 21c Consultancy), HuWY represented by Dr. Ralf LINDNER (Senior Researcher, Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research- ISI, Karlsruhe Germany) and VIDI represented by Mr. Sinan SEN (Research Scientist, Research Center for Information Technology). In addition, Mr. Peter REICHSTAEDTER represented the Federal Chancellery of the Austrian Republic for the Austrian ICT-Strategy. Mr. Daniel VAN LERGBERGHE (President & Executive Director, POLITECH INSTITUTE) led the workshop panel discussion.
Ms. Olga LACIGOVA highlighted eMPOWER’s aims which are to “motivate and strengthen the involvement of NGOs and citizens in the decision-making process on environmental issues at a National and European” level by providing method and tools for supporting citizens’ participation and collection of signatures to promote relevant public initiatives and demands of civil society.
Visit eMPOWER Project: www.ep-empower.eu
The European eDemocracy Award 2010 will take place at Issy-les-Moulineaux (France) on 13-15 October 2010 and will recognize and award the best European eDemocracy applications, projects or initiatives amongst the EU27 countries.
Would you like to apply? Maybe you know one that should be considered for the award? Then send a short summary of the initiative in word format and the link to it to info(at)politech-institute.eu before 18 June 2010!
]]>Although the EU is currently running various cross border eIDENTIFICATION (eID) trials, there is no pan-European framework yet. In fact, implementing such framework poses several issues of interoperability between eID systems put in place by the different Member States, such as the Belgian eID is not interoperable with the Austrian one. Therefore, the issue of interoperability between Member States is crucial to create efficient pan-EU identification process enabling the provision of EU-wide eParticipation services. Several pilots, such as the STORK project (Secure Identity Across Borders Linked), are currently funded by the European Commission to solve this important issue and enable not only the provision of pan-EU services in the framework of the EC Service Directive and eGovernment, but also in regards to cross border eParticipation services, such as e-Petitionning. Such example shows how eGovernment developments are crucial for eParticipation processes and development.
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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.