Avaaz thus follows the recente move from change.org, the “social action platform that empowers anyone”, which just two weeks ago ‘absorved’ the Spanish platform “Actuable” and is now planning to translate its ‘petition making system’ to many other languages to really extend its reach worldwide.

Each of these platforms claims to have promoted petitions that forced very important political ‘actors’ to react: from Hillary Clinton to Presidente Morales, from Bank of America and Apple to Hilton Hotels.

This is an interesting ‘tectonic’ move in the realm of (e)Participation, which we should follow closely. It is, additionally, much related to the discussion about “Sticks and Carrots” we hold in Pep-Net’s blog a year ago.

We were then reflecting about questions like: is it better to praise “good deeds” of Corporation and Politicians, or is it better to warn and punish them when they “misbehave”? Why not both things at the same time?

Anita Roddick, the founder of the Body Shop, reported that once an executive of Shell told her:  “We don’t fear regulation, we only fear consumer revolt”

Well: it is clear now that consumer and citizens are getting better at revolting and exerting pressure. Change is happening out of anybody’s reach, and (e)Participation is slowly “getting teeth”, which soon will be able to hurt enough as to influence behaviour: if you do not want your brand reputation to get ruined… you better behave!!! And this applies to corporation as much as political actors.

The promise of a ‘Future Goverment’ that becomes FAST (flatter, agile, streamlined and tech-enabled) -which was delivered in the last World Economic Forum- starts to be truth. But, for sure, it is not government who is promoting it. It is NGOs and CSOs. It is citizens.

It is important to note that the technology behind these petition plattforms is very, very simple. The concepts and processes of use are also not sci-fiction. But for sure, this kind of powerful, sustainable and social minded (e)Participation was rarely promoted by our Governments’ Innovation Support Actions. Instead of an impact oriented eParticipation research, put at the service of Civil Society, a Government- and Academia-centred approach was preferred. And thus eParticipation has just advance by little steps.

It is a pitty, because these platforms are now out there, growing. They were created with less (or ‘no’) involvement of eParticipation researchers. And that means that we do not have easy access to the very valuable information about eParticipation that these systems are generating (about pattern and reasons of use, users’ demographics, typologies of action, success rates, etc).

We should reflect about this. We have not so many more opportunities to miss. The field is developing faster and faster. Do we want to be part of it?

Photo of Kultwerk West

The social media surgery format, which was introduced by Nick Booth and others in 2008, has already spread beyond Birmingham to other parts of the UK and indeed abroad. Nick and his social enterprise Podnosh even won an award from the UK Prime Minister for their work.  Now social media surgeries are coming to Germany and I’m really pleased to announce that Hamburg will be hosting the first one!

On 14th May 2012, the evening of the PEP-NET Summit, Kultwerk West (a voluntary organisation that I’ve been getting involved with in my spare time and whose website I rebuilt) will be organising an informal meeting between politically engaged citizens and people who know a thing or two about social media.

I think Kultwerk West is the perfect place to start, because the events we organise twice per week attract plenty of people who are interested in current affairs and are in many cases active citizens, but who are not necessarily comfortable using social media. In many cases, they are sceptical of them due to fear-factors like Datenschutz, data protection.

To make the occasion even more special, Nick Booth, who is in town to speak at the PEP-NET Summit, will be Hamburg’s first social media surgeon.

You can find out more about the social media surgery model at socialmediasurgery.com. If you are coming to the PEP-NET Summit and are interested in helping out at the first social media surgery in the evening, please get in touch via summit@pep-net.eu or leave a comment on this thread.

UPDATE: The Kultwerk West Social Media Surgery is now registered on socialmediasurgery.com, Podnosh’s online tool for managing social media surgeries.

This competition is very related to the e-Participation field, as Ashoka considers it as linked with the fields of “Citizen participation” and “Journalism”.

Ashoka and Google are seeking innovations that will allow global citizens to have a voice and the information they need to make change. The competition welcomes solutions that work with any communication or information technologies—not just the Internet. The contest is open to solutions around the world: you ara allowed to present you entry in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Arabic, Thai, Indonesian, Mandarin or Japanese.

Some of the benefits mentioned for participants are:

• Connect to a global online community that supports the impact you are making, or seeking to make, on the ground.
• Gain visibility with our community and our competition partner, Google.
• Position yourself as a candidate for an Ashoka Fellowship within our News & Knowledge program.

The prizes of the competition are:

• One of four US $5,000 cash prizes in unrestricted funding to boost your project.
• Consideration for an Ashoka Fellowship—complete with a three-year living stipend, international recognition, and access to a network of systems-changing social entrepreneurs.

Have a look at the webpage of Ashoka Changemakers for more details.

PS: By the way, there is an entry for our Kyopol System. We would be more that pleased if you’d like to give us any feedback about our proposal.

The e-Democracy Conference 2010 welcomed 30 delegations from 15 countries. 100 participants from Parliaments, Governments and Official Journals, as well as representatives from international organizations, business sector and academia were engaged in fruitful and interesting discussions about the role that ICT can play into improving the democracy and transparency of the public institutions.  More information about the conference is available at https://www.edemocracy.mk.

The e-Democracy Conference 2010 topics included:

• Future and emerging technologies for e-Democracy
• Compliance and standards (EU perspective)
• How to support “Green IT” initiative in the policy development
• ICT in legislative knowledge management
• How can information technology transform the way parliaments and governments work
• Interoperability in the legislative process
• Parliaments and Democracy in the Twenty-first century
• State of ICT development in Parliaments
• ICT in parliaments current practices
• e-Parliaments-The Use of ICT to Improve Parliamentary Processes

The participants at the e-Democracy Conference 2010 agreed that the progress that Macedonia has made in using ICT for improving democracy is an example that all the countries in the region should follow.

The main conclusions that were brought at the e-Democracy Conference 2010:

• Macedonia has a very big advantage in implementing ICT in the public institutions compared to the countries in the region. The Macedonian positive experiences regarding the implementation of e-government solutions should be used as a very good example for the other countries in the region. The other countries should follow this example and learn how to apply the Macedonian experience in their countries.
• Use of new ICT technologies for empowering citizens to take action in representative democracy especially social networking. Capitalize on the benefits of ICT to function effectively, to interact with the public, and to collaborate with other parliaments around the world.
• Regional approach to eDemocracy, permanent regional cooperation and share of vision. SEE region has a unique eParticipation potential in relation to the Western Europe. When we say that the public institutions should collaborate between themselves, we do not only mean collaboration between institutions in the same country, but also regional collaboration that would provide exchange of experiences and good practices. This e-Democracy Conference is an example of how public institutions, politicians, policy makers, experts from international organizations, academia and business can be gathered in order to engage in dialog on the role that ICT can play in improving democracy.
• Institutions shall build social trust (transparency, accountability). Transparency and accountability – All public institutions should be transparent and accountable in their work by providing to the citizens not just general information about the institution but also more specific documents and information concerning legislation, budget, activities of members etc.
• Transformational government (citizen-centricity, skills). E participation is not a choice: e participation will happen whether you like it or not. A government’s only choice is whether to react defensively to it, or to engage pro actively in ways which create public value.
• Planning and management – The public institutions should have a long term vision about their development and based on that vision should develop a strategic plan with included schedules, milestones, resources allocation (human, financial, internal, external etc.)
• Political will – Having the necessary political will and commitment is crucial for the successful implementation of e-Democracy. Democracy and ICT themselves are not enough to realize the vision about making public institutions transparent, accountable and accessible unless there is somebody that can carry out that vision and provide the necessary support and leadership for the implementation of that vision.

The e-Democracy Conference 2010 was organized by the The Centre for eGovernance Development for South East Europe (CeGD) and Nextsense with the cooperation of the Assembly of Republic of Macedonia, Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia, National Democratic Institute NDI, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the European Commission..

More information about the conference programme, speakers, presentations and media coverage is available at https://www.edemocracy.mk/.

Simon Delakorda, director of the Institute for Electronic Participation, Slovenia and speaker at the e-Democracy Conference 2010. His presentation was entitled “e-Participation – better parliament-to-citizen communication“.

Copyright © 2010 e-Democracy

Screenshot of vitalizing-democracy.org

As football fans worldwide roar at their televisions, the German Bertelsmann Stiftung is kicking off another prize with arguably more at stake than the World Cup. Has your project found new ways of involving underrepresented citizens? If so, you could be in with a chance of winning the Reinhard Mohn Prize 2011, with prize money of € 150,000!

If you know of a project run by a governmental organisation that deserves to win the Reinhard Mohn Prize 2011, simply visit vitalizing-democracy.org by 22^nd August to nominate it. You can also discuss projects that have been submitted so far. By the following phase, which lasts until 6^th October 2010, 20 projects will have been selected and you can continue to discuss them on the website. This will be followed by a public consultation before the prize is presented in June 2011 in Gütersloh, Germany. The person who nominates the winning project will be invited to the award ceremony.This is not only an opportunity for governmental organisations that have run successful projects: the platform is already attracting a large number of project descriptions from across the world that can serve as inspiration for other organisations that wish to follow their lead.

The Bertelsmann Stiftung renamed the annual Carl Bertelsmann Prize in honour of its founder, Reinhard Mohn, who passed away in October last year. Since being founded in 1977, the Bertelsmann Stiftung has given away around € 666 million to 700 projects. This is your chance to be the next project to benefit.

You can find full details of the eligibility criteria on the website under the “About” section. Please note that although non-governmental organisations can be involved in the delivery of nominated projects, the responsible body must be a governmental organisation and prize money can only be paid to them.

The platform for taking nominations and allowing discussion and rating of projects was created by DEMOS GmbH, a joint venture between TuTech Innovation GmbH and Binary Objects.

The recent warnings from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) that the internet poses a major threat to endangered species by providing an efficient communications network for traders were a reminder that the impact of the internet is not always positive.

In itself, like most technologies, the net is neutral, a tool to be used for social benefit or detriment. So when it comes to ‘e-participation’ – online tools allowing people to exchange and discuss ideas, organise into groups and affect the workings of their society – we should not be dazzled by the glitz and excitement of the latest buzzwords like ‘Web 2.0’ without stopping to consider how we can try to ensure that the effects of these technologies are as positive as possible.

We must ensure that the addition or integration of new digital channels does not make existing power structures less socially representative, and if possible, should improve democratic systems, for example by providing voices to people who previously would have struggled to be heard. Mastery of new technologies and ownership of expensive equipment must not become pre-requisites for engagement in e-participation.

Overall, technology is the servant, not the master, of a fair political system. To safeguard people’s rights a country’s democratic system must first be strengthened, with technology deployed in support. We must remember there are wrong ways of going about e-participation, ways which will tend to centralise power, reinforce existing social inequities or play into the hands of private power. The use of jargon; expensive, brand-new technologies; and technologies which are hard for poorer or less educated people to access may all, consciously or unconsciously, have such anti-democratic tendencies.

At a workshop at the EDEM10 conference in Krems, Austria in May 2010, ‘Best methods for undemocratic participation’, with the help of Hans Hagedorn of Zebralog, we asked the question the negative way around – – if we set out to make an e-participation system that was as undemocratic as possible, what would it be like?

The assembled group of e-democracy analysts and practitioners had a lot of fun answering this question. But there was a serious point to the exercise: first, the process of thinking about what had made projects unsuccessful in the past can be easier than thinking about what worked well, and more revealing: everyone remembers crazy or absurd examples of web projects that were hard to use, or unfathomable in purpose or outcome. By throwing these together, we have created a good starting point for further work to build the positive counterpart of rules to make it work, or pitfalls to avoid – an exercise for a later date.

So here we go with the latest list, as adapted from our brainstorming session: please do add further comments and suggestions here and we’ll hone the list further over the coming weeks and months, before deciding what else to do with it.

Best methods for undemocratic participation

1 – TOPICFOR DEBATE/CONSULTATION

Pick the topic for democratic debate yourself, without reference to any of the bothersome people who are going to be doing the debating.

Choose a topic with no emotional impact for anyone normal

Or…Invite anyone to suggest any topic, even if there are very many and most of them overlap, and then allow people to discuss them all at the same time

Pre-select the questions you are going to answer in a “live” online debate

2 – TECHNOLOGY/DESIGN

Don’t waste time on accessibility. Nobody with a disability or a slow internet connection is going to take part anyway.

Or… spend all your budget on accessibility

If designing for a different generation, make your own mind up what they will need or like

Always give your supplier a vague, loose specification

Use technology that only runs in one type of browser; require a plug-in; and does not view properly on mobile devices.

3 – USER INFORMATION PROVISION

Do not be  transparent about who is hosting the project, and why

Do not be clear about how people can part, and the expected/desired outcomes of your project: one good way of doing this is to present all information in extremely complex ways

Have a hidden agenda

4 – LAUNCH/PROMOTION

Do not connect your online activity with any other existing offline political or social activity.

Or if you do… don’t tell people how the two (online and offline) are related

Choose a few people to form the initial core of the project from among your immediate associates, contacts and buddies.

Allow the rest of the participants to be self-selected from among the usual democracy geeks with the technology, skills and education to find your project, understand it and engage easily.

As for everybody else – just create the website and wait for users to find you. The web’s not that big, is it?

5 – PARTICIPATION PROCESS

During the registration process, ask every participant for at least 10 pieces of personal data

Allow people to easily assume multiple identities

Make the whole site hard to use, with at least 5 or 6 clicks required just to post a message

Ignore all other needs of the user: communication, motivation, abilities.

6 – MODERATION

Never use any form of moderation – after all, it’s more democratic that way, however unpleasant or dominant some of the voices may become.

Or if you do…

Pre-moderate, but make sure  your moderators only work 9-5 on week days.
Conceal the identity and method of moderation

Ensure moderators remain anonymous

Do not give any commitment to the length of time moderation will take

Take ages to moderate anything

Let the only recourse for people who feel they have been unfairly moderated be the law courts

7 – POLITICIANS

Do not involve any elected politicians – they won’t understand the technology.

Or if you do promise participation or replies from politicians, don’t deliver on the promise

8 – VOTES/POLLS

Allow plural votes with no checking process

9 – RESULTS/OUTCOME

Shut down the website shortly after the activity has finished

Turn the results of your project into a report more than six months after it has finished, and then secretly publish it in a pdf in an obscure part of your website.

[ends]

European Citizens Initiative

1 million signature – not so much, if we think about the population of Europe.

The ECI is giving a sharp outlook on their website  about the passed public consultation and Commission’s points.

If you have not heard about the ECI -documents below helps to formulate opinion and getting know the project better visit their website https://www.citizens-initiative.eu/ or start browsing the core documents here:

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

Web 2.0 can be an important resource in these directions, by means of overcoming constrains due of the lack of access to ‘vertical’ media and the distance between political class and active citizenship. There are several recent examples of this kind of process (mainly in weak democracies and non democratic systems). In Europe, the yesterday’s demonstration in Rome seems to be a quite relevant case. A group of Italian bloggers and grassroots groups launched online this event and gathered about 350.000 fans on Facebook. Thanks to its wide resonance on the online sphere, the ‘purple’ demonstration – this colour has been identified both as a symbol of marked autonomy from political parties and of civil liberties – has then attracted also the interest of the Italian political parties of the Opposition. Even if one considers the difficult current situation of the Italian government, it should be admitted that, at least for a while, Italian citizens-bloggers and grassroots groups have succeed not only in mobilizing citizens (about 1million demonstrated in Rome and there were many local demonstrations in other Italian and European cities), but also in pulling a consistent part of the political class. We shall see whether this wide and successful mobilization, very critical towards the whole political class, may have a real impact on the institutional politics.

Have a look at: https://www.noberlusconiday.org/

Anna Carola Freschi

Above all scepticism of social media enthusiasm, there is really many things going on. Have you heard about, that OpenID biggest government boost is happening – according to Dana Blankenhorn, by the U.S. government endorsment of OpenID.

However, Malmö is a great city, with a lot of openness.  The Garaget, a historical place for civil movements and an innovative social solution of the City, is offering the really warm role of being the host of this event: First Popular European Egovernment Conference, which is taking place in Malmö, paralell to the 5th Ministerial Conference on Egovernment – more in a  Pecha Kucha / Unconference style, offering open spaces for discussion and agenda setting.

These events forerunner is the eGovernment Research and Innovation Conference , happening just right before these events.

Watching US NOW is good warmup. Do check it out, if you have not seen it.

It is obvious now I hope for everybody reading this blog, that the really intersting things are happening on two fronts. Most of us understands, that the open(source) community workers by hacking codes and fixing bugs are good citizens. Or more than good – they also share freely what they have back to the community. And those, who are going there and opening a space for discussion on the topic, they are partners for creating better governance. For now, the Swedish Minister, Mats Odell has confirmed his presence, according to the website of the Ministerial Conference thruogh Magnus Kolsjo‘s tweet.

I wish, that the social and scientifical openness will meet with good cultre.  Just as the Minister for Local Governments and Financial Market says on his site:

“I want to ditch the unwritten law that keeps us from standing out from the crowd and make way for the Ingvar Kamprads of tomorrow and other dynamic people – for a society that will harness your creativity and your potential, so as to benefit you and other people.”

Check out the conference twitter page here: https://twitter.dijksman.com/

and look for the hashtags #malmo09 and #egov2009