28. September 2010 – 16:57 by John Heaven (TuTech Innovation GmbH)
The PEP-NET Special Issue of eJournal of eDemocracy (JeDEM), which Francesco Molinari and Rolf Lührs guest edited, is now available at www.jedem.org. It addresses the topic “sustainable eParticipation”, asking what ‘sustainable’ means in this context and turning to experts in the field for advice on ensuring European eParticipation projects overcome problems with low participation rates and impact.
The Special Issue contains a total of nine papers, three of which are invited papers from prominent eParticipation actors. The remaining six are scientific research papers and case studies.
The authors are successful in shedding new light on eParticipation, with a wealth of hints and tips on how to make eParticipation sustainable. Here is a list of concrete prerequisites for sustainable eParticipation gathered from the various papers as part of the editorial:
- A favourable policy and legislative framework (Chrissafis and Rohen, Hinsberg);
- Official recognition from the public decision-makers (Badouard);
- Efficient (Velikanov) and transparent (Johnston) procedures for the aggregation and visualisation of user preferences;
- Trust building on the whole process (Rodrigues Filho);
- A suitable ICT infrastructure (Hinsberg, Hermida) posing weak constraints on users’ behaviour (Badouard) and making the most out of the inputs (Li);
- A community of active (Hinsberg) and skilled (Maier-Rabler and Huber) citizens;
- A participatory culture among the population (Li, Maier-Rabler and Huber).
Of course it is not possible to distil the whole journal into a single blog post – you will simply have to read the journal to benefit from the wealth of knowledge and experience that it reflects by visting https://www.jedem.org/.
The journal was ready in time for last week’s PEP-NET Summit, at which the issue of sustainability was also raised. Like the Summit, the JeDEM Special Issue benefited from PEP-NET’s unique network of eParticipation actors across Europe and will help to ensure that there is ongoing reflection on how eParticipation can make a positive, long-term contribution to our democratic culture. JeDEM is published twice per year since first being published in 2009. The Centre for E-Government at the Danube University in Krems, Austria, manages the publication process which involves a team of 35 editors.
8. September 2010 – 22:40 by Institute for Electronic Participation
According to the latest UN E-Participation Index measurement, the majority of South Eastern European countries improved their global standing regarding the quality and usefulness of information and services for the purpose of engaging its citizens in public policy making through the use of e-government programs. Nevertheless, e-participation in SEE countries is still falling behind their e-government developments. An overview of current e-participation situation in SEE within government domain will be presented, highlighting key elements needed for strengthening e-democracy in the region. One of them will be focused on non-governmental organizations and civil society e-participation experience (e.g. on-line Citizen’s forum) needed for shaping inclusive and citizens oriented e-government policy.
Lecture presented by Simon Delakorda, M. Sc., executive director, Institute for Electronic Participation (INePA) and member of the Central and Eastern Citizens Network eParticipation expert group.
6. May 2010 – 14:23 by Bengt Feil (TuTech Innovation GmbH)
I had the chance to sit down at the EDEM10 conference in Krems / Austria today for a quick chat about the idea of Mr. Peña-Lopez from the Open University of Catalunya that the way we implement eDemocracy and eParticipation might lead to the development of a new digital elite and the problems which arise from that:
14. April 2010 – 22:57 by John Heaven (TuTech Innovation GmbH)
Photo of Nick Booth by aeioux on Flickr.com
Before becoming a social-media consultant and founding Birmingham-based Podnosh, Nick Booth was a BBC journalist and then ran a government quango. He advises public administrations on using social media, is involved in many projects that promote active citizenship, and is a major player on the UK’s eParticipation scene. Nick is regularly invited to speak at conferences on social media.
JH: Hi Nick. Thanks for taking the time to be interviewed for PEP-NET. First question: what does eParticipation mean to you?
24. March 2010 – 11:31 by Institute for Electronic Participation
Executive summary of presentation from the 11th Bled Forum on Europe Foresight Conference “The Future of Information Society and Challenges for Good Governance”, organized by the Centre for eGovernance development from 10th to 12th March 2010 in Bled, Slovenia:
According to the latest UN E-Participation Index measurement, the majority of South East Europe countries (Albania, Croatia, FYR Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro and Romania), improved their global standing regarding the quality and usefulness of information and services for the purpose of engaging its citizens in public policy making through the use of e-government programs. Nevertheless, e-participation in SEE region is still falling behind their e-government developments. An overview of current e-participation situation in SEE within government domain is presented, highlighting key elements needed for strengthening e-democracy in the region. One of them is focusing on non-governmental organizations and civil society e-participation experience (e.g. on-line Citizen’s forum) needed for shaping inclusive and citizens oriented e-government policy.
As has become customary over the years the conference concluded with a draft declaration, which had been adopted by the participants of the conference. The process of formulating the declaration is based upon the main issues presented by the lecturers and highlighted by the participants in the discussions which followed.
To achieve even wider participation in the formulation of the Final Declaration of the 11th Bled Forum on Europe, your are kindly invited to provide comments, inputs, questions, add issues important to the development of information society not only in South East Europe, but around the world.
Please send your comments or your video responses to info.cegd@cegd.eu until the 12th of April 2010 and make sure your voice is heard and your opinion is included in the final declaration. You can publish your comments directly to European Debates on-line forum facilitated by the Institute for Electronic Participation (INePA) by fulfilling discussion form (Please enter your Username – Uporabniško ime, message Confirmation code – Potrditvena koda and submit your comment – Pošlji. No prior forum registration is required. Forum is also available in English language). The forum is providing a deliberation space for facilitated public debates and consultations on relevant European issues.
28. January 2010 – 12:59 by Centre for E-Government
Extended Call for Papers
You can submit a paper at the conference website until 1st of March 2010. EDem10 unites many different disciplines and promotes interdisciplinary approaches to E-Democracy. On primary aim is to bring together researchers and practitioners. We would like to invite individuals from academic, applied and practitioner backgrounds as well as public administration offices, public bodies, NGO/NPOs, education institutions and independent organisations to submit their research and project papers.
Registration
Please visit the conference website to register at EDem10. Members of PEP-NET benefit from reduced fees; please indicate your Special Status when registering! Conference Date: 6th and 7th of May 2010.
Programme
We are still working on the programme, but confirmed keynote speakers and workshops promise an exceptional event. There will be a PEP-NET Workshop! Please visit the Conference Website for details and regular updates.
Confirmed Keynote Speakers
Stevan Harnad – American Scientist Open Access Forum; Universite du Quebec a Montreal, CAN; University of Southampton, UK
Ismael Peña-López – Open University of Catalonia, School of Law and Political Science, Barcelona, Spain
Jochen Scholl – The Information School, University of Washington, USA
Micah L. Sifry – Personal Democracy Forum, TechPresident, New York, USA
“Independent but not neutral” is the self definition of Pollitika.com. Launched in 2006 by Marko Rakar, known for his political notes on his blog about the political situation of this south european country of 4.5 million inhabitants, Pollitika.com has become an inevitable website about politics. Three thousand bloggers are enrolled and contribute to the website. About 2.000 new articles are published every year for 150.000 visitors per month.
Mark Rakar is a passionate man. During the visit of the French National Assembly, proposed to the participants of the last World eDemocracy Forum, he enjoyed every moment and every picture. Curious by nature, quoting the American strategist Joe Trippi and convinced that an electoral campaign is “too serious matter to be left to political parties”, it was not a surprise that he is one of Top 10 Who Are Changing the World of Internet and Politics. During the eDemocracy Awards workshop, last october, he explained how Pollitika.com strengthened democracy in Croatie.
30. November 2009 – 11:04 by Bengt Feil (TuTech Innovation GmbH)
Over the course of the last few weeks there was a lot of noise about Google Wave and its potential to transform everything from newspapers to novel writing. The Wave approach, which consists of both a tool and a underlying protocol, has be discussed as being the solution that will unite online communication and therefore revolutionize the web at the same time as it has been described as being complicated and not very useful.
I wrote an overview about the tool and the Wave protocol earlier on this blog and promised to take a look at its possible implications for eParticipation. Luckily Tim Bonnemann started a discussion on how to use Google Wave for eParticipation using the tool itself as soon at it was available. If you have a Wave account you can be view it here. In this article I will try to give the major points which have been made in that discussion. All the ideas presented in this text have been developed collaboratively by the 59 people have signed into this Wave until now. Thanks to all the contributors and especially Tim for starting the Wave!
“The Alliance & Progressive Socialist Democrats in the European Parliament website’s audience has doubled in one year, because of Twitter” said Tony Robinson, head of the Internet Unit for this Parliamentary Group in Strasbourg during the European e-Democracy Award presentation for the 2009, in Issy-les-Moulineaux, last October 23.
A distinction awarded by Politech Institute and IP label for the variety of web 2.0 tools used and of the content of a website whose aim is to increase citizen participation in the European debate.
