apollon - sotas for eparticipation through emedia

8/8/2019 Apollon - SOTAs for eParticipation through eMedia

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DELIVERABLE

Project Acronym: APOLLON

Grant Agreement number: 250516

Project Title: Advanced Pilots of Living Labs Operating in Networks

Deliverable: D.5.1 SOTAs for eParticipation through eMedia

Revision: FINAL

Authors:

Sbastien Lvy (Issy Media)

Eric Legale (Issy Media)

Dave Carter (MCC, MDDA)

Paul Carruthers (MBS)

Project co-funded by the European Commission within the ICT Policy Support Programme

Dissemination Level

P Public X

C Confidential, only for members of the consortium and the Commission Services


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ApollonDeliverableD5.1

Apollon ICT PSP Deliverable 2 FINAL Version, 22/02/2010

Statementoforiginality:

Thisdeliverablecontainsoriginalunpublishedworkexceptwhereclearly

indicatedotherwise.Acknowledgementofpreviouslypublishedmaterialandof

theworkofothershasbeenmadethroughappropriatecitation,quotationor

both.

Theinformationinthisdocumentisprovidedasisandnoguaranteeorwarranty

isgiventhattheinformationisfitforanyparticularpurpose.Theuserthereof

usestheinformationatitssoleriskandliability.


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Table of Contents

1. Project Summary ............................................................................................ 42. Scope and Context of the Deliverable ........................................................... 53. eParticipation .................................................................................................. 8

3.1 Introduction....................................................................................................... 83.2 eParticipation methods, tools and ways........................................................ 13

4. eParticipation in the European Union ......................................................... 164.1 eParticipation at the Local level ................................................................... 164.2 eParticipation at National & Regional levels..................................................324.3 European Cooperation Projects .................................................................... 45

5. eParticipation in other parts of the World.................................................. 516. eParticipation at the International Scale .................................................... 627. Conclusion ................................................................................................... 64


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1.ProjectSummary

The main issues addressed by APOLLON (Advanced Pilots Of Living Labs Operating in

Networks) are the present lack of Living Lab harmonisation and collaboration, and the

serious difficulties of SMEs in engaging in cross-border innovation.

APOLLON will demonstrate the positive impacts of cross-border domain-specific Living

Lab networks, by setting up an advanced pilot composed of 4 thematically focused

European-wide Living Lab experiments. SMEs are enabled to take part in cross-border

Living Lab experiments beyond their home markets, and are supported by largeindustrial companies, academic centres and other stakeholders.

The APOLLON pilot aims to share and to harmonise the Living Lab approaches and

platforms between exemplary European networks as well as the subsequent evaluation

results and the set up of sustainable domain-specific networks on a European and global

level.

APOLLON addresses 4 major domains in which ICT products and services innovation

may benefit most from cross-border Living Lab networking. These are:

1) Homecare and Independent Living

2) Energy Efficiency

3) eManufacturing

4) eParticipation

The project consortium of the domain 4 is composed of:

Issy Media ( France), Universit de Paris VIII (France), IBBT (Belgium), Manchester

City Council ( United-

Voice Media (France)


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2.ScopeandContextoftheDeliverable

This document is the first deliverable of Work Package 5: eParticipation. The objectives

of Work Package 5 are the following:

Sharing and comparing technologies/ methodologies in order to understand to

which local, regional, national results can be extended to other contexts and

which common technology/methodology can be built for generalization.

Adapting technologies/methodologies to the European context.

Integrating technologies/methodologies to overcome fragmentation of service

Promoting citizens innovation to eMedia participation in Europe and evaluating if

cross-border user testing can help existing projects to open to the European

audience.

Methodology for eParticipation I

The realisation of the corresponding pilot should start in month 9.

the use of e-Media and 3D media, the real world in order to broaden and deepen political

participation in the decision-making process as well as citizens involvement in innovation

and creation processes and technologies development.

Labs consist on cooperation between firms, public authorities and citizens in order to

create, prototype, validate and test new services, businesses, markets and technologies

in real-life contexts, such as cities, city regions, rural areas and collaborative virtual

networks between public and private players. The citizens contribution in the real-life and

everyday contexts both stimulate and challenge research, development and an open

innovation process.

The case studies presented within this report seek to demonstrate the above points: that

social media tools are relatively easy to implement and the used examples could be

replicated in other localities, even taking into account geographical differences such as

language and organizational structures. The examples used aims to put in evidence that


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eParticipation processes in the field of public and private e-Services are beneficiary for

citizens in both: services as such impacting per se on their lives and businesses and

of ICT based or supported services, where this novel user-centric approach can improve

customization to their individual needs and requirements.

Where the goal is to improve engagement with the general public, the examples cited

ate of the art exemplars and applied elsewhere.

The objectives of the Apollon project in the domain of e-Participation are to:

Share and compare the various tools (blogs, online social networking,

broadcasting etc.) and mechanisms (eVoting, Internet petitions etc.) used, in

order to understand which of the local results can be extended to a broader scale

(regional, national, European) and to determinate what is the best and most

efficient technology and methodology that can be used as a model.

Adapt the technologies and methodologies to cope with users in other regions.

The Pilot must identify how to adapt the solution, while extending existing

technologies to the European context, taking into account country specificities

(such as habits, acceptability, involvement of the users, language, copyright, and

legal issues).

Integrate technologies and methodologies to overcome fragmentation of services

in specific domains. This is done through a common pilot test method of

and guidelines which will set-up cross

border experimentation in the future (given that cross border cooperation and

integration are innovation sources for new services, new technologies).

Promote citizens involvement through eMedia participation on an European scale

at the early phases of the designing process. This will help to evaluate if cross-

border user testing can help existing projects to open to an European audience.


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The eParticipation experiment results in the development of integrated services using

various new technologies. These will be deployed and validated on a larger scale. The

services will increase the dialogue between citizens as well as between citizens and

governments or public and private organisations and thus contribute to the

empowerment of the users. The experiment will also provide practical insights and

guidelines on how to address and involve communities in eParticipation projects or

applications. On a more technological level the experiment will result in a better

understanding of new technologies like 3D, social media and RFID as such and their

value for eParticipation services.

The present deliverable provides a State of The Art on previous eParticipation projects

made in both Living Labs and eDemocracy. The second deliverable will be a

methodological approach and will highlight what are the most common pitfalls of current

eDemocracy experiences, such as: lack of active involvement from citizens and/or

stakeholders, mistrust from the people, skepticism from the politicians, and ultimately a

low reusability of upcoming results within the public decision making process. The aim of

the second deliverable is to provide a conclusion on what is the best methodology and

technology to use while developing European Living Labs scale eParticipation projects.


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3.eParticipation

3.1Introduction

Over the last few years eParticipation - which is a concept that includes all the

processes of public involvement in government and governance, open innovation, urban

planning, economic and technological development via information and communication

technologies - became a highly political issue although it was formerly something only

experts were interested in.

Today, there is consensus to consider eParticipation as a fundamental right in a

democratic society. eParticipation is expected to improve a transparency, usability,efficiency, economic competitiveness and cost effectiveness of the public and private

sector by giving to the citizens a possibility to co-creation to interact and to modulate

their local, national, regional environments1.

Moreover many of the old European democracies consider that eParticipation holds

and the decreasing citizen2.

For the UN organization, eParticipation has the potential to establish moretransparency in government by allowing citizens to use new channels of influence which

reduces barriers to public participation in policymaking3. As a matter of fact, it represents

a big challenge for a public administration to follow these changes and to encourage

citizens to become active participants in the public life. Moreover year 2009 will mark an

important stage in this domain. Barack Obama, first black president in the history of the

country, quickly required more transparency and more participation of the citizens in the

decisions of his Administration. According to the strategy which he had used to gain his

campaign, he recommended the appeal to the social media to reach these objectives.

1TheimpactoftheEconomicandFinancialcrisisone-GovernmentinOECDMemberCountries,http://www.epractice.eu/files/European%20Journal%20epractice%20Volume%2011.1.pdf2http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/egovernment/policy/eparticipation/index_en.htm3TowardsUnderstandingeParticipationfromanInstitutionalPerspective;ChristineSecher

http://www.gov2u.org/publications/Demo_net_MappingeParticipation.pdf
http://www.epractice.eu/files/European%20Journal%20epractice%20Volume%2011.1.pdfhttp://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/egovernment/policy/eparticipation/index_en.htmhttp://www.gov2u.org/publications/Demo_net_MappingeParticipation.pdfhttp://www.gov2u.org/publications/Demo_net_MappingeParticipation.pdfhttp://www.gov2u.org/publications/Demo_net_MappingeParticipation.pdfhttp://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/egovernment/policy/eparticipation/index_en.htmhttp://www.epractice.eu/files/European%20Journal%20epractice%20Volume%2011.1.pdf


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His arrival to the head of the country provoked a chain of reactions in the American

Administration, as well as in other countries in the world. In the months which followed

his election, a multitude of eParticipation Web 2.0 based projects appeared.

Table 1: the percentage of the eParticipation initiatives in the world4

The Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations publishes every

two years an e-Government Survey5 which measures how a country can access and

realize its eParticipation potential. This index assesses the quality and usefulness of

information and services provided by a country for the purpose of engaging its citizens in

public policy through information and communication technologies.

informative and participatory services and facilities were assessed across 189 countries,

in instances in which these services and facilities were online and where data was

available. The last edition of the eParticipation Index was printed in 2008 and we are

waiting for the 2010 edition in a few weeks.

4Source:www.unpan1.un.org5http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/un/unpan028607.pdf
http://www.unpan1.un.org/http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/un/unpan028607.pdfhttp://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/un/unpan028607.pdfhttp://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/un/unpan028607.pdfhttp://www.unpan1.un.org/


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Table 2: eParticipation Index 2008: Top 10 Countries6

Ranking Country 2008 Index

1 United States 1.0000

2 Republic of Korea 0.9773

3 Denmark 0.9318

4 France 0.9318

5 Australia 0.8864

6 New Zealand 0.7955

7 Mexico 0.7500

8 Estonia 0.7273

9 Sweden 0.6591

10 Singapore 0.6364

eParticipation does not concern exclusively civil society-government collaborations on a

local, regional, national or international scale but as the projects range from research in

wearable computing involving test sites in the Aerospace, Construction and Automobile

industry to projects working on environmental friendly lighting in urban areas anddifferent ICT tools sets facilitating work environment. For example for the companies the

use of social media can be targeted at both improvement of internal and external

communication. Early adoption of social media within the public or private sector was

often focused on internal use, with the aims of improving collaboration amongst

individuals, teams, departments and entire organisations. Centrally funded projects such

as the Improvement & Efficiency Agencies Communities of Practice7 and TALK8 sought

to facilitate collaboration and communication within teams and departments through the

use of forum, blog and wiki technologies. Although their remit is to engender cross-boundary collaboration, they remain internally focused and do not seek to engage with

the general public. Applied internally, social tools often change the way the people work.

6Source:www.unpan1.un.org7http://www.communities.idea.gov.uk/welcome.do8http://www.talknet.eu
http://www.unpan1.un.org/http://www.unpan1.un.org/http://www.communities.idea.gov.uk/welcome.dohttp://www.talknet.eu/http://www.talknet.eu/http://www.talknet.eu/http://www.communities.idea.gov.uk/welcome.dohttp://www.unpan1.un.org/


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Wiki technologies may look to replace the use of word processors and the process of

creating such documents. However, the barriers to use remain high because wiki

technologies are not widespread in their use and are still alien to the vast majority of

people both in their work life and general use of the Internet. Put simply, they resist the

change as they do not yet see the benefit to do so essentially the technology is

outpacing the demand for change. UK TALK project was much more valuable as a

blogging community, again because blogs are better understood and the requirement to

change processes is low workers can just read a blog and there is little action required

on their part wik

Similarly, the Communities of Practice website9 saw much larger uptake because it is

rooted in the use of forum software. Forums have been around for many years and their

use in the public sector in the UK is widespread. Consequently they are well understood,

the barriers to use are perceivedto be lower and people are more inclined to use them.

Many of the mainstream sites are free to use and hosted environments are now

common, meaning that organisations can outsource the implementations of systems that

they may have struggled to maintain internally. For example, Ning (http://www.ning.com)

enables any group or organisation the capability to build and promote a fully featured,

branded social network. eParticipation processes in companies can strengthen the

involvement of employees and their belonging feelings by giving them the opportunity to

bring new ideas, which often support innovation

There is a direct correlation to the application and use of social media technologies

when seeking to improve engagement on an external basis. As the use of social media

in the mainstream public has become more widespread, focus has shifted to improving

external communication and engagement from within organisations out to the general

In addition to that eParticipation procedures

applied at a company level can help these companies to increase the understanding of

their customers and thus allows the companies to bett

The ENGAGEMENT db study10 showed significant positive financial results for the

companies who measure as having the greatest breadth and depth of Social Media

9http://www.communities.idea.gov.uk/welcome.do 10www.engagementdb.com
http://www.ning.com/http://www.ning.com/http://www.ning.com/http://www.communities.idea.gov.uk/welcome.dohttp://www.engagementdb.com/http://www.engagementdb.com/http://www.engagementdb.com/http://www.communities.idea.gov.uk/welcome.dohttp://www.ning.com/


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Engagement. The social media use growth companies revenues on average by 18%

over the last twelve months. The study reviewed more than 10 discrete Social Media

channels including Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Wikis, and discussion forums. The top

ENGAGEMENT brands are Starbucks, Dell, Ebay and Google11.

Today there are 1.73 billion Internet users in the world. When considering whether the

Internet has the potential to positively impact social capital, we can draw on evidence

gathered by Megan Alessandrini in 2006 stating

Internet access are more likely than those without to engage in activities normally

expected to create and 12. In support of this, the

December 2008 study of how Canadian use of the Internet affects social life

and civic part -

demographic groups reveals that they have embracedtechnology not to escape social

13

In a purely business perspective, eParticipation can be seen as a service providing

organization concepts in the topic of R&D and innovation, contributing to more suitable

products and services design, development and testing.

An important point to keep in mind is that eParticipation is a recent concept still in its

infancy. As few countries have actively promoted it the examples of a good practice are

rare and eParticipation impact on the public life is not significant enough yet to be

generalized, confirmed or disapproved. To obtain serious results on the impact of the

eParticipation, the evaluations need to be made over the years.

11http://www.engagementdb.com/Report12http://www.webology.ir/2006/v3n4/a33.html13http://chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman/publications/stats_can/statscan.pdf
http://www.engagementdb.com/Reporthttp://www.webology.ir/2006/v3n4/a33.htmlhttp://chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman/publications/stats_can/statscan.pdfhttp://chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman/publications/stats_can/statscan.pdfhttp://chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman/publications/stats_can/statscan.pdfhttp://www.webology.ir/2006/v3n4/a33.htmlhttp://www.engagementdb.com/Report


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Table 3. eParticipation projects themes14

3.2eParticipationmethods,toolsandways

Today, a vast majority of the discussion about the social impact of ICTs are focused on

Web 2.0. The term Web 2.0 has many definitions, and includes the use of tools such as

social networking sites, video-sharing sites, blogs and wikis. However, what makes Web

2.0 new and important is its capacity to change the relationship between the Internet and

its users. Web 2.0 is about among others interacting with web-based content, adding

comments, or uploading files. Each visitor is able to have shared ownership over a site.

This implies a change in power structures and a shift in organizational thinking towards

models based on equal partnerships rather than elite dominance15

.

14Source:Momentum

http://www.epmomentum.eu/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=XqhojqGxEyw%3D&tabid=88&mid=48915Jackson,N.A.&Lilleker,D.G.(2009).'BuildinganArchitectureofParticipation?PoliticalPartiesandWeb2.0

inBritain',JournalofInformationTechnology&Politics,p.232-250
http://www.epmomentum.eu/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=XqhojqGxEyw%3D&tabid=88&mid=489http://www.epmomentum.eu/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=XqhojqGxEyw%3D&tabid=88&mid=489


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Some of the most popular Web 2.0 tools in terms of social networking and user contents

are Facebook, Linkedin, YouTube and Twitter. Younger generations expect now to

communicate using those sites. If continued engagement with the public is desirable,

organisations must seek to embrace social technologies to better ensure that they reach

the younger demographic. Underpinning this, recent statistics point to an upswing in

.16

Tools

Worldwide Twitter users overtake 12 million, up an impressive + 700% vs. one year ago

making it the fastest growing site in the Member Communities category. In addition to

that 85% of the users publish at least one tweet per day.

Facebook has 350 million users in the world which represents 20 % of the worldwide

Internet users.

the world17.

The tools of expression allowing citizens to express their views online

Publications Tools such as :Blog platforms (Blogger,Typepad,Wordpress),

Wiki platforms (Wikipedia,Wetpaint,Wikia),

Mikroblog platforms (Twitter,Tumblr,Identica)

News and citizens journalism portals (Digg,Wikio,Le Post)

Livecast tools (JustinTV,Ustream,BlogTV)

Discussion tools

Social network (Facebook, Myspace)

Forum platforms (phpBB,Phorum)

Video forums (Seesmic)

Services of the commentary management (IntenseDebate,Cocomment,Disqus,BackType);

Services allowing publication and files sharing

16,17http://www.socialmediatoday.com/SMC/174901
http://www.blogger.com/http://www.blogger.com/http://www.blogger.com/http://www.typepad.com/http://www.typepad.com/http://www.typepad.com/http://wordpress.com/http://wordpress.com/http://wordpress.com/http://wikipedia.fr/http://wikipedia.fr/http://wikipedia.fr/http://www.wetpaint.com/http://www.wetpaint.com/http://www.wetpaint.com/http://www.wikia.com/http://www.wikia.com/http://www.wikia.com/http://twitter.com/http://twitter.com/http://twitter.com/http://www.tumblr.com/http://www.tumblr.com/http://www.tumblr.com/http://identi.ca/http://identi.ca/http://identi.ca/http://digg.com/http://digg.com/http://digg.com/http://www.wikio.fr/http://www.wikio.fr/http://www.wikio.fr/http://www.lepost.fr/http://www.lepost.fr/http://www.lepost.fr/http://www.justin.tv/http://www.justin.tv/http://www.justin.tv/http://www.ustream.tv/http://www.ustream.tv/http://www.ustream.tv/http://www.blogtv.com/http://www.blogtv.com/http://www.blogtv.com/http://www.phpbb.com/http://www.phpbb.com/http://www.phpbb.com/http://www.phorum.org/http://www.phorum.org/http://www.phorum.org/http://seesmic.com/http://seesmic.com/http://seesmic.com/http://www.intensedebate.com/http://www.intensedebate.com/http://www.intensedebate.com/http://cocomment.com/http://cocomment.com/http://cocomment.com/http://disqus.com/http://disqus.com/http://disqus.com/http://www.backtype.com/http://www.backtype.com/http://www.socialmediatoday.com/SMC/174901http://www.socialmediatoday.com/SMC/174901http://www.backtype.com/http://disqus.com/http://cocomment.com/http://www.intensedebate.com/http://seesmic.com/http://www.phorum.org/http://www.phpbb.com/http://www.blogtv.com/http://www.ustream.tv/http://www.justin.tv/http://www.lepost.fr/http://www.wikio.fr/http://digg.com/http://identi.ca/http://www.tumblr.com/http://twitter.com/http://www.wikia.com/http://www.wetpaint.com/http://wikipedia.fr/http://wordpress.com/http://www.typepad.com/http://www.blogger.com/


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Video (YouTube,DailyMotion,Vimeo),

Pictures (FlickR,SmugMug,Picasa,Fotolog),

Documents (Slideshare,Scrib,Slideo)

Table 4: Most popular eParticipation tools used by countries

22%

22%

30%

26%

Countries using email to

update their citizens

Countries using RSS toupdate and involve their

citizens

Countries using Openweb

Forums for discussing

topics

Countries publishing results

of public opinons
http://www.youtube.com/http://www.youtube.com/http://www.youtube.com/http://www.dailymotion.com/http://www.dailymotion.com/http://www.dailymotion.com/http://www.vimeo.com/http://www.vimeo.com/http://www.vimeo.com/http://www.flickr.com/http://www.flickr.com/http://www.flickr.com/http://smugmug.com/http://smugmug.com/http://smugmug.com/http://picasaweb.google.com/http://picasaweb.google.com/http://picasaweb.google.com/http://www.fotolog.com/http://www.fotolog.com/http://www.fotolog.com/http://www.slideshare.net/http://www.slideshare.net/http://www.slideshare.net/http://www.scribd.com/http://www.scribd.com/http://www.scribd.com/http://slideo.net/http://slideo.net/http://slideo.net/http://slideo.net/http://www.scribd.com/http://www.slideshare.net/http://www.fotolog.com/http://picasaweb.google.com/http://smugmug.com/http://www.flickr.com/http://www.vimeo.com/http://www.dailymotion.com/http://www.youtube.com/


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4.eParticipationintheEuropeanUnion

4.1.eParticipationattheLocallevel

The good performance of local eParticipation initiatives can be explained by the

proximity with the interests, needs and questions of the citizens. The citizens are more

inclined to participate when the issues discussed have a direct interest for them. Indeed

citizens participate more easily and with a bigger interest for issues such as the

construction of a new kindergarten than the definition of being European launched by the

European Union.

The bigger successes of eParticipation initiatives at the local scale can also be explained

more effective than empowering a large group of citizens.

These cases are funded in order by local resources, European Union, national funds and

regional funds. The voluntary funding is very rare.

At the local level the participation areas covered are first Deliberation followed by

Information Provision and Consultation.18

One of the more surprising characteristics of local scale eParticipation initiatives is the

multilingualism. Indeed there are comparatively more multilingual cases at the local

scale than in national or regional scale. The importance of the multilingualism can be

explained by the fact that the local level initiatives take into account the different types of

population and the immigrants.19

In the eParticipation case for the community, it is important to choose an existing popular

social platform (like Facebook or Youtube). Community Administrators should conclude

with this platform a partnership in order to promote it to the users, so that it isemphasised as the service "recommended" or "legitimised" by the community.

18http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/egovernment/docs/reports/eu_eparticipation_summary_no

v_09.pdf19http://www.epractice.eu/files/7.2.pdf
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/egovernment/docs/reports/eu_eparticipation_summary_nov_09.pdfhttp://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/egovernment/docs/reports/eu_eparticipation_summary_nov_09.pdfhttp://www.epractice.eu/files/7.2.pdfhttp://www.epractice.eu/files/7.2.pdfhttp://www.epractice.eu/files/7.2.pdfhttp://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/egovernment/docs/reports/eu_eparticipation_summary_nov_09.pdfhttp://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/egovernment/docs/reports/eu_eparticipation_summary_nov_09.pdf


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Technically, this strategy can be translated by the implementation of widgets (external

modules) integrated on the site of the community. In practice, the partnership takes

especially the shape of a simple exchange of link. The community thus has no direct

technical mastery of the actions. In practice it is integrating the social platform directly

into the site and into the information system of the community.

France

Issy-les-Moulineaux City Panel Case Study

In 2001, the city of Issy-les-Moulineaux (Paris, France) established a representative

panel of the population, composed of about 900 inhabitants. Members of this "Citizen

Panel" are regularly consulted to answer online consultations, on topics of local interest

and satisfaction with municipal services. The launch of this electronic tool should be put

in a double context: the early development of information and communication

technologies (ICT) in Issy on the one hand, and the efforts of the municipality in terms of

participative democracy, on the other hand.

Information and communication technologies have also been used to improve public

2009 1.2 million visits. Via Issy.com, people can order administrative documents, pay

school meals, make reservations in entertainment centers, book tickets to the theatre, or

manage their documents in the library. Issy was also the first French city to create a

local and interactive Web-TV: launched in 1997, T2i renamed Issy TV in 2000, provides

many videos about local life. In recent years the city has also developed mobile services,

enabling residents to receive information by SMS (weather warnings, dates of council

meetings, cultural events, etc..), or pay for car parking with their mobile phone, download

multiple podcasts (audio or video files), including those with major events in the town

every month. This global commitment of the city for the development of new

technologies has been awarded by the French label "Internet City" and the presidency of

the Global Cities Dialogue20, an international network of mayors committed to promoting

an "information society open to all". In addition, Issy-les-Moulineaux was ranked in 2005,

20http://www.globalcitiesdialogue.com/
http://www.globalcitiesdialogue.com/http://www.globalcitiesdialogue.com/


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2007 and 2009 among the "Top 7 Intelligent Communities" worldwide (international

ranking of cities whose economies are strongly linked with their technology policy).21

The development of e-democracy could not be properly completed if it was not based on

a positive and democratic culture embodied in the willingness to further engage citizens.

The citizen panel is part of the development of participative democracy, an ancient

approach in Issy since the city was the first in France to create a youth council in 1985,

and other committees such as: the Economic and Social Council (in 1989), the local

youth (for 18-25), and the council of elders (2001). Regarding the tools for electronic

democracy, in 1997 the city created interactive council meetings thanks to the local

web-TV: citizens can watch meetings live on the city's website and can intervene by

telephone or internet during breaks in the sessions (3 breaks each of 20 minutes) byexpressing their point of view or asking questions. The e-vote was also experimented

with on several occasions, notably during the elections for the residents' association in

2002, 2005 and 2008. As a sign of the city's commitment to e-democracy, in 2000 the

Mayor of Issy, Andr Santini, created the World Forum for e-Democracy, an international

meeting held annually.

The citizen panel is an additional decision-making tool for the consultation and

participation of citizens, in addition to traditional methods such as public meetings, the

opinions transmitted by the neighbourhood councils, the opinions of citizens expressedduring interactive council meetings, etc.

Created in 2001, the citizen panel is the product of a meeting between the city council

and OpinionWay, a consultancy specialised in opinion polls. OpinionWay had developed

a methodology for online surveys and the city, active for several years in the field of

electronic democracy, showed interest in the new tool. Issy-les-Moulineaux was the first

French city to put the tool into place. Today, several towns use this kind of panel

although its deployment remains relatively limited in France.

The Citizen Panel allows the state of opinion and its members generally express

themselves in a more direct manner, more spontaneously and frankly compared to other

consultation methods. The purpose of the Citizen Panel is not simply to gain knowledge

21http://www.intelligentcommunity.org/
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but also to facilitate the elaboration and evaluation of public policies. It can also play the

role of a warning by helping counsellors to better measure the importance of certain

issues among the population.

The participation in the panel is open to all residents who simply have to register online

via the city's website. Consultation is carried out in a regular manner: once or twice per

year the members of the panel are invited by email to reply to an online survey: a link in

the email connects them to the questionnaire which is generally composed of twenty to

thirty questions. The identity and the replies of the internet user communicated to

OpinionWay are anonymous and confidential, in respect of the law on IT and liberties.

The consultation lasts between ten and fifteen days maximum (sometimes a week) and

the results are delivered to the council within a couple of days. On average, between

300 and 400 people respond to each survey. To ensure the representativeness of the

sample results weight is based on a quota method. The data which form the basis for

establishing these quotas (in terms of age, sex, socio-professional categories) come

from the INSEE (Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques) census.

Parallel surveys carried out by the municipality both to the citizen panel of internet users

and a gr

similarity of responses of the two samples to be verified. The citizen panel presents

certain specificities when the subject relates to ICT, for the rest the members respond as

other residents would have.

The questionnaire includes stable indicators. It allows the evolution of opinion on

different subjects to be measured: opinion on quality of life and security in the town,

satisfaction and expectations with regard to municipal action in general and in specific

domains (activities, youth, ICT, economic development, senior citizens, schools, traffic,

etc), opinion on the evolution of the situation in Issy in general and concerning certain

subjects (employment, tidiness, cultural activities, etc), portfolios considered priority in

the coming three years or even confidence in the future. The internet users on the panel

are also questioned about current topics. In 2001 for example they gave their opinion on

security, associations, neighbourhood councils, traffic, postnatal support, online services


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proposed by the council, urban projects such as the upper Issy transport link, etc. The

results of these surveys are published and are available on the city's website22.

The citizen panel contributes, alongside other consultation and participation methods, to

the improvement of the functioning of local democracy. It presents specific advantages

linked to the use of the internet: simple to use, the tool allows results to be obtained

quicker and at a lower cost. This allows consultation to be carried out more frequently

and numerous and diverse subjects to be addressed.

The use of a specialised and independent institute is a guarantee of seriousness and

impartiality, as much in the constitution of the panel as in the interpretation of the results

of the survey.

Two examples show the benefits which this instrument has provided for the municipality.

The results of a survey concerning traffic showed several years ago a state of great

dissatisfaction. Contrary to other cities, in Issy-les-Moulineaux traffic was considered a

primary problem; this encouraged counsellors to make it a priority and to take decisions

the actions of the municipality regarding the traffic having increased from 26 to 48%

between December 2004 and August 2006. In 2004 a survey carried out among mothers

on the citizen panel indicated real needs in terms of post-natal support. This allowed theD

the heart of the municipality and among actors in the sector (healthcare professionals

and social services). In 2005 an association supporting a project for a post-natal open

house was founded.

Today the municipality envisages developing further tools for consulting the population.

For one it would like to widen the methods used by including qualitative surveys in the

form of online focus groups (by chat), accompanied perhaps by a discussion forum.

I-Folio Case Study

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In January 2009 the city launched a new service called I-Folio , the first local network

for participative debate on the internet. A kind of local version of Facebook, as a local

he aim is to reinforce the debate on the major subjects

Mayor

exchanging and dialoguing with all those that live and work there. We want to engage in

direct dialogue with the residents of our town using this site for debate, discussion and

-les-Moulineaux can

read on the homepage of I-Folio. Each month several themes are proposed by internet

users in order to develop local democracy. The debates cover the actors of solidarity in

the city, redevelopment projects or the development of city transportation.

The principle is simple. Via the municipal website, the citizen connects to I-Folio. Once

o scenarios. Firstly a simple visitor can consult all the contributions.

Then, if he wishes to contribute to a debate he will have to give his name, the area of

Issy where he lives and optionally a photo to be registered. I-Folio is based on the logic

of establishing a social network like MySpace or Facebook in order to constitute a truly

local network in order to create links between residents.

There are several others local eParticipation projects running in France like twitter for the

city of Rennes, Facebook application for the city of Paris, Flickr group for the city of Issy-

les-Moulineaux, DailyMotion and YouTube channels for the city of Lyon Culture site.

The 3D Living Innovation Case Study

La Fabrique de Future23, a French NGO has lately presented another interesting

eParticipation project conception called 3D Living Innovation24

. The project is notdeveloped for the moment but is very interesting to follow the evolution of this case as it

seems to be very close to what will be developed in a framework of APOLLON project.

23http://www.lafabriquedufutur.org/24http://www.lafabriquedufutur.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=63&Itemid=37
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It is a thematic, cross-border project consisting on a set of 3D-related resources and

tools aimed at offering organisations co-creative imagination and innovative solution by

the capability to interact directly with their markets to invent, to test and to evaluate

future new products and services. The project intended to soon become international as

3D Living Innovation wants to become a strong reference in Europe of the potential

offered by the 3D world. The goal of the system is to enhance creativity, develop

collaboration and reduce time to market while keeping costs as low as possible. The

services provided by this project will be:

- 3D Ideation

- 3D Co-conception

- This range of services aims at helping our clients and stakeholders to co-

conceive new innovative products and services. It can be declined in

several offers

- Rapid 3D Simulation

- Rapid 3D Prototyping

- Rapid 3D Testing

- 3D Promotion & marketing

- 3D Engineering, consulting & services

The application areas of the project are very wide as they potentially concern all sectors of

activities (of course with focus on B2C sectors, where users are involved): city planning

and housing, education, health, domestic services, aging and disabled population,

transport & mobility, tourism & leisure, eco-conception, etc.

The 3D Living Innovation is focused on the use of 3D and 3D related resources: Virtual

Worlds (metaverses), augmented reality, ambient intelligence, imagery technologies, etc.

United Kingdom

As part of Manchester City Council, Manchester Libraries and Information Service25

(MLIS) deliver cultural, learning and information services through a network of more than

20 libraries across the Manchester region. With over 130,000 active library members,

MLIS issues over 2 million items and attracts more than 3 million visits each year.

25http://www.manchester.gov.uk/libraries/
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In 2008 MLIS began to use a range of Internet based social media sites and tools as

their presence on the main Manchester City Council site was difficult to find and

communication hampered by having to work through official channels. Implementing a

presence on various social media sites has sought to raise awareness, provide improved

communication to the community and build stronger links with existing and new service

users.

As part of this activity, MLIS maintain active profiles on Flickr26, Facebook27, Twitter28

and a literary blog29.

30 are a not-for-profit social enterprise based in Manchester who

has expanded to include projects running in other parts of the UK. Their aim is to help

empower individuals, groups and communities to develop and promote social and

campaigning initiatives through the use of social media.

The individual is very much at the heart of this effort and significant emphasis is placed

on ensuring that those in the community are able to use and maintain social media skills,

thereby removing reliance on 3rd parties.

diversity and equality in the community.

A number of social media initiatives are currently active within local communities, initially

services in disadvantaged and regenerating communities. In the Greater Manchester

region these areas include Ordsall and Broughton in Salford as well as the Beswick,Clayton and Openshaw districts in east Manchester.

26http://www.flickr.com/people/manchesterlibraries/27http://www.facebook.com/mancitycouncil 28http://twitter.com/#!/ManCityCouncil 29http://manchesterlitlist.blogspot.com/ 30http://peoplesvoicemedia.co.uk/
http://www.flickr.com/people/manchesterlibraries/http://www.facebook.com/mancitycouncilhttp://twitter.com/#!/ManCityCouncilhttp://manchesterlitlist.blogspot.com/http://peoplesvoicemedia.co.uk/http://peoplesvoicemedia.co.uk/http://peoplesvoicemedia.co.uk/http://manchesterlitlist.blogspot.com/http://twitter.com/#!/ManCityCouncilhttp://www.facebook.com/mancitycouncilhttp://www.flickr.com/people/manchesterlibraries/


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Three of the core offerings are the community reporters programme, the establishment

of social media centers and the content delivery network31.

Manchester Libraries on Flickr Case Study

Manchester Libraries maintain a profile on Flickr32 that provides an additional channel for

visitors to access items of specific interest. Additionally, Flickr has been used to

crowdsource photographs from visitors to support specific initiatives of interest to local

communities, such as the opening of a new library and the temporary closure of the

iconic Central Library in Manchester city center.

Using a blend of traditional media, visitor workshops and Flickr, MLIS sought to promote

the opening of a new library in the city. The blended approach enables the service to

capture the interest of a wider range of the community than if they used a single, more

traditional media approach.

The project outline is as follows:

Visitor workshops at the library gathered photographs of the new facility. The workshops

enlisted the services of a number of photographers sourced through Flickr, who all gave

their time for free.

These workshops w

homework clubs and people who were just walking past the library.

The photographs were uploaded to Flickr thereby enabling access via the Internet and

exposing the participant images to a wider audience.

Some of the best images have been transferred to canvas and are now on public display

in the library33.

The event was very successful, in no small part due to the blending of social media and

face-to-face workshops, with the incentive of the participants knowing that their image

31http://peoplesvoicemedia.co.uk/what-we-offer 32http://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterlibraries/ 33http://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterlibraries/sets/72157604781859831/.
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could be part of a public art installation at the end of the process. Flickr has been used to

re-inforce that incentive and bring the images to wider attention.

Overall, the library service has found that using Flickr has generated a small but

pool34 has attracted over 140 images and 40 members who are all motivated to add their

own small piece of photographic documentation of what is an iconic building in the city.

Manchester Libraries on Facebook Case Study

The Manchester Libraries page on Facebook35

interested in being kept up to date with library activity via their chosen social network.

At a first glance this may not seem to be impressive. However, if we consider that these

are potentially 1,100 people who may well not previously have engaged with the library

at all, who would have struggled to be aware of events and who would have no direct

communication channel to the library, then we can see that Facebook provides a

valuable engagement tool.

In fact, two recent events sold out following their promotion within libraries, the traditional

press and on Facebook. Staff at the libraries knew that the attendees were new to the

events were held there.

The library uses their Facebook page as a direct channel. Anyone can come to the page

g either the library or other fans to respond to their query.

gain rapid feedback about events or features that they are promoting on the site. This

enables staff to fine tune the type of content that they display on the page, knowing that

this will increase the likelihood of their fans being interested in it.

There are many other facets to the use of Facebook by the library. Access has been

provided to the Central Library book and music catalogues via the page, giving visitors

34http://www.flickr.com/groups/manchestercentrallibrary/35http://www.facebook.com/manchesterlibraries
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easier searching capabilities for items they may be interested in borrowing. Similarly,

specific items of interest are highlighted via photos and events are promoted in calendar

and longer narrative formats.

Some use has been made of the Facebook Markup Language to customize the page to

the specific needs of the library. This has been done on a self-taught basis with the

author seeking and receiving assistance through both the Facebook and Twitter

networks.

Manchester Libraries on Twitter Case Study

Twitter36 has proven to be particularly successful for the library team in raising

awareness about upcoming events or acting as a direct communication channel for their

followers.

With the directed nature of Twitter conversations it is easy for other users to ask specific

questions of the library and quickly receive a response. This has proven to be easier

than having to navigate the main City Council website searching for the correct person

or department to contact.

More importantly, Twitter has worked very effectively as a method of attracting new

attendees to events held at the library. In particular, the promotion of one upcomingevent via the channel has attracted over 30% of the attendees, highlighting that when

used in conjunction with more traditional promotional methods (posters in the library),

Twitter can extend the reach of the library to a demographic and market that they

Use is carefully managed to ensure that the 1,400 followers do not feel they are being

very important that followers feel they are receiving useful, additional information that

lly have access to as well as informational messages about the

library.

36http://twitter.com/manclibraries
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The Manchester Lit List Blog Case Study

The Lit List blog37 aims to provide more in-depth insight into some of the campaigns and

events that the library runs than is possible on Twitter or Facebook. Blogs lend

themselves to this form of dissemination as readers expect the content to be more

detailed and thoughtful. Facebook and especially Twitter are more suited to short,

frequent updates that are designed to grab followers or fans.

The blog focuses on literature content ranging from the latest books in the library to

poetry and writing competitions. This is definitely an effort that is tuned specifically to

those who are literature buffs, in much the same way that the Flickr presence appeals to

those interested in photography.

Engagement is difficult to measure, but the library recognizes that in order to gain and

maintain interest, updates must be frequent and varied. Although the level of comments

is low, this is to be expected with blogs where typically the ratio of readers to

commentators is very low and should not be an indicator of successful engagement.

Other indicators of successful engagement through the blog are evident. For example, a

free lecture series run in 2009 and promoted via the blog was oversubscribed by more

than 200 people. The library service had to stop inline promotion of the series as

demand was too great.

links through to Facebook. This is one facet that could be improved with additional links

to Twitter and Flickr.

TRAIL

Technologies for Rurality, Ageing and Independent Living Case Study

The main objective of the TRAIL project38, which started in January 2008, is to develop

participative methods that identify the unmet health-related needs of ageing citizens in

rural locations in the region of the North of Ireland. TRAIL creates service and product

37http://manchesterlitlist.blogspot.com/38http://trail.ulster.ac.uk/
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innovations that will enable rural and age-impaired citizens to live independently in the

heart of their communities. Project aim is to set up socially inclusive open innovation

models in business as well as in public sector. The current activity of the project

concerns healthcare and issues related to the aging population. This project could

improve their health and safety and stimulate the creation and evaluation of the new

products and services. Two programs were set up during the project MyHealth@Age39

and Nestling Technology Initiative40. MyHealth@Age consists on development of new

products and services through participatory research in close cooperation with elderly

people, healthcare and welfare organizations, ICT-companies and Universities in

Northern Ireland, Norway, Sweden and Finland. Examples are mobile safety alarm with

wirelessly connected fall sensor with assistance support suitable both for alarm centers

and for friends and relatives, prescribed Healthcare that support own diagnose

measurements, medication support and secure messaging between patients and

healthcare staff including graphical diagnose measurement, enhanced social networks

that will improve isolated elderly peoples social life.

phones are equipped with GPS and an alarm so that the alarm

center can locate the person in need. The cu

possible to talk with the person in need even if that person can't reach the phone. Alarms

can only be made when the mobile phone is connected to the mobile network. If a fall

sensor is used, it has to be wirelessly attached to the mobile phone to transfer alarms to

the alarm centre.

Concerning the prescribed healthcare the data are visualized and shared between the

elderly person and the healthcare staff. The prescription or evaluations of the diagnose

measurement can be made on the elderly people mobile phone or at a web-browser.

The project has so far specified the requirements and developed a prototype in close co-

operation between elderly people, healthcare and welfare staff, ICT companies,

researchers, education and implementation of the trial products has been made

successful in Northern Ireland, Sweden and Norway nut no objective quantitativemeasurements are available so far.

39http://trail.ulster.ac.uk/activities/myhealthage/ 40http://trail.ulster.ac.uk/activities/nestling/
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Other eDemocracy projects

TweetyHall41 is a service that aims to connect the public with politicians, commentators

and others who help shape the local political landscape in the UK. There are over 400

local councilors representing over 230 authorities that currently use Twitter in an attempt

to better engage with the people who they have been mandated to serve. TweetyHall

enables easy location of local councilors and their recent Twitter activity statistics on

how active they are as well as a link to their Twitter page.. Visitors to the site can search

by location or political party. TweetyHall has been developed by FutureGov Consultancy,

a London based organisation that seeks to use web based technologies to actively

influence the development of policy, communication and engagement in the Government

sector.

The Pledgebank in Brixton42 is a sort of archive containing information on successful

pledges, ranging from campaigning for vegetarian marshmallows to protecting civil

liberties. Pledges have been set up on local, national and international issues. The

pledge creator provided background information, to the people who sign-up to it.

Surrey County Council project43 explored the use of video to engage local young

people in council processes and dialogue with local councillors through a series of

purchased and young people were encouraged to make short (15min) films about

issues that affect them. The project also worked with a group of young people from the

traveller community to make a film and ran a number of studio-based events involving

interviews with young people and with decision makers.

Campaign Creator44, a pilot project funded under the Office of the Deputy Prime

-Innovations grant fund and run by Bristol City Council, is an attempt to offer

citizens resources to organize themselves around issues of shared concern. The project

put together a suite of online and offline tools and information resources to enable

41http://tweetyhall.co.uk/42http://pledgebank.com43http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/44http://.campaigncreator.org
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community campaign. Within 10 months of launch over 500 users had registered on the

website to start a campaign.

The success of this project has brought considerable international interest in New

Zealand, Canada, Tanzania, USA, Tajikistan, Cameroon, Nigeria, South Africa, Belgium,

Ireland, Ghana, Australia and Switzerland.

Finland

Lahti Case Study

Lahti is located in the Southern Finland, 100 km from Helsinki, the capital of Finland.

Lahti's population has climbed from around 3000 in the 1900s to over 98 000 today,

making it the seventh largest city in Finland. Lahti has a diversified industrial structure.

The city is still the centre of Finnish furniture industry, when at the same time the service

sector and high technology companies are increasing their importance. Nowadays

design, quality and environmental technology are the main sectors developed and

invested in. In August 2009 Lappeenranta University of Technology, Lahti School of

Innovation and the City of Lahti have launched an eParticipation project to study different

ways. The target group was habitants of three suburban area called Tonttila, Riihel and

Metskangas. The main emphasis behind this project is to use the innovation potential

of ordinary people. Today there have been about 150 project members participating in 3

urban areas. The tool used in Lahti project is Facebook and social forums where citizens

can discuss and post their ideas. In one group, there have been 114 discussion

openings and several potential ideas, some of them are very detailed level (like design

of skate ramps). One idea concerning transportation information is brilliant according to

technology provider and Transportation Company. The most important type of

engagement in this project is idea generation however citizens can also receive some

information or consult the stage of projects evaluation. Concerning effective contribution

to the decision making process is still too early to define since the public servants,

present in the Fb group, do not respond to citizens directly. They do not want to create

implementation of it, is long (could be even a year). As to project dissemination the


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management team thinks that the best way to advertise the project is via social network

because it is a place where citizens are anyway, but also press and events.

Germany

Berlin Budget Online Dialog Case Study

The Berlin borough of Lichtenberg (population of 260.000) has conducted a participatory

budgeting project Online-Dialogue45 in the second half of 2005. After the successful

activity local council has decided to implement participatory budgeting as a regular task.

This platform enabled citizens to get information on the issue, to direct questions to

officials, to propose and discuss ideas for the budget, and to cast votes in order to select

the most adhered to proposals. The borough's council members of all parties signed a

declaration, which describes in detail, how they were to use the results in their policy

decisions. The main objectives of the project are:

Mutual agreement in policy decisions;

Effective and fair budgeting;

Transparency and comprehension for financial matters;

Lively discussion and un-bureaucratic solutions

The specific SA tools and methodologies being used are paper survey, public meetings,

online-dialogue with detailed information section, moderated discussion forum, budget-

calculator, proposal-wikis, preference-polling, newsletter, editor's interviews with

politicians, etc.

The advocacy and media tools such as posters and leaflets, information stands at local

festivals, mass media coverage, online banners are being used to advertise the project

In total 4000 people have participated in the different formats of the pilot year. The paper

survey has reached a representative share of the local population. The online-dialogue

has reached mainly young and mid-aged citizens up to 50 years of both genders. The

level of education was higher than in the total population.As in all (online-) dialogues thetwo main challenges were:

45http://zebralog.de
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-to reach disadvantaged target groups (in terms of education or income)

-to involve participants in the complexity of the problem (to get transparent, fair and

rational results)

The first challenge was worked on by the advocacy and media activities described

above and had decent results. The second challenge seems to be especially important

and difficult in budgeting matters.

The methodology and technology ofwww.buergerhaushalt-lichtenberg.de

has helped a great deal to work collaboratively on the budget. There were human

moderators, a shared editing function (wiki), and a budget calculator for the concrete

proposals. The specific challenge was to design these tools with a simple usability, but

also with a complex functionality.

4.2 eParticipation at National & Regional levels

The majority of the national eParticipation initiatives are covering the areas of

Participation of Deliberation, Information Provision and Consultation and that they are in

a major part founded by the national and private funds. The United Kingdom and

Germany are the two European countries leading in a number of identified national
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eParticipation cases (26 for UK and 15 for Germany) 46. As one can expect the

eParticipation initiatives are available in the languages of the country. There is

multilingualism in Belgium and Switzerland as both have several official languages. The

national scale initiatives are in general funded by national and private funds.

The regional scale eParticipation initiatives are mainly funded by the EU and the

concerned regions47.

United Kingdom

Within the United Kingdom Public Sector, at local, regional and national levels there has

been a significant increase in the use of social media tools and technologies with the

specific aims of improving public engagement and communication.

Tweetminister Case Study

Tweetminster48 is a service that aims to connect the public with politicians,

commentators and others who help shape the national political landscape in the UK. It is

built using a combination of the Twitter Application Programming Interface (API) and

custom developed code and provides an aggregated view of the Twitter activity from

In essence the site aims to digitally replicate the Houses of Parliament.

The added value that Tweetminster brings is in providing a single location for those who

a

main Twitter site or specifically configure their twitter client, visitors can easily find their

local MP on the site and follow their recent activity. They do not need to be a Twitter

member to do this, but to engage in the conversation then a Twitter account is required.

46,47http://www.sora.at/fileadmin/images/content/Pages/euyoupart_ergebnisse_finalcomparativereport.pdf

48http://tweetminster.co.uk/
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The developers have also extended the basic aggregation of Twitter feeds to provide a

number of value added applications that can be installed on individual computers or

embedded in 3rd party websites.

Tweetminster is providing a valuable service by making it much easier for people to

identify and locate their local MP (if they have a twitter account of course) as well as

directly contact them to join in the active debates. By aggregating this across the political

this communication channels.

The service has gained recognition in both the mainstream and digital press channels

with coverage in the Financial Times, The Times newspaper, wired magazine and New

Media Age amongst others.

The Tweetminster twitter ID has over 10,000 followers and is used to provide updates on

y.

Scottish Parliament Case study

One of the most successful and renowned national scale eParticipation project was

launched by the Scottish Parliament in 200449 (http://scottish.parliament.uk). This project

revolves around the idea of online petitioning which is one of the oldest forms of

eParticipation. The Scottish Parliament e-petitioner system is quite unique as it allows

any citizen to propose and sign an e-petition and to comment any online discussion. This

project also integrates the multichannel approach as citizens can choose to participate

via e-

The Scottish Parliament objective is to respect the principles of sharing power;

accountability; access and participation; as well as equal opportunities. These principles

perfectly fit with the situation in Scotland as the population is very dispersed. The

implementation of e-Petition is one of the best way to erase and to overcome the space

barriers to participate and to provide a better accountability by setting up processes

49http://scottish.parliament.uk
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which results are published online and transparent. It has also increased transparency

by clearly formalising the stages for handling petitions.

Moreover the transparency of the process is also guaranteed by the fact that visitors can

track the petitions progresses through the parliament or local authorities, for example via

This initiative has a significant impact as it favoured the involvement of the Scottish

population in the Scottish Parliament's decision-making. The issues submitted to the

Public Petitions Committee via e-petitioning are key citizens issues. The subject of the e-

Petitions could vary from road crossing to telecom masts, Post Office closures, etc.

The Scottish parliament is carefully respecting data protection laws as the

names are displayed and personal data are stored privately.

The system automatically deletes duplicate signatures and it provides administrators

with graphical indicators on the validity of the signatures. These automated verifications

are based on the link between IP and e-mail addresses.

The follow-up of the petition is simple as the system automatically generates figures of

the numbers of signatures and their origin (regions of the signatures).

As the Scottish Parliament is recognized as one of the leaders in e-petitioning and its

projects has interested other Parliaments and institutions. The OECD acknowledged in

extent 50. Today the system has already been successfully

piloted and transferred to other local authorities in England.

The e-Petition system of the Scottish Parliament does not use expensive and new

technologies. It only needs Microsoft Active Server Pages (ASP) and a SQL Server

database to hold the petitions data. For the website, it uses the open standard XHTML

1.0 for web page mark-up, and (Open Database Connectivity standard to connect to the

database. The disk storage require for the application is less than 10MB51.

It is important to note that objectively the technical innovation level in this initiative is low;indeed petitions sent by e-mail or put on websites are not new. However what is new is

50http://itc.napier.ac.uk/itc/NewsItem.asp?ID=1451http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-SQL-Server-2000/Scottish-Parliament/Electronic-Petitions-Enhance-

Public-Influence-and-Participation-in-Democratic-Process/49640;http://www.epractice.eu/en/cases/spes
http://itc.napier.ac.uk/itc/NewsItem.asp?ID=14http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-SQL-Server-2000/Scottish-Parliament/Electronic-Petitions-Enhance-Public-Influence-and-Participation-in-Democratic-Process/49640http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-SQL-Server-2000/Scottish-Parliament/Electronic-Petitions-Enhance-Public-Influence-and-Participation-in-Democratic-Process/49640http://www.epractice.eu/en/cases/speshttp://www.epractice.eu/en/cases/speshttp://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-SQL-Server-2000/Scottish-Parliament/Electronic-Petitions-Enhance-Public-Influence-and-Participation-in-Democratic-Process/49640http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-SQL-Server-2000/Scottish-Parliament/Electronic-Petitions-Enhance-Public-Influence-and-Participation-in-Democratic-Process/49640http://itc.napier.ac.uk/itc/NewsItem.asp?ID=14


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the process52, once the e-petition has been submitted, the role of the petitioner does not

end. The e-petitioner53 continues to have an active role: - he/ she can respond to

comments made on the discussion forum, the submitter can also exchange and debate

on issues rose by a petition with a wide range of citizens. The e-petitioner is able to

come and defend his petition before the Public Petitions Committee on issues and

question raised by the Committee's investigation.

This example illustrates that innovative technologies and ICT tools are not the

milestones for the success of an eParticipation initiatives. The important point is to set

up processes that encourage the stakeholders to make an interactive platform. It also

shows the importance of a multichannel approach allowing the citizens to use the

channels which fit the most with his/her skills and tastes. It also highlights the needs of

transparency for citizens.

Denmark

ROSTRA Case Study

Rostra5455 (http://e-demokrati.borger.dk) is an online system for public debate and

expression of opinions through voting facilities based on the Danish Digital Signature,

started in June 2007. The tool is a part of the Danish citizens portal borger.dk developed

by the Danish National IT and Teleco

debates and votes organized by levels of government, subject, etc. The tool can handle

debates and votes at the local, regional and national levels and it is possible to

authentify user identity through login with the Danish Digital Signature.

In its modernization programme, the government has committed to the use of ICT to

-orien56

where

52ChallengesofExpandingInternet:eCommerceeBusinessandeGovernment,IFIPInternationalFederationforInformation

Processing,E-Petitioning:EnablingGround-UpParticipation;NicholasJ.Adams,AnnMacintoshandJimJohnston

http://www.springerlink.com/content/7x225285377139j2/53http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Petitioner54http://e-demokrati.borger.dk55http://www.epractice.eu/cases/Rostra56http://www.eurospacegroup.com/file/pubblicazioni/20091005_convegno.pdf
http://e-demokrati.borger.dk/http://e-demokrati.borger.dk/http://e-demokrati.borger.dk/http://www.springerlink.com/content/978-0-387-28753-9/http://www.springerlink.com/content/1571-5736/http://www.springerlink.com/content/1571-5736/https://springerlink3.metapress.com/content/?Author=Nicholas+J.+Adamshttps://springerlink3.metapress.com/content/?Author=Ann+Macintoshhttps://springerlink3.metapress.com/content/?Author=Jim+Johnstonhttp://www.springerlink.com/content/7x225285377139j2/http://e-demokrati.borger.dk/http://www.epractice.eu/cases/Rostrahttp://www.eurospacegroup.com/file/pubblicazioni/20091005_convegno.pdfhttp://www.eurospacegroup.com/file/pubblicazioni/20091005_convegno.pdfhttp://www.epractice.eu/cases/Rostrahttp://e-demokrati.borger.dk/http://www.springerlink.com/content/7x225285377139j2/https://springerlink3.metapress.com/content/?Author=Jim+Johnstonhttps://springerlink3.metapress.com/content/?Author=Ann+Macintoshhttps://springerlink3.metapress.com/content/?Author=Nicholas+J.+Adamshttp://www.springerlink.com/content/1571-5736/http://www.springerlink.com/content/1571-5736/http://www.springerlink.com/content/978-0-387-28753-9/http://e-demokrati.borger.dk/


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both citizens and businesses have greater access to the workings of government and

are able to participate in strengthened dialogue with politicians. While this commitment

has not translated into any specific goals under the e-Government strategy, it has

nonetheless been acted on at the all of government level from the development of the

online system for public debate and expression of opinions through voting facilities

based on the Danish Digital Signature.

The impact of the ROSTRA tool was development of a new voting system for binding

election regarding the Danish parochial church councils. To secure the secrecy of the

ballot and to ensure unique identification of the voter, the voting process is developed

around the Danish Digital Signature. It was possible for all potential voters to cast their

vote digitally in a period for 10 days before the physical election took place, November

2008. To ensure that there will be no connectivity between the voters personal

information and the vote itself, it has been decided, that once you vote digitally, the

option to physically place your vote at the voting facility is suspended.

This e-election is a pilot project between The Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs and The

National IT and Telecom Agency.

Austria

WLANdSalzburgamultimediaon-linetouristGuide

-part of Salzburg) is an ideal

test-bed for rolling-out wireless-LAN with complete internet coverage everywhere and at

all times. The initial phase of WLANd Salzburg57 is an information packed wireless

mobile city-guide that uses city maps in combination with GPS to show the actual

position of the tourist, plans and the surrounding attractions.

57NoellaEdelmann,CenterforE-Government,DanubeUniversityKrems,Krems,Austria;JohannHoechtl,CenterforE-Government,DanubeUniversityKrems,Krems,Austria;PeterParycek;Austrian

FederalChancellery,Vienna,Austriahttp://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1616908
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1616908http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1616908


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WLANd Salzburg is a virtual information layer that makes use of information from many

sources concerning tourist attractions. The information is distributed upon user request

As tourists are phy

accompanied by a virtual city-map with access to location-based information about

historical buildings, museums, fine arts, restaurants, and many other attractions, as they

emerge on their mobile devices.

Mitmachen and Jugend2help Case Study

In Austria, two recent eParticipation projects focused on adolescent citizens since 77%

of the young people (18-29) are everyday Internet users. The first project,

mitmachen.at move your future s to provide initial experiences with an

Jugend2help5859, applied the lessons learned

for adolescent citizens. In both projects, the results indicate that web portals and

Involving the users is central to the development of an eParticipation process or platform

ristics (age, skills), needs and interests are included

appropriately. Austrian youth eParticipators were asked to decide on the content and

features of their Help space. The Jugend2help project was very successful with around

900 contributions and 2000 votes.

The conclusions60 concerning the project are important for the future projects setup and

they reveal that the most important for a success of the eParticipation projects are good

PR (in social media but also in Schools and Public institutions) and Web accessibility.

which is able to reach them. Other issues which must also be considered ineParticipation are accessibility, inclusion and possibly gender.

58http://www.jugend2help.gv.at59http://www.epractice.eu/en/cases/jugend2help60jugend2help.gv.atE-governmentforyoungpeople,DanubeUniversityKrems

http://www.epma.cz/Docs/EEEGD09/prezentace/J2H_7th_eGovDays_Prag_20090424.pdf
http://www.jugend2help.gv.at/http://www.epma.cz/Docs/EEEGD09/prezentace/J2H_7th_eGovDays_Prag_20090424.pdfhttp://www.epma.cz/Docs/EEEGD09/prezentace/J2H_7th_eGovDays_Prag_20090424.pdfhttp://www.jugend2help.gv.at/


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The phases of Jugen2help project:

Finland

Pijt-Hme Case Study

Lahti Living Lab61 project purpose is to bring people into the center of innovation and to

participation in the innovation process. Lahti Living Lab is a sort of consortium bringing

together public corporations, companies, academia and users with an aim to open new

solutions and business opportunities by promoting innovation in a challenging

environment. The special focus of the Lahti Living Lab is also to develop and study

innovativeness and productivity in the public sector. The methods of involving and

activating the users vary, there are methods based on ICT but also on face-to-face

communication.

Lahti Living Lab is situated in the Pijt-Hme region in southern Finland. The region

has app. 200 000 inhabitants, which makes the region large enough for piloting user-

centered applications for the public services. The region also has favorable conditions

and structures for the public sector innovativeness (that the first public utility of social

and health care in Finland was founded in the Pijt-Hme region). The variety of

61http://www.openlivinglabs.eu/livinglab/lahti-living-lab

Phase 1

Discussionor Comments

Online

Phase 3Rating

OnlinePhase 2

Elaboration

Online

or Offline

Export

data Import

data

Phase 4 Results Publication
http://www.openlivinglabs.eu/livinglab/lahti-living-labhttp://www.openlivinglabs.eu/livinglab/lahti-living-lab


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projects related to the restructuring of public services and management of

innovativeness can be characterized as an ambition to improve the quality of life for a

whole citizens group and at the same time act as the start of a new and successful

business venture. The ongoing projects concentrate for example on involving ageing

people in generating ideas for a future welfare centre service concept. For example The

Patient Advice (Asiakasneuvo) programme developed under the guidance of LUT Lahti

School of Innovation began in autumn 2008. Programme has created a new way of

utilising patients' service experiences in d