“Electronic Democracy – a new possibility for the community of Larga to access public information”

1. Project Presentation “Electronic Democracy – a new possibility for the community of Larga to access public information”

2. Financier Soros Foundation – Moldova $2,623 USD

3. Project’s Goals Increasing transparency of the public administration’s activities and increasing public participation in political life through intermediary technological information and communication, assuring easy, non-discriminatory access to public information, especially for users with disabilities.

4. Objectives Advancing the level of information viewed by citizens from the local government and public life by installing a web camera in the conference room at the Mayor’s Office that is connected to a laptop which will record public meetings; Creating a webpage for the community of Larga, which will be an informational site with references to past community activities and which will assure a stronger and more accessible connection between all community members - citizens, actors and the LPA; Effective transmission of recorded public meetings with the Web camera to CCAII “LargaCom” in order to be viewed for free by all interested individuals and at the same time allowing individuals who are unable to physically participate in meetings to be able to view them on-line or on their on time; On the website there will be a section which will give people the possibility of communicating on-line with local decision-makers through on-line surveys, hot-lines, and question-answer forums, which in turn will provide citizens with quicker access to information and more technology services.

5. Problem The risk of withholding or distorting event information, which in turn causes misinformed and ignorant citizens, therefore, the decisional process must be precise and absolute so the local government can adequately address citizen’s needs.

6. Equipment Web Camera Model: D-Link DCS 2120 Characteristics: • Built-in Microphone; • Video Resolution 640x480 (pixels) • Frames/second – 30 • Visibility Angle 62 degrees • Interface 802.11g Wireless 10/100Mbps Fast Ethernet

7. Equipment Laptop Model:HP Compaq 6715b Characteristics: • AMD Turion 64x2 Mobile • 1024MB DDR RAM, • 120GB HDD, • DVD+/-RW, • 15.4 inch WXGA, • 56K Modem, • 802.11a/b/g, • Bluetooth, • 6 Cell LiIon Batt, • Vista Business

8. Equipment Flash Drive USB – 2.0 Model: Micro Cruzer Characteristics: • 4 Gb

9. Recording Production CCAII “LargaCom” USB cable

10. Mechanical Problems We have been unable to find D-Link camera software that is compatible with Windows Vista, Converting recordings to AVI file format, The laptop is not connected to the internet because the Mayor’s office does not have DSL internet access so meetings cannot be viewed on-line, We do not have the possibility of placing our recordings on our webpage because the webpage’s domain is .com.md and this domain does not allow us to place large dimension recordings on it.

11. Project’s Success: A Web camera was installed in the conference room at the Mayor’s office. It is connected to a laptop and records all the local council meetings, recordings can be viewed for free at CCAII,an event that increased the ability to inform citizens about local government and community activities.

12. Project’s Success: • Website created for the community of Larga, which will be an informational site with references to past community activities and which will assure a stronger and more accessible connection between all community members - citizens, actors and the LPA

13. Project’s Success: Through an intermediary forum, the Larga community has the possibility of communicating on-line with experts on various topics which will provide quicker access to services and information

14. Impact • Citizens and other community actors have free, ample and operational access to public information including the decision-making process of the local government; • Public information comes from integral, truthful, and non-discriminatory sources; • Assures decentralization and a democratic process of adopting public decisions; • LPA, economic agencies, and social-cultural institutions from the region can quickly find out about the public’s opinion towards their activities and what foundational services they are permitted to implement through the government – citizenship, effective and concrete reactions to community needs; • Strengthens local democracy byraising the level of civic participation towards solving community problems; • Increased CCAII “LargaCom” efficiency through diversification of access to information by creating a community website that includes public information, provides a community development network and promotes cultural information to the community and the region.

15. Future Plans • Acquiring another web camera which will record conduct and events in the conference room; • Faster Internet connection in order to display meetings on-line; • Placing Russian and English materials on website; • Using web cameras for safety and security goals.