DEMO-net the eParticipation Network

1. DEMO-net the eParticipation Network Maria A. Wimmer University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany wimmer@uni-koblenz.de www.demo-net.org

2. eParticipation: the Problem • Civil society disengages from formal political processes (such as voting and joining parties) • A crisis of public trust in governments • Political practices divergent from the electorate • Politics need to renew public confidence • Widespread protests when popular ideas are ignored • Increasing demands for public participation • The above threaten the representative model of democracy www.demo-net.org

3. eParticipation: the Emerging Field • Attempting to re-engage people in the democratic process • by investigating the development and use of Information and Communication Technologies • Aiming at making decision-making more • transparent • inclusive • accessible www.demo-net.org

4. eParticipation Using ICT to support: informing Top-down engagement Ground-up empowerment www.demo-net.org

5. Motivations for eParticipation • Overall: Broader and Deeper democratic involvement • More people involved • Better quality of involvement • Information dissemination • More people can find/access information • People can better understand information • Top-down engagement • More people contribute • More informed contributions • Ground-up engagement • More people provide ideas/participate • More thought through ideas www.demo-net.org

6. However … • Political problems cannot easily be solved by ICT • Nothing inherently democratic about technology www.demo-net.org

7. Demo-net Fact Sheet Project Acronym: DEMO_net Project Title: The Democracy Network Contract Number:FP6-2004-IST-4, 027219 Duration:4 years Budget:6.000.000€ EC funding: 6.000.000€ URL: http://www.demo-net.org www.demo-net.org

8. Digital North Denmark (DK) University of Leeds (UK) Örebro University (S) University of Koblenz (D) Fraunhofer AIS (D) Institute for Information Management Bremen GmbH (D) University of Macedonia (GR) National Technical University of Athens (GR) Copenhagen Business School (DK) Aalborg University (DK) Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques (F) Technical University of Košice (SK) National Research Council (IT) University of Bergamo (IT) Yorkshire and Humber Assembly (UK) European Projects & Management Agency / Vysocina Region (CZ) Napier University (UK) University of Iceland (IS) University of Helsinki (SF) University of Southern California (US) Austrian Academy of Science (A) The Consortium www.demo-net.org

9. DEMO-net Objectives • To strengthen scientific, technological & social excellence in eParticipation • to achieve a lasting integration of currently fragmented research in eParticipation • to stimulate joint research in the agreed research areas of DEMO-net • to disseminate DEMO-net research amongst eParticipation stakeholders • to provide a barometer of research effectiveness for eParticipation in Europe www.demo-net.org

10. Measures to Reach the Objectives • Co-ordinating & integrating research activities clustered around the research objectives • Analysing existing eParticipation research across Europe • Mobilising relationships among all stakeholders • Achieving co-operation between government & academia to improve quality of research & understanding • Providing a technology platform for discussion, co-operation & data exchange • Disseminating research outcomes for the benefit of researchers, government & citizens • Ensuring growth and sustainability www.demo-net.org

11. Demo-net Virtual Centre of Excellence • Sustainable eParticipation research community that advances ICT applicable to eParticipation • Environment that encourages collaboration • Significant contribution to PhD development • Critical exposure of researchers to pressing democratic problems • Significant input to government policy development for citizen engagement both in individual EU countries and the EU as a whole www.demo-net.org

12. Demo-net Work Distribution in Phase I WP1: Integration Strategy WP4: Setting challenges WP2: Educational and student exchange programme WP3: Research exchange programme WP7: Establishing an information infrastructure for the NoE WP9: NoE Project Management WP5: Joint eParticipation technical research WP6: Joint eParticipation socio-technical research www.demo-net.org WP8: Dissemination

13. Multidisciplinarity and integrative aspects of eParticipation research Organisational, public administration and economic sciences Political, democracy and legal sciences eParticipation as research discipline Social and human sciences Computer sciences Information and knowledge research sciences www.demo-net.org

14. Key Research Challenges • Gap analysis and roadmap • eParticipation tools and methods • Application and use • Large scale public participation • Large scale discourse analysis • Management of diverse information and knowledge • Virtual Communities • How and what to evaluate • Emerging standards and business models • Knowledge and collaboration platform • Transferability of concepts, methods, standards, tools etc www.demo-net.org

15. Addressing Research Challenges • Research • knowledge architectures to support access to policy-based information by different stakeholders with different objectives • interfaces to support evidence-based decision-making • discourse techniques to explore agenda setting, and alliance building at different levels • Map • current and emergent eParticipation technological infrastructures • current and emergent eParticipation methods • Establish an evaluation framework • Harmonise and align concepts, terminology and methods from • the academic disciplines involved • from parliaments and government www.demo-net.org

16. Video interview (pre-recorded) FAQs Webcasts Blogs Video interview (streamed) Chat interview Discussion Boards Questionnaires/Polls Petitions / Surveys Decision-making Games Access to factual information Formulate opinion Based on views of others Contribute Own opinion Types of tools www.demo-net.org

17. Key Questions in Application and Deployment • Barriers and challenges of eParticipation • Legal, institutional, cultural, linguistic, professional, infrastructural and financial • Obstacles of integration of research and practice • Challenges of a dialogue among the distinct stakeholders www.demo-net.org

18. Research groups contracted to DEMO-net Other research groups in Europe governments R&D groups outside EU Industry civil society DEMO-net partner relationships DEMO-net:building the eParticipation community Eg: the EU-NSF networking at EGOV www.demo-net.org

19. WP 1: Integration …Barriers, challenges, needs and opportunities in eParticipation research Some Results from the Edinburgh Stakeholder Workshop on 14th June 2006 Carried out under workpackage 1 of Demo-net www.demo-net.org

20. Problems and barriers identified • Lack of understanding of the complexity and the multiple facets of the field • Lack of understanding of the socio-technical nature of the field • Single disciplines investigating multidisciplinary contexts in isolation • Fragmented research • Weaknesses in the transfer of knowledge • Lack of interaction and integration among research and application www.demo-net.org

21. Success / failure Relevance of methodologies, tools and instruments to whom / for what Impact of technology to Government and Democracy Stakeholders (who / what are their needs) What kind of technology is out there / may emerge Social context Organisation Business case Political sphere Cultural sphere The public / society Understanding eParticipation: Dialogue on ... www.demo-net.org

22. eParticipation Key Issues ... Citizen / society / democracy /economy and market / environment & culture ICT innovations, emerging technologies Efficiency, effectiveness / economics /public value Governments and public authorities / political decision making & pubic services / good governance / legislation, jurisdiction and executive bodies

23. Read more on the barriers, challenges, needs and opportunities of eParticipation WP 1 Deliverable D 1.1 Report on the Stakeholder Dialogue Contact: wimmer@uni-koblenz.de, JohnShaddock@LineOne.net www.demo-net.org

24. Thank you for your attention! wimmer@uni-koblenz.de www.demo-net.org