Policy Modelling Supported by e- Participation ICT Tools

1. Policy Modelling Supported by e-Participation ICT Tools Karol Furdik 1,2, Tomas Sabol 2, Viera Dulinova 3 1 InterSoft, a.s., Košice, Slovakia 2 Technical University of Košice 3 Košice Self-governing Region 4th International Conference on Methodologies, Technologies and Tools enabling e-Government 01-02 July 2010 – Olten, Switzerland

2. Contents Motivation, goals, challenges Related research OCOPOMO project: Basic facts, consortium, vision, objectives, scope Architecture of the proposed solution ICT Toolbox: structure, functionality Pilot applications: Campania and KSR use cases KSR: Developing a strategy for renewable energy resources. Process models, OCOPOMO support in decision making. Gathering requirements on ICT tools Conclusions, future work

3. Motivation, goals Innovative solutions in e-Government: knowledge economy (Lisbon strategy, 2000) ICT facilitating efficiency and quality of services interoperability of services Current challenge: from services to strategies / policies, which includes: Collaboration - involvement of general public and relevant stakeholders in the process of policy development Increasing the level of understanding of strategies / policies by service consumers (e.g. by means of policy models, visualisations, narrative scenarios, etc.) Provision of proper ICT support for collaborative policy creation

4. Challenges Aim: To enable a collaborative long-term strategic planning in e-Government organisations, supported by a suite of ICT tools for: Foresights and policy modelling Open and transparent collaboration in the process of policy development Simulation and visualisation of policy alternatives and their consequences on suitable models Iterative development of policies (strategic plans) in a form of narrative scenarios Collaborative environment for policy analysts, operators, decision makers, wider interest groups and the general public Seamless goal-oriented collaboration of stakeholders, enhanced by proper e-Participation tools

5. Related research Policy modelling: Agent-based policy modelling tools, built on the platform of multi-agent systems: JADE, Repast, etc. Content management systems: Apache Lenya, Drupal, Jackrabbit, Plone, etc., possibly enhanced by semantic technologies. Collaboration platforms (groupware): Sharing of artefacts, active communication between participants: Hipergate, Open-Xchange, KPLab, Lucane, eGroupWare, etc. e-Participation platforms: Web 2.0 based ICT support for social networks such as discussion fora, wikis, blogs, chats, podcasts, etc.: frameworks such as LEX-IS, VoicE, or LexiPation.

6. OCOPOMO project - basic facts OCOPOMO: Open COllaboration for POlicy MOdelling Web: www.ocopomo.org or www.ocopomo.eu FP7 ICT EU project, contract No. 248128 Theme 7.3: ICT for Governance and Policy Modelling Duration: 01/2010 – 12/2012 (36 months) Consortium: 10 partners from 5 countries (GE,UK,PL,IT,SK) Coordinator: University of Koblenz-Landau, GE 2 Pilot applications in Italy and Slovakia Main objective: Integration of specialised ICT tools into a single e-Governance toolkit that will enable a collaborative policy modelling for decision support of governmental representatives.

7. Vision, objectives, scope Project vision: to demonstrate that, with appropriate ICT, the integration of formal policy modelling, scenario generation and open collaboration is essential at local, regional, national or global level of policy formation. Specific objectives: Creation of two policy analyses at regional level (IT, SK) Development of a general model of macroeconomic relations constrained by data produced at national and European levels Conceptual and functional integration of narrative scenario analysis with formal policy modelling Integration of the macroeconomic model with regional policy models Development of ICT solutions that will support the engagement of “core” stakeholders and will be open for external stakeholders

8. Approach to policy modelling Agent-based & bottom-up approach: Prerequisite - balanced range and structure of target users, involved stakeholders Initial policy framework is defined by policy analysts and operators Policy proposal is confronted with opinions of interest groups and general public in an e-Participation collaboration Experts are involved to moderate the discussion Policy models are visualised; stakeholders can play a role of software agents and investigate the consequences of specific behaviour, settings, decisions, etc. This way, the OCOPOMO should enable stakeholders to master and shape future developments so that the demands of its society and economy are met.

9. Architecture 1. Interest groups depict alternative narrative descriptions of a policy area 2. Experts produce the common macroeconomic simulation model 3. Individual agent-based policy models are developed from perspectives of local stakeholders 4. The policy models, aligned to the supporting narrative scenarios, are visualised and simulated in the OCOPOMO platform 5. Iterative procedure of changes in alternative scenarios (5a) or modifications in individual policy models (5b)

10. ICT Toolbox

11. Pilot applications Pilot Campania Location: Campania Region (http://www.regione.campania.it), Italy. Target: support in policy decisions in respect to an optimal allocation of EU Structural funds in the region. Pilot KSR Location: Kosice Self-governing Region (KSR, http://www.vucke.sk), Slovakia. Target: development of a sustainable long-term strategy for exploitation of renewable energy resources.

12. Steps of work Identification of stakeholders Target groups Policy operators, decision makers Policy analysts External groups of experts Specification of decision-making processes AS-IS vs. TO-BE processes Flowcharts, BPMN models Identification of requirements for ICT tools 4 phases: Initialisation, Stakeholder analysis in policy cases, Design of overall process of the pilots, Design of electronic support Detailed design of system functionality and architecture

13. KSR: Stakeholders Target groups: Energy utility such as VSE (member of RWE Group), SPP (gas producer and distributor), TEKO (local producer of heat), small energy producers (e.g. owners or operators of small hydropower plants); Potential investors, both existing and new potential investors; NGOs and civic associations that are active in the field of energy saving, environment protection, etc. (about 20 organisations identified so far); General public. Policy operators, decision makers: Members of the regional parliament, working groups in the parliament. Policy analysts: Department of Regional Development and Land Planning in KSR (DRDLP); OCOPOMO partners specialised on policy modelling and analysis (i.e. Centre for Policy Modelling, Manchester Metropolitan University, http://cfpm.org). External groups of experts: Slovak Innovation and Energy Agency, http://www.sea.gov.sk; Regulatory Office for Network Industries, http://www.urso.gov.sk/sk; Slovak Environmental Agency, http://www.sazp.sk.

14. KSR: Policy creation process

15. KSR: BPMN model (1)

16. KSR: BPMN model (2)

17. KSR: BPMN model (3)

18. Requirements on tools (1)

19. Requirements on tools (2)

20. Requirements on tools (3)

21. Future work Detailed specification of functionality and architecture of the OCOPOMO platform Architectural design of IT solution: November 2010 Platform components for first prototype : July 2011 Integrated ICT toolbox prototype: September 2011 First prototype of the integrated platform should be available in autumn 2011 Implementation, testing: first round of pilot applications: winter 2011 second pilot applications and evaluation: autumn 2012 More info at www.ocopomo.org or www.ocopomo.eu

22. Thank you for your attention! Any questions, comments, suggestions?