What's missing for a mature What's missing for a mature civic e-democracy?civic e-democracy?

Giuseppe ParuoloGiuseppe Paruolo

Deputy Mayor for Health and Communication - City of Bologna

Chair of EUROCITIES Knowledge Society Forum – Telecities

Strasbourg, April 23th, 2007

E-democracy is an extraordinary opportunity to boost the level of participation of the citizens.

The City of Bologna commitment is proved by years of experiments and best practices. And we are ready to move forward with new projects.

EUROCITIES Knowledge Society Forum – TeleCities has it as one of the key issues. The Charter of eRights represents a common goal. And we are looking to joint actions to implement it.

Still, something is missing…

Summary / 1

What is missing?

In terms of:

1. Inclusion

2. Information

3. Participation

4. Politics

Technology can help, but not solve.

Summary / 2

Bologna “DIGITAL CITY”

Reengineering back office actions

Relations with Citizens (eParticipation)

IPERBOLEinformation

Interactive trials

eServices

exchanges among users

City of Bologna holistic web platform

created in 1995transparency

communication

Create the electronic Citizenship space for allMaking Citizens“NETIZENS”

Bologna

• Citizens consultation on the Mandate Programme 2004-2009

• Other consultations:- mobile and wireless aerials’ stations location plan- pre-school rules - immigration policies- Municipal plan for energy

• Public forum to redesign the City Masterplan (April 2005) Bologna, a City that changes - the participative urban planning to choose the future” • on-line studies

• questionnaires• projects• maps• videos• on-line forum moderated

by experts and politicians

Classical and multichannel participation:150 citizens 260 associations40 meetings230 subscribers

Bologna

• Partecipa.net

Emilia Romagna Region project

www.partecipa.net

Mutual learning and sharing of competencies, skill and experiences concerning both traditional and electronic decision making processes

eDemocracy kit

• open source forum application based on Delphi method;

• integrated system of CRM in order to deal with bi-directional communicative flows;

• mediation/moderation handbook;• technical and managerial guidelines on

eParticipation processes for PBs;• collaborative platform to share

problems, solutions Q/As... • At present: public consultation about the future

implementation of the public library “Your ideas for Sala Borsa”

Bologna

• enhance participation and cooperation between Citizens and PBs• develop a virtual plaza, in which everybody can discuss relevant

issues• make easier the customisation of services• exploit the joint intelligence (Wiki)• obtain feedback and content approval system to enhance user

reliability

Web 2.0

Blogs

RSS Feeds

Forums

Wikis

Socialmapping

Folksonomy

The future city portal

The future city portal

Opportunity - Leverage the incredible potential of the social networking on the Internet to increase the capabilities of the City Portal

Risk - Uncertain origin and compromised reliability of the information provided

Solution - Publishing procedures and clear indicators on origin and reliability to avoid confusionpage structure identifying user pages from official pages | system for content approval | user feedback | only administrators or users with non-negative feedbacks can approve content | value of reliability | international co-operation | credits architecture

Example: additional languages

EUROCITIES is the network of major European cities,bringing together the local governments of morethan 130 large cities in over 30 European countries.

EUROCITIES Knowledge Society Forum - TeleCities iscurrently focusing on ensuring the development of an inclusive Knowledge Society by making ICTs and online services accessible to all citizens, promotingthe modernisation of local public administrations through the use of ICT solutions, enhancing the rolecities play in the development of the Knowledge Society by promoting the uptake of ICT solutions and stimulating innovation, fostering the knowledge-based economy.

EUROCITIES KSF-TeleCities

KSF-T has officially presented in July 2005 the

EUROPEAN CHARTER OF RIGHTS OF CITIZENS EUROPEAN CHARTER OF RIGHTS OF CITIZENS IN THE KNOWLEDGE SOCIETYIN THE KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY

aims to be the European model from which local elected governments can draw up their own municipal Charter and determine their own ways of reaching a sustainable Knowledge Society in their local area.

eRights Charter

recognises the Rights to Access, to Education and Training to Online Information and Participation

more than 30 Cities have already signed the Charter; 18 Cities have expressed their interest in signing up

EUROCITIES KSF-TeleCities

KSF-T has set up a Work Group on eRights to: • promote the European Charter of Rights of

citizens in the Knowledge society• help Cities in implementing the Charter• offer the signatory Cities a platform to exchange

good practices• develop instruments to monitor the progresses• keep the eRights Charter up to date• liaise with partners that are active in preventing

the digital divide• organise Eurocities Digital Award based on

eRights

EUROCITIES KSF-TeleCities

During the next Summer Event (Bologna, 28-30 June 2007):

Safe Technologies in Safe CitiesWireless Networks

Advanced VideosurveillanceElectromagnetic Pollution

Natural Language Based Inclusion

EUROCITIES KSF-TeleCities

Digital divide is a recognised issue:

In terms of access (broadband and beyond)

In terms of learning/training

Internet not as the only mean

Was: traditional + Internet

Now: full range of possibilities

Technology may be of great help

Example: communicate with the elderly (Oldes)

Inclusion

No real participation without proper information

Media bound to exploit their own market, useful but not committed to empower the citizen

Direct channels to communicate with the citizens Possible (thanks to technology) Recommended (possibly with a common

vision) Not enough (overload is always a risk)

Technology may help, but not too much: information is crucial for (e-)democracy, rules and effort needed.

Example: Iperbole 2.0 project (+ common efforts)

Information

Different possible levels of participation

1. Feedback / suggestions on issues under discussion

2. Contribution to proposals under construction

3. Expression of consensus on proposals

4. Choice among different alternatives proposed

5. Possibility to submit and decide on proposals coming from the citizens

6. Participate not only in the decision making process but also in the realisation of decisions taken

Risk of underestimation of the real numbers to deal with

BUT MOSTLY: it’s a political issue

Participation

1. Caveat: technology is a tool, so a possible enabler of:

e-dictature

e-populism

e-wasteoftime

e-joke

…

e-democracy

Politics

2. Today (the risk is that it) is perceived as a political niche, a nice way to please citizens|netizens, with a bright future but today not really “dangerous”

Electoral web sites vs PB administrative sites

Similar in importance to the Youth Parliament or the Council of the Elders

Discussed mostly in technological conferences and meetings

Politics

3. If it were a “real” political issue…

We would be discussing about limitations of the use and rules to ensure a correct approach to e-democracy

Similarity with referendum (in Italian Constitution, in the City Regulations…)

Discussion in the main political arena and not only during technology conferences and among ICT experts

On the long run, e-democracy must lose the “e-”!

Politics

Contacts

Contacts:

GIUSEPPE PARUOLODeputy Mayor for Health and Communication, City of Bologna+39 051 219 3099giuseppe.paruolo@comune.bologna.it

www.comune.bologna.it

www.eurocities.eu

Thank you for your attention!