e-Participa project

1
e-Participa project
Interdisciplinary analysis of municipal citizen
participation for the design of virtual
collaborative environments
Virtual environments for local citizen
participation principal bases for design
2
e-Participa Project
What is e-Participation?
e-Participation experiences
Principal bases for design
Virtual environments for local citizen
participation principal bases for design

1. What is e-Participation?

1. e-Participa Project

1. e-Participation experiences

1. Principal bases for design

3
e-Participa Project
e-Participation experiences
Principal bases for design
What is e-Participation?

• What is Citizen Participation?
• All kind of activities where individual citizens
  -as well as citizen groups and associations-
  engage in with the intention of influencing
  public policy, either indirectly or directly

Our project focuses on participative processes
oriented towards decision making at the municipal
level

and, more specifically,
on those processes that are organized or at least
supported by local government authorities.
Phases and criteria for participative processes
Transparency Neutrality Transparency Neutrality Transparency Neutrality Transparency Neutrality
INITIATIVE MOBILIZATION PARTICIPATION EFFECTS/RESULTS
Political accord Social accord Administrative accord Plain objectives -realism Reach Representativeness-pluralism Information Deliberation Influence on policies Generation of participative culture Institutional coherence
4
e-Participa Project
e-Participation experiences
Principal bases for design
What is e-Participation?
What is Citizen e-Participation? The
utilization of Information and Communication
Technologies (ICT) -mainly Internet- to promote
and support citizen participation

• Obstacles for e-Participation
• Legal
• Organizational
• Cultural
• Technical and financial capacity

5
e-Participa Project
What is e-Participation?
e-Participation experiences
Principal bases for design
What is it? e-Participa is a PhD research
project at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
(Spain) to design a virtual environment aimed to
reinforce citizen participation at the municipal
level. How will it be developed? By means of an
interdisciplinary methodological approach which
combines socio-political analysis with systems
design methodologies, thus integrating the
knowledge of real day to day citizen
participation with the enabling capabilities
offered by the Internet.
6
e-Participa Project
What is e-Participation?
e-Participation experiences
Principal bases for design
Previous knowledge
Objective
Requisites
Theoretical analysis
Requisites
Design
Sociological research
Evaluation
Prototype
Principles
Technical research
Final design
Construction

• Theoretical analysis
• Theories on Citizen Participation, eDemocracy,
  eGovernment, etc.
• Participation experiences
• e-Participation systems experiences

• Sociological research
• Ceará (Brazil)
• Participation in developing countries
• Catalonia (Spain)
• Municipal e-Participation

• Technical research
• Applicable technologies
• Accessibility

• Design
• Functionality
• GUI
• Internal structure
• Participatory processes
• Business models

• Evaluation
• Citizens
• Citizen organizations
• Town-hall civil servants
• Politicians
• Participation experts

• Construction
• Free Software
• University bound
• External funding

• Pilot installations
• Spain
• Brazil
• Argentina

city-kiosey v.1
to the future
Pilot installations
7
e-Participa Project
What is e-Participation?
Principal bases for design
e-Participation experiences
Several e-participation experiences around the
world have been analyzed

• EDEN

• OPA Ipatinga

• Estatut Catalá

• ...

• Lessons learnt
• Positive consequences of e-participation
• Key factors for successful e-participation
  initiatives
• Shortcomings of current virtual environments

8
e-Participa Project
What is e-Participation?
Principal bases for design
e-Participation experiences
Positive consequences of e-participation

• Information sharing
• Quality discussions and effective communication
• The documentation of participative processes
  while promoting their transparency
• The extension of citizen participation to a
  greater number and range of citizen groups

9
e-Participa Project
What is e-Participation?
Principal bases for design
e-Participation experiences
Key factors for successful e-participation
initiatives

• Some are shared with face-to-face participation
• Thorough planning of the participative process
• Commitment to the process on the part of
  political and administrative entities
• Promotion of the processes
• Virtual participative environment
• Guarantee universal public access to the system
• Adequate training of citizens and public
  servants
• Mediation (or facilitation) of discussions

10
e-Participa Project
What is e-Participation?
Principal bases for design
e-Participation experiences
Shortcomings of current virtual environments

• Predominance of systems using proprietary
  software
• Do not take into account the role of moderators
• Participative processes lack continuity,
  consisting normally of isolated events
• Main limitation lack of compatibility with the
  necessities and characteristics of the municipal
  environment

11









e-Participa Project
What is e-Participation?
e-Participation experiences
Principal bases for design
Principal bases for design

1. A focus on the municipal environment
2. Attention to the groups involved in citizen
   participation
3. Support for the face-to-face participative
   methods already in operation
4. Development based on Free Software
5. Temporary use of the participation system
6. A tool for municipal government AND citizens
   groups
7. Promoting increased knowledge and social networks
   
8. Quality discussion, supported by mediation and
   transparency
9. Citizenship School

12
e-Participa Project
What is e-Participation?
e-Participation experiences
Principal bases for design
3. Support for the face-to-face participative
methods already in operation

• Electronic participation supports and complements
  rather than substitutes face-to-face
  participative mechanisms and processes
• The system can be easily integrated into existing
  face-to-face participative processes
• Participatory Budgeting
• Citizen Councils
• Neighborhood participative processes
• Internal participative work of government and
  citizen organizations
• ...

13
e-Participa Project
What is e-Participation?
e-Participation experiences
Principal bases for design
4. Development based on Free Software

• Advantages associated with open source software
• lower cost of development and implementation
• higher level of technological innovation
• independence with respect to suppliers
• greater security and privacy
• greater adaptability to specific needs
• support of a greater number of languages

Whatever improvements that a municipality
incorporates into the system to attend to its
specific needs will be available to the entire
community of users.
14
e-Participa Project
What is e-Participation?
e-Participation experiences
Principal bases for design
Principal bases for design

1. A focus on the municipal environment
2. Attention to the groups involved in citizen
   participation
3. Support for the face-to-face participative
   methods already in operation
4. Development based on Free Software
5. Temporary use of the participation system
6. A tool for municipal government AND citizens
   groups
7. Promoting increased knowledge and social networks
8. Quality discussion, supported by mediation and
   transparency
9. Citizenship School

15
e-Participa Project
What is e-Participation?
e-Participation experiences
Principal bases for design
7. Promoting increased knowledge and social
networks

• The system will seek to take advantage of
  Internet capabilities in order to promote
  knowledge sharing, social networking, and a
  culture of collaboration amongst citizens
• Examples of collaborative tools
• User profiles
• Possibility of personalizing the system
• Recognition of quality participation

16
e-Participa Project
What is e-Participation?
e-Participation experiences
Principal bases for design
8. Quality discussion, supported by mediation and
transparency

• The system needs to promote informed, reflective,
  quality discussions that lead to thoughtful
  decisions, buttressed by the contributions of the
  different collectives involved
• User-friendly interface that facilitates
• Integration with e-mails
• Incorporation of the discussions in a specific
  result oriented participative methodology
• Easy monitoring of the discussion and intuitive
  access to the interventions
• High communicative expressivity
• Debate mediation/facilitation
• with tools for analysis of interventions, the
  creation of summaries and questionnaires that
  participants will respond to, and the
  introduction of sub forums, etc.
• high transparency level guaranteed by the system

17
e-Participa Project
What is e-Participation?
e-Participation experiences
Principal bases for design
Principal bases for design

1. A focus on the municipal environment
2. Attention to the groups involved in citizen
   participation
3. Support for the face-to-face participative
   methods already in operation
4. Development based on Free Software
5. Temporary use of the participation system
6. A tool for municipal government AND citizens
   groups
7. Promoting increased knowledge and social networks
   
8. Quality discussion, supported by mediation and
   transparency
9. Citizenship School

18
project
http//www.e-participa.org/
pedro.prieto-martin_at_e-participa.org
?
19
Backup slides
UML Design
20
Backup slides
UML Design
21
Backup slides
UML Design
22
Backup slides
Visual Design