A novel e-deliberation project at the City of Trikala

Greece

Trikala:A medium sized

City at the heart of Greece

55.000 residents

A Citizen-centered City that sets the example as the 1st Digital City in Greece

e-trikala

Wi-Fi&

Fibre Optic Telecare

e-health

GISe-planning

IntelligentTransport

e-dialogos

DemosthenesCitizen

Complaints e-Service

The use of New Technologies inorder for the citizens to engage and

have an active role in the City’sdecision making process

Project Objectives

A unique opportunity for citizens who feel “distanced”

from ongoing matters, like:

►Young people who feel left-out out of the traditional structures and forms of participation

►Citizens who live in far-out villages ►Working citizens, who have limited time to

participate in off-line discussions ►Citizens of the city who live in other places all

over Greece or even abroad but have a strong affinity with their hometown

Project Objectives

www.edialogos.gr

The e-dialogos Platform

►An e-Survey system, to “quantify” citizens’ opinions

►An e-forum for direct moderated dialogue►A bottom-up e-Petition system►Most importantly, a fully integrated e-deliberation process

e-petitions

City of TrikalaB

otto

m-u

p

Top-down

e-forums&

e-surveys

Citizens

►►

►

e-deliberation

e-deliberation: The Innovation►The innovation of the project lies in its

holistic and fully integrated approach to e-participation, combining online deliberative and voting processes.

►A unique and original methodology of e-deliberation based on best practices worldwide & consistent with the current political theory of democracy and models of deliberation.

e-deliberation: The Methodology►It is a ‘serial process’ within a

specific time-frame with 5 well-defined steps within each deliberative cycle

►In this process, different e-tools are assigned to a particular and appropriate use

►The principle of engaged and informed citizens prevail from start-to-end

The e-deliberation: The ToolsTask ◄ ►Tool

Agenda setting

e-poll

Discussion

e-Forum [moderated]

Quantifying Opinions

e-Survey

Decision-making◄

► i-City Council

YES

NO

YES

NO

SUMMARY OF DISCUSSION BY THE MODERATOR

RESULTS OF E-SURVEY +FINAL SUM-UP

THE RESULT OF THE POLL IS PUBLISHED

WEBCASTING & REAL TIMECITIZENS PARTICIPATION

INTERACTIVE CITY COUNCIL

STRUCTURED ONLINE

SURVEYSe-SURVEY

AGENDA SETTING:

CITIZENS VOTE THE TWO

THEMES THEY WANT TO DISCUSSe-Polling

MODERATED e-FORUM

PRE-DETERMINED THREADS AND

BALANCED INFO ON EACH THEME

e-FORUMCITY COUNCIL

PROPOSES ISSUES TO DISCUSS

FINAL COUNCIL DECISION

e-dialogos Trikala: The e-deliberation at a glance The e-deliberation: The Process

… and a technical view

Ontology editor /data modeling

Ontologymaintenance

OntologyEngine

newsalerts

archivelibrary

e-forumse-surveys

pollse-petitions

Content& TopicMngt

Role& Access

Mngt

Services to Citizens Services to Moderators

Education Information Participation DialogueMngt

AccessMngt

PortalMngt

Pres

enta

tion

Laye

rA

pplic

atio

n La

yer

Sem

antic

Lay

erD

ata

Laye

r

► provides unified services to the citizens

► supports multiple-step deliberation process (workflow-based)

► flexibility in tool utilization

► ontology-based

► open standards

► OSS

The ontology► complete knowledge model of

the eParticipation processes► layered approach

upper tier: abstract model of eParticipation methodology and its processes

middle tier: models the main process of the methodology

bottom tier: models corresponding electronic processes of the methodology

UPPER ONTOLOGY

DELIBERATION ONTOLOGY

CONSULTATIONONTOLOGY

PETITIONONTOLOGY

Communication is critical

Poster

Info Brochure

A success…but more needs to be done!

►Number of registered citizens: > 300

►The monthly average site statistics are: 350 visits, 250 unique visitors, 1.900 page views

►25% of broadband users were involved one way or another (est*)

►A “success” considering the low internet penetration rate in Greece and the novelty of the project (a first for the whole country)

(* figures calculated and based on official data from the “Observatory for the Information Society” eEurope/i2010 July 08

report and the Census 2001 population data of the Greek National Statistics Office).

Critical success factors►Legitimacy: Strong commitment from

policy makers to seriously engage in the process

►Training for moderators and city officials

►Multi-channel communication plan to attract and sustain citizen participation

►A multi-disciplinary project team: technologists, political scientists, communication experts, moderators etc

►e-democracy is about creating a “culture of participation”

►And requires a total re-thinking on the part of policy makers & citizens alike

►Dare to experiment…

Lessons Learned

The Next Step: Scalability

e-dialogos II• Implemented in a group of 11 cities all over Central Greece

• Web2.0 enhanced

“The Internet can be used bycitizens to watch theirgovernments - rather than bygovernments to watch theircitizens” Prof. Manuel Castells