eDemocracy at local level The case of Trikala eDialogos project

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e-Democracy at local level The case of Trikala
e-Dialogos project

• by Christoforos Korakas
• ckorakas_at_access2democracy.org

Region of Thessaly
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What is the situation Today ?

• Democratic Deficit
• Incapacity of Politicians to LISTEN and Discuss
  with Citizens / EU-Constitution
• Citizens indifference, disengagement, mistrust -
  a strong feeling of being left-out
• Consenting democracy, consumer citizen only in
  election day and even so ..
• Increasing abstention of citizens from the
  political process, giving away even their
  dominant democratic right voting in elections /
  CoE Green Paper, Future of Democracy in Europe
  Projection 2020 abstention in national
  parliamentary elections could reach 65 in W.
  Europe
• Democratic deficit even in established
  democracies
• Governments and policy makers in search of a way
  to re-engage the citizen, to safeguard their own
  legitimacy
• SO WHAT IS THE SITUATION TODAY? NOT GOOD!

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Building Participatory Democracy
DEMOCRACYDemocratic / Participatory Governance
Elections / Accountability
Impact Assessment / Policy Checks
Participatory Policy Implementation
Participatory Decision on Policy
BUILDING BLOCKS OF DEMOCRACY
Participatory Policy formulation
Participatory Deliber./exchange of views
Access to Information / Transparency
Education / Formal Informal / Civic Edu
Eco/ Social Security Basic Human Needs
OF POPULATION ? IMPACT
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What is the situation Today?
What could ICTs offer
e-Democracy tools and apps, Is it enough?
Policy framework for a new era of Democracy
-OCRACY-cipatory Governance
e-DEM
e-??
parti
e-
Elections
e-
Policy
e-
Impact A
e-
Policy
e-
Citiz
e-
Policy
e-
Decis
e-
Policy
BUILDING BLOCKS OF DEMOCRACY
e-
Form.
e-
Policy
Active Citizen
Active Citizen
Active Citizen
Active Citizen
Active Citizen
Active Citizen
e-
Delib..
e-
Policy
Informed Citizen
e-
Access to Info
e-
Policy
Citizen
e-
Education / Formal
e-
Policy
e-
Human
Eco/ Social Security
Policy
e-
OF POPULATION ? IMPACT
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So why eDemocracy?

• Is e-Democracy the answer to all these?
• No ! But it can help, not only reinvigorate the
  traditional democratic processes but it also
  allows to rethink them on the basis of the new
  possibilities offered, building on the democracy
  values
• eDemocracy builds on the potential of ICTs to
  Promote the emergence of a participatory and
  deliberative democracy that will bridge the gap
  between policy makers and citizens providing the
  first with support and legitimacy and the second
  with transparent access to information and
  participation to the policy making processes be
  it at a local, national or global level.
• eDemocracy does not compete or substitute
  traditional institutions and democratic
  processes. It builds on them.

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What eDemocracy is and what it is not!

• It is usually identified to websites with online
  forums, eVotes, eConsultations etc. But
• eDemocracy is more about democracy than
  technology
• Promote active citizenship and participation in
  policy formation through Deliberation. Not just
  participation in elections every 4 or so years.
• eDemocracy as an education tool can help create
  a culture of democracy
• Deploying ICTs is not enough
• ICTs must be integrated in Democratic Practice
  through structural transformations and
  reengineering of the processes to make any
  difference.
• eDemocracy is not
• About the creation of a push button democracy
• yet another eGovernment service
• A ready made solution to tackle the democratic
  deficit

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The situation in Greece

• Interest Divide
• Many people interested in Politics, but for
  their own reasons partitocracy, clientelism,
• Strong Interlocking of political, media
  business powers
• Very few opportunities of genuine citizen
  engagement in the policy formulation / making
  processes (Local, National), beyond election time
• Digital Divide
• Laggard in the EU27 25 Internet penetration, 7
  broadband, still too little Greek content / City
  Periphery divide / age divide
• ICT is still a class taught in schools like
  Geography no Integration of ICTs in everyday
  teaching
• But 100 Mobile phone penetration / even though
  more expensive service than EU average
• But Internet cafes are packed with kids playing
  online games
• Athens is the largest WiFi community in the World
  Lack of core Infrastructure gt deployment of
  alternatives by citizens

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The drivers for eDemocracy in Greece

• Political Parties / George Papandreou as FM and
  PASOK president
• eVote vote for the EU you want (2003)
• e-Dialogos (2004) / open eVote for party
  EU-Parliament elections candidates (2004)
• Local authorities/municipalities few enlightened
  Mayors (Maroussi, Trikala) in general limited
  awareness on ICT issues (let alone eDemocracy).
  KEDKE the Central Union of Municipalities and
  Communities of Greece, is working on that
• Civil society very few edemocracy NGOs
• Growing interest from other NGOS to explore the
  possibilities offered by e-Democracy
• In general limited awareness on ICT issues (let
  alone eDemocracy)
• University / Research Institutes Few disparate
  efforts no coordination
• Aegean University (e-Vote IST project)
• Research Academic Computer Technology Institute
  (CTI) PNYKA project / web based e-Vote systems
  / pilot in professional associations. / others???
• Funding / Incentives No e-Democracy national
  plan
• Ministry of Economy, very small of Information
  Society budget (2,8bn) suitable to eDemocracy
  related projects.
• Small funds also available through Ministry of
  Pub. Admin / Ministry of Development GS for
  Research and Technology
• Ear-marked EU funding for eParticipation
  increasing interest form municipalities

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eDemocracy / eParticipation in Greece

• Not a conducive environment
• Strong barriers both Interest and Digital divide
• Very few concrete experiments
• Hesitation from policy makers to share powers
• Civil society dormant and not ICT prone
• But Very Challenging
• Virgin territory everything still to be done
• Learning from successes and failures of the
  eDemocracy front-runners from across the world,
  and work with them!
• Little projects might lead to great results

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e-Dialogos, Municipality of Trikala (GR)

• A Local e-Democracy project implemented by the
  region of Thessaly, piloted in the Municipality
  of Trikala financed through the Politeia
  national programme of the Ministry of Public
  Administr. (135K)
• The Objective Use of ICTs to enable citizens to
  actively participate in the policy formulation
  and decision making processes of the Municipality
• Methodology developed by access2democracy
• Technical deployment by IMC, a specialised IT
  company in knowledge and Information mgt.
• Assisted by political market research co. Ventris

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The approach

• We are experimenting with a mixed approach, with
  parallel use of
• Top down tools eSurveys
• Bottom up ePetitions (Ann Macintosh, Tom
  Steinberg)
• Collaborative approach between citizens and
  policy makers, with iterations of
• Agenda Setting (online Questionnaires)
• Online Deliberations / Dialogue (customized,
  moderated forums)
• Online Voting (Online Questionnaires Surveys)
• Interactive Municipal council meetings
• We do not want scientific samples or citizen
  panels of just few dozen citizens
• The objective is to involve a maximum number of
  citizens for them to discuss and understand the
  issues, and participate in the policy formulation
  and decision making processes.
• Important education role of the process
  reinstate a culture of democracy and
  participation
• Quality / Representativeness of results? We
  experiment with demographics and weighting to
  counterbalance the disadvantages of self selected
  samples
• High Quality, multidimensional, independent,
  relevant and accessible to the citizen
  Information is an essential pillar of the
  eDemocracy process
• Good Communication and Marketing plan

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In short
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A great opportunity

• For the non interested youth, working citizens
  that do not have the time to participate,
  Citizens of the Municipality living in remote
  areas, other regions of Greece (e.g. Athens) or
  even abroad,
• For all those that are left out or unable to
  engage in the traditional forms and structures
  of participation
• Great opportunity for the Municipality to
  efficiently cooperate with citizens for the
  formulation and Implementation of policies and
  actions.
• Important requirement fighting the digital
  divide
• Public Internet access points / free wireless
  Internet for all / basic ICT and Internet
  initiation for citizens
• Rethink the interfaces Intuitive,
  straightforward, fun to use.

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Supportive Actions

• crucial in order to increase the efficiency of
  whole process
• Timely advertisement and awareness raising
  activities on forthcoming discussions online and
  offline, using the main stream media, posters,
  leaflets etc to attract participation
• Special measures to increase access to the
  processes by providing public access points and
  guidance
• Special attention to the Interface Design so that
  it is intuitive and easy to use to the average
  citizen.
• Strong commitment from policy makers to seriously
  engage in the process
• Definite decisions and outcomes at the end of the
  process to convince of the real usefulness of
  citizens participation
• Training toolkits for Citizens, Municipality
  officials and Moderators.

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Leadership matters

• The municipality of Trikala offers one o the most
  fertile environments for such experiments
• free Internet access for all (Municipal Wireless)
• advanced strategy and wide array of ICT related
  projects and services for its constituents.
• The ICT strategy and projects championed by the
  Mayor himself
• has built a strong team around him dealing
  efficiently with ICT challenges and
  opportunities, utilizing to the maximum
  opportunities offered through Greek and EU
  funding programmes.
• Trikala has the biggest list of EU-funded
  projects than any other municipality in the
  region and eventually Greece (if taken as a per
  capita income)
• Trikala being recognized as the first digital
  city of Greece.
• Mayor is also active in building partnerships
  with other mayors across the EU, participating as
  the first Greek city in the international network
  of e-communities (iNEC).
• In that context we believe the project will stand
  out as a best practice for Greece, eventually
  convincing other municipalities to follow on the
  path.

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Some of the eDemocracy challenges

• Political
• Virtualisation / e- or im- mobilisation? Beyond
  the visible effects of online / virtual networks
  in real life could we face the danger of
  creating an easy and comfortable virtual
  participation culture with no real impacts?
• Is the politician ready
• To listen?
• To share his chair with the Citizen?
• To be continuously accountable to him and checked
  upon?
• Does the Citizen care? Has the time to get
  involved? The education level?
• Technical / Methodological
• How do we match the need to involve as many as
  possible with the need of scientifically sound
  results self selected samples are they
  representative? / what is the right methodology?
• How do we measure the impact of the mobilisation
  of social networks and web-mobs for or against
  some issue ?
• Is there a way to extract the right conclusions
  on the position of citizens from full text
  opinions (forums, full text comments,
  questionnaires etc - Semantics) ?
• Can we authenticate users of e-democracy tools
  without the loss of privacy and without making
  participation complicated?
• Does the internet as we know it today, provides
  us with the right platform and tools for
  e-democracy?

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Some of the Barriers to eDemocracy

• Interest Divide active citizens (on/off line)
  only a minority of people
• Many People just dont care about politics, local
  issues etc democratic deficit
• How can we get them involved?
• Civic engagement/education strategies, Local,
  National, EU level
• Digital Divide can we get involved online those
  that do care ?
• still too many on the other side of the fence
• Those most interested in participating, less
  interested in ICTs (Age related)
• ICTs and Interfaces still too complicated for
  average use / ICT Convergence
• How many hours of training did your father get
  to use his mobile phone?(Tom Steinberg,
  www.mysociety.org)
• User friendly operating systems applications,
  intuitive, simple, straightforward
• Provide free and easy access to networks and
  infrastructures
• If we achieve Critical mass of active citizens
  online, eParticipation, eDemocracy can have real
  effects

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The Dangers of eDemocracy

• Without the guarantee of Transparency, Security
  and the existence of open democratic control
  mechanisms of the processes, the e-democracy
  applications are suspect and could pose a real
  threat to participating citizens rights
  (political profiling)
• Intern-auts and Inter-nots Without the guarantee
  of access for all, e-democracy applications can
  further deepen along with the digital divide, the
  political divide, among citizens and between
  regions. More 2nd Class Citizens ? / Era of
  Techno-feudalism?
• Badly implemented e-democracy applications can be
  used as an excuse and alibi for the
  implementation of bad policy or for legitimating
  politicians, in the name of the democratically
  expressed voice of the people!
• Citizens are already disappointed by politicians.
  Fake e-Democracy applications (ab-)used to
  legitimise policies, will just make citizens more
  disappointed or angry.
• Even though eDemocracy is in its infancy,
  malpractice has already shown up with
  eDemocracy sites facilitating citizen access
  to policy making, for money

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The lessons learned

• Engage the Citizen
• eDemocracy processes and citizen involvement must
  be integrated in real policy making process to
  have a real effect. The sole introduction of
  online questionnaires, polls and forums here and
  there does not automatically make for
  e-democracy.
• Without political backing and active involvement
  of policy makers, any eDemocracy project loses
  its potential impact towards greater citizen
  engagement.
• Parties, being the most important policy
  formulation institutions can lead the way in
  becoming the most important policy deliberation
  and dialogue Institutions. / Could help redefine
  their role and increase membership
• Citizens are willing to adopt eDemocracy
  platforms, to become engaged in party politics
  and participate in a deliberative process, if it
  is for Real!
• Need for sound awareness Campaigns and Marketing
  to achieve MAXIMUM PARTICIPATION (0,001 of the
  population Nothing!).
• Merge on-line with off-line tools and
  communications, as far as possible to tackle
  digital divide
• eDemocracy should not be exclusively bonded with
  the PC and the Internet necessary penetration
  of these to deliver real eDemocracy for all
  citizens, might never come(!) We have to keep
  looking at highest penetration mediums and
  potential future convergence of technologies.

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The lessons learned

• This is just the beginning
• Collaboration, exchange and pooling of
  Information and resources needed at a Global
  scale, to deliver transferable good practice and
  learn from others mistakes
• Not enough collaboration across disciplines!
  Political and social scientists still not working
  sufficiently with ICT scientists, Web Artists and
  Designers, policy makers, civil society and
  citizens, to create the present and guarantee
  the future of eDemocracy
• eDemocracy is still in its Infancy real
  experiments are crucial for the development of
  good practice early-on
• This is not just about Local, National or
  Supra-National Government
• eDemocracy applicable to ALL democratically
  organised social formations, that have
  decision-making processes.
• Civil Society Organisations, Federations,
  Associations, Universities, Schools, Businesses
  etc can vastly benefit from eDemocracy

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Time for change?

• ICTs acts as a magnifier and multiplier of the
  inherent tendencies and characteristics of the
  spaces where they are implemented. More and
  better technology doesnt necessarily mean more
  and better democracy
• Being true to the democratic values and
  tradition, we should rethink democracy to make it
  better in todays terms. Do not try just to
  implement ICTs to the old democratic processes
  (just eVote / Diebold) use ICT power to
  reengineer the old processes into new more
  effective ones, following sound methodologies and
  democracy principles

A framework for change
X
?
X
Dr. Costis Toregas / G.W. University
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What can the EC do?

• Start from the Inside! are you into eDemocracy
  ?
• Set the example for all others (CoE, UN, etc)
• Develop the eDemocracy tools you use in a
  creative way Dont discuss it in conferences -
  Create it! Multi-stakeholder /
  multi-disciplinary hands-on eDemocracy tools
  construction workshops.
• Publish and disseminate as much as possible the
  problems faced and failures put in the right
  context to draw conclusions and avoid pitfalls
• online guidance and support for Local Authorities
  use of the right tools based on the right
  methodologies for the right needs of the right
  users!
• Get the citizens and stakeholders involved in
  your policy formation processes through
  edemocracy the best awareness and education
  strategy on democracy!

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• Tell me and Ill forget
• Show me and Ill remember
• Involve me and Ill understand
• (Old Chinese proverb)

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About access2democracy

• access2democracy non-profit N.G.O. was
  established in Athens and New York by a
• group of prominent, like-minded world citizens,
  end 2003.
• Officially launched during the WCIT 2004
  proceedings in Athens
• a2d mission
• to promote the principles and practice of
  participatory edemocracy within the Global arena.
• Explore and experiment with innovative tools and
  technologies to create new public spaces for
  citizen deliberation and enhance democratic
  participation in policy formation processes.
• Our Honorary Board
• Maria Livanos-Cattaui Former SG, International
  Chamber of Commerce
• Lawrence Lessig Prof of Law at Stanford Law
  School, Chair Creative Commons
• Kumi Naidoo SG CEO of CIVICUS
• Nicholas Negroponte Co-Founder director MIT
  Media Lab / Founder - Chairman OLPC
• George A. Papandreou Former MFA, now leader of
  the Opposition, Greece, Pres. of Soc. Int.
• Bill Richardson Governor of New Mexico US,
  former U.S. Ambass. to U.N. / Secretary for
  Energy
• Amartya Sen Nobel Laureate, Lamont Univ. Prof.
  Emeritus at Harvard
• Some members of our Board of Directors
• Andreas Papandreou (Chairman) Assist. Prof.
  University of Athens, Econ. Dept.
• Stephen Coleman Prof. of Political Communication
  at Leeds University/ Research Assoc. OII
• Michail Bletsas Director of Computing at the MIT
  Media Lab / OLPC
• Dimitris Kyriakou Chief Economist for European
  Commission IPTS / editor of The IPTS REPORT

More about us at