Multi-Faceted Analysis of Electronic Participation Projects at European LevelA Systemic Approach presented in METTEG 2008

1. MULTI-FACETED ANALYSIS OF
ELECTRONIC PARTICIPATION
PROJECTS AT EUROPEAN
LEVEL
A SYSTEMIC APPROACH
Y. Charalabidis, L. Kipenis, S. Koussouris, J. Psarras
National Technical University of Athens
MeTTeG 2008, 26-Sept-2008

2. Outline
 Introduction
 Methodology
 Case Study
 Conclusions - Future Steps
MeTTeG 2008, 26-Sept-2008

3. eParticipation
Why to support it?
 eParticipation is gradually proving to be a new way to
overcome long-lasting symptoms of democratic deficit
in modern societies, such as the declining voter
turnout, the reluctance to publicly state one’s opinion,
or the diminishing participation in public debate within
political parties
 The more government realize the importance of public
participation, even in this new form, the more they are
trying to re-engage citizens in the political processes in
order to strengthen democracy.
MeTTeG 2008, 26-Sept-2008

4. Challenges…
 The scientific research field of eParticipation is
currently rapidly evolving, bringing many new
approaches and solutions
 But it is also showing the signs of fragmentation and
lack of reusability.
 It is important to construct and apply a common
framework for analysing and assessing eParticipation
projects, in order to apply a coordinated steering, so
that the same experiments are not revisited.
MeTTeG 2008, 26-Sept-2008

5. New Directions towards a
New Analysis Framework
 Analysis of the projects is performed by the project
responsible themselves and not by external auditors.
 Answers provided are selections of pre-existing entries
in codified lists.
 Automated processing of results, including secondary
correlation analysis.
 Attention on the subjects of the electronic deliberation,
for locating the most “hot” subjects of electronic public
debate.
MeTTeG 2008, 26-Sept-2008

6. Methodology
MeTTeG 2008, 26-Sept-2008

7. Project Information Template
 General Project Information
 Legislative/ Deliberation Process
 Implementation approach
 Pilot Sites-Main Actors/ Stakeholders
 Dissemination Activities
MeTTeG 2008, 26-Sept-2008

8. Predefined Lists
MeTTeG 2008, 26-Sept-2008

9. MOMENTUM Case Study
http://www.ep-momentum.eu
MeTTeG 2008, 26-Sept-2008

10. Phase of Legislative Process
MeTTeG 2008, 26-Sept-2008

11. Legislation Level
 Focus concerning the level of Legislative Process is mainly drawn
on EU level, whereas local and national legislation processes are
still of a lower interest.
MeTTeG 2008, 26-Sept-2008

12. Means of eParticipation
 Projects are focusing on Information Provision and Consultation
methods
 Opinion Polling, Deliberation and Decision Making are still not in
the first line of importance.
MeTTeG 2008, 26-Sept-2008

13. eParticipation Topics
 The Environment is the most popular subject
 Consumer Protection and Energy issues are also very popular
MeTTeG 2008, 26-Sept-2008

14. Legislative Process and
Legislation Phase
 Projects that deal
with legislation at
EU or National
level are mainly
researching the
early stages of
legislative
process.
 Projects that deal
with the
Legislative
Process at Local
level are targeting
mainly the
Formation and the
Implementation
process.
MeTTeG 2008, 26-Sept-2008

15. Open Source vs Commercial
Products
 Tools, reported to be
used at local level,
are mainly
commercial products.
 Projects that deal
with EU or National
level issues and that
are engaged in the
first steps of
legislation, promote
the use of Open
Source products.
MeTTeG 2008, 26-Sept-2008

16. Geographical Span
 Countries belonging to the Mediterranean basin, along with the UK
and Germany are more deeply involved in eParticipation.
MeTTeG 2008, 26-Sept-2008

17. Conclusions (1/2)
 Legislation Phase: Initial legislation phases are mostly targeted.
Formation and draft stages are the most common phases focused
by most projects.
 Level of Participation: EU level is the mostly addressed followed
by local/regional level.
 Participation Methods: Most projects are focusing on Information
Provision and Consultation methods of eParticipation. Opinion
Polling, Deliberation and Decision Making are also very popular
while Voting, Petition or Mediation are not so common among the
projects.
 Deliberation Subjects: The most popular theme is Environment,
while Consumer Protection and Energy issues are also popular.
MeTTeG 2008, 26-Sept-2008

18. Conclusions (2/2)
 Technologies: Web Services are the most widely used technology
offerings. Also Electronic mail, File Sharing, Semantic Web Technology
and Electronic Services are widely applied in the projects, followed by
Argument Visualisation and more complex decision-making.
 Tools: Web portals are the most deployed tool while, Consultation
Platforms Forums, Deliberative Survey Tools and Weblogs are also
important.
 Open Source or Commercial Software Applications: Commercial products
seem to be slightly more popular than the open source ones.
 Geographical Span: The 13 eParticipation projects partners come from 16
countries. Greece and Italy are present in 6 projects. UK, Spain and
Germany participate in 5 projects.
MeTTeG 2008, 26-Sept-2008

19. Future Steps
 Further automation of the input, processing and presentation of
the results, with the use of standardised metadata structures.
 Structuring the various lists of values (methods, subjects,
technologies, tools, etc) into a formal ontology, that will allow
deepening of the understanding in the domain.
 Continuation of the correlation analysis, to identify important
“hidden” aspects within the eParticipation projects.
 Incorporation of needed facets, indicators and metrics for
performing impact analysis of eParticipation project.
MeTTeG 2008, 26-Sept-2008

20. MULTI-FACETED ANALYSIS OF
ELECTRONIC PARTICIPATION
PROJECTS AT EUROPEAN
LEVEL
A SYSTEMIC APPROACH
S.Koussouris
skoussouris@epu.ntua.gr
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION
MeTTeG 2008, 26-Sept-2008

21. MOMENTUM
http://www.ep-momentum.eu
MeTTeG 2008, 26-Sept-2008