Abstract : E-democracy brings the workings of government
closer to people, making it more accessible and easier to understand, one of the
aims of the Webocracy project. A pilot, run since May 2002 by one of the
partners, Wolverhampton City Council, is showing promising results as residents
are increasingly participating in online discussions and opinion polls about key
local issues.
The three-year IST programme project, involving eight partners from the UK,
Finland, Germany and the Slovak Republic, was launched in October 2000. Project
partners developed an Internet based system, Webocrat, which uses advanced
information and communication technologies. Pilots have also been run in the
city wards of Tahanovce and Dargovskych hrdinov in the city of Kosice in the
Slovak Republic.
"The added value of engaging citizens on the Web is that it's a different
channel that attracts people who may not participate through other means," says
Peter Thomson, Wolverhampton City Council's Policy Officer for e-government.
Wolverhampton's Wolforum site, which is based on Webocrat, is an interactive
website offering access to information, discussion forums and online opinion
polls. Such online outreach attracts people who may not be comfortable speaking
out at a public meeting or talking to someone who approaches them on the street
with a clipboard. So far, public feedback has been positive.
"People appreciate the service and the level of usage is building up fairly
steadily," says Thomson. "It was off to a slow start but we have been linking
the information to other community events and involving agencies."
These linkages to public services and community agencies are key as people are
concerned about a range of issues that involve a number of services that do not
necessarily fit into Council departments, such as cleaner streets, crime, and
public health.
"Working in partnership allows us to respond to what people want to say," he
explains. "Wolforum also allows us to link into other events such as the City
Action Forum, involving meetings, tours and discussions about community issues.
The discussion area of Wolforum fed into that process."
Wolforum complemented other public engagement and consultation activities
involving public services and community agencies in the Wolverhampton
Partnership. Thomson says the Partnership's joint participation work would have
come about without the project, but without the benefit of online participation.
E-democracy in action
The details of the system were designed by project partners through consultation
with potential users - citizens, elected members and council officers - as part
of the project to ensure it meets real needs.
Important documents such as reports, budget proposals and minutes of meetings
will be published on the Web. People who need this information will be able to
locate documents through a variety of menus, indexes or search facilities,
created automatically by the system and reflecting their individual needs. In
this way, everyone will be able to receive information in a way that makes sense
to them; not always the case with existing systems.
Wolforum's lively discussion forums involve citizens, councillors and council
officers. Citizens will be able to use these forums to express their opinion on
important issues of public interest and to debate alternative solutions, without
having to attend a meeting.
With other online discussion systems it can be difficult to keep track of topics
as the debate progresses. The new Webocrat system is more advanced in that the
topics of discussion will be classified and contributions organised accordingly.
This makes it as easy as possible for participants to engage in an ongoing
dialogue.
Forums and online opinion polls on specific issues, and questions of public
interest will emerge from reactions to published documents or the discussion
forums. The results of votes will be then fed back into those areas. This may
appear similar to current online polling systems, but the connection with
information and discussion should result in better informed and more considered
views being expressed by citizens, and as such, add value when fed into
decision-making.
The Wolforum forums engage users in the following online discussions:
I like Wolverhampton because . . .
How would you change Wolverhampton?
Leisure opportunities
Making a healthy city
Neighbourhoods and communities
The built environment
Pollution and waste management
Law and order
Strategic area forums (covering all City Wards)
Democracy - voting at 16
Online voting in the not too distant future
The Webocracy project does not involve online voting because of the complex
security and authentication issues around voting. Thomson explains that although
there is a degree of security provision in the project, it's not intended to be
up to the strength online voting would require.
In some areas of the UK there have been pilots of online voting for the last two
elections, but not in Wolverhampton. However, there is a clear commitment from
the UK national government to move to online voting, but that is long-term.
"We don't expect to try it in Wolverhampton until at least 2005," he said. "But
we do hope that this project will lead to more people seeing the importance of
voting in local elections."
Voting took place on 1 May 2003 for one-third of the members of the
Wolverhampton City Council - one in each of the twenty wards within the city.
The list of candidates was posted on the Council site before the vote and
results immediately followed.
Subject Descriptors : Information processing, Information
retrieval, Information transmission
Subject Index Codes : Information Processing, Information Systems
Subject Class : IT, telecommunications
Remarks : Results Entry form
Collaboration Sought : Further research or development support, Information
exchange/Training
Sources of Support : CEC
Programmes : IST
Projects : IST-1999-20364
Project Title : Web Technologies Supporting Direct Participation in Democratic
Processes
Contact Details
Contact Name : SABOL, Tomas
Position : Project co-ordinator
Department : Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics
Contact Organisation : Technical University of Kosice
Address : Letna 9
City : Kosice
Region : VYCHODNE SLOVENSKO
Kosicky kraj
Postcode : 04120
Country : SLOVAKIA
Telephone Number : +421-95-6023259
Fax Number : +421-95-6334960
Electronic Mailbox : sabol@tuke.sk
