WORKING GROUP: Trento, 2010 Conference of European Regional Legislative Assemblies

“E-democracy represents the use of information and communication technologies and strategies by democratic actors within political and governance processes of local communities, nations and on the international stage. Democratic actors/sectors include governments, elected officials, the media, political organizations, and citizen/voters”.

WE WANT TO… ELEVATE THE QUALITY OF THE DEMOCRACY, THROUGH:  making more productive the work of the members of the Parliament  opening the work of the Parliament with the citizens  including the citizens and other institutions in the process of political decision

THE GOALS OF E-DEMOCRACY More degree of interaction within political actors/sectors More transparency in the function of governments A more participative constituency

WHAT THE E-DEMOCRACY GROUP HAVE DONE Flandes, January 26, 2010: the Group approved a survey, elaborated by the Basque Parliament The survey was about the implementation of the e- democracy tools among the CALRE members 18 legislative assemblies filled the survey

THIS IS WHAT WE FOUND….

We have advanced on many respects. However, Our legislative assemblies have a poor degree of efficiency when using e-democracy tools The is a great degree of disorientation The gap among many assemblies is enormous

CURRENT SITUATION  Local Governments are mostly stuck on the web 1.0: unilateral flow of information  We need to adapt to web 2.0: interactive, multilateral flow of information.

WEB 2.0: WHY WE NEED IT? PARTICIPATION COLLABORATION TRANSPARENCY OPENNESS FLEXIBILITY

PHACES OF E-DEMOCRACY: what we have accompished? 4 E-VOTE 3 E-PARTICIPATION 2 E-CONSULTATION 1 INFORMATION

The first phase (Information) is much developed, there is a lot of information available to the public.

However…..

In E-CONSULTATION (online surveys) and E- PARTICIPATION (forums, blogs, etc.) we have not avanced much.

WHY? There is no model to measure sustaintability and follow up the work done The services offered to the public are often complex and user-unfriendly Lack of a real compromise on behalf the legislative assemblies

ANY SOLUTION MUST START BY……

Listening to the citizen first: what they need, what they want, what they expect from the Internet tools.

Reaching the citizen, and not only wait for him to come and participate spontaneously: marketing is important

Fostering interaction: citizen-citizen, citizen- institution, institution-institution, members-members.

Humanizing the web: citizen wants to feel there is a real person behind those tools, personalize the attention.

Offering easy access for persons with special needs

But, most importan of all… You should COMPROMISE, which means: be convinced of the benefits of e-democracy.

E-natives are an increasing sector of the population. We NEED information and communications techonologies address them. Is not a matter of choice any more.