Workshop 4 – The Digital Democracy Battle: Defend your tool to improve Civic Participation

Workshop 4: The Digital Democracy Battle: Defend your tool to improve Civil Participation!
JDE 62 / Friday, 25 May 2018, 9:30-11:50

Organised by European Citizen Action Service and Volonteurope

Programme

9:30        Panel

Each expert will have 10-15 minutes to present one specific digital democracy tool for civil participation, mainly by explaining its functionalities and why this particular tool is beneficial to our society.

Moderator: Elisa Lironi, Digital Democracy Manager, European Citizen Action Service

  • Tom de Grunwald, Co-Founder, SwapMyVote
  • Doru Frantescu, Director, VoteWatch Europe
  • Aline Muylaert, Co-Founder, CitizenLab
  • Nicolas Patte, Director of Communication, Cap Collectif

11:00     Reflection groups

Participants will have a chance to briefly discuss amongst themselves about the specific e-participation tools proposed.

11:20     Question round

After the discussions, each group representative can “challenge” the tools presented by asking one/two questions to the panellists to have clarifications or more details about the tool proposed.

11:30     Online polling

Participants will have a chance to answer an online poll with different questions related to the e-participation tools of the Workshop.

11:50 – 12:00     Outcome

The results of the poll will be presented as recommendations to the EESC on the types of e-tools that should be implemented for enhancing democratic participation.


Concept

E-democracy refers to the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to allow more open and inclusive forms of policy-making. Mainly, e-participation tools can allow citizens to contribute with their ideas to policy-making processes and in the best cases, engage with their decision-makers to co-create legislations.

Crowdsourcing, social listening, participatory budgeting, mobile applications… The number of these methods and platforms has increased over the past years, as citizens are demanding more possibilities of active and direct involvement in democratic processes.

What type of digital democracy tools already exist or are being experimented to allow the possibility for more direct participation between citizens and policy-makers? Why are there so many types of them and what purposes do they serve? In the context of the current challenges faced by the European project, not least Brexit and citizens feeling removed from decision-making processes, and with the 2019 European elections in mind, join this Workshop and have your say on what digital democracy tools you think society would need most of to contribute to active civil engagement!

Work organisation

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Workshop 4 – The Digital Democracy Battle: Defend your tool to improve Civic Participation