The Council of Europe asked me to pass along this notice about their upcoming symposium on e-democracy. It is being organized by the Council of Europe Ad Hoc Committee on e-democracy (CAHDE) and the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe.

This gives me another opportunity to tweak ICELE, the Council of Europe, and any institution interested in cost-effectively fostering e-democracy/e-participation activities in government and civil society to consider ways to connect practitioners on the front lines who don’t have the travel budgets to connect in person. Important conferences like the one below, should be used to launch ongoing online peer-to-peer exchanges like the proposed Local E-Democracy Exchange or other similar opportunities.

Steven Clift
e-democracy.org
dowire.org

See:
www.coe.int/democracy

Council of Europe to hold symposium on e-democracy from 23 to 24 April 2007

The Council of Europe symposium “e-democracy: new opportunities for enhancing civic participation”, will take place at the Palais de l’Europe, Strasbourg (France) from 23 to 24 April 2007.

The symposium will discuss the nature and added value of e-democracy, based on lessons learnt from e-democracy experiences in Council of Europe member states, and identify areas for future research.

First-rate speakers from public authorities, academia, media, NGOs, political parties and international organisations will share their experiences in state-of-the-art e-democracy applications.

Topics to be debated in plenary and in thematic sessions include government-to-citizen-to-government and citizen-to-citizen communication, e-campaigning and how to measure the impact of e-democracy.

The symposium will be open to the general public on personal confirmation by e-mail after advance registration. On request participants will in relevant cases be sent a formal invitation letter for visa purposes.

There is no participation fee. Simultaneous interpretation in English, French, Spanish and German will be available throughout the symposium.

Further information, the programme and registration forms can be found and downloaded at www.coe.int/democracy. The deadline for registering is Tuesday 3 April 2007.

For any queries please call + 33 3 88 41 28 67

The DRAFT agenda:

DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF POLITICAL AFFAIRS
PROJECT “GOOD GOVERNANCE IN THE INFORMATION SOCIETY”

THE CONGRESS
OF LOCAL AND REGIONAL AUTHORITIES

Symposium on e-democracy:
new opportunities for enhancing civic participation

Strasbourg
23-24 April 2007
Venue: Palais de l’Europe, Room 9

draft programme

MONDAY 23 APRIL 2007

09.30 – 12.30 INTRODUCTORY SESSION

Chair: Mr Thomas BUCHSBAUM, Chairman of the Council of Europe Ad hoc Committee on e-democracy.

General Rapporteur: Mr Lawrence PRATCHETT, Professor of Local Democracy and Director of the Local Governance Research Unit, De Montfort University, UK

Opening Addresses Ms Maud de BOER-BUQUICCHIO,
Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe

Mr Ian MICALLEF, President of the Chamber of Local Authorities
Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe

Political keynote
Address: Mr Mart LAAR – Former Prime Minister of Estonia (tbc)

Introduction to the Ms Ann MACINTOSH – Professor of E-Governance and Director of the
theme of the International Teledemocracy Centre at Napier University, UK
symposium

Debate

11.00 – 11.30 Coffee break

11.30 – 12.30 International organisations: partners in e-democracy

Mr Thanassis CHRISSAFIS, DG INFSO H2 “eGovernment”,
European Commission (tbc)

Mr Dick TOORNSTRA, Director and Special Advisor for the promotion of democracy at the European Parliament, Directorate General for External Policies of the Union, European Parliament
Reaching out electronically-bridging the gap?

Mr Childerik SCHAAPVELD, Head of NGO & Democratic Governance Unit, Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (ODIHR/OSCE).

Ms Ottill THARALDSEN, Public Governance and Territorial Development Directorate, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

Mr Gherardo CASINI, Head of office in Rome, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA)

12.30 – 14.00 Lunch break

14.00 – 17.30 Theme I
Government to citizen to government communications:
engaging citizens in decision-making

Chair: Mr Ian MICALLEF, President of the Chamber of Local Authorities
Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe

Introduction by the Rapporteur: Mr. Ian JOHNSON, Head of Democratic Engagement Branch, Department for Constitutional Affairs, UK
Can e-democracy close the gap between people and power?

Mr Ross FERGUSON, e-Democracy Programme Director, Hansard Society, UK
Digital Dialogues – Government, Citizens and Online Policy Deliberation in the UK
Mr Alexandre SINE, Cyber-budget, France

Local Authority Initiatives – Case Studies:

- Bologna, Italy
- Issy-les-Moulineaux, France
- Dandumadeel, The Netherlands (e-voice project)
- Alcobendas, Spain
- Esslingen, Germany

Debate

14.00 – 17.30 Theme II
Beneath the hype: overcoming barriers and measuring impact

Chair: Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

Introduction by the Rapporteur, Mr Lawrence PRATCHETT

Ms Laurence MONNOYER-SMITH, University of Compiègne, France
Measuring the impact of e-democracy : a three-dimensional approach

Mr Peter MAMBREY – Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology and University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany
Formative evaluation to foster civic participation

Ms Ulrike KOZELUH, Vienna Science Centre, Austria
Measuring the quality of e-democracy: what criteria shall we use?

Mr Herbert KUBICEK, Professor for Applied Computer Science, University of Bremen, Director of the Institute for Information Management, Bremen, Germany
Embedding e-participation processes – Media Mix and Meta Communication

Debate

(15.30 – 16.00) Coffee break

17.45 Reception offered by the Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe

TUESDAY 24 APRIL 2007

09.00 – 12.30 Theme III
The return of the citizen: new forms of social networking

Chair: Mr Keith WHITMORE, Member of the Congress

Introduction by the Rapporteur, Mr Daniel van LERBERGHE, Politech Institute, Brussels, Belgium

Ms Evika KARAMAGIOLI, Gov2u, Greece
Gov2u: Using the Power of Online Communities and Social Networks to Create Change

Mr Tom STEINBERG – theyworkforyou.com, UK

Ms Sara ERIKSEN and Ms Annelie EKELIN, Blekinge Institute of Technology, Blekinge, Sweden

Mr Matteo MAGGIORE, BBC, UK

NN of Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace (DNA), Strasbourg, France

Mr Ignacio ARSUAGA, HazTeOir.org, Spain
The HazteOir.org Case Study: Building a Community and Influencing Politics

Debate

(10.30 – 11.00) Coffee break

09.30-12.30 Theme IV
E-campaigning

Chair: Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

Introduction to the theme by the Rapporteur: Mr. Thierry VEDEL, Researcher, Centre de recherches politiques de Sciences Po (CEVIPOF), France
The role of the internet in campaigning: what we know and what we are learning

Mr Finn STUBTOFT, Secretary General, Danish Social Democratic Party, Denmark

Mr Eoin DUBSKY, Greenpeace International

Mr. Lorenzo MOSCA, European University Institute, Florence, Italy

Mr Graham COVINGTON, Advocacy Online, provider of e-campaigning technology and services, UK

Ms Ariane SELINGER, debat2007.fr, France

NN, Party e-worker in Estonian parliamentary election campaign

Debate

(10.30 – 11.00) Coffee break

12.30 – 14.00 Lunch

14.00-17.30 CONCLUDING SESSION

Chair: Mr Michael REMMERT, Project Manager “Good Governance in the Information Society”, Council of Europe

Reports from the parallel sessions by the theme rapporteurs

Presentation of Symposium findings and e-democracy issues for further research by the Symposium General Rapporteur: Mr Lawrence PRATCHETT

Debate

Closing remarks

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