Madrid Participa
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Madrid Participa: the e-consultation initiative of the City Council of Madrid
Background Information
Title: Madrid Participa办证
Location: Madrid, Spain
Primary Sponsor Organisation:
Department of Innovation and Technology (Madrid City Council), Department of Citizen Participation (Madrid City Council), Private sponsors
URL: http://www.madridparticipa.es办证
Budget: 360,000 Euros, to date
Project Start Date: 1 MAR 2004
Project End Date: ongoing
Executive Summary
Madrid Participa is an initiative created by the City of Madrid in 2004 with the objective of involving citizens of the central district in evaluating the effectiveness of electronic mechanisms used for public participation. Citizen's were introduced to local decision-making processes and the multi-faceted approach of the Internet, Java mobile phones, SMS messages and on site centres – 21 public access Internet centres deployed throughout the city in January 2004.
Approximately 50% of those surveyed decisively favour the use of electronic systems in any kind of electoral process such as a Citizen 办证Consultation similar to Madrid Participa or binding elections. Only 15% of those surveyed indicated their reluctance to their use in binding elections. Three other e-consultations will take place during 2005 and will gather citizens opinion on key issues affecting three different districts in Madrid. Besides the e-consultations, a remodelled portal Madrid Participa will be launched shortly with new tools for the citizen associations and general participation 办证tools such as online forums. Website:http://www.madridparticipa.es
Project Rationale and Objectives
The City of Madrid wants to become one of the most innovative and technology-oriented cities in Europe. It seeks to bring government closer to the citizens through the use of new participation tools. The City of Madrid came to the conclusion办证 that e-democracy could help achieve both objectives.
With Madrid Participa, the City of Madrid has initiated an e-democracy project that aims at the following:
- Foster citizen engagement in local governance
- Strengthen local citizen associations
- Help bridge the digital divide
- Increase awareness of the 21 public 北京办证access Internet centres deployed throughout the city in January 2004
- Provide citizens with tools to participate in the local decision-making processes that directly affect them
The main target audiences are individual citizens and citizen associations.
What was delivered?
The original plan was to deploy the necessary infrastructure to support one 北京办证large e-consultation in the Centre District of Madrid. The objective of this first e-consultation was to test the citizen’s acceptance of these new participatory tools. This infrastructure comprised the following:
- A website (http://www.madridparticipa.org – being rebuilt) where people could receive information about the e-consultation (objectives, dates, requisites, demos on how to vote, locations, etc.). This website was also used by citizens to cast their votes when the e-consultation began.
- Six polling stations where citizens北京办证 could register to participate in the e-consultation. These polling stations also had computers connected to the Internet from which citizens could cast their votes. There were volunteers in each polling station to assist voters and to teach them in the use of these technologies. Once registered in the first consultation, a citizen could vote electronically in the polling site (53%) remotely via the Internet (32%), mobile phones with Java (3%), or SMS (9.5%) messaging.
- Voting software to allow people to cast their votes from personal computers and mobile phones with total security and trust.
- Questions put to voters (including immigrants) in the first consultation covered:
- Improvements in public infrastructure such as children’s parks (5%), shopping areas(5%), eldery centres (15%), green areas (32%)
- Quality of life improvements in areas such as traffic (16%), security (35%), 北京办证and integration of the immigrant community (10%)
- Revitalization activities such as street threatres (4%), conversion of streets to pedestrian areas (49%), and improving traditional commerce (33%)
Along with the technological infrastructure, a communication plan was prepared and executed to engage citizens and associations in the e-consultation. There was also training provided to the volunteers in the polling stations and to the Council’s CRM to which citizens could address questions and complaints.
After the success of this initial e-consultation, the City of Madrid decided to continue with the Madrid Participa initiatives and carry out additional e-consultations. A second e-consultation was planned and executed in the District of Hortaleza. In this case, three polling stations 北京办证where equipped with computers and paper ballots, and a new communication plan was executed. Most of the deliverables used in the first e-consultation were reused in this one.
For further information and statistics (e.g., participation rates, communication plan, art, screen-shoots, etc.) on Madrid Participa, please check the sociological and technological reports attached to this case under Further Information.
Communication Activity
An ambitious communication plan was prepared to make the citizens and the media aware of the e-consultation initiatives:
- All the citizens resident in the districts where the e-consultations took place received a letter from the City Council inviting them to participate with a brochure and detailed instructions on how to take part in the event.
- The media provided good coverage of the e-consultations (xiaoaojianghu).
- Domestic and international observers (e.g., academics, politicians, public servants, etc.) were invited to the events.
- There was also a campaign on the street with posters, flyers, ads in local newspapers and meetings with local citizen associations.
Successes
The main objectives of the project were met. The following are some of the results:
- The engagement of local citizen associations in the City Council’s activities and initiatives has increased.
- The degree of involvement and participation of the citizens in the e-consultations has also increased.
- The use of the Public Access Internet Centres has increased as a result of the e-consultation initiatives. Most of the citizens that use these centres have low computer 读书吧提供以下小说skills and, therefore, the centres help bridge the digital divide in society.
- The City Council has received a lot of positive feedback from the citizens, political parties and citizen associations about this type of initiative. At least three other districts are considering additional e-consultations in 2005.
- The media coverage of the e-consultations has also been very positive.
Benefits to Citizens
Madrid Participa has allowed the citizen to participate in the local decision-making processes for decisions that directly读书吧提供以下小说 affect them. This has contributed to bring the government closer to the citizens and to engage the citizens in local politics.
Additionally, there are now more citizens who are aware of their local associations and of the Public Access Internet Centres where they can learn to use computers and the Internet.
Approximately 50% of those 坏蛋是怎样炼成的全文阅读surveyed favour the use of electronic systems in any kind of electoral process such as a Citizen Consultation similar to MadridParticipa or binding elections. Only 15% of those surveyed indicated their reluctance to their use in binding elections.
Benefits to Authority
The City Council and the local District 神墓governments have been able to measure the citizens’ opinion on specific issues. These quantified opinions will help City Council officials make decisions on controversial issues.
The City Council has also strengthened its relationship with several local citizen associations through these initiatives.
Benefits to Councillors
Councillors now know that there 玄幻小说are e-participation tools that can be used to consult citizens on specific issues that directly affect them. The results obtained from these e-consultations can be used to justify decisions on controversial issues.
Limitations
One of the main objectives of the project - fostering citizen engagement in local governance – has achieved only limited success. People are used to participating in elections every four years to elect their representatives, but not to actively participate in these types of 武侠小说consultations. Despite the positive trend in participation, the participation rates achieved in these consultations are still low and need to improve in the future.
The registration process that citizens had to follow to participate in the first e-consultation, limited the participation, as stated in several complaints from citizens. The turn-out of 882 voters, or 0.65 of the electoral roll, is something that must be increased for such e-consultations with voting to be consider more representative of the population as a whole.
In the second e-consultation, 都市小说the impossibility of casting votes remotely (the citizens could only participate from the polling stations) also held down the participation rate.
We believe that participation rates can be significantly improved with an aggressive communication campaign and a more efficient registration process.
Evaluation
The main criterion to assess the success of the project has been the sociological and legal report written by two independent experts in the field: Drs. Jordi Barrat i Esteve and Josep Maria 言情小说Reniu i Vilamala. They are members of the Electronic Voting Observatory of the University of Leon (Spain) and the eDemocracy Center Consortium based on the University of Geneva. The authors of the report attended the event as observers and the sociological report prepared was based on a survey filled out by the citizens who participated in the event. The objectives of the report were to gauge: (i) citizen opinion regarding these types of initiatives, (ii) citizen opinion regarding the use of ICT in these initiatives, and (iii) citizen opinion regarding several aspects of the e-consultation tools employed.
The report is available at: http://www3.unileon.es/dp/aco/area/jordi/treballs/evot/llibreang.pdf
Other criteria used to assess the success of the project were the participation rates (compared to similar initiatives in other European cities) and the number of new members in the local citizen associations.
Lessons learnt
Local citizen associations are of军事天地 critical importance in engaging citizens in this type of e-participation initiative. These associations are useful to make citizens aware of the e-consultation initiatives and to dissipate their fears in the use of new technologies.军事天地
The citizen registration process must be simple in order to increase participation rates. Ideally, citizens should be able to either register or obtain their voting credentials remotely (Internet).
Sending a letter directly to the citizens seems to be the best way to make them aware of the e-consultations. The letter should invite them to participate in these initiatives and provide them with detailed information on how to do so. 游戏世界 It is necessary to provide voters with different voting channels to guarantee their participation. Participation from polling centres with computers and paper ballots, and remotely through Internet is a must. Other channels such as Java mobile phones or SMS are complementary, and their use will depend on the available budget and on security and usability issues. 体育竞技 The e-consultations must use state-of-the-art security to guarantee the critical and specific security requirements of a consultation (i.e., remote authentication of the voter, voter’s privacy, integrity of the process, auditability, etc.). These specific security measures are necessary to generate trust among the citizens.
What could happen next?
Three additional e-consultations are currently under consideration by the Department of Citizen Participation. These three e-consultations will take place during 2005 and will gather the citizens’ opinion on key issues affecting three different districts in Madrid. Besides the e-consultations, a remodelled http://www.madridparticipa.es portal will be launched shortly with new tools for the citizen associations and general participation tools such as forums. 科学幻想
Additional information and sources
Project sponsors:
Organization
Department of Citizen Participation - City Council of Madrid
Department of Innovation and Technology - City Council of Madrid
Supporters灵异鬼怪
Scytl (Technical Management and secure voting software)
Accenture Spain (Project Management and web portal)
Sponsors
Telefónica (web hosting and local broadband connections)
Oracle (base software: database and application server)
Hewlett-Packard (Servers, personal computers and printers)
Intel (Wireless and server technology)
Further Information:
Electronic Democracy and Citizen Participation A sociological and legal report about the Citizen Consultation Madrid Participia, September, 2004
By Drs. Jordi Barrat i Esteve and Josep Maria Reniu i Vilamala
Download from: http://www3.unileon.es/dp/aco/area/jordi/treballs/evot/llibreang.pdf
Visit updated web site in March 2005: http://www.madridparticipa.es
Contacts:
gerard.cervello@scytl.com (Scytl)
garciasv@munimadrid.es (Citizen Participation, Madrid)
arranzca@munimadrid.es (Innovation and Technology, Madrid)
Author: Gerard Cervelló