*** Democracies Online Newswire - http://www.e-democracy.org/do *** From: http://www.atp.nl/congresses/ictconference/ ICT Conference How will ICT affect Europe's urban future? At an astonishing rapid pace, information and communication technology is changing urban life, in many respects. New, unprecedented possibilities emerge, but new problems arise as well. It is a major challenge for cities to deal with the new realities of the information society, to make most out of the new possibilities, and prevent or reduce new social divisions and inequalities. This conference is an international platform and meeting place to debate pressing issues, exchange experiences and learn from each other. From: http://www.atp.nl/congresses/ictconference/parallel_sessions.html#par8 Parallel session 8: E-democracy The theme here is whether, and to what extent, ICT has possibilities as an instrument for strengthening and renewing the democratic process. ICT can play a role in bridging the gap between citizens and government and in increasing citizens' involvement in political and public decision-making. Elections and referenda via the Internet are one such example. In the future, ICT will provide the technical conditions for this. Key issues: What is the influence of ICT on local democracy? (referenda, remote voting). Can the involvement of the citizen in decision-making processes be strengthened by means of ICT applications? How can ICT contribute to communication between government and citizens (including those who speak other languages)? Is an Internet connection a 'basic right'? How can ICT contribute to better decision- making? Chair: Wilbert Stolte, Councillor for Media and Information Policy, City of the Hague Contributions: Jan Lintsen, Ministry of Interior and Kingdom Relations, director of Public Sector Information Bert Mulder, Director The Information Workplace: City in the Information Society Jorg Wenzel, European Commission, Information Society Activity Centre* Walter Schwarzenbrunner, European Commission, Information Society Activity Centre* * invited From: http://www.atp.nl/congresses/ictconference/theme/ed_theme.htm E-democracy Add your opinion Introduction by workshop chairperson Stolte Ladies and gentlemen. In what state is the democratic system in your city? What is the turnout in elections? How politically involved are your citizens? As little as those in my city? If so, what's the problem? Is it down to the people themselves and their lack of will to contribute to their society? No - I am utterly convinced that the cause lies in our political system, which has become outdated. It is unappealing, and hardly challenges people to participate in it. It is in this context that I would like to place the development of e- democracy. Five years from now, virtually the entire population will be linked to the internet. In The Hague, we are pursuing an extremely active policy to connect all our residents to our own internet domain: www.residentie.net. This provides them with a tool which enables them to organise themselves rapidly around a whole range of issues. These concern the vitality of their own neighbourhood, their children's school, the hospital where a member of their family is being treated, and so on. Thanks to the opportunities opened up by the internet, residents of the city are able to take greater control of their lives. They will only turn to politicians when they think that they have something to gain from them. For us, that poses a whole series of questions. These include: • how can local politicians best make use of this new form of communication and organisation in the community?; • what is the new added value of the local politician?; and, • what new demands does this make on our local political system? I hope and expect that this workshop will take us a step further in our thinking about these issues. For me, what is certain is that the need for change in the political system is being further accelerated by the development of the internet. New democracy, old democracy By Jan Lintsen Information and communication technology (ICT) is creating a totally new world known as cyberspace. Is this virtual world replacing the old physical world? Of course not. The virtual world expands our opportunities and exists parallel to the old, physical world. One can see this happening in the economic sphere. There is a new economy in which all or almost all the value is created by the web. This, of course, is happening in the IT industry, but also more and more so in all kinds of knowledge-based industries (e.g. consulting, publishing, financial services and government). But this new economy is not replacing the old one: people still need food, houses, cars, clothing and personal care. Nevertheless, the old economy is facing rapid changes as a consequence of the use of ICT. Farmers still raise cattle, but the process of breeding and raising them has changed enormously over the last five years. The same kind of developments are occurring in the political sphere: there will be a new, web-based, direct democracy in which citizens, non-governmental organizations and companies, facilitated by government, can decide things that concern them directly - for instance, the way their neighbourhood is run. In other cases, society will still need the old representative democratic process, in order to decide on matters concerning solidarity and social ethics. The new democracy will supplement the old one, but will not make it obsolete. On the contrary, for the new democracy to function legitimately, the old one will have to improve its performance in those areas that cannot be coped with by the new one. To make this happen, the old democracy will have to use ICT to work faster and more responsively. E-democracy: building tools to last by Bert Mulder, Director of The Information WorkPlace E-democracy is on the mind of many people and is playing a role in a growing number of political programmes. The general expectation is that the development of e-democracy will follow the adoption of IT by the public and change the nature of government. At the same time, today's technologies - such as e-mail, electronic communities and discussion groups - are rather crude tools that do not always form a firm ground for processes of large-scale distributed decision-making. That, and the fact that the current users of these systems are early adopters with a genuine interest in the quality of society, leads one to conclude that the real tools for e-democracy are currently both scarce and poorly developed. The development of e-democracy needs more than good intentions. As a process it is central to the structure of democratic societies, and it needs well-developed and thoroughly tested tools to be certain of their quality and effectiveness. The coming years will have to be spent developing a new framework for e-democracy with which interested individuals and companies may design and implement new tools to support their democratic needs. Until that day arrives, however, e-democracy is a design effort, designing tools built to last. Add your opinio ^ ^ ^ ^ Steven L. 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