Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
'Listening to the City' was a project in New York in 2002, which sought
the views of citizens on the development of the World Trade Centre site
after the 9/11 bombings. The outcome significantly impacted the rebuild-
ing process and site design, and changed the decision-making climate.
The Deliberative Democracy Consortium was created in 2002 as a result
of initiative from 'America Speaks' to design and experiment with innovative
methods of citizen engagement. (http://www.deliberative-democracy.net/)
One project researched the development of online tools and services to
promote citizen engagement online (America Speaks n.d.).
4.3.6 Madrid Participa - Spain
The City of Madrid launched the Madrid Participa e-consultation initiative
in 2004 as part of its aim to bring government closer to citizens through
the use of new ICTs. The broad objectives of the initiative were to promote
citizen engagement in local governance, to promote the use of ICTs as
tools for engagement, to strengthen neighbourhood associations, and to
help bridge the digital divide. Specifically, the e-consultation initiative
aimed to reach a large number of citizens and to trial a number of different
voting channels (Barrett and Reniu 2004).
The first e-consultation, to test citizens' responses to new ways of par-
ticipating, took place in the Centre district of Madrid between 28-30 June
2004. A website (www.madridparticipa.org) was constructed to provide in-
formation to citizens about the e-consultation and to collect votes as part of
the consultation itself. Six polling stations were set up where citizens could
register to participate in the e-consultation. These polling stations also had
computers connected to the Internet which citizens could use for voting,
and volunteers were available to teach citizens how to use the technology
(Barrett and Reniu 2004).
Once citizens had registered for the consultation, they could vote elec-
tronically through the Internet either at the polling centres or independently.
Prior to the Madrid Participa initiative, the City had already established
twenty-one public Internet access centres, primarily in markets, neigh-
bourhood association offices and centres for the elderly, for those who did
not have personal access to these technologies. Citizens could also choose
to vote via mobile phones with Java or SMS messaging. Secure voting
software was made available. The e-consultation covered questions about
improvements in public infrastructure, quality of life issues and revitaliza-
tion activities (Cervelló 2006).
Before the e-consultation took place, a communication exercise was
carried out to inform and engage citizens, and volunteers and other local
Search WWH ::
Custom Search