World e-Democracy Forum

Next eDemocracy Forum: October 16-17

The Worldwide Forum on e-Democracy and e-Government will be held in Issy-les-Moulineaux (Paris, France) on Thursday 16 and Friday 17 October 2008. Europe and the challenges of e-Governement 2.0 will be the main topic. Debates deal with European issues due to the imminent French presidency of the European Union and Franco-German due to the Franco-German ICT year.

Last call for Nominations - Top 10 in Politics & Internet

With your help, PoliticsOnline and the World e-Democracy Forum will select the top 10 individuals, organizations and companies having the greatest impact on the way the Internet is changing politics. Please submit your nominations before July 21! The winners will be invited as honored guests to the World e-Democracy forum October 16-17,2008, in Issy-les-Moulineaux, (Paris, France), where they'll take part in an awards ceremony and other special programs throughout the two-day forum.

Seoul, Hong-Kong and Helsinki Achieve Top Rankings in Municipal e-Governance in International Survey

A global survey of city websites has identified Seoul, South Korea, as the top-ranked city in the performance of municipal e-governance. The research study was conducted jointly by the e-Governance Institute, School of Public Affairs and Administration at Rutgers University-Newark, USA and the Global e-Policy e-Government Institute at Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU), Korea.

In China, Hu avoids tricky questions in online chat

In the 1930s, US president Franklin Roosevelt's fireside chats set the political tone of the radio age. In the 1960s, John Kennedy's impassioned speeches thrilled the first television generation. On June 20, the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, made his mark with a four-minute online debut in front of the world's biggest population of internet users.

USA : Newt's Pro-Drilling Petition Fuels Online Flurry on the Right

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's American Solutions Group has created a viral online petition surrounding its pro-drilling campaign that has attracted 1.1 million supporters in only 30 days. According to PoliticsOnline, the right-roots are all abuzz about Newt's success, since it's the first good news as the right has taken a pounding online from Obama and the left.

Obama fights web smears

The Barack Obama web strategy is "a very high priority for this campaign from Day One... He's understood from the very beginning that the Internet makes it easier for everyday people to find ways to support the campaign, to get involved" said Chris Hughes, Obama's tech-savvy Facebook entrepreneur. Because of Internet, Obama won the democratic nomination. But now, he must take care about viral rumors which circulate from e-mails to e-mails. A new specific website was launched and Obama campaign is looking for a network security expert. A first time for an electoral campaign.

UK journalists leading the way with blogs and video, says European study

Journalists in the UK are more likely to be producing video content and blogging as part of their workload than their European counterparts, a new survey has suggested. According to the European Digital Journalism Study, 61 per cent of UK respondents said their publications offered video or TV content as part of their online presence compared with 41 per cent of respondents from other European countries. However, over three quarters of UK respondents said that producing additional multimedia content for the web was the biggest challenge to their jobs.

Korea's new generation of 'Web 2.0' protesters

Angry South Korean teenagers, Internet-savvy and armed with gadget-filled mobile phones, have helped turn the new conservative president's triumph into crisis and possibly changed the way the country does politics. President Lee Myung-bak, hardly in office three months, has been caught badly off-guard by the fury swirling in the world's most wired country, which began with a flurry of gripes about importing "dangerous" U.S. beef and turned into a blizzard of complaints against his brief rule. "Maybe, we have been experimenting with a new type of politics without even knowing it," said sociology professor Chun Sang-chin, of Sogang University.

Rise of the e-petition in UK

Some politicians are plotting an attempt to seize back dominance of the petitioning system in Britain - and hope the internet will prove the means to achieve their goal. At the heart of the issue is a struggle for parliament's ongoing relevance. At present it is Downing Street which has the bragging rights when it comes to petitions; it's no coincidence today's protest by hauliers, angry at the government's 2p fuel duty hike, will be delivering their petition to the prime minister rather than parliament. MPs would much rather they head to the Commons – and steps are in motion to do something about it.

FASTeTEN mid-term workshop — updated agenda announced

The FASTeTEN project has published a revised agenda for its secure infrastructure workshop, which takes place in Issy-les-Moulineaux, near Paris, France, on October 15, 2008. FASTeTEN is an eTEN-supported project to pilot the French-developed FAST bundle of services for secure document exchange in different European contexts. FAST stands for Fournisseur d’Accès Sécurisés Transactionnels, or Fully Automated Secured Transactions. FAST has been successfully tested in France, but has the potential to offer considerable benefits to other European public administrations.

Gordon Brown launching online question time

In UK, Gordon Brown is seeking to embrace the digital age by launching an online version of prime minister's questions. He has pledged to respond to video clip questions submitted via the Downing Street YouTube website. The prime minister, who is trying to reconnect with younger voters, said the forum would be a "regular event".