You are invited to participate to the Global Forum in Athens, Greece on October 21 and 22, 2008 in partnership with the “eParticipation @ the Heart of Europe” that will be presented during the conferences of our two-day meeting.
The undergoing Web 2.0. revolution is characterized by the return of the citizen in the democratic and political processes: the recent development of easy-to-use and accessible ICT tools enhancing social interaction and networking has lead to enthusiastic initiatives worldwide aiming at increasingly participating in shaping public policies, raising public concerns, advocating ideas and campaigning initiatives towards public institutions and elected representatives.
As new types of actors, developing new forms of systemic interactions, emerge (the Political Entrepreneur, the Active Citizen and the Knowledge Civil Servant), and the transformation of Cyberspace into a major alternative channel for interacting in the public sphere, e-Participation is becoming a very important issue.
e-Participation as enhancing participatory representative democracy and opening new channels for citizens and civil society to interact in decision-making processes, is becoming a key challenge for Europe.
At the end of 2005, the Commission has launched, upon request of the European Parliament, an eParticipation Preparatory Action, which has funded 13 projects promoting the use of Information and Communication Technologies in legislative and decision-making processes within parliamentary and government environments. Furthermore, the European Commission has recognized the importance and potential of the field of eParticipation at European level, by integrating it as the 5th objective of the i2010 eGovernment Action Plan. The role of eParticipation in the enhancement of the democratic process was again confirmed in the 2007 Lisbon Ministerial Declaration.
The “eParticipation @ the Heart of Europe” session is organised by
MOMENTUM, the support eParticipation action co-funded by the European
Commission to create a network of the 13 existing and new projects
funded through the eParticipation Prepatory Action in order to monitor,
evaluate, consolidate and disseminate their results. This session has
the objective to stimulate the exchange and learning of Good Practices
in the field of eParticipation in
Europe through the presentation of a panel of eParticipation projects,
tools and studies in order to respond to the challenges of
eParticipation in Europe.
It will gather key eParticipation stakeholders, such as high level
public and private sectors representatives, reknown academics and
representatives from the key eParticipation initiatives in Europe,
including several eParticipation Preparatory Action projects
as well as other major eParticipation projects.
More information on the Global Forum website: www.items-int.com.
