Sean Ellis, account manager of Citizenscape, a web platform launched in 2008 within an EC funded eParticipation programme, presents the initiatives operated in Ireland, Slovakia, Italy and the UK.
Citizenscape aims at involving online citizens in the democratic process by using the social web. Twenty five experts are present online to answer the questions of more than one thousand registered users.
The project enabled the use of all resources available online (videos, widgets, Facebook and Twitter sites), to connect to democratic and participatory tools such as ePetitions, namely in the city of Bristol (UK), where 17,000 people signed a petition concerning a new football stadium. The system has just been adopted by the Northwest Territories of Canada.
Important aspect, the questions around the utility of such a platform: Why use a site that you don’t know when you can discuss the same subjects on Facebook? “It’s simply a matter of trust”, retorts Sean Ellis.


