Citizen 2.0

Croatian blogger suspected of disclosing state secrets.

This happened ten days ago. The croatian blogger Marko Rakar was arrested by police for disclosing state secrets. Suspected of being behind the publication of a website that had published an unofficial list of some 500,000 war veterans, he was present at the search of his office, his car, his home and seized all his computer equipment.

An european database to promote e-Participation

It is "a simple, friendly and easy to implement project". In these words, Daniel Roleff, editor of the German portal politik-digital has introduced e-Participation.net, during the last eDemocracy Awards workshop. It is a joint initiative of the German website and the British Council, the British cultural agency in Germany to create an interactive database on projects and initiatives aimed at strengthening citizen participation in Germany and the United Kingdom.

If, today, the e-participation.it website identifies e-Democracy initiatives in Italy, the aim is to open this database to all European experiences.

• www.e-participation.net

Diplo shape diplomats to Internet

On October 22, at the World e-Democracy Forum award ceremony in the French National Assembly, DiploFoundation received a prestigious award for its capacity development programme in Internet governance. Other laureates for 2009 included Google and Twitter. Through online training, online policy research, and policy immersion, Diplo has helped many developing countries, organisations, and individuals participate meaningfully in the global governance of the Internet. At the ceremony, Dr Jovan Kurbalija, founding director of Diplo, said: “Inclusive and diverse governance is the only way to address global issues such as climate change, migration, and the Internet.” He added: “Diplo’s capacity development programme assists small and developing countries who are often absent from global negotiations.”

• DiploFoundation

Croatia: 3000 bloggers for Pollitika.com

"Independent but not neutral" is the self definition of Pollitika.com. Launched in 2006 by Marko Rakar, known for his political notes on his blog about the political situation of this south european country of 4.5 million inhabitants, Pollitika.com has become an inevitable website about politics. Three thousand bloggers are enrolled and contribute to the website. About 2.000 new articles are published every year for 150.000 visitors per month.

Mark Rakar is a passionate man. During the visit of the French National Assembly, proposed to the participants of the last World eDemocracy Forum, he enjoyed every moment and every picture. Curious by nature, quoting the American strategist Joe Trippi and convinced that an electoral campaign is "too serious matter to be left to political parties", it was not a surprise that he is one of Top 10 Who Are Changing the World of Internet and Politics. During the eDemocracy Awards workshop, last october, he explained how Pollitika.com strengthened democracy in Croatie.

• Pollitika.com

Middle East: 30% of bloggers are women

According to Eleana Gordon, founder of the Center for Liberty in the Middle East, presenting  its latest initiative, the Institute of Online Activism at the World e-Democracy Forum in Issy-les-Moulineaux (Paris), 30 % of bloggers in the Middle East are women. The Institute allows women in the Middle East access to tools to "turn their dreams into action for change." Her speech illustrates the rise of e-democracy in this region.

The Center for Liberty in the Middle East (Clime) is a nonprofit organization that supports defenders of democratic values of freedom and tolerance in the Middle East. Through its network of activists across the region, CLIME advocates a peaceful transition of political systems that protect individual liberties, allow the full political participation and respect of ethnic pluralism, religious and political.

Eleana Gordon is also founder of "Online Activism Institute", whose goal is to teach activism through e*learning, activist videos and virtual mentoring. After a year of development, it launched in 2009 in Egypt and Jordan with training for 90 women on its flagship online course, "Create Your Activism Plan."

The Online Activism Institute is a consortium of NGOs, web-development, and academic partners in the Middle East and United States, who work together to provide state-of the-art training and resources through an e-learning platform. The consortium is based in Cairo, Amman and Washington, D.C. with plans to expand to more locations in the future. The Online Activism Institute is funded through the U.S. Department of State's Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI). MEPI supports efforts to foster reform throughout the Middle East and North Africa.

• How to empower women leaders online (PEP-Net.eu)
• The CLIME website
• The Online Activism Institute website

140 people have contributed to EuProfiler.eu

World e-Democracy Forum Award 2009, EuProfiler.eu help the european citizens to access to a detailed mapping of some 300 political parties. Through multiple-choice questions, an algorithm evaluates the sensitivity and determine the political affiliation of Internet users. It has been used during the last European Parliament elections in June, with around 2.5 million unique visitors who used it.

At the e-Democracy awards workshop, professors Alexander Trechsel and Fabian Breuer explained their motivations.

• EuProfiler.eu
• You do not know who to vote for? Find your EU profile (26 May 2009)
• The winners of the e-Democracy Awards 2009 (23 October 2009)

Google has enhanced the level of political transparency in U.S., according PoliticsOnline

Caitlin Morrissey, PoliticsOnline.com editor, explains in this video how the web's oldest political Internet company selects during the last ten years the "10 Who Are Changing the World of Internet and Politics". This year, the International e-Democracy Award was given by Phil Noble, founder of PoliticsOnline, to Peter Greenberger, head of the Google division in charge of political advertising. The online tools that Google offers (YouTube, Google Maps, Google Docs, Google Ads) were heavily used over the course of the recent American presidential campaign. Democratic candidate Barack Obama spent 7.5 million dollars integrating these tools into his campaign strategy. Peter Greenberger informs and educates policy makers and administration officials regarding the use of these tools in order to make the political process more accessible to ordinary citizens.

According PoliticsOnline, Peter Greenberger and his team have played a key role in enhancing transparency and democracy in the United States, which significantly change the worldview of politics among citizens.

The Socialist Group in European Parliament website's audience has doubled because of Twitter

"The Alliance & Progressive Socialist Democrats in the European Parliament website's audience has doubled in one year, because of Twitter" said Tony Robinson, head of the Internet Unit for this Parliamentary Group in Strasbourg during the European e-Democracy Award presentation for the 2009.

A distinction awarded by the Politech Institute and IP label for the variety of web 2.0 tools used and of the content of a website whose aim is to increase citizen participation in the European debate.

A presentation on video review:

• Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists & Democrats in the European Parliament
• Politech Institute
  
• IP Label

eDemocracy Forum 2009: the pictures!

Direct access to the pictures

The winners of the e-Democracy Awards 2009

At the end of the first day of the 10th World e-Democracy Forum, André Santini, Member of French Parliament and Mayor of Issy-les-Moulineaux, Phil Noble, President of PoliticsOnline, Daniel Van Lerberghe, President of the European Politech Institute and Franck Confino, Editor of Territorial blog announced e-Democracy Awards 2009 among those who contribute concretely to change the world of politics with the Internet and technologies.

Sixteen finalists on twenty from four categories in competition were present during the official reception of the World e-Democracy Forum, organized in the French National Assembly. They came from NGOs, companies, political parties, Universities and are based in the United States, Egypt, Croatia, Malta, Italy, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, Germany and France.

left to right: Tony Robinson, Catherine Henri-Martin, Fabian Breuer, Alexander Trechsel and Peter Greenberger