Citizen 2.0

A French NGO and two cities nominated finalists for the French e-Democracy Award.

The French e-Democracy Award 2011 has once again mobilized thousands of Internet users, via Blog Territorial who presented during the summer several e-democracy initiatives. Interviews with selected people, each web-user was able to appreciate the qualities of his favorite and vote knowledgeably. They were ten at the beginning, now they are only three finalists.

The city of Valenciennes and its citizen panel comes very far ahead. Highly mobilized since the opening of votes, their place in the final is more than deserved. Behind the battle was very close.The NGO Adreva (Association for the sustainable development) and its 2.0 Biodiversity and the urban community of Caen for its operation Geemik , will join Valenciennes in Issy-les-Moulineaux to defend their initiative Wednesday, October 12 afternoon (free entrance after registration).

News on e-voting in France

The primary election organized by the French Green party, Génération Ecologie, in order to designate its candidate in the presidential election of April 2012, take place from 15th to 23rd of June, for the first round and from 30th June to 6th July for the second round. Interested voters can cast their votes either by mail or over Internet. This represents a real cultural revolution for a party that has been, for a long time, a fierce opposer to e-voting.

Voters received by mail a user name and a password allowing them to vote in the two election rounds. In case of a double vote cast (both by mail and over the Internet), it is the electronic ballot which is taken into consideration.

The company Extelia, a subsidiary of La Poste (the French postal operator), was chosen to carry out the Internet ballot casting process. Specialist of complex information systems based on the treatment of sensitive data, Extelia has developed with EADS (European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company) an efficient, reliable and acknowledged solution of Internet voting.

Even if the debate remains fierce within the party, the choice of electronic voting marks a significant step in the evolution of mentalities. This follows upon the widespread Internet voting implemented by the state of Geneva in Switzerland, the first constituency in the world to have deployed this new kind of voting. Indeed, on May 15th, 1 voter out of 4 cast a ballot online.

In Estonia as well, 1 elector out of 5 had cast his/her vote online during the general election beginning of March. The Baltic country is the first one to have generalized Internet voting for all kinds of elections.

Egypt: Web 2.0 Revolution, Act II

 
The revolution in Egypt has proven, once again, that Internet can change the world. After the election of Barack Obama and Ben Ali's downfall in Tunisia, the resignation of Hosni Moubarak provides a wealth of insights.

First of all, it is no longer possible to cut off a country from the rest of the world. In the past, this could be done by closing the borders, cutting off the telecom system, and repression was carried out secretly. No regime had yet resorted to a complete shutdown of the Internet. Restrictions had been imposed in Burma, Iran, Nepal and even in China, but Internet had never been blocked as such during 8 days.

Nevertheless, communication continued despite Internet take-down, especially thanks to the role played by the multinational companies, as was the case with Google and Twitter, which launched the “speak-to-tweet” service. This service allowed anyone with a voice connection to dial an international number and have their voice messages sent out as tweets. The role of Facebook in by-passing the governmental censorship in Tunisia had already been the sign of the big role the actors of Web could play in the events. It is no wonder that Google marketing executive for the Middle East, Wael Ghonim, became a symbol for the Egyptian movement.

Tunisia: what was the real role of Internet in the Jasmine Revolution?

On January 13th, 24 hours before fledding the country, President Ben Ali promised to allow “total freedom of information and end Internet censorship”, in his third address delivered to the nation in less than a month. For the first time in the history of Internet, a government was putting an end to the Internet censorship under pressure from the people. This statement, which places Internet freedom on the same rank as the freedom of the press, opens a new era in the young history of political Internet. It illustrates mostly the decisive role played by Internet in the fall of a regime which thought could effectively control the Web. Because it is not the traditional media that made us aware of the extent of the movement, but all the messages uploaded on Twitter, Facebook (almost 2 million Tunisians, which is 18 % of the total population) and the blogs of Tunisians within the country or abroad.

Internet voting: 3 European countries in line for 2011

2011 will mark an important step in the evolution of electronic voting. Three European countries will be in fact directly affected by this voting method. While the Estonians will use e-voting during the general elections for the second time in a row, Swiss voters will continue debating on the matter and test e-voting in certain pilot cantons during their general elections. Last but not least, Norway will, for the first time, conduct e-voting trials and plans to select pilot cities during the municipal elections next September.

Politics goes mobile

According to survey published by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project, more than a quarter of American adults used their cell phones to learn about or participate in the 2010 mid-term election campaign. Of those cell owners, 71% use their phone for texting and 39% use the phone for accessing the internet. More results on the Pew Internet website.

 

Cloud Computing entices the US Government

According to Cloud Computing Journal, the Obama administration has announced that, from now on, cloud computing would be the "default approach to IT" for US government agencies. The move is intended to close the IT gap between the public and private sectors, lower costs, improve security and performance, and speed up the deployment of new applications.

Citizenscape: from self expression to e-petition

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.

• The winners of the e-Democracy Awards 2010
• Citizenscape website

Dilma Rousseff elected Brazil’s president, with 56% of the votes cast…electronically!

The election of Dilma Rousseff as the first female president of one of the world’s largest democracies is among the most outstanding examples on the use of electronic voting. More than 106 million voters, which means a voter turnout of 78 % in the second round, cast their votes via electronic voting machines, without anybody raising doubts on the sincerity of the ballot.

Precisely 187 foreign observers from 45 countries have overseen the elections, according to Brazil’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal. The use of electronic voting machines, in place since 1996, but also of biometric voting machines allowing voter identification by their fingerprints stirs up the curiosity of western countries where pressure groups object to electronic usage in elections, forbidding in that respect the modernization of the electoral process.

Electronic voting opponents were rather discreet by the way during the course of this campaign. The left-wing positioning of the newly elected Rousseff, successor of outgoing President Lula da Silva, has without doubt something to do with it.

• Elections in Brazil

Kate Lundy: "In Australia, we have created a Gov 2.0 Taskforce"

Labor representative at the Australian Parliament, Senator Kate Lundy is probably one of the most active MPs involved in debates on the Information Society in her country. She was the first one to open a parliamentary blog in 1996 and she has been lobbying ever since for a more transparent, more participative and open government. Presented with the International eDemocracy Award 2010 by Phil Noble of PoliticsOnline, on October 14th in Paris, Kate Lundy made a presentation of her platform, Public Sphere, for consulting the citizens.