VoiceS-Toolkit

Name

From 2008 to 2010, a European project consortium implemented the eParticipation platfoms VoicE and VoiceS to test the possibilities of online participation of citizens in political processes on a European level.

Within the framework of VoicE, an online platform was established with various web2.0 features (forums, blog, etc.) which allowed people to have their say in EU legislation in the area of consumer protection. The website offered easy to read dossiers that provided background information for consumer protection on a European level. People thus had the possibility to first get informed about the topic and then comment on current legislations in the discussions on the website’s forum. The debate was open for several weeks. After closure, a summary of citizens’ opinions was sent to the relevant members of the European Parliament in Brussels.

Within the framework of the successor project VoiceS, the existing platform was enhanced by some means such as a serious game and a semantic search function.

In addition, the possibility to use social networking features for marketing and promoting the platform to reach more user groups and stakeholders was tested.

The experience made by the project consortium, the results of the project as well as the lessons learned are summarised in this toolkit. The aim of the toolkit is to offer European regions planning similar initiatives a guideline and to help and support them with implementation.

Questions addressed in this toolkit are How do you have to prepare an eParticipation initiative?

How do you incorporate actors’ needs in the design of processes and technical features?

Which topics are suitable for online debates?

Which technology should you choose?

How do you have to organise the marketing activities?

The toolkit and other features are available for download at www.eu-voices.eu.

Here, you can also find the open source software used for the VoiceS platform, the VoiceS serious game as well as the main marketing materials (flyer masters etc.).

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eParticipation applications enable online participation of citizens and interested stakeholder groups in political debates and strategic decision-making in democratic environments. The tools, channels and devices through which online participation takes place require proper design to support citizens, politicians and other actors. To incorporate the needs of these actors into the functionalities of the eParticipation platform, this booklet offers a hands-on guideline for eParticipation projects, generated from the experiences of the VoicE and VoiceS project.

The guideline is structured along three main phases for implementing an eParticipation project: analysis and design (preparation), implementation, deployment and running (realisation) and evaluation and impact assessment.

Figure 1 shows the guideline in a five-step iterative process.

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PHASE I: ANALYSIS AND DESIGN The analysis and design phase aims to prepare the eParticipation initiative or project. Three steps need to be implemented successively, accompanied by a requirements analysis. It is possible to go back one step, if particular results in a step demand further consideration.

STEP 1: INITIATION OF THE ePARTICIPATION PROJECT When an eParticipation project is initiated, the first step is to agree upon the objectives: why are you doing the project and who should be involved?

The following questions need to be answered during this step:

What are the objectives of participation?

Who are the stakeholders?

How should the different stakeholders be involved?

What are the expectations regarding the impact of the eParticipation initiative?

To take the VoicE example: The project aimed at enabling citizens to have a voice in EU legislation. In terms of content it focused on EU consumer protection policies. This fulfils the recommendation to choose an interesting and important topic because consumer protection issues have an imminent effect on each citizen. VoicE was further based on the principles of a regional focus, making or keeping information as simple as possible, credibility, creating personal bonds and making sure that the citizens’ participation has a value.

Choose a topic that people are concerned about and can identify with and narrow it down as much as possible!

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STEP 2: DESIGN PARTICIPATION Many eParticipation projects failed and are still failing because participation processes are barely integrated into political processes. It is therefore crucial that results of participation are at least forwarded to the political decision makers. Everything else leads to disappointment of users and disinterest in political participation in the end. The character of participation processes should only be decided with the involvement of (all/key) stakeholders. For this, a requirements analysis focussing on the processes has to be conducted thoroughly. Finally, the goals of each activity have to agree with measurable values, e.g. the impact to be achieved.

The questions to be answered in this project step are the following:

Which steps of the policy lifecycle are supported?

How is it possible to have an impact on the policy?

Which participation areas (i.e. information, consultation, petition, ...) are supported and how?

Which participation steps are foreseen?

What is the estimated impact of the policy?

Which time period is scheduled for the participation process?

Which information is relevant for the stakeholders?

How do stakeholders get feedback on their participation?

The involvement of elected representatives needs to be organised from the beginning of the initiative!

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STEP 3: DESIGN ELECTRONIC PARTICIPATION Based on the participation processes and user needs analysed in steps 1 and 2, it should be decided which media and channels need to be supported and, if applicable, which tools are to be integrated into the platform to support the participation. In terms of usability, the use of different participation features must be well-considered in order not to overload the users. In addition, participation features should only be provided in those cases where the voice of participants is really heard by responsible authorities (cf. step 2). Users should be involved in the design process from the beginning onwards in order to analyse requirements and design user-friendly services. It is essential for eParticipation that communication by electronic means is not more complicated than necessary. eParticipation features must be based on easy-to-use tools in order to avoid usability flaws that could discourage people from participating online. Widely established tools and user paradigms ease the participation for users.

The questions to be answered in this project step are (requirements as results):

Which electronic means support the participation processes best?

Which usability goals are to be fulfilled?

How to build a link between electronic and traditional participation processes?

Usability is crucial!

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PHASE II: IMPLEMENTATION, DEPLOYMENT AND RUNNING Phase II describes the implementation, deployment and running of the whole eParticipation project and initiative. It focuses on ICT (see step 4a), on the content provided by ICT (see step 4b) and performing marketing to support the project/initiative (see step 4c). These three steps need to be implemented in parallel in order to effectively run the initiative. In addition, these steps run along the whole lifetime of the eParticipation project as updating content or marketing materials, fixing bugs, moderating discussions are frequently necessary. Subsequently the steps are described in detail.

STEP 4A: IMPLEMENT, DEPLOY AND RUN ePARTICIPATION TOOLBOX Step 4a describes those tasks necessary to implement, deploy and run the eParticipation toolbox effectively, based on the decisions in phase 1.

Implementing an eParticipation system requires well-organised user and systems tests. Running the platform refers to activities necessary in order to keep the platform alive from a technical point of view (maintenance). Moderators and content administrators have to be supported in summarising conclusions of discussions in a simple and effective way.

STEP 4B: PREPARE AND UPDATE CONTENT Preparation information and content for the eParticipation toolbox has to be organised parallel with the setup of the platform functionalities and structure (implementation). A careful preparation of information helps to be in time with the deployment of the platform and to be able to update content for new political developments. It is recommended to follow a well-structured process for information preparation in this step. Questions to be first addressed are: What do you want to prepare, why and how do you want to prepare it? In addition to background information regarding policies and political institutions, it is necessary to prepare information about the participation process and expectations (results from step 1 and step 2 of the engineering approach) to make the initiative transparent.

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Such information has to answer the following questions:

How does the participation process proceed (time frame, steps)?

What can participants contribute to the process?

What are the expectations and the goals of the participation process?

How will these be achieved?

Another recommendation is to prepare questions for discussion in advance to stimulate discussions. This does not mean that all questions have to be posed at the outset, but can be thrown in at regular timeframes, e.g. one new question each week. Such preparation allows the fast reaction in case sparse discussions take place in the forum.

In addition, this step includes moderating the platform and tasks to forward the participations results to respective authorities.

To enhance users’ willingness to contribute, it is necessary to inform participants about how their contributions will be used.

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STEP 4C: EXTENSIVE MARKETING (INVOLVING STAKEHOLDERS) AND MAINTENANCE Extensive marketing is an ongoing and important task. However, it needs to be seen in context with permanently updating the platform and publishing news (see maintenance). The marketing should already be initiated in advance and at least be active at the launch of the platform. Maintaining the platform refers to activities necessary in order to keep the platform alive, to monitor the forum, to support the users, to publish news etc. The effort necessary for doing so should not be underestimated and is an ongoing task through the whole project lifecycle. In order to support this step, the design phase of the electronic participation tools has to reflect the maintenance needs and has to plan the respective processes. Maintenance should facilitate and support different instances with the same content in different languages in a multi-lingual context. Also the moderators and content administrators should be supported in summarising conclusions of discussions in a simple and effective way.

Examples of marketing campaigns are:

Question of the Month: Users are asked questions to be answered with “yes”/ “no” on a monthly basis (e.g. in the name of politicians) to stimulate initial participation and involvement in the topic by the users.

Post recent news about the topic and give the possibility to comment them.

Video interviews with important stakeholders.

Advertise the platform in on- and offline networks.

Marketing and platform maintenance are two key parts of the project management 10

PHASE III: EVALUATION AND IMPACT ASSESSMENT Evaluation of the eParticipation platform, the processes and the actors’ participation shall give insight into whether the goals of the eParticipation initiatives are met, impact is reached with the electronic participation and how far the electronic tools have supported the reached outcomes. The evaluation results show whether the eParticipation initiative is successful. Critical points, which need to be revised and improved in an iterative design cycle, are identified. Questions to be answered in order to evaluate project objectives and expectations, policy impact and the eParticipation toolbox along socio-technical view points are:

To what extend are the specific aims and objectives of the project fulfilled?

To what extend did the project affect policies?

To what extend does the design of the eParticipation toolbox affect the outcomes?

Have we met our goals?

No project without proper evaluation and identification of lessons learned!

The engineering approach introduced in this section describes an iterative process to successfully plan and implement eParticipation initiatives. Hence, the insights gained in the evaluation (phase III) feed back into revisions in earlier steps of the engineering approach, as shown in Figure 1.

As pointed out earlier in the guideline, marketing activities are a crucial part of an eParticipation project. Therefore, they are described in detail in the following section.

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In order to reach the objectives of an eParticipation project, it is necessary to design a proper marketing strategy. In the following, important factors necessary to create a good marketing strategy are explained. Finally, the most important points for successful marketing are noted.

TARGET PUBLIC It is fundamental to know the target group of the eParticipation project. Who is going to be addressed? What knowledge do they have of the topic at hand? How old are they and how can they best be addressed? In the following, you find the key parameters that need to be considered in the marketing strategy:

Age: A marketing strategy is different when addressing pupils, students or retired people as well as voters and non-voters. Images, layout, explanations, linguistics etc. that are used need to be adapted to the age range.

Knowledge of the topic: You need to find out the awareness, involvement and knowledge that your target group has of the respective topic.

Depending on this, you have to offer more or less detailed information.

Internet expertise: Consider how experienced your user group is with the internet and the various tools! Adjust your marketing strategy.

Pupils might be more easily attracted by an e-mail or a twitter tweet while others might prefer traditional flyers. Don’t overstrain your user group!

Target area: Consider that if your service is offered on a local level, the message is more direct and people are able to comment or express their concerns and opinions more easily, while at European level you need to supply more information and clarify the content.

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Know your target group! ’ One size fits all’’ doesn’t work!

ONLINE STRATEGY Internet is currently the most important tool to reach a huge range of people all around the world, especially those with knowledge of information and communication technologies. Web2.0 tools offer a broad range of new opportunities for online dissemination and participation. There are no longer just the young who are on the web. More and more older people discover the internet and become fitter in surfing on the web.

SOCIAL NETWORKS (TWITTER, FACEBOOK, YOUTUBE,...)

Social networks can be considered as a tool to discover and to find new contacts, new ideas, business or project partners, any kind of group, potential clients and call up internet users to discuss special topics. In social networks, a large mass of persons can be easily reached.

Before starting to use social networks, it is necessary to study and analyse different social networks in order to find out which are close to your project activity and your target group. The most popular social networks among citizens are potentially the most interesting tools for the online dissemination strategy.

Once the social networks have been selected, it is necessary to set up a strategy of use of this tool as a channel of dissemination. It doesn’t suffice to have just the channels. In social networks you must be active, e.g. by posting information, answering questions, being interested in what others say.

VoicE/ VoiceS Experience Our main activities took place in facebook and twitter. We managed to reach a broad public and thus to improve the dissemination activity and the citizens’ knowledge of the project. The number of fans, friends and followers is constantly growing.

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NEWSLETTERS You can send your target group information about the project, its progress and developments in a newsletter. However, be careful whom you send it to. Don’t “spam” people and make sure that you get their authorisation before sending a newsletter.

In addition, marketing activities should not merely focus on these means.

Depending on the age and structure of your target group, it can also turn out useful to use offline means such as roadshows, stalls at conferences, letters and so forth.

OFFLINE STRATEGY The main objective of the offline strategy is to raise awareness and to reach those users who, although they have knowledge of the new technologies, are not so familiar with them or only make use of ICT means for certain purposes. Please find below the most important offline marketing tools: Participation in congresses, seminars and conferences related to the topic of the project/activity, meetings, awareness raising campaigns and concerted visits to present the project to groups of interest.

Workshops and training sessions in order to explain the aim of the project/activity in detail.

We held meetings in schools esp. political sciences-courses where we talked about the project and its tools. Especially the serious game was promoted in these classes.

Design of marketing materials like brochures, flyers, leaflets, rollers, posters etc., and dissemination materials like pens, notebooks, postcards etc.

Media: It is very important to establish a close relation to media in order to promote all activities and to reach as many people as possible.

As VoicE /VoiceS was very much focused on regions, we kept close contact to journalists from these regions to get the broadest possible coverage there.

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Provide content to those entities (associations, organisations etc.) that are dealing with the topics tackled because they can disseminate the project through their own publications.

In VoicE and VoiceS, we established contact to consumer protection associations and relevant political actors such as ministries.

TIME FRAMEWORK The eParticipation platform can be designed for a concrete purpose (i.e. European elections, telecommunication Directive), for a fixed period of time (i.e. from the proposal to the approval of a Directive), or for an undefined period of time (i.e. embedded into the municipality website).

The marketing strategy must start before the platform has been launched and it will last as long as the commitments make it necessary.

During the first stage the strategy will be focused on raising the awareness of citizens concerning this new initiative, using different marketing tools and merchandising: press releases, banners on websites, advertisements etc.

The launch of the platform should be incorporated in a large event with considerable visibility (press coverage, number of visitors etc.).

The VoicE/VoiceS marketing activities started with the launch of the platform.

However, the marketing strategy had been defined several months before.

The marketing activities have been changed and adapted according to the development of the project and the novelties that needed to be considered, such as the focus on social networks in the framework of VoiceS.

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KEY POINTS TO TAKE INTO ACCOUNT Don’t only start marketing activities when the platform is online!

Marketing has to be integrated into the project development from the beginning onwards!

Marketing defines/identifies the target group and respective most suitable communication channels and platforms (online/offline)!

A heterogeneous target group requires different types of marketing tools!

Motivated users that actively participate in the debate are the best way to attract other users!

Don’t use only online or only offline tools for marketing, rather combine both!

Be authentic, open and active when using social networks!

Use key stakeholders of your target group as multipliers!

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Regional approach: A regional eParticipation model towards the EU is supportive towards attracting citizens’ interest. Yet to have a voice in Brussels, citizen participation must be linked directly with decision-making at Parliament level.

Heterogeneous target groups: The target group of an eParticipation project may be very heterogeneous e.g. if it focuses on citizens. Try to address as many needs as possible in your marketing activities. Use flyers as well as e-mail newsletters, approach your users in vis ĂĄ vis meetings as well as on twitter and facebook.

Involvement of politicians is very hard to achieve but is crucial.

Relevance of the topic: In order to achieve active participation, it is important that users are directly involved with the topic selected.

Use of technologies: The use of web2.0 technologies does not yet ensure high user participation regardless how nice and easy they are in use. The use of each technology needs to be seen in the overall participation context. Tools used need not only be adapted to the user requirements but also to the participation processes.

Participation processes: It is essential for a successful eParticipation initiative to have well-defined participative processes and that outcomes have an impact.

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Project Coordinator: MFG Baden-Württemberg mbH Breitscheidstrasse 4 70174 Stuttgart Germany Tel: +49 711 90715300 info@mfg.de

Project Partners: Generalitat de la Comunitat Valenciana Calle Caballeros 2 46001 Valencia Spain Tel: +34 96 1961043 lopez_margui@gva.es ------------Gov2u Chlois 31 Maroussi 15125 Athens Greece Tel: +30 210 6121340 info@gov2u.org ------------Europa Zentrum Baden-Württemberg Nadlerstrasse 4 70173 Stuttgart Germany Tel: + 49 711 2349367 info@europa-zentrum.de ------------18

Fundación Comunidad Valenciana Región Europea Plaza De San Nicolas 2 46001 Valencia Spain Tel: +34 96 3863444 mira_carllo@gva.es ------------University of Koblenz-Landau Research Group E-Government Universitätsstrasse 1 56070 Koblenz Germany Tel: +49 261 287-2646 wimmer@uni-koblenz.de ------------Eurosoc Rheinufer 4 78467 Konstanz Germany Tel. +49 7351 3495855 info@eurosoc.de -------------

ITTIG/CNR Institute of Legal Information Theory and Techniques/ Italian National Research Council Via de’Barucci 20 50127 Firenze Italy Tel: +39 05 54399666 agnoloni@ittig.cnr.it ------------Imaginary Srl Via Mauro Macchi 52 20124 Milano Italy Tel: +39 02 89458576 info@i-maginary.it -------------

Ministry of Rural Affairs, Food and Consumer Protection Baden-Württemberg Kernerplatz 10 70182 Stuttgart Germany Tel: +49 711 1262108 poststelle@mlr.bwl.de ------------Republik Österreich Parlamentsdirektion Dr. Karl Renner-Ring 3 1017 Wien Austria Tel: +43 1 401102236 services@parlament.gv.at -------------

* Based on: Scherer, Sabrina; Wimmer, Maria A.; Ventzke, Stefan (2010): Hands-on guideline for eParticipation initiatives. In: Janssen, Marijn; Lamersdorf, Winfried; Pries-Heje, Jan; Rosemann, Michael: E-Government, E-Services and Global Processes, Joint IFIP TC 8 and TC 6 International Conferences EGES 2010 and GISP 2010. Springer Verlag. Nr. 334. pp. 49-61.

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.

This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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Imprint Project Management: Johanna Schepers (MFG Baden-Württemberg) Concept: Johanna Schepers, Jürgen Pfeifle (MFG Baden-Württemberg), Prof. Maria Wimmer (University of Koblenz-Landau), Sabrina Scherer (University of Koblenz-Landau) Text: Johanna Schepers, Prof. Maria Wimmer, Sabrina Scherer, Florian Setzen (Europa Zentrum Baden-Württemberg), Dr. Levent Günes. (Europa Zentrum Baden-Württemberg), Celsa Monrós Barahona (Fundación Comunidad Valenciana-Región Europea), Eduardo Lázaro (Fundación Comunidad Valenciana-Región Europea) Art Direction: Andreas Schumacher (www.made-am-neckar.de) Project Coordinator:

Project Partners:

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