Electronic Participation
(E-Participation)
Participation
Definition?
Types?
Avenues/Methods?
E-Participation: What?
The use of ICT to broaden and deepen political participation by enabling
citizens to connect with one another and with their elected
representatives.
e-Participation describes citizens, by using ICTs, being able to perform tasks
common to participation, but in an online environment.
ICT-supported participation in processes involved in government and
governance. Processes may concern administration, service delivery,
decision making and policy making.
► Phang and Kankanhalli (2008) define
e-participation as governments’ efforts to
exploit and extend ICT capabilities to enhance
citizens’ participation in the decision-making
process. It is noticeable here that the
government employs ICT in the diffusion of
policy planning information and in using citizens’
input in the planning process. Furthermore,
researchers have asserted that e-participation is
the process by which the public needs, interests,
concerns and values are integrated into the
governmental decision-making process
(Tambouris et al., 2008). e-Participation is a
concept that describes the efforts of deploying
and expanding political participation by enabling
citizens to interact with each other and with
their political representatives through the use of
ICT tools (Tambouris et al., 2007).
E-Participation Index (EPI)/
Framework
E-information
E-consultation
E-decision-making
► E-information: availability of online information
Governments are providing people with information through ICT channels to
help them make more informed choices at the next stage of consultation.
E-information is critical because without access to publicly held
information, participation cannot be evidence-based, fully relevant, or
significant.
Vulnerable groups, Labour, Social welfare, Environment, Health, Education
E-consultation: online public consultations
It means consulting the people is part of the process of crafting new policies,
designing new services or projects. Consultation however, need not mean
that the government is obligated to use the inputs received. Rather, it has
the ability to leverage the information obtained to better respond to
public sentiments on a particular subject.
Portals with social media networking tools. Protals with e-tools for public
consultation/deliberation. Recent use of online consultation/ deliberation
e-tools for development
E-decision-making: directly involving citizens in decision
processes
Two examples are: (i) direct e-voting via secure systems
and (ii) identifying preferred (popular) options and
proposals by rating them through social media’s
“Like/Dislike” or “plus/minus” functions. Recently,
policy discourse has been gaining special attention as
new software tools are creating more complex and
sophisticated systems of deliberation online. For
example, Internet voting (I-voting or online voting)
E-participation features
► Availability of sources of archived information (policies, budget, legal
documents, budgets, etc.); use of digital channels (including mobile
devices/platforms) and open data technologies in the areas of education,
health, finance, social welfare, labour, environment.
► Availability of online information on citizens’ rights to access government
information (such as Freedom of Information Act or Access to Information
Act)
► Evidence about government partnership/collaboration with third parties
(civil society, private sector) in providing services
► Evidence about free access to government online
services through the main portal, kiosks, community
centers, post offices, libraries, public spaces or free
WiFi
► Evidence about collaborative co-production,
► Evidence about engaging citizens in
consultation/communication to improve online/mobile
services and raise citizens’ satisfaction
► Evidence about engaging citizens in consultation/communication on
education, health, finance, social welfare, labor, environment
► Availability of “personal data protection” legislation online
► Evidence about opportunities for the public to propose new open datasets
to be available online
► Availability of e-participation policies/mission statements
► Availability of public procurement notifications and tender results online
► Availability of online tools (on the national portal) to
seek public opinion and other input in raw (non
deliberative) form policy formation
► Evidence on decisions made that included results from
online consultation with citizens in the education,
health, finance, social welfare, labor, and environment
sectors
► Evidence about governments’ publishing outcomes of
policy consultations online
Tools and methods of
e-Participation
► E-mail (mailing list), e-meetings
► virtual communities/ online community networks
(social networks),
► e-participation chat rooms, mobile phones/devices
(text messages),
► Webcasts, GIS-tools, RSS Feeds, Online newsletters,
► FAQs, weblogs (blogs), video conferencing,
► Alerts, Wikis, Podcasting
► E-survey, feedback forms, text-to-speech
technology (natural language processing),
► E-panels, Podcasting, Wikis,
► Video conferencing, e-referenda, instant
messaging
► Web virtual meetings (chat-rooms, discussion
forums/boards),
► E-petition, e-voting tools, e-bulletin boards,
e-polls, e-Panel,
Electronic petitions (e-petitions) – web-based system allowing
participants to support a petition and write their names and
addresses on-line. It allows petition participants to insert
their name and address into the system, and it also includes
a discussion forum where all citizens can express their
opinion for or against the petition.
Electronic referendum (e-referendum) – a referendum
initiated by citizens is a simple way of bringing a problem to
the higher authorities. Like with the eelection, it is possible
to use devices as SMS, interactive digital TV, electronic
voting, kiosk or a portable electronic election device.
Webcast and podcast – Meeting spaces between citizens
and government. live broadcast of parliamentary
sessions or offices via the Internet. Individual
broadcasts can be run again offline from an archive –
podcast.
E-panel – it is represented by a set of hired participants
who agreed to periodically reflect on matters related
to information and communication technologies. In
the scope of e-panels it is possible to use other tools,
e.g discussion forums, etc.
Discussion forums, chat rooms – places on websites
where it is possible to discuss specific topics.
Discussion forums differ from chat rooms by dealing
with the threats to society and their duration is within
days or weeks. By contrast, chats take place in real
time. Citizens remain mostly anonymous, but some
discussion groups cannot come without registering.
Some sites offer the opportunity to communicate with
people involved in the particular area within on-line
“contact hours” of elected representatives.
Electronic communities (e-communities/virtual
communities) – on-line sites which gather groups of
citizens initiating discussions on selected political issues
and formulate alternative proposals.
Electronic citizen juries – this tool is similar to consensus
commissions, where a group of selected people
interrogates experts on the political agenda. Then they
discuss the issue among themselves and in the end they
announce conclusion (consensus). Compared to
commissions, the time of the questioning and discussion
shorter, and the conclusion does not necessarily lead to
a consensus.
frequently asked questions (FAQ) – a list of
frequently asked questions assists the
government in terms of orientation and
needs of citizens. By their nature, they
are not sufficient to communicate on a
complex issue.
Blog – web sites where data inputs are in a
chronological order. Contributors, so
called bloggers, focus on members of
boards or government officials.
alert services and online newsletters–
serve to inform citizens about new events
and ventures.
► Debate: enables debating about a given topic. In this
debate, citizens share their opinions and vote against,
neutrally or favorably to a topic. EXP. ePanel,
eDeliberative Polling.
► Profile: allow the user to register for an environment,
virtually becoming a part of it. This component can be
considered fundamental when you want to start a
process of participation, as participants must identify
themselves.
► Survey: provides a way for creating a set of questions to be answered by
citizens. EXP. eConsultation, eDeliberative Polling.
► Poll: Component for creating a single poll with one question to be
answered by citizens. In this component, citizens do not need to be
identified; however, it is possible for them to do so. EXP: eConsultation,
eDeliberative Polling.
► Information Provision: allows one to make information available for
citizens through a number of sources: audio, video, wikis, blogs, podcasts,
videocasts, links or documents uploaded. EXP: Podcasts, Wiki, Blog, and
FAQ.
► Voting: ICT Component for creating an official voting. Like a poll, a
question may be answered by the citizens. However, the citizen must be
identified as a registered voter, although this registration would not be
necessarily related to his/her choice. EXP: eVoting.
► Alert: ICT component that account for sending citizens alerts about topics
of their interest or to call them to participate in a given participation
process. EXP: Alert services, online newsletters.
► United Nation, 2016. UNITED NATIONS E-GOVERNMENT
SURVEY 2016. E-GOVERNMENT IN SUPPORT OF SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT
► Bawack, RE et al. 2018. Chapter 6: E-Participation in
Developing Countries: The Case of the National Social
Insurance Fund in Cameroon. In Optimizing E-Participation
Initiatives Through Social Media.
► Efthimios Tambouris Ann Macintosh and Øystein Sæbø (Eds.)
2012. Electronic Participation, 4th IFIPWG8.5 International
Conference, ePart 2012 Kristiansand, Norway, September
3-5, 2012 Proceedings. Chapter 13: Exploiting eParticipation
Using an Ontological Approach
► Zissis, D, Lekkas, D, and Papadopoulou. A.E, “Competent
Electronic Participation Channels in Electronic Democracy.”
Electronic Journal of e-Government Volume 7 Issue 2 2009,
(pp195 - 208)
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