12/05/2011 - PRESS RELEASE: The WeGov project - Closing the loop between policy makers & citizens

1. The WeGov project : closing the loop between policy makers & citizens
Enriching policy dialogue by harnessing the dynamic potential of Social Networking Sites:
The WeGov project will develop a toolset that allows full advantage to be taken of a wide
range of existing and well established social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, Bebo,
WordPress etc.) to engage citizens in two-way dialogues as part of governance and
policymaking processes. A key feature of our approach is to allow policy makers to move
away from the limitations inherent in the current practice of using bespoke and dedicated
platforms (e.g. specific opinion soliciting websites hosted by government) and instead make
full use of the high levels of participation and rich discussions that already take place in
existing social networking communities.
In particular, engagement between policy makers and citizens will be mediated via tools
that will:
make it possible to detect, track and mine opinions and discussions on policy
oriented topics.
will allow discussions to be seeded and stimulated through injection of policy
discussion points into relevant communities in a secure and managed way.
will allow the origins and evolution of opinions to be tracked to provide auditable
records of provenance, guard against misuse, and ensure trust and privacy for all
involved.
Our target audience includes:
MPs and IT staff from Parliaments, Citizens and other stakeholders, such as networks, regional
bodies, NGOs, Businesses, International organizations, and the media.
The consortium represented in the project WeGov is constituted of six experts in the
eParticipation community (Hansard, Gov2u, GFI) and government consulting (GESIS) with an
outstanding international reputation and skills in the area of ICT research and development,
in particular advanced open social networking platforms.
For more information please visit: http://www.wegov-project.eu/
Contact us: info@wegov-project.eu
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission under the
SEVENTH FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME THEME ICT 2009.7.3 ICT for Governance and Policy
Modelling.