eGovBlog interview with Mr Eric Legale, organizer of the World e-Democracy Forum
It is a pleasure for eGovBlog to present today an exclusive interview with Eric Legale, Managing Director of ISSY MEDIA, in charge of the communication and Technologies of Information of the City of Issy-les-Moulineaux and organizer of the World e-Democracy Forum, one of the top international events in the field that will take place in ISSY-LES- MOULINEAUX, Paris France, 16-17 October 2008.
eGB: Mr. Legale, what are the main topics that will be addressed by this year’s edition of the Forum?
EL: The American net-campaign will be one of the top interesting session, of course. Because European people are really excited by what happen is US during this incredible campaign. Phil Noble will chair a special session on this “first campaign of the 21st century” with representatives from Democrats and Republicans. As special guest, he has invited Andrew Rasiej, one of the best American specialists, founder of TechPresident.com and of the “Personal Democracy Forum”.
But we will speak also about the main challenges of the information society: How to reduce concretely the digital divide? How to offer the most efficient public service to citizens? How to involve citizens themselves in the process with the web 2.0? How to protect citizens in respect of their private life? What are the new services suggested by wireless technologies?
eGB: Given your experience with the Forum, who would you say ’should’ attend to this event?
EL: Every citizen interested by the future of democracy should be interested by the debates of the World eDemocracy Forum. What we try to do is to allow people (citizens, specialists, private sector, NGOs, politicians, journalists, etc.) to share their experiences, their questions, their doubts. Everywhere in the world, we are asking the same question: how to live better and safer? Don’t reinvent the wheel, we have just to ask to our colleagues around the world. For example, the World eDemocracy Forum is also the place where a lot of European projects members are coming, just for networking because it is the place where you can meet people sharing the same idea than you: the world is changing thanks to technologies and we are contributing for a part of it.
eGB: Can you comment on the Trophy Ceremony of e-Democracy that is scheduled for day 2?
EL: If a lot of experiences exists around the world, they are not enough known by the population. With the eDemocracy Awards, we want to underline people, websites, organizations who do something. We have four categories: the International Award, with PoliticsOnline, the European Award with Politech Institute, the French Award with the “Club de l’Hyper République” and the Forum Award.
eGB: We have learned that delegates attending the Forum will be invited to take part in a supplementary Workshop on secure electronic document exchange for administrations. Can you give us a few words on that?
EL: Because the World eDemocracy Award is the place where eDemocracy and eGovernment specialists are coming, some organizations asked me to have a parallel session during the Forum or, because we don’t have place enough, before or after the Forum. The day before, on Wednesday October 15th, e-Forum, a not-for-profit Association that brings together all interested parties active in the field of eGovernment in Europe, from both the private and public sectors, will organize a workshop open to everyone. In the same time, the Politech Institute will organize also a workshop on eParticipation.
eGB: In which way would you say that this edition of the World E-Democracy Forum is something unique for practitioners and other stakeholders?
EL:I don’t know if the World eDemocracy Forum is unique because I know a lot of others conferences very interesting. But I think that you can meet in Paris the main specialists of eDemocracy and eGovernment in the same place and in a special environment (the gala dinner on board a boat to discover Paris by night is a very appreciated memory!).
eGB: Finally, how can interested people register or get more information about the Forum?
EL: The best is to visit the official website: www.edemocracy-forum.com to have more information and to register online. The Forum is free except for companies.
ePassport technologies to the test, in Prague
The ePassports EAC Conformity and Interoperability Tests will be hosted by the Czech Republic this week. Experts from the field, test and solution providers and public officials are expected.
If you are interested in this domain, you can look for more details in the website for the Prague testing event here.
Google speech-to-text technology to track political videos
The Google Elections Video Search gadget is the last tool designed by the Mountain View giant to follow the US election year.
Through this new feature, anyone can now browse and search hundreds of political videos and find out what a candidates said about any specific topic of interest.
The interface is very simple and allows the user to enter a set of keywords, a phrase or simply the topic she is looking for. After clicking the Search Videos button, the different pieces available -where this or that politician speaks about the theme- will be shown.
This is what the Google guys call their state-of-the-art speech to text voice technology, which allows you to jump right to the most relevant fragments of the speech, according to your query. The gadget only searches videos uploaded to YouTube’s politicians channels.
To try out, visit the iGoogle gadget page.
People Finder, a new tool for networking
The International Centre of Excellence for local eDemocracy, ICELE, a top international institution in the field of eDemocracy, has recently launched People Finder, a new tool to ‘help network all the digital democracy, participation and empowerment practitioners from across the world’.
Practitioners who are interested in adding their profiles to the database are invited to do so. It is also possible to search the People Finder, either by the area of Expertise, by Country, or by Keyword.
Areas of Expertise include, eGovernment, eDemocracy, Digital Divide, Citizen Empowerment, Elected representation or Participatory Technologies, among others. It is also possible to search for practitioners that are close to you, through the People finder map.
In order to test this new tool, simply click here.
MyParl.eu, the MySpace for politics
We have learned from euobserver.com about a very interesting initiative that is being developed right now. The project, creatively named MyParl.eu is said to become a social networking website, to link MEPs and MPs from all accross Europe and foster debate about legislative proposals coming both out of Brussels and from national parliaments.
Main topics to be put forward for debate are ‘the future of Europe’, ‘climate change’, and ‘intercultural dialogue’.
According to the institutional preliminary website that is already online, MyParl.eu will offer parlamentarians a unique online political forum with a social networking tool, enabling them to engage with other peers across the EU.
We will definitely follow the development of MyParl.eu with great interest.
Personal Democracy Forum 2008
Internet and technology are changing politics and the Personal Democracy Forum 2008 addresses this matter broadly.
This year, the gathering will take place at the Frederick P. Rose Hall in New York City, and will treat two main topics. During the first day the discussion will focus on how technology is changing the electoral process. In the second day, the goal will be to analyze how government uses technology to serve or connect with the public.
Leaders and referents from different fields like journalism, technology, business, blogging or activism are expected, including Vint Cerf, Lawrence Lessig, Michael Arrington or Arianna Huffington among several other celebrities.
Some of the specific topics to be covered are: ‘The top political technology applications of 2008′; ‘How “Wiki Government” can work’; ‘Social technology and how the internet can save the planet’; or ‘Design principles for online democracy: Connecting government and constituents in the internet age’.
European-wide discussion on the harmful effects of smoking
A European-wide discussion on the harmful effects of smoking between citizens and members of regional and national parliaments through the creation of an online platform is the objective of Demos@Work project. The project, which is co-financed under the 2007 eParticipation call, was launched in January. The first pilots will take place in Catalonia and Lithuania in cooperation with the relevant parliaments.
For more information please contact Evika Karamagioli at evika{at}gov2u.org or visit www.demosatwork.org
We would also to invite you to narrate your story in a few words regarding smoking in the story telling section of our site! …
An online services portal for youngsters in Hong Kong
The website provides services to young people aged between 15 and 24 years old, and is ‘contributed to by about 40 Hong Kong Government departments and bureaus and more than 140 related organisations’.
You can visit the portal here.
The ‘Mariachis’ support Barack Obama
We posted about the endorsement received by Hillary Clinton. In this case is Barack Obama who gets the attention.
Interesting to see how YouTube and other similar services are gaining more and more space as valuable marketing tools among constituents, supporters and campaign teams.
The Joker endorses Hillary Clinton
Action in the US Democratic primaries continues. In this case, Hillary Clinton receives a very special endorsement