The EIP-SCC Marketplace Action Cluster ‘Citizen Focus’ hosted a webinar on Collaborative Platforms to enable Participatory Budgeting initiatives on December 6, 2017.
The webinar, first of a series of three, provided more than 60 participants the opportunity to learn about Participatory Budgeting and specifically to understand the role of platforms in similar initiatives.
Anne Deltour, from the European Commission DG CNECT, introduced the webinar with a speech throughout which she highlighted the importance of revisiting the European concept of Democracy in order to ameliorate citizen engagement.
Maria Sangiuliano, CEO & co-founder of Smart Venice srl and Action Cluster leader, offered an insight into Citizen Focus’ main activities, goals and objectives and presented the latest initiative related to Participatory Budgeting.
Michelangelo Secchi, research fellow at the University of Coimbra, introduced the ‘EMPATIA’ project, which he has been coordinating since 2016. Mr. Secchi shared some background information on the popularity of PB along with the criteria to identify and set a Participatory Budgeting process. The second part of his presentation was specifically focused on platforms and on the core functions required for carrying a PB process through the previously mentioned.
Miguel Arana Catania, Citizen Participation Director at Madrid City Council, guided participants through the website of “Decide Madrid”, one of the many organisations using the Consul platform. In addition to Participatory Budgeting initiatives, “Decide Madrid” offers a debate section through which users can express their approval/disapproval but also leave their comments. Furthermore, citizens can also submit proposals of their own, which are then deferred to voting.
Cesar Silva, CEO and co-founder of ‘ChangeTomorrow’ – home to the ‘Participare’ platform – shared some of the platform’s main features among which the multilingual interface, the authentication options and the different voting methods. Participants were also briefed on the platform’s technical aspects.
In case you may have missed the webinar, you can catch up in full below:
You may also find the presentation here and our guest speakers’ bios in the agenda, available here.
Stay tuned for two additional webinars coming up in early 2018!
We hope that by spring we will conclude the series!
For more information please contact citizenfocus@eu-smartcities.eu