Introduction

Dear readers,

Welcome to the fourth newsletter of the Demos@Work project!

Our vision is to facilitate European-wide discussion between elected officials and civil society organisations via the use of ICT on the harmful effects of smoking, an emerging policy issue that has a potential impact on all countries within the European Union.

The focus of Demos@Work is mainly on citizens and their representatives. We are creating, with the support of the EU, an online collaborative platform (www.demosatwork.org) that aims to facilitate the dialogue between regional/national-level elected representatives, the European parliament and citizens on health issues. It will use and test forms and methods of civic engagement. This will be achieved by configuring and putting into trial a secure, mobile environment through which elected representatives are able not only to engage with citizens on policy issues, but also to communicate and collaborate with their peers.

Your active involvement, feedback and experiences are valuable. Therefore, we would like to invite you to actively take part by sending us your views and information on relevant activities and events as well as by participating in the story telling section on our site. We are also very much interested in hearing about similar initiatives.

This Demos@Work newsletter features brief updates on our activities and on forthcoming events.

Thank you for your interest in our work!

The demos@work team

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Project news

Demos@Work was presented at the eParticipation Conference: Current State of Play & Future Directions, 15th December 2009

The eParticipation Conference: Current State of Play & Future Directions took place on the 15th of December 2009 at the premises of the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium. The conference was organized by the projects co-funded by the European Commission under the eParticipation Preparatory Action. At this occasion the project Demos@Work was presented by Gov2u, project partner of Demos@Work.

Demos@Work was presented at the EU 5th Ministerial eGovernment Conference, 19-20 November 2009

The Swedish Presidency of the European Union jointly with the European Commission organized this conference, which was one of the major events of the Swedish EU Presidency. It included a Ministerial Meeting of ministers responsible for eGovernment, a Ministerial eGovernment Conference, and an exhibition of more than 50 finalists of eGovernment Awards.
At the Ministerial Conference, high-level speakers and 1 000 delegates representing Member States, EFTA and candidate countries, the European Commission, international and regional organisations such as the United Nations and the OECD, leaders of the ICT industry and its main organisations including Digital Europe, as well as academia and others met in more than 20 sessions to discuss topics of particular interest to actors in the field of eGovernment.
On the occasion Demos@Work project was presented with a live video demonstration of the Demos@Work platform at the eParticipation booth.

The Demos@Work project was presented in the 1st eParticipation conference at Linz, Austria the 31st August - 4th September 2009

The conference specifically provided a ground for researchers of distinct disciplines to come together and discuss advances of eParticipation research from distinct disciplinary angles. Demos@Work as an eParticipation project was presented at the conference adding to the value of the advances of eParticipation research.

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Forthcoming

The Lithuanian and Catalonian interactive portals soon to be online!

The Demos@Work team is preparing for the official launch of the two interactive online portals of Demos@Work. The Parliament of Lithuania (SEIMAS) and the Regional Parliament of Catalonia are responsible for the undertaking of the launch of the two platforms respectively. Members of the respective Parliament, the European Parliament, citizens and all interested parties will be able to use the portals to participate in an active and open dialogue. Through this online dialogue they will be able to express their opinion, cast their views and debate regarding smoking and its effects. Citizens and all interested stakeholders such as health-care professionals, NGOs representatives etc., will be able to voice their opinion and address their representatives on this significant health-policy issue.

The Greek Municipality of Agios Stefanos will adopt the Demos@Work platform! Launch of the platform soon!

We are very happy to announce that Demos@Work sensitized other EU Member-States and attracted interest in its work and activities. As a result, the Greek Municipality of Agios Stefanos (Periphery of Attica, Greece) undertook and adopted the Demos@Work platform. The launch of the platform is due to the beginning of March 2010. Agios Stefanos Municipality is initiating this Demos@Work platform with the aim to actively support the Greek State’s mobilization on the harmful effects of smoking. Citizens from the Municipality of Agios Stefanos and various interested stakeholders, such as health-care professionals and members of civil society will be able to voice their opinions on smoking and its effects on their everyday life.
Platform URL to be announced shortly, for more information please visit the website:
http://www.agstefanos.gr

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