Evaluation of an E-participation Project: Lessons Learned and Success Factors from a Cross-Cultural Perspective

Abstract

Part 4: Software Platforms and EvaluationInternational audienceIn the area of large-scale e-participation projects on a cross-national level, the project we present is based on the idea that the active involvement of young people in the process of socio-political decision-making plays an important societal role. OurSpace is a multi-national project supporting a closer relationship between European decision makers, and Europe’s younger generation. OurSpace tried to combine ICT usage, young peoples’ readiness and motivation to participate, and their assumed lack of information regarding European politics. We present the evaluation framework and methodology applied for OurSpace, the major results of the project evaluation, and the lessons learned from a comparative perspective

An Attempt to Build an eParticipation Program from Scratch: The Case of a District Municipality

“…Primus et al, [23] is a comprehensive example of best practice recommendations as it defines 36 CSFs along 6 dimensions. Based on a cross-cultural perspective Parycek et al [20] offered the following lessons and CSFs: select topics carefully; integrate affected decision makers into the discussion, but also provide moderation (both on-and off-line with the intent that neither politicians nor expert should overdominate the discourse); manage community (especially for the long-run); use a mix of channels (augment the discussion tool with social media channels or even blogs carrying background information); offer social media features so participants can connect beyond the topic at hand (or could create links to such known services like user profiles or groups). Panopoulou et al [19] proposed success factors specifically tailored for designing eParticipation initiatives, where each factor had a set of activities associated with them.…”

“…Scientific interest in these areas have also increased. On the one hand, various theoretical frameworks have been proposed to analyze ePart projects (including evaluation models covering a set of criteria), on the other hand numerous case studies had been published offering critical success factors (CSF) and best practices how to run such projects [13,18,20,23,26]. Already in 2004 Macintosh warned [14], that at the start of an ePart project there is a need to "clearly characterize the stage in the policy-making process, the level of participation, the technology used, and various issues and constraints, including the potential benefits online participation offers" (p. 2).…”

Advances in e-Participation: A perspective of Last Years

“…Several works [27], [29], [32], [50], [51], [70], [73] propose a classification of the technological tools that can be used to fully or partially carry out an e-Participation process. Table 13 shows the proposed works and our ePfw interpretation.…”

Acceptance of Tools for Electronic Citizen Participation

“…Our starting point were the categories for e-participation evaluation as suggested by Macintosh & Whyte [18] with adaptations towards project goals and the national context. Building on the experiences from other evaluations, [19] we used the following analytical dimensions:…”