Late last week, a new consultation was announced in Europe: Digital Agenda: Commission launches consultation on net neutrality

A consultation on key questions arising from the issue of net neutrality has been launched by the European Commission today. It covers such issues as whether internet providers should be allowed to adopt certain traffic management practices, prioritising one kind of internet traffic over another, whether such traffic management practices may create problems and have unfair effects for users, whether the level of competition between different internet service providers and the transparency requirements of the new telecom framework may be sufficient to avoid potential problems by allowing consumers’ choice and whether the EU needs to act further to ensure fairness in the internet market, or whether industry should take the lead. [...] The consultation will feed into a Commission report on net neutrality, which should be presented by the end of this year. All interested parties – service and content providers, consumers, businesses and researchers – are invited to respond to the consultation by 30 September 2010.

The project as well as the tool (email) have been added to ParticipateDB.

A quick mention over on techPresident the other day quoted Neelie Kroes, EU Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, as saying “The process will be as open as the internet!”, which prompted me to file this comment:

Open consultation?

With regard to the European consultation on net neutrality, it’s interesting to note that their technology of choice is email, not any of the more advanced (more deliberative/collaborative/social) tools that are available. From the questionnaire: “Responses to this public consultation should reach the European Commission by 30 September 2010 at infso-netneutrality@ec.europa.eu.” Not that using email is a bad thing, necessarily, it just means that the input gathering process is fairly one-way and not as open as it could be (certainly not as “open as the internet”).

It’s also not entirely clear if and when any of the input will be made public. Again, from the questionnaire: “Contributions, together with the identity of the contributor, may be published on the website of the Directorate-General for Information Society and Media”. Maybe? Maybe not?

Hm…

Once again, it would be great to have a more comprehensive FAQ available for participants that outlines the complete participation process in more detail.

Gütersloh, Germany-based Bertelsmann Stiftung, one of Germany’s largest foundations, just launched vitalizing-democracy.org, the theme site for their 2011 Reinhard Mohn Prize.

From the welcome post: Welcome to our platform!

On 23 June 2010, the Bertelsmann Stiftung launched this website in order to search for prize-worthy projects for the Reinhard Mohn Prize 2011.

With the forthcoming prize in 2011, the Bertelsmann Stiftung will focus on the crucial issue of ‘Vitalizing Democracy through Participation’. The prize will be awarded to a governmental institution – possibly in cooperation with a non-governmental actor – which has initiated successful projects (or programs) to vitalize democracy, to integrate underrepresented citizens and to establish new forms of democratic problem-solving capacities through participation. [...]

The about page has more details:

The Focus of the Reinhard Mohn-Prize 2011

Democracy is the core of our modern society. It forms the basis for peaceful and self-determined cohabitation and places emphasis on human needs. Strengthening and preserving democracy is one of the most important priorities of our time. During the past decades, our democratic systems have continuously evolved and adapted to new conditions. Growing complexity, heterogeneity and rapid social developments place new demands on democracies. The following three challenges are the most crucial aspects of this development:

• Growing demands for problem-solving capacities – social developments are complex, heterogeneous and rapid, making it hard to react timely and appropriately to implement reforms effectively and to inform the public successfully about current political issues.
• New expectations for political participation – classical forms of political participation such as elections, membership of political parties and political associations no longer meet the needs and demands of modern societies. People increasingly prefer issue-based and more direct forms of participation. Therefore, more and more citizens are alienated by the existing political system.
• Under-representation of disadvantaged groups – migration and the growing gap between rich and poor lead to fewer people being able to participate in political decisions and represent their interests.

The site will be open for applications through August 22, 2010. Registered users will be able to rate and comment on the projects that have been submitted. A jury will pick the winners.

I don’t see it being mentioned specifically, but one would hope that the innovative use of information and communication technology (e.g. the internet) will play at least some role in this contest.

In Europe, the 5th Ministerial eGovernment Conference — titled Teaming up for the eUnion — is happening in Malmö, Sweden today and tomorrow. At a press conference this morning, the long-awaited Ministerial Declaration on eGovernment (212 KB) was presented to the public.

The declaration, which is regarded as “our joint policy priorities until 2015,” addresses a number of issues such as transparency, open government data, collaboration, privacy, open source etc. Here’s what it has to offer in terms of participation:

6. Through this declaration, we will build on past achievements and increase our collaboration on eGovernment. Our public administrations should jointly strive for the following policy priorities, to be achieved by 2015.

• Citizens and businesses are empowered by eGovernment services designed around users’ needs and developed in collaboration with third parties, as well as by increased access to public information, strengthened transparency and effective means for involvement of stakeholders in the policy process,
• [...]

[...]
Our Shared Objectives by 2015

Citizens and businesses are empowered by eGovernment services designed around users needs and developed in collaboration with third parties, as well as by increased access to public information, strengthened transparency and effective means for involvement of stakeholders in the policy process.

[...]

13. Involve stakeholders in public policy processes. We will actively develop and promote effective, useful and better ways for businesses and citizens to participate in the policy processes. Increased public engagement through more effective methods at all levels enhances government’s efficiency and effectiveness and improves the quality of its decisions and services.

As a complement to this official declaration, the Open Declaration on European Public Services will be presented tomorrow. Here’s its take on participation, one of three “core principles for European public services”:

2. Participation: government should pro-actively seek citizen input in all its activities from user involvement in shaping services to public participation in policy-making. This input should be public for other citizens to view and government should publicly respond to it. The capacity to collaborate with citizens should become a core competence of government.

Last-minute endorsements of the Open Declaration are still being accepted.