Possibly not of global relevance (yet), but since it is my home town I thought I’d give it a quick shout-out:

Earlier today, Offenes Köln (Open Cologne) was officially announced. It’s a grassroots project by Marian Steinbach in Cologne, Germany that aims to make information, documents and data related to local government available (and accessible) to the general public by way of aggregating, enhancing and presenting government information from various sources from the “Ratsinformationssystem” (city council information system), the official platform of the City of Cologne.

Open Cologne appears to have been inspired by Frankfurt Gestalten, whose creator Christian Kreutz I interviewed a while back.

Update 12/21: It appears that OpenEtherpad’s .com domain has expired. Please use the .org domain instead to RSVP for this event: http://openetherpad.org/opengovcgn

When it comes to e-participation, Europe really has it going on. It seems hardly a week goes by that doesn’t see some kind of workshop or conference or other activity in that area.

I only get to go back to Germany about once a year and somehow my timing is always off.  For this year’s trip, for example, by the time I get there in December I will have barely missed Future Democracy ’10, December 2 in London and an ePractice Workshop on e-participation, December 7 in Brussels.

So to take matters into my own hands and not completely miss out, I’ve found a few co-conspirators and together we are organizing an informal event in Cologne, Germany that will bring together people in the region who are working on advancing participatory governance:

Participation Meetup Cologne
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Coworking Cologne
RSVP: http://openetherpad.com/opengovcgn

We hope to bring together a broad range of folks from the open government and public participation communities as well as neighboring disciplines such as urban planning, architecture, information design, journalism etc.

This is hot off the press, so the details are still to be worked out. A lot will depend on turn-out. Provided we hit a certain group size we’ll probably go the unconference route, spend the afternoon doing some work together before we go out to dinner. Easy, peasy!

Should be fun. Be there!

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 August 2009, our team from the Brandt School advised the City of Erfurt on their participatory budgeting project. The city had asked their citizens earlier in a survey which areas they find important, and the administration wanted to use the results of the survey as the basis for an internet-based consultation. The next step (and our task) was then to set up an on-line platform to gather ideas, within the areas from the survey. We went ahead and proposed a three-step process (ideation, deliberation and collaboration), set up a message board and accompanied the city’s first e-participation effort. That was my first experience in the area. Participation on the web was not new to me, but introducing modern technology and ideas of openness into public administration is an exciting, new and daunting task.

But let me introduce myself. I am a graduate student at the Willy Brandt School of Public Policy at the University of Erfurt (Germany) and Intellitics’ first intern. Even though my educational background is in international affairs, economics and politics, I have participated in a number of projects in the German “Government 2.0″ sphere, mostly assisting Dr. Philipp Mueller, visiting professor for public policy and public management at the Brandt School, who is currently writing a book called “Shaping Network Society”. The most noteworthy project was to document the first German Government 2.0 Camp in Berlin in August 2009. What started out as a blogging and tweeting mission there ended up as a full-blown documentation website (gov20.cpmg.eu) and an internal expert opinion for the German Federal Ministry of the Interior.

Over the next few weeks, I will support a number of projects such as adding more content to ParticipateDB, producing new episodes of This Week in Participation as well as a trip to the OpenGovWest conference in Seattle later this month. I am writing my master’s thesis on e-participation, and will post a few texts here on this blog about topics from research as well as internship-related findings.

I usually refrain from embedding other people’s hard work unless I have at least some additional value to add. In this case, however, I’m simply glad to see my German hometown embrace public participation:

About Zebralog:

Zebralog is a not-for-profit organization that supports modern democratic decision making through the use of interactive media. Zebralog offers every service that is needed to run online dialogues: institutional embedding, marketing, technical backbone and moderation. Its members have a strong background in participatory planning processes, social science and face-to-face moderation. In Germany, they were among the first to conduct online consultations for various state bodies, among them the government of Berlin or Frankfurt.

Zebralog has also offered consulting and research to organizations that plan to stage online dialogues, among them the Federal Parliament of Germany and the Federal Ministry for Development. Last but not least, the members of Zebralog are very engaged in networking activities to exchange experience among dialogue designers, make the opportunity of e-participation more known and work towards standards of excellence. Currently, Zebralog directs its creativity to the challenge of transnational and multi-lingual online dialogues and is very interested to find international partners for cooperation.

Finally, it’s worth noting that this presentation was held at a conference in China: International Conference “Participatory Budgeting in Asia and Europe: Key Challenges of Participation”, August 17-19, 2009, University of Zhejiang, Hangzhou, China

PEP-NET, another promising e-participation initiative at the European level, launched earlier this month.

From the about page:

PEP-NET will be a European network of all stakeholders active in the field of eParticipation. PEP-NET therefore already includes public bodies, solution providers and citizen organizations as well as researchers and scientists. The network is open to all organizations willing and actively trying to advance the idea and use of eParticipation in Europe.

The project aims to help overcome fragmentation and promote best practice by connecting established and experienced eParticipation players and networks throughout Europe as a critical first step. The objective of this project is to achieve critical mass for the establishment of a Pan European eParticipation Network (PEP-NET). Such a network will act as a repository and disseminator of good practice and exchange of experience, and be a visible resource for all interested parties across the European Union.

PEP-NET will ensure wider access to European eParticipation projects and permit more effective dialogue between eParticipation experts, researchers, practitioners, public administrations, civil society organisations and the interested public with the ultimate goal of facilitating knowledge transfer, encouraging further eParticipation trials and establishing European leadership in this field.

[...]

Already, a number of organizations in the field have signed on as the initial PEP-NET members.

The project is coordinated by Hamburg, Germany-based TuTech Innovation GmbH, who for over a year now have been sharing a steady flow of insights on their blog (mostly in German).