Workshop on eParliament, Vienna, 12 December 2007
In the Framework of the Council of Europe Ad-hoc committee on e-democracy(CAHDE), a workshop on eParliament was held on Wednesday, 12 December 2007, in Vienna, at the Austrian Parliament.
The topic was 'Comprehensive eParliament – of service to elected representatives and citizens'.
The workshop should identify elements and stakeholders, demands and offers, and enablers, challenges and barriers of eParliament in a broad sense, with a view to possible recommendations to CoE bodies for their further action. Emphasis should be laid on aspects of eParticipation in relation to eParliament.
Participants should be experts on eParliament - e.g. elected representatives - MPs, MEPs, elected representatives at regional and local level-, parliamentary staff, representatives of government, international organisations and academia -, who are interested in actively contributing to the discussion of and deliberation on, the topic(s) – also with a view to identify possible recommendations by the Council of Europe to member states and legislative assemblies.
More details can be found in the invitation and the information on participants' logistics.
Initial CAHDE working papers on eParliament were presented on 'elements of eParliament' and on 'Managing legislative information: a key function of eParliament'.
At the CAHDE symposium of April 2007, the representative of the European Parliament delivered a statement on 'E-Democracy: New opportunities for enhancing civic participation'.
Workshop agenda
Opening
- Opening and introductory remarks by Dr. Thomas M. BUCHSBAUM, head of division IV.3, Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs, Chair of the Council of Europe Ad-hoc committee on e-democracy (CAHDE)
- Welcome by Dr. Günther Schefbeck, head of division (documentation, archives and statistics), Austrian Parliamentary Administration, Vienna
Introduction
- Dr. Günther SCHEFBECK, head of division (documentation, archives and statistics), Austrian Parliamentary Administration, Vienna: 'eParliament: Bridging representative democracy and deliberative politics'
- Lasse BERNTZEN, Vestfold University College, Norway & Evika KARAMAGIOLI, Gov2u.com, Athens: 'Political aspects of eParliament'fileadmin/user_upload/bmeia/media/AOes/eParliament/4836_pdf_berntzenkaramagioli.pdf
- Bengt ERIKSSON, IT Specialist, Project Manager, Swedish Parliament, Stockholm: 'Information management in eParliament'
- Gherardo CASINI, UNDESA, and Executive Director, Global Centre for Information and Communication Technologies in Parliament, Rome: 'A global approach to eParliament - challenges and opportunities'
eLegislation
- Dr. Tom M. van ENGERS, Professor in Legal Knowledge Management, Leibniz Centre for Law, University of Amsterdam: 'eInput to and eDiscussion of legislative bills'
- Dr. Fabio VITALI, associate professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Bologna: 'Standard document formats for eLegislation: national and international experiences'
- Enrico FRANCESCONI, Institute of Legal Information Theory and Techniques, Italian National Research Council (ITTIG-CNR), Florence: 'Drafting environments for eLegislation'fileadmin/user_upload/bmeia/media/AOes/eParliament/4831_ppt_francesconi.pdf
- Dr. Wolfgang ENGELJEHRINGER, head of division (eLegislation), Austrian Parliamentary Administration, Vienna: 'eLegislation: Practical experiences in Austria'
ePetitioning
- Mr. Daria SANTUCCI, University of Torino: 'Studying e-petitions: State of the art and challenges. And the case of the EP'
- Fergus COCHRANE, Clerk of the Public Petitions Committee in the Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh: 'The Scottish Parliament's e-petition system, accessibility and effectiveness'
the "eMP" (eRepresentative)
- Vasilis KOULOLIAS, Executive Director & Evika KARAMAGIOLI, Gov2.com, Athens: 'The eRepresentative project - an innovative tool for MPs'
- Walther KHOM, head of product management, bitmedia, Vienna: 'eLearning as a tool to involve MPs in eParliament'fileadmin/user_upload/bmeia/media/AOes/eParliament/4829_ppt_khom.pdf
- Dr. Michael GORIANY, Web-authoring & -lecturing, Czech Republic: 'Social software: low-treshold media for communication and networking in eParliament'
- Evika KARAMAGIOLI & Lasse BERNTZEN: 'Challenges and barriers of eParliament schemes for MPs'fileadmin/user_upload/bmeia/media/AOes/eParliament/4834_pdf_karamagioliberntzen.pdf
- Lasse BERNTZEN, Vestfold University College, Norway: 'The Technological Aspect of e-Parliament'
Alia
- Jon Gómez GOIKOLEA, Director of Cabinet of the Speaker of the Basque Parliament (Laureate of the 8th World e-Democracy Forum 2007), San Sebastián: 'A collaborative experience in e-Democracy: The 'digital local agenda' and its tools' (presentation in French, paper in English)
- Dr. Carlo SIMONELLI, head of unit (systems, network and user assistance), IT Department, Chamber of Deputies, Rome: 'Security in eParliament'fileadmin/user_upload/bmeia/media/AOes/eParliament/4826_ppt_simonelli.pdf
- Peter CRUICKSHANK, Research Associate, International Teledemocracy Centre, Napier University, Edinburgh: 'Evaluation in parliamentary projects'
Links to international initiatives on eParliament:
- The Global Centre for Information and Communication Technologies in Parliament - www.ictparliament.org - including its World e-Parliament Conference 2007 (Geneva, 10 to 12 October 2007); and
- The European Parliaments Research Initiative (EPRI) - www.epri.org - including its two papers: Steven COLEMAN, Bridie NATHANSON: Learning to live with the Internet - How European parliamentarians are adapting to the digital age, and Parliamentarians & ICTs: Awareness, understanding and activity levels of European Parliamentarians.
A summary is being prepared by the Office of the Austrian Parliament.
En lieu of conclusions here are some draft ideas from the contributions which could serve the Council of Europe as a suggestion for the CAHDE draft recommendation.
as of 23 January 2008
