Preparation on eCITIZEN 2.0+

The Baltic Institute of Finland together with the UBC Commission on Information Society is leading the preparation of a follow-up to the project "Challenge of eCitizen - Promoting eGovernment Actions in European Cities" (2005-2007). The new initiative with the working title "eCitizen 2.0+" will focus on exploring ways of utilising and adapting social media tools for the needs of local and regional administrations, enhance interaction with citizens, as well as encourage citizens' participation in local development and decision-making.

The follow-up project builds upon the knowledge and experience gathered from the highly successful Challenge of eCitizen project, which promoted exchange of experiences in eGovernment development between 11 European cities with the support of EU's INTERREG IIIC financing programme.

Challenge of eCitizen covered all key topics of eGovernment development, including eManagement, eParticipation tools and methods as well as eServices including smart cards and mobile services. Based on the gained experiences and discussions on the future of eGovernment, efficient interaction and communication between citizens and local administration proved to be a crucial success factor in local eGovernment development for all involved cities. This challenge is further accelerated by the rapid technological development, and the fact that new social media tools delivered through Web 2.0+ technologies are changing every facet of modern life.

eGovernment is a topical subject for cities in the Baltic Sea region and Europe wide, which was demonstrated with a high number of interested partner candidates applying to the eCitizen 2.0+ cooperation project. Several preparatory meetings have taken place, the latest in Helsinki 7-8 May 2008 with 35 participants from 15 countries. As a result, the partnership is selected representing cities and regional administrations from all parts of Europe.Cities from the Baltic Sea region and UBC members are well represented. The aim is to prepare a high-quality application for the second application round of EU's INTERREG IVC financing programme, with the deadline on 30 January 2009.

Partners of Challenge of eCitizen have initiated also other cooperation ideas based on the established network. One example of such initiatives is a project proposal Envisage - European Visualisation of Arguments that was prepared for the eParticipation call of the EC in August 2008 as joint effort of Sheffield, Tampere, Tartu and the Baltic Institute of Finland.