ICT TOOLS AND SOCIETY INVOLVEMENT AMONG THE EUPAN NETWORK HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE SURVEY RESULTS TANYA CHETCUTI EUROPEAN COMMISSION

AGENDA 2 Objective of the survey Survey results Next steps – ISA Action 2.18

The purpose of the questionnaire, prepared by the European Commission in collaboration with the Latvian presidency, is to identify the ICT tools of open and collaborative government used in EUPAN member states, focusing on: e-Participation in decision-making processes: ICT tools enabling crowd- sourcing of ideas, submission of proposals or supporting citizen initiatives and gathering of citizen feedback, in the context of new or amended legislative acts and other issues related to democracy. Improvement of the provision of public services: ICT tools aiming at increasing citizen engagement and feedback for better service delivery. 3 Objectives of the Survey (1)

Our goal is to: Understand what functionalities are provided by the ICT tools used in European administrations. For example, if advanced functionalities like text mining or data analytics are used to extract knowledge from the data submitted by citizens. Gather best practices and achievements as well as the challenges, including legal issues such as liability and credibility. 4 Objectives of the Survey (2)

The survey has been delivered through the EUSurvey tool of the European Commission, funded by the ISA Programme. Representatives of all EUPAN countries have been invited to participate to the survey. 11 different administrations have answered through EUSurvey, and additional information has been received via . EUSurvey 5

Survey results show that European public administrations demonstrate high interest in providing citizens with ICT tools to encourage participation to support decision making or the improvement of public services. Survey results (1) 6

7 Survey results (2) Highlights Almost all respondents have stated that, in their administration, ICT tools are used in the context of electronic participation for decision-making or improvement of provision of public services. More than 20% use four or more ICT tools.

8 Survey results (3) Highlights Submission of structured information by the user (e.g. via a web form) is the most common way of gathering input for the tools. Most of the tools also allow submission of unstructured documents and files, and are able to produce reports. A few tools provide advanced functionalities like text and data analytics.

Survey results (4) 9 Additional Highlights Use of the tools is generally not legally binding. However some countries have put in place rules which oblige the administrations to take into consideration the results. For example In one case (osale.ee - Estonia), there is the obligation (by officials) to upload in the tool the drafts that need wider consultation. In another case (manablass.lv - Latvia), initiatives submitted by citizens that reach signatures are officially submitted to the parliament. In other cases the use of tools, even if not mandatory, is encouraged and highly recommended, especially for consultations that have a significant impact on society (e.g. – The Netherlands).

ISA Action 2.18 PARTICIPATORY KNOWLEDGE FOR SUPPORTING DECISION MAKING Main challenge Acquiring citizens’ opinions is a challenging task since they are often expressed in an unstructured way on different platforms. It is even more difficult and expensive to extract meaningful knowledge that can be used as input to decision making. Data must be gathered, measured and analysed through discovery and analytics tools, which makes it possible to identify trends, issues and challenges. For instance, data coming from interactions on social media contribute towards factors other than evidence.