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From eGovernment Gateways to Famagusta Gate: eParticipation in Cyprus


Susie presented a showcase of European eParticipation developments, at the Cyprus EU Presidency conference –Europeone – on the 4th December 2012. The conference aimed to determine the key components that Public Administrations need to put in place in order to ‘connect’ Europe and enable it to do more with less resource. As part of a panel entitled eGovernment: What’s in it for Citizens? Susie explained how there is a division between the power of ICT tools to engage citizens in meaningful public policy debates and the seeming political preference to simply engage citizens in the design of services (within the context of pre-determined policy) through open innovation initiatives. Sharing examples of current eParticipation tools for influencing policy such as PuzzledbyPolicy, which uses a profiler to engage citizens and involve them in structured deliberation, Susie challenged policy makers at the event to ‘adapt or die’ – either consider job done and focus on services or seriously engage with powerful new tools to ensure that our policy discussions keep pace with the radical changes taking place in the way we lead the rest of our lives.


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