IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Demokratia.fi summarises the eDemocracy web services maintained by the Ministry of Justice, namely otakantaa.fi, kansalaisaloite.fi and kuntalaisaloite.fi. Later in spring 2014, a fourth site will be added, lausuntopalvelu.fi, which is intended to streamline the consultation procedures and make it transparent and open to the public. The service will digitise the current consultation process.

Governments around the world have recognised and acknowledge that smart city technologies have to be people-centric

Since 1950, the world’s urban population rose almost six-fold, from 751 million to 4.2 billion in 2018. Projections from the United Nations indicate that by 2050 the population in urban areas could increase by 2.5 billion people.

What does this mean for cities that are and will continue to be occupied by people putting pressure on their natural resources and infrastructure? People move to cities for a better quality of life. How can that be ensured without depleting the very essence of urban living?

One way to enable evidence-based decision-making by cities is to integrate physical and digital urban infrastructure, and identify usage patterns and emerging trends. However, as cities become increasingly digitised, as more technologies are integrated and more data is gathered, the way this process is managed becomes of increasing importance.

The use of urban data requires coordinated thinking. Over the past five years, a consortium of city authorities, businesses and academic partners have tested a range of smart technologies in cities across Europe, integrating a range of e-mobility solutions, deep energy building retrofits, smart street lighting and sustainable energy management systems, underpinned by urban data platforms. This work, part of the Sharing Cities programme, was shaped by engaging communities along the way, informing them about what was happening in each city, allowing them to share their challenges with city managers and service designers. As a result, the solutions were tailored and of greater value.

Overcoming state dependence may be crucial for digital innovations to transform democracy by engaging more citizens in the political process.

Latin America has always been a region of deep contradictions, and this is especially true when one considers its politics and democracy. Despite its authoritarian past that continues to show through in some political practices and institutions, the region has experimented with democracy in very innovative ways in recent years. Likewise, whereas the region still suffers from deep social inequality and is not yet free from poverty and hunger, Latin America is the world’s third largest regional online market and its internet penetration rate is above the world’s average, half of which is due to intense smartphone usage.

Empowering Smart Cities with AI Dialogue Management for Citizen Engagement

As urbanization continues to grow at an unprecedented rate, smart cities are emerging as a sustainable solution to accommodate the increasing population and improve the quality of life for citizens. These cities are leveraging cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and big data analytics to optimize urban services, enhance public safety, and promote economic growth. One of the critical aspects of smart cities is citizen engagement, which is essential for ensuring that the city’s development aligns with the needs and expectations of its residents. AI dialogue management systems are playing a pivotal role in enhancing citizen engagement by facilitating seamless communication between city authorities and the public.

As scholars conducting research on e-participation, with quite extensive experience in government administration, we were intrigued by Muhammad Fajar’s article in this newspaper on Aug. 4. In the article titled “e-Participation and democracy” he cited lapor.go.id and the latest program laporpresiden.org, to argue that e-government initiatives may lead to demobilization of people in the democratic process. Yet the ability of e-participation to mobilize or demobilize citizens can be very subjective, mostly attributable due to the following three main reasons.

First, e-government, in general, is not meant to be a direct support for democratic practices. E-government is just one method to achieve better governance. While democracy is only one of the final outcomes expected, it is not always necessarily the case. Therefore, judging the success level of e-Government practices by using the measurement of democracy can be misleading. Furthermore, e-participation cannot be viewed as representative of the whole e-government system. In fact, it is just a part of e-government, using the electronic version of ordinary participation practice that is mainly supported by the Internet.

Public initiatives to link government and citizens through technological innovations have been rapidly mushrooming.

The last one was laporpresiden.org, founded in May 2015. It became popular since President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo encouraged Indonesians to utilize the site, together with the government’s site lapor.go.id, built under the previous presidency, to channel complaints.

Four shifts are driving e-participation in nations around the world.

Most smart city workshops led by big consultancies move right into discussions about electric and autonomous vehicles, mass transit mobility, IoT, 5G, data, renewable energy and distributed grid, urban farming, smart buildings, innovation, and knowledge economy. But what’s often missing in these projects is the direct involvement of citizens, the end users of smart city solutions.

There is concern that smart city projects are often driven by technology- and corporate-centric narratives rather than socially inclusive innovation that addresses social, economic, demographic and environmental challenges of ever-increasing complexities of cities.

The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, TRA, in collaboration with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, UNDESA, and the Open Data Institute, ODI, is organising a workshop to introduce global trends and best practices in e-participation and open data.

The workshop will be held on Tuesday, 19th September, 2017, in Dubai. It will be hosted by Richard Kerby, the Inter-Regional Advisor in UNDESA e-government, and a number of experts, leaders of smart transformation in government entities, managers of corporate communication departments, e-participation and smart data officials, and several stakeholders.

Eng. Ali Bin Saleh Al-Soma, Yesser's Director General, pointed out that community participation is a style of work adopted by the Kingdom's government long ago. The workshop sought to reinforce channels of communications between government agencies and stakeholders using electronic and easy-to-use tools, he added.