This year the City of Helsinki is rethinking its approach to citizen participation and bottom-up citizen empowerment. The D-CENT project has impacted the roadmap of current e-participation tools in Helsinki by creating open processes, tools, code, and standards. The public beta of the democracy tool developed as part of the D-CENT Helsinki pilot has now been launched as Decisions Helsinki. Read more +
Writer: Eva Rueda
From the Hackathon for Democracy to D-CENT Project’s ground-breaking undertakings and the creation of Red de Comunes Democráticos (Democratic Commons Network), four days at MediaLab Prado were packed with sharing, surveying, debating, and suggesting ideas as to where the world is heading regarding direct democracy, citizen participation, commons networks, and open source software. Techno-politics, new urban models, social innovation, and apps and platforms to share and invigorate around #DemocracyLab. From tomorrow on, the event #DemocraticCities moves to the Reina Sofía with presentations by over 30 leading politicians and activists. Read more +
Writer: Eva Rueda
From Paris to Iceland, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Spain. Researchers, municipal technicians and activists from different countries have shared their new batch of direct democracy strategies, open source software, and citizen participation, in the context of Democracy Lab, at the Democratic Cities: Commons Technology and Right to a Democratic City gathering organized by the D-CENT Project and Madrid’s Town Council. Read more +
Writer: Eva Rueda
“The best open source tool is affectivity.” This isn’t an ordinary saying in an ordinary context. Its author, Diego, of the Todo por la Praxis collective, spoke at the session Urban Betas: Tools for an Open Source City that took place yesterday afternoon in #DemocracyLab, the international section of #DemocraticCities that is being held in MediaLab Prado. #DemocraticCities is a global gathering space that aims to improve democracy with open, collaborative technologies. Read more +
Decide Madrid is an open consultation and direct democracy platform launched by the city of Madrid after the recent municipal elections. It enables citizens to propose, debate, prioritise and implement policy for the city. Read more +
Blog post by Gijs Boerwinkel, original article published at the Waag Society’s website.
The presence of publicist and Internet sceptic, Evgeny Morozov, was just one of the reasons why the Theatrum Anatonicum was filled to the brim at the event Decentralizing Democracy – on our terms. The European project D-CENT, Decentralised Citizens ENgagement Technologies and the refreshing views of Francesca Bria provided the audience with inspiring perspectives on the use of technology for societal and democratic goals. The event was truly at the core of Waag Society’s topics and beliefs. D-CENT, together with Waag Society and Internet Society Nederland. Read more +
D-CENT (Decentralised Citizens ENgagement Technologies) is the biggest European project on direct democracy and citizen engagement. It is a flagship project that reshapes the future of digital democracy, by supporting large scale pilots and research on network democracy, new forms of citizen participation and the governance of digital commons.
Democratic Cities – Commons technology and the right to a democratic city taking place from the 23–28 May in Madrid, will gather together +400 participants to discuss network democracy, new forms of citizen participation, digital tools for democratic participation, and urban commons for democratic cities. The International Conference (27-28 May, Museo Reina Sofia) will conclude the week’s activities, and is the final event of the D-CENT project.
Democratic Cities – Commons technology and the right to a democratic city taking place from the 23–28 May in Madrid, will gather together +400 participants to discuss network democracy, new forms of citizen participation, digital tools for democratic participation, and urban commons for democratic cities. The event begins with a five-day Democracy Lab (23–27 May, Medialab-Prado) delivering workshops, hackathons and open sessions to develop, think and design tools, processes and strategies for democratic participation. Read more +
How technology can be used to help facilitate direct democracy and citizen engagement? View the interview with Francesca Bria, the coordinator of the international D-CENT project. D-CENT (Decentralised Citizens ENgagement Technologies) is the biggest European project on direct democracy and citizen engagement, and one of the organisers of the Democratic Cities – Commons technology and the right to a democratic city event in Madrid 23–28 2016.
Interview: Francesca Bria, Nesta from D-CENT on Vimeo. Read more +
Róbert Bjarnason is the co-founder of the Citizens Foundation, a non-profit organisation helping citizens to get their voices heard and participate in governance. Together with International Modern Media Institute, Citizens Foundation it runs the Icelandic pilot, in which the D-CENT tools are being developed and tested with the end users.
