Category: Project

A New Co-Designed Model for Citizen Participation in Helsinki

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 +

Networks, technologies and open, collaborative narrative

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 +

Technology & democracy: is there any hope?

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 +

International Conference 27-28 May, Madrid

Technologies of the Democratic City

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.

Read more +

Developing next generation digital tools for direct democracy  

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 +

Interview: Robert Bjarnason

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.

D-CENT Interview: Robert Bjarnason from D-CENT on Vimeo.

Registration open! Commons technology and the right to a democratic city, Madrid

During the past two years, D-CENT (Decentralised Citizens ENgagement Technologies) has been working to transform democracy in a very concrete way: helping movements, cities, and political parties to build technologies, methods and tools that can make the democratic system more in-sync with collective aspirations of the 21st century.

To showcase and celebrate our results, a week-long programme of activity is taking place from the 23–28 May in Madrid, Spain. Welcome! #DCENTMadrid #DemocraticCities Read more +

Net futures 2016: Interview with Francesca Bria

On the 20-21 April, Net futures 2016 gathered over 1.000 attendees in Brussels to discuss European Digital Single Market Strategy, Future internet, Cloud, 5G, and the Internet of Things, among others. Our coordinator Francesca Bria from Nesta Innovation Lab was presenting in a workshop diving into sharing economy. In this interview, Francesca Bria explains how technology is being used to help facilitate direct democracy and citizen engagement. Bria also is active in grassrooots movements advocating for open access, knowledge commons and open, decentralised privacy aware technologies.  Read more +

D-CENT: Desarrollando la próxima generación de herramientas digitales para la democracia directa

¿Cómo podemos utilizar la tecnología para ayudar a facilitar la democracia directa y la particpacion ciudadana? Aquí puedes ver la entrevista con Francesa Bria, la coordinadora del proyecto internacional D-CENT. D-CENT (Tecnologías de Participación Ciudadana Descentralizadas) es el mayor proyecto europeo sobre democracia directa y participación ciudadana, y uno de los organizadores del evento en Madrid Ciudades democráticas – Tecnologías de los comunes y derecho a la ciudad democrática.

Interview: Francesca Bria, Nesta from D-CENT on Vimeo.

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