It is high time we take advantage of the availability of technological solutions to encourage democratic engagement and empower citizens to co-create policies with decision makers. Crowdsourcing is one of the participatory democracy mechanisms, which solicits and analyses “the wisdom of the crowd” by giving citizens the opportunity to learn from each other, collaborate and participate in the decision-making process.
The Digital Democracy Day 2021 will explore how we can use Crowdsourcing to gather citizens’ ideas and proposals on ‘air quality’ in Europe. We are currently getting ready to launch a big transnational Crowdsourcing activity in 2022 that will involve 10 different European countries and cities, including Brussels, Belgium. Through technological platforms citizens throughout Europe will identify problems with air quality in their cities, will elaborate proposals for solutions, will select the top priorities for action and will formulate conclusions on how to improve local, national and European environmental policies.
The Digital Democracy Day 2021 is being organised in the framework of the “Digital Democratic Empowerment and Mobilisation for a Stronger EU (DigiDEM)” project, under the Europe for Citizens programme of the European Commission.
DigiDEM aims at establishing a community of Belgian policy makers, academics, businesses, journalists and NGOs who will advocate for the use of ICT to ensure inclusive and collaborative decision-making process at all levels and bring citizens contribution on improving air quality through a multi-facet crowdsourcing platform in 2022.
10.00 From People Power to Climate Action: Can Democracy Improve the Environment?
Moderated by: Hendrik Nahr, European Democracy Outreach Coordinator, ECAS
10.50 Co-Deciding Europe – Let’s Start from Air Quality!
Q&A with panelists and participants
Concluding remarks