INDEU Project – Training Session

On July 2, the INDEU (Inclusive Digitalisation in the EU) project held a training session on the significance of crowdsourcing in fostering direct participation in decision-making processes at local, national and EU levels. This event offered a valuable opportunity for attendees to learn from experts and explore innovative practices that utilize the collective intelligence of citizens to shape policies.

Participants explored how crowdsourcing is changing policy-making and democratic processes across Europe. The session attracted a diverse audience, including citizens, civil society organisation members, academics, decision-makers, and media representatives. The event featured four topics presented by a panel of experts, who are also partners in the INDEU project:

Elisa Lironi, Programme Director for European Democracy at ECAS, provided a comprehensive overview of the potential and challenges of crowdsourcing as a participatory democracy mechanism.
Alexandros Tzoumas, Chief Technical Officer at Science for You – SciFY, shared insights on developing crowdsourcing platforms and addressing key issues when engaging people online.
Petko Georgiev, Director at ProInfo Bulgaria, discussed the importance of communication strategies for reaching out to citizens and involving them in crowdsourcing for policy-making..
Andreas Müller, Managing Director at Democracy International, presented a detailed case study on the crowdsourcing project focused on ‘air quality’ in Berlin in 2022.

The event allowed for exchanges on the topic between experts and participants, mainly on the possibilities of crowdsourcing to transform policy-making and democratic engagement in Europe.

Participants learned about:

1. the technical aspects, such as the features a crowdsourcing platform should have in order to be secure, protect data, user-friendly and accessible,

2. the practical aspects of running a campaign to involve citizens and how to motivate them to contribute with their inputs and

3. the evaluation and monitoring process before and after a crowdsourcing by using the Assessment Framework for E-Participation.

The experts also explained the importance of having politicians and representatives commit to taking citizens’ contributions in their policy work from the very beginning of the crowdsourcing – this is a way to ensure there is political willingness to allow for the concrete impact of citizens on policy-making once the process is over.

The objective of the event was to equip participants, especially the partners who will be implementing the INDEU crowdsourcing, with practical knowledge on e-participation and strategies for ensuring a ‘successful’ crowdsourcing with citizens.

More information about the project is available here.