The hybrid conference shared experiences and discussed practical aspects of using crowdsourcing method for citizen’s e-participation in policy-making for better air quality in Europe. Experts, activists and policy-makers in the field of on-line engagement and environmental policies came together to highlight current challenges and presented innovative approaches in co-creating European and national air quality policies in dialogue with the citizens.
About
Crowdsourcing is a participatory democracy mechanism that takes advantage of the availability of technological solutions to solicit and analyse “the wisdom of the crowd“.
Digital Crowdsourcing represents an opportunity for a large scale citizens participation as shown by the Co-Deciding Europe crowdsourcing experiment. During the first phase of the pilot, 2385 comments about the major problems with an air quality were identified and 625 suggestions for solutions were provided on-line by citizens from 6 cities across Europe. Suggested solutions such as supporting renewable energy infrastructures, car-free and greener cities, strengthen public transport network in non-urban areas, increased cycling and walking infrastructures, building insulations and taxing big polluters were formulated by citizens and experts into policy proposals on air quality.
Attendance and video recording
The conference “Digital crowdsourcing for better air quality in Europe” was held in English language and live streamed online via YouTube channel Studio12tv. 78 people watched the conference on-line and 24 attended in person. The video recording of the conference is available on https://youtu.be/umFiQKZfKU8 .
For any information on the event, please contact Simon Delakorda, Institute for Electronic Participation (simon.delakorda@inepa.si).
Photos
Conference agenda
Hybrid conference
“Digital crowdsourcing for better air quality in Europe“
Radisson Blu Plaza hotel Ljubljana (Conference room, 15th floor), Slovenia
Tuesday 22 November 2022
Draft programme (CET)
9:00-9:30 | Registration
9:30-9:45 | Welcome and opening speeches
- Simon Delakorda, MSc, director, Institute for Electronic Participation, Slovenia
- Małgorzata Nowak, EEA and Norway Grants Fund for Regional Cooperation, Poland (on-line)
9:45-10:30 | Session 1: Crowdsourcing as an e-participation method
- Why co-create policies through the “wisdom of the crowd”? (Bence Ságvári, PhD, Centre for Social Sciences, Budapest, Hungary)
- Practical checklist for planning a successful e-participation case (Kristina Reinsalu, PhD, e-Governance Academy Foundation, Estonia)
- Digital crowdsourcing platform on air quality in Europe – lessons learned (Gustavs Ērglis, Foundation of Public Participation, Latvia)
10:30-10:40 | Coffee break
10:40-12:00 | Discussion Panel 1: Addressing challenges of citizens e-participation in policy-making (facilitator Simon Delakorda, INePA, Slovenia)
- Tilen Gorenšek, PhD, Office of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia for Digital Transformation
- Kristina Reinsalu, PhD, e-Governance Academy Foundation, Estonia
- Albin Keuc, Consortium of Slovenian Thematic NGO Networks, Slovenia
- Andrej Vozlič, PhD, Decentralized governance & blockchain democracy, Slovenia
12:00-13:00 | Lunch break
13:00-13:30 | Session 2: Citizens’ crowdsourcing on improving air quality in Europe
- Engagement strategies for citizens crowdsourcing on air quality (Petko Georgiev, ProInfo Foundation, Bulgaria)
- What are European citizens suggesting for better air quality? (Joze Roth, European Environmental Bureau, Belgium)
13:30-14:50 | Discussion Panel 2: Co-creating European and national air quality policies in dialogue with citizens (facilitator Iveta Kazoka, Centre for Public Policy PROVIDUS, Latvia)
- Jerneja Jug Jerše, PhD, Head of European Commission Representation in Slovenia
- Špela Žohar, Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning of the Republic of Slovenia
- Joze Roth, European Environmental Bureau, Belgium
- Tomaž Gorenc, Institute for Health and Environment, Slovenia
14:50-15:00 | Conference closing
Organizers
The conference is organized under the “Co-Deciding Europe: Civic Tech for Good Governance and Active Citizenship!” project (https://codecidingeurope.eu/) aiming to empowering citizens to co-create policies with decision makers through Crowdsourcing.
This conference benefits from a grant from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA and Norway Grants Fund for Regional Cooperation.
