EU - WEB.DEP : Western Balkans Democratic Participation
The work involved in the project is divided into 6 work packages with their related deliverables:
1. Work package 1
This concerns the management of the project and is led by the project leader ATC (Athens Technology Center). ATC lead in the work package's 3 deliverables:
- D1.1 Project Presentation
- D1.2 Periodic activities and management reports
- D1.3 Project Final Report
2. Work package 2: Base-line Definition
This work package involves the partners in describing the current situation: in terms of the working practices of the news agencies in the current context of the region and in terms of current e-participation practices, standards and technology. As such the outcome of the task will be a high level definition of the priorities for the WEB.DEP Forum and Communication Environment.
This overview and definition will be encapsulated by the 3 deliverables. ATC are responsible for D2.1 and D2.3, National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) are responsible for D2.2.
- D2.1 Current situation, high-level definition of WEB.DEP Priority areas and stakeholders
- D2.2 WEB.DEP High level Stakeholder Requirements: Part I: Content and Functions
- D2.3 WEB.DEP High level Stakeholder Requirements: Part II: Technology
Existing e-Participation Practices with Relevance to Web.dep
Napier's role within this work package was to provide information about current e-participation practices. Napier undertook a review based on analysis of case studies, scoped by looking for initiatives relevant to nominated aspects of the context of the WEB.DEP project -specifically the forum. This context was defined as a combination of the features arising from the situation (current and historical) in the Western Balkans and the outline specification of the WEB.DEP tools and related actors as described in the Technical Annex. The context summarised into 7 features, which were used to guide both the choice of Case Studies and the development of a framework for their analysis.
An analysis framework was developed to ensure that our method revealed relevant information at the right level of detail. This framework was based on a combination of frameworks for describing e-participation tools and initiatives developed by other research groups. From these we chose dimensions that would support the description we needed. The framework was further modified to emphasise the characteristics that we felt were most relevant and useful to the WEB.DEP context. Twenty-nine e-participation initiatives were analysed as case studies using this WEB.DEP framework, leading to 29 structured descriptions.
The full account is presented in the internal project report Existing E-Participation Practices with Relevance to WEB.DEP Smith, E. and Macintosh, A. (2007). The report is available on the publications page. The full framework analysis of the case studies is presented as the Annex.
This report will become a chapter in D2.1 Current situation, high-level definition of WEB.DEP priority areas and stakeholders.
3. Work package 3: WEB.DEP Communication Environment
The main objective of this work package is the implementation of the thematic portal. This is a content management system which will be able to handle large volumes of multimedia content - i.e. public information. ATC lead the work package and are responsible for its deliverable:
- D3.1: WEB.DEP Communication Environment
4. Work package 4: WEB.DEP Community (Forum)
The objective of this work package is to define the Web.dep forum, including its actors, functions and themes. The work package is also concerned with the operation of the forum - overseeing the creation of governance codes and procedures for managing the forum and monitoring their operation.
Napier lead this work package. There are 3 deliverables, of which Napier are responsible for D4.1 and D4.3. NTUA are responsible for D4.2.
- D4.1 Detailed Definition of the Operation of the WEB.DEP Forum
- D4.2 Report on WEB.DEP Operation (Part I)
- D4.3 Report on WEB.DEP Operation (Part II)
D4.1: Detailed Definition of the Operation of the WEB.DEP Forum
This deliverable is based on the work done in work package 2 -Base Line Definition. A variety of methods will be used to move from the high level definition to the level of detail required for this detailed definition. These include:
- Scenarios: Napier, ATC and NTUA will support the news agencies in the production of Scenarios of Use for the forum (by providing a template and examples). These scenarios will be converted by ATC and Napier into use cases, which describe the functions of the forum.
- Stakeholder groups: The news agencies will form stakeholder groups in each Web.dep country. These groups will create the definitions of the forum's themes; write (or outline) registration and governance procedures chosen for the forum and define and establish the relationships of those in power (e.g. government ministries) with the forum.
- Support information: Information will be provided to support the news agencies in this work package. This will include 2 internal reports produced by Napier: Governance codes for e-participation: Example Codes and Governance Codes for e-Participation: Information required for registration. (Reports available on request from e.smith@napier.ac.uk). The news agencies will provide the relevant legal information for their country.
Work package 5: Dissemination & Liaison Activities
This work package includes the creation of dissemination and liaison strategies and following these through as activities and events. It includes the organisation of 4 dedicated WEB.DEP Workshops, in the four Western Balkan Countries as well as various presentations, papers are reports. Current activities planned include a workshop at EGOV 07: Workshop: E-participation in Converging European Regions in September 2007.
Athens News Agency (ANA) lead the work package. The package has 5 deliverables, reflecting its importance to the project. NTTUA are responsible for D5.1. ATA, MIA (Macedonian Information Agency) and TANJUG (Serbian news agency) are responsible for D5.2. ATC are responsible for D5.3 and ANA are responsible for D5.4 and D5.5
- D5.1 Plan for using and dissemination knowledge (draft and detailed versions)
- D5.2 National Workshops
- D5.3 Project website: www.web-dep.eu
- D5.4 Final plan for using and disseminating knowledge
- D5.5 Report on raising public awareness
Work package 6: Evaluation of Project Results
This work package aims to review and access the progress of the project towards the objectives set in a measurable way. ATC lead the work package and are responsible for the first 2 deliverables D6.1 and D6.2. Napier are responsible for the final Evaluation Report - D6.3
- D6.1 Quality Assurance Plan
- D6.2 Evaluation Methodology
- D6.3 WEB.DEP Evaluation Report
Links on this website
Partners:
- Journalists Union Of Macedonia And Thrace Daily Newspapers
- National Technical University of Athens, Greece
- Athens Technology Center S.A.
- ATA - Albanian Telegraphic Agency
- Athens News Agency S.A.
- Macedonian Information Agency
- Tanjug News Agency, Serbia
Publications:
Each publication is linked to its reference