lighting, Diplomacy

[Webinar] E-participation

21 May 2013 -

Online

Event description

This Diplo webinar took place on Tuesday, 21 May at 15h00 (CET) and examined the role of social media, remote participation and open government / open data initiatives, on International Organizations and Development Agencies. The recording is available here:

YouTube player


The E-participation webinar is part of the Geneva E-diplomacy Platform and built on the first Geneva E-diplomacy Day (16 November 2012) and the Online Learning Day (17 April 2013). In a similar fashion to the Online Learning Day, the E-participation webinar took the form of an Oxford style debate with six participants facing off over three main topics.

Introduction to the debate:

The debate opened with the following background statement: 
“Social media, open gov /  open data initiatives and  remote participation are opening up international organisations and development agencies. The increased use of cloud-based technologies is making organisations more consultative, transparent and accountable.  True or false?”

Debate 1  

The way that most International Organisations are using social media suggests that this is not true engagement, but simply broadcast.

Support:  Pete Cranston (Diplo)
Oppose:  Paul Conneally (ITU)

Debate 2

Remote Participation programmes and initiatives make International Agencies more transparent and inclusive

Support:  Marília Maciel (IGF)
Oppose:  Guy Girardet (Diplo)

Debate 3

Open Gov Open Data initiatives are more relevant in a national context than at an international level.

Support:  Jovan Kurbalija (Diplo)
Oppose:  Tim Davies (Practical Participation Ltd)

A summary blog post of the webinar is available here.

In case of any questions, please contact Mr Guy Girardet on guyg@diplomacy.edu