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Citizen Engagement

EU to 'inject' social media in policy making

By Adrienne Valdez | 28 July 2011

The European Commission continues to harness the power of social media networks, soon to pilot a new initiative in Spain and Germany- WeGov.

WeGov has a simple user-interface, allowing policymakers to choose a topic and “inject” it into whichever social networks they choose – by Tweeting, blogging or using discussion groups in Facebook or LinkedIn.

Paul Walland, Project Coordinator said, “What WeGov is trying to do is put tools in the hands of policymakers. Instead of governments or local authorities testing policies by using targeted questionnaires and specific e-government websites, WeGov will be developing a tool which will allow them to use social networks to engage people in debates.”

“It’s a mix of things from putting an opinion out there in the general community and monitoring the reaction to that, through to tracking hot topics and the kinds of opinions people are expressing within social networking sites.”

With this initiative is another which uses scenarios set in 3D virtual worlds to test reactions to policy ideas, the +Spaces project. As with WeGov, the +Spaces has been devised for policymakers; the idea is to run policies by people and get their opinions by going to them, as happens today, to e-government websites to fill in forms or vote.

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