evoice: targets and aims

Despite the gloomy background described in the rationale, people are interested in single-issue traditional politics. Building on this, evoice will combine communication channels such as local newspapers with high-tech, innovative approaches to show people that they are also effected by general politics, and encourage them to participate.

evoice takes into account local variations in legislation and regulations, culture, and the differences in style between administrators and politicians in different countries and regions.

evoice assumes that local and regional authorities are the appropriate organisations to work with to reach the evoice aims because of their direct links to the citizens.

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International Political Forum on eDemocracy

In co-operation with Hanse Passage, an Interreg IIIC project, and the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, evoice held its second International Political Forum on eDemocracy on Thursday, January 11th, and Friday, January 12th, 2007, in the historical Rathaus of Bremen (world heritage site).

For a short presentation of the programme, the speakers and the contents of this forum, see evoice newsletter5 (page 4).

In September 2007 a DVD with the complete proceedings (keynote presentations, workshops, photos) will be distributed to the participants and other interested organisations and persons. If you did not attend this conference, but still want to receive a free copy, please inform the evoice project management

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Mobile phones for youngsters: an update

In 2005, 50 interested youngsters received modern mobile phones on the condition that they will contribute to the development of a vision on the future of their village Zwaagwesteinde (NL). See also: Heel het Dorp. They could do this by submitting their (visual) contributions consisting of photos or a short footage made with their mobile phones, and accompanying texts, to the supporting website, www.heelhetdorpzwaagwesteinde.nl

In the past two years they presented some specific proposals:

• the construction of a half pipe for skating;
• grassplots for football training;
• a rehearsel facility for music bands.

But, they also advocated a direct dialogue with their politians and emphasized the importance of an active policy to change the image of Zwaagwesteinde in a positive way.

A national Dutch television crew interviews a young man why his village is a good place to live in

To support their statement, the youngsters made a video clip of Zwaagwesteinde to show how great it is to live here. This clip was broadcasted by a national Dutch television channel and received a lot of attention in the newspapers.

In the late autumn of 2006, the pilot mobile phones for youngsters has been expanded with chat sessions, based on the FLOOR approach (www.onthefloor.nl), a thinktank for youngsters, using the community website www.hyves.nl, a web 2.0 facility.