********************* Press Notice 02. Dec. 2005, 08:00 CET Source: http://www.zebralog.de/en/000136.html German cities improve, but still have a long way to go ********************* Today, the Initiative for eParticipation has released its second study on citizen participation over the internet. As last year, Berlin showed the best eParticipation record, Freiburg and Munich made a big step forward. The study analyzed the websites of all 83 German cities above a population of 100.000. A ranking system was applied that rewarded points if cities offered comprehensible and comprehensive information on current political issues, if political decision makers could be addressed through the web, and if citizens were invited for deliberation through discussion forums or chats. The usablity of such participatory projects as well as their integration into political decision making processes was of primary importance. Coder's agreement on their assessment of the cities' websites ranged between 88 and 100%. The results show that German cities have improved their eParticipation record compared to last year's study. However, the large majority of German cities still has not attempted to consult citizens over the internet. Berlin ranked highest because (among other reasons) the city provides a citizen discussion space on its main portal, carried out a couple of online dialogues on town planning issues and had a participatory budgeting project in one of its boroughs (Lichtenberg) where citizens could take part online as well. The study has been commissioned by the Initiative for eParticipation and financed by the following German eParticipation providers and research institutions: binary objects (Berlin), Ingenieurgesellschaft entera (Hannover), Fraunhofer E-Government-Zentrum und Fraunhofer Institut AIS (Sankt Augustin), politik-digital (Berlin), TuTech Innovation (Hamburg), wegewerk (Berlin), and Zebralog (Berlin). The Initiative eParticipation wants to encourage policy makers and adminstrators to make use of internet-based participatory methods when decisions with far reaching consequences for citizens are made. The Initiative is convinced that both technology and methods for eParticipation are ready for use, and so are citizens who are waiting for opportunities to engage. New thinking is needed among politicians so that eParticipation can be employed on a wider scale. The study is available for donwload in German at http://www.Initiative-eParticipation.de 2053 characters Further information can be obtained from: Matthias Trénel eMail: trenel@zebralog.de phone: +49 30 6951 8694 fax: +49 30 6162 3681 http://www.zebralog.de/en/000136.html