Integrating online and traditional involvement in participatory budgeting

Participatory Budgeting aims to increase democracy in city districts by permitting citizens to participate in the spending of public budgets and in the making of important decisions regarding public life. Until today, such participation was made available mostly through physical meetings organized by public administrations (off-line meetings). Only in recent years has software been developed in order to enable people to ,,gather" using ICT methodologies (on-line meetings). The paper describes this research project aimed at building a framework able to increase citizen participation in public life by developing new approaches, including the integration of off-line and on-line meetings among citizens and public administrations. Project eDem1.0, coordinated by the municipality of Rome and financed by the Italian Ministry for Innovation during the period March 2007 to February 2009, has aimed to apply cutting edge Internet-based technologies (social networking, user-generated content, etc.) to enhance the processes of participation and consultation, both between citizens and government administration offices, as well as among such offices themselves. Sociological studies, expressly conducted by the Universities of Pisa and Rome, have provided the basis for the innovative means developed in the project (normative solutions and choices, new useful software instruments, project self-evaluation). The software platform, based on a social network structure, for implementation of such goals was developed for the most part at the ISTI Institute of the CNR in Pisa. Such development has been guided by the specific needs and wishes of the coordinating institution, to which a customized version has been provided. Initial testing of the software was begun within the framework of the Rome Bilancio Partecipativo del Municipio XI (Participatory Budgeting for District 11). The current version is a freely available, open-source solution. Other, customized versions have been provided to and used by the region of Lazio and the township of Pescara.