The VoiceS project updates and completes the internet platform VoicE (which is the result of another research programme), aimed at promoting the exchange of ideas between European citizens and their regional representatives, either in the European Parliament or in the local assemblies, to ensure that a direct connection is established between citizen and legislators.

This VoiceS project will have three different operative areas:
  • there will be a Serious Game for citizens to understand the procedure of law-making followed  by the European Parliament
  • with the aid of social networks, a new virtual community is introduced
  • a semantic approach is added by building an ontological domain that is useful for surfing the Web and getting the information in the portal in an easier way, according to the principles of the semantic Web
For the content, the project will focus on the theme of consumer protection in Europe , as it was for VoicE (a relevant subject for every citizen) and will continue the previous project based on the community and on the contacts previously made.

VoiceS focused on these particular law-making procedures:

  • The phase of creating a new draft law
  • The debate on the bill
By including the results of other projects carried out by eParticipation, VoiceS allows the creation on the platform of a complete system with new features, improving the service for the citizens and for the European decision-makers:

  • By merging the semantic applications and ontology from the DALOS and Demos@work projects, the users of the platform (citizens and administrative workers) will have access to new advanced tools: automatic translation, automatic text summaries, a search engine and avant-garde methods of cloud tagging.
  • Through the adding of Serious Games as a new way of learning, the platform VoiceS will make it possible for a large number of users, younger European citizens first, to gain access to the complex European procedures of legislation. This is possible by giving them the essential knowledge and the possibility to contribute actively and carefully to the decisions for Europe, by taking part in the virtual community set up on the platform.
  • The adding of social network devices in the marketing strategy and in the promotion of the platform will increase its potential considerably, adding new users groups and stakeholders.
Besides these new features, VoiceS and its new tools for the regional initiatives of ePartecipation will give new utilities to help regions to organize similar initiatives by themselves, beyond what is expected  from the project itself to continue the objective of wider participation.

Partners:

Medien und Filmgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg - coordinatore
Dirección General de Modernización de Valencia
GOV2U
Europa Zentrum Baden-Württemberg
Fundación Comunidad Valenciana - Región Europea
University of Koblenz-Landau
EUROSOC – THINK TANK FOR EUROPEAN DECISIONS
Ministry for Nutrition and Rural area
ITTIG-CNR
Austrian Parliamentary Administration
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