Today I Decide (TOM) Nele Leosk e-Governance Academy (eGA) Tallinn, November 6, 2007.

Today I Decide (TOM)

Nele Leoske-Governance Academy (eGA)

Tallinn, November 6, 2007

TOM - Government Initiative

● Main idea – to enhance public participation in political decision-making providing opportunity to propose and discuss new legislative initiatives via Internet

● Also- to enhance dialogue between citizens, public officials, etc

● Started in June, 2001● Administrated by State Chancellery● Promoted as Direct Democracy Portal

TOM - Two modes of operation

● Policy documents presented for discussion by ministries (functioned just 2 months)

● Proposals submitted by people● Only registrated users can submit

proposals and participate in discussions● Everybody can follow discussions

How TOM worksHow TOM works

Idea

Commenting

Editing

Voting

Signing (not any more) Answer

ID card (for a short time)n

Processing ideas● Idea is presented● 10 days for discussion● 3 days for editing● 3 days for secret voting

Only ideas getting more than half of votes in favour are considered further

● Ministry has 1 month for analysis and answer● Posted on TOM, commenting an answer

TOM statistics

● 1140 ideas presented (64% voted in, 34 % voted out)

● 654 proposals sent to the ministries (89% answered: 6% possible implementation, 48% negative, 7% supportive)

● 6910 registered users

● 100-150 visits per day (up to 300 when mentioned elsewere, eg in blogs, forums, etc)

● 30 proposals applied

Introduction of summer time Wireless internet signs Estonian anthem downloadable from the Internet

TOM typical users

● Men (71%)● Age 26 – 39 (38%)● University degree (51%)● Specialists (40,3%)● Inhabitants of Tallinn (48%)● Everyday Internet users (88%)

TOM evaluation by users and public officials

Users Public officials0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Tex Vertmann 2002, Bachelor Thesisis

positivenegativeno opinion

%

Is TOM going to die out?

Visits to TOM

Visits to TOM: June 2001 to September 2006

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

14000

June

200

1

Sep

t 20

01

Dec

200

1

Mar

200

2

June

200

2

Sep

t 20

02

Dec

200

2

Mar

200

3

June

200

3

Sep

t 20

03

Dec

200

3

Mar

200

4

June

200

4

Sep

t 20

04

Dec

200

4

Mar

200

5

June

200

5

Sep

t 20

05

Dec

200

5

Mar

200

6

June

200

6

Sep

t 20

06

New users of TOM (registered)

New users(monthly average in the given year)

050

100150200250300350400450

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

New ideas

0102030405060708090

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

Positive sides of TOM● Possibility to rise political issues ● Obligation of state administration to respond● Communication between users ● Communication with state administration● Everybody can follow proposals and

discussions

Problems of TOM

● Many non-constructive proposals

● Passive discussions, low level of discussions (???)

● Low level of the idea author’s ivolvement (35% participate in later phases)

● Few votes

● Small number of active users

● No publicity, buzz

● Rejection of proposals by state administration on formal grounds

● No real dialogue between citizens and political decision makers

● No political will and support

...and e-participation

• Technical solutions are developing, however how to develop or support cultural changes?

• Information about e-participation possibilities? • Skills of e-participation? How to raise the

capacity of e-participation? • Passiveness? Participation fatigue?• Information gap- how much information gets

out of the inner circles (lists, forums, blogs, etc)

THANK YOU! [email protected]

+372 55 61 71 53