Engaging Citizens in Policy Making: The Futurium Experiment
Futurium is a platform that connects people to policy making by enabling collective inquiry into citizens' ideas and aspirations. It aims to bridge the gap between scientific evidence and public opinion, using techniques such as crowd engagement strategies to involve stakeholders in shaping future policies. The platform facilitates conversations, captures content, and encourages co-creation through various interactive tools. By harnessing the power of technology and citizen engagement, Futurium seeks to improve the quality and inclusivity of policy making processes.
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Connecting people to policy making: the Futurium experiment Franco Accordino European Commission - DG CONNECT Symposium "Generation Web 2.0: using new technologies in the public sector in Europe", Tallinn, 26-27 June 2014
Technologies Challenges/Issues Resource efficiency Climate changes Towards immortality Interim/beta status Smart cities Play & Rewind Sustainability Resource sharing Governance Trust Security privacy Financial stability Policy Making 2.0 Policy Making 3.0 Healthy ageing Citizen empowerment Big Big Data 3D Printing Cloud computing Organic computing Complex systems Enhanced-humans Simulated worlds Big Data Bio-devices Internet of Things Quantum Internet Energy positive Energy efficient Virtualisation Foundations ICT-Bio-Nano-Neuro-Cogno- Quantum convergence Conventional ICT (Silicon based, Packet switching, Boolean, ) 2015-20 2040-50
Today's socio-political drivers Data, computing and connectivity everywhere Government's control on people Individual empowerment Inclusion and skills Systemic automation Erosion of human employment Inter-generational tensions Costs/impacts of public services Rise of movements Disaffection of people from public matters
Futurium purpose To enable a collective inquiry into the ideas and aspirations of citizens, in order to feed future policy reflections
Scientific evidence & peoples opinion Emotional, intuitive, holistic Futures (Visions) Other factors than evidence Envision Rational, scientific, analytical Rules and Laws Social Networks Inspire DESIGN Stakeholders Inform (Re-)shape Scientific Evidence Policies Policy makers IMPLEMENTATION / REVIEW Sense & Analyse data, Identify issues and challenges, Elicit knowledge Impact on individuals, society, economy, environment, politics, technologies, Trends Real world
Crowd engagement strategy 1) Host conversations/dialogues with stakeholders Standard format: participatory brainstorming Contributors: scientists, citizens, policy makers, Virtual (webinar) & in-person meetings Going local: Member States, schools, conferences Viral process: loosely coordinated, but with simple, shared rules 2) Capture content into an open, standard online platform (futurium) Based on a fixed meta-model (futures, policies, ) & workflow Enabling co-creation (wiki), voting, forecasting, back casting, mapping, Automatic semantic annotation, data mining, correlation, fact-finding Agent-based gaming and simulation emergent collective intelligence 6/10
Futurium Data Model Discrete Objects of Collective Inquiry 2012 2020 2050 Trend Future Futures: Desirability (emotional view) Likelihood (rational/scientific view) Causality: antecedent->consequent Forecasting vs. back casting Challenges and Opportunities Future Futures (visions) Future Every European Digital Future Future Future DAE Policy Policy Policy Ideas Policies: Are expressed as S.M.A.R.T. objectives May be structured (e.g. pillars) Atomic level: timed actions Have a measurable impact Other measurable attributes (e.g. plausibility, innovation, ) pillars p1 p7 p p A A A A A A A1 A101 actions Agents: Stakeholders in broad sense (EC, MS, Regions, Industry, Citizens ) Implementers (those who execute the actions) Verifiers Decision makers A B C ? @ # Agents 7/10
Foresight methodology Sense Making Top-Down Structured Convergent Co-Creation Bottom-up Spontaneous Emergent Futurium Reporting to decision makers
Asynchronous sense-making steps over a continuous online engagement process Sense-making Sense-making Sense-making Futurium co-creation
Outcomes 120+ Events, 3000+ co- creators Breaking into new policy making practices 30+ Webinars Futurium model ~1800> Futurium members 20+ Requests for take-up Digital Futures Futures 11 Themes 200+ Futures 1800+ Evidence items
Futuriums conceptual architecture Social Media (Twitter, FB, G+, ) Participate Participatory Tools Participate Participate Participate Data Crawling Policy Makers Stakeholders Open Data Data Gathering mine & visualise mine & visualise Knowledge Harvesting Tools Real world data 11/10
ADVANCED FEATURES Semantic tools: fact-finding, search, text mining, CORE FUTURIUM Impact Plausibility Desirability Gaming, multi-agent simulations, SMART policy attributes Basic data types: visions, policies, evidence Polls Data Mining, statistics, visual analytics Library Blogs Communities Wiki Events Messaging Foresight tools: workflows, Delphi, back- cast diagrams
More features 1) Futurium is a e-Participation platform to enable grassroots engagement into foresight 2) Content co-created on Futurium is informative rather than deliberative 3) Suitable to support civic society engagement in line with Art 11 of the Treaty
More information Paper: "The Futurium - a Foresight Platform for Evidence-Based and Participatory Policymaking" http://www.springerlink.com/openurl.asp?genre=a rticle&id=doi:10.1007/s13347-013-0108-9 The futurium platform: http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/futurium/ Thanks!
eGovernment Action Plan Empower citizens and businesses Reinforce mobility in the Single Market Enable efficiency and effectiveness Create the necessary key enablers and pre- conditions to make things happen By 2015 50% of citizens and 80% of businesses should use eGovernment services.
Case Study: Digital Futures, reflections to prepare for the renewal of the EU policy context in 2014 Inspired by long-term advances of digital technologies "Hints"
Foresight Approach: back- casting + scenario planning Visions 2040-2050 + Anticipation + Evidence + Participation + Agility Policy Ideas Trends 2020+ 2015-2025 (?) Policy Frameworks 2010-2020 (Europe 2020) Open Data Internet EC mandates 2010-2014 2015-2019 Barroso II
Futurium timeline Nov 2012 EP/EIF (futurium kick-off) Mar 2012 Scoping and trial Engagement and co-creation Sense-making Policy choices ICT2013 Nov 2013 Oct 2012 DAA Dublin Jun 2013
