The Wegov project aims to develop tools for extracting and injecting information from social networking sites, while ensuring privacy and ethical considerations. It focuses on analyzing online discussions to understand topics, participants, and the dynamics involved, with the goal of enhancing communication between policymakers and citizens. Live field trials in the UK, Spain, and Germany will assess the project's effectiveness and inform methodology on legal and ethical implications.

1. Session 8b, 28 October 2010 eChallenges e-2010 Copyright 2010 Wegov
INTRODUCING THE WEGOV PROJECT
Alex Claes
GFI Benelux
Email: alex.claes@gfi.be
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission under the
SEVENTH FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME THEME ICT 2009.7.3 ICT for Governance and Policy Modelling

2. Session 8b, 28 October 2010 eChallenges e-2010 Copyright 2010 Wegov
Objectives of WeGov
• To develop extraction and injection tools for information and
content exchange with a wide range of social network sites
 In a way that adheres to privacy and safeguarding measures
• Investigate the types of information that social networking sites
contain
• Build interfaces to allow automated access to this information.
• Develop mechanisms to :
 Initiate new discussion groups
 Start a new topic
 provide connections between various relevant pieces of information
and/or groups

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Information exchange with SNS
• Develop extraction and injection tools for each SNS
independently
 With respect of Legal and Ethical issues
 Low Level SNS API’s interconnect to a Generic API to provide easy
extendibility
• SNS being engaged within the remit of the WeGov project are:

4. Session 8b, 28 October 2010 eChallenges e-2010 Copyright 2010 Wegov
Analytics of online discussions
The aim is developing tools for analysing discussions that take place
across existing Social Network Communities
We focus on 4 different areas:
• Understanding the subject of discussions
 a topic of a discussion and opinions expressed by people and how
they are related to it.
• Understanding the people and groups involved in the debate
through diagnostics that indicate discussion health
 number of people involved, any attempts to manipulate a discussion.

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Analytics of online discussions (2)
• Understanding the direction and dynamics of the discussion
 e.g. is the discussion is diverging, converging, going in circles,
splintering, or influenced heavily by some individual?
• Understanding the balance of the discussion
 range of opinions or its weighing of different points of view.

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Communication models and tools
Develop tools and processes for effective engagement of policy makers
with citizens in online communities.
• How to capture and automate the process of communication
between policy makers and citizens in a structured way
• How to model peoples’ behavior in order to inform decision makers
on promoting healthy discussion
• How to best place content into social network sites in order to
stimulate a discussion.

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Opinion and Discussion Toolbox
• Develop a dashboard for live visualisation of discussions (eg. Hot
topics) and presenting the analysed data (eg. opinion and
behaviour graphs)
• Determine how end users can access these tools in an integrated
way
• Organize and operate the toolbox as a service on cloud
infrastructures
 achieve the necessary scalability and performance
 Incorporate mechanisms to safeguard the system and data from
inappropriate use.

8. Session 8b, 28 October 2010 eChallenges e-2010 Copyright 2010 Wegov
Live field trials
Success will be measured through three live field trails
• Hansard Society: looking at an online health service as well as
address the efficiency of policy makers and their communication
strategies with regard to citizens in the UK
• Gov2U : involve discussions around consumer policy in Spain
and Germany
• GESIS: Apply the toolbox for investigating its usage as a
complement to political opinion polls in Germany

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Live field trials (2)
• These scenarios will provide examples of how the outputs of
the project will be used.
• The result of the trails will be combined into a methodology,
including
 a legal and ethical analysis (e.g. privacy, data protection)
 risks of using Social Network sites
 use of technical countermeasures
(e.g. access control, pseudo-anonymisation).
• Stakeholders involved directly during the project.
• Results of using WeGov can be compared with other
approaches.

10. Session 8b, 28 October 2010 eChallenges e-2010 Copyright 2010 Wegov

11. Session 8b, 28 October 2010 eChallenges e-2010 Copyright 2010 Wegov
Mock-up

12. Session 8b, 28 October 2010 eChallenges e-2010 Copyright 2010 Wegov
Thank you!
More information: http://www.wegov-project.eu/