The document summarizes the EU WeGov project which aims to enrich two-way dialogue between citizens and politics through social networking sites. The project runs from 2010-2012 and involves extracting functionality from social networks to build a prototype toolbox to support policymaker workflows. An initial prototype was presented to the German parliament and future work includes workshops, a final toolbox evaluation, and expanding scenarios like 'citations' to engage citizens and collect opinions.

1. EU Project WeGov – Where
eGovernment meets the eSociety
-- Overview --
Timo Wandhoefer
GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences
@ IFIP e-government conference 2011, EGOV2011, Delft
August 28 – September 2, 2011

2. Research Project
• http://www.wegov-project.eu
• Funded with support from the European
Commission (01/2010 – 06/2012)
• SEVENTH FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME
THEME ICT 2009.7.3 ICT for Governance
and Policy Modelling
• Consortium
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3. Overall Objective
“Enrich the two-way dialogue between
citizens and politics throughout the internet”
“Instead of developing a new eParticipation
platform, WeGov is build-up on the capability
of Social Networking Sites”
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4. Approach
Nuclear phase-out
Climate friendly
Bridging-technology
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5. Dashboard
Hot topic opinion analysis [4] User behavior analysis [4]
• Characteristic: agreement / disagreement • Measuring discussion activity
• List of keywords >> most relevant
comments >> Emotional comments
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6. Graphical Outline
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7. Progress
• Use cases for citizen  politics dialogue [1]
• Legal and ethical analysis [2]
• Basic functionality extracted [3]
• First prototype running a basic scenario [4]
• Presentation German Parliament [5]
• Scenario modification – ‘citations’ [6]
• Initial toolbox evaluation  support policy
maker’s everyday workflow
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8. Future Works
• Workshop eChallenges conference (Oct ‘11)
• Final toolbox (Dec ‘11)
• Evaluation of final toolbox (June ‘12)
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9. References
[1] M. Addis, S. Taylor, R. Fletcher, C. Wilson, F. Fallon, H. Alani, T. Wandhoefer, und P. Mutschke, “New ways for
policy makers to interact with citizens through open social network sites - a report on initial results,”
Internet, Politics, Policy 2010: an impact assessment (IPP2010), 16-17 September 2010, Oxford, UK. URL:
http://goo.gl/4Pqsf
[2] S. Joshi, E. Karamagioli, T. Wandhoefer, F. Fallon, R. Fletcher, C. Wilson, und B.I. Nasser, D5.1 Scenario
definition, advisory board and legal/ethical review. URL: http://goo.gl/8H41r
[3] Wandhoefer, Timo; Thamm, Mark; Mutschke, Peter (2011): Extracting a basic use case to let policy makers
interact with citizens on Social Networking Sites: a report on initial results. In: Parycek, Peter; Kripp,
Manuel J.; Edelmann, Noella (Hrsg.): CeDEM11 : proceedings of the international conference on e-
democracy and open government ; 5-6 May 2011, Danube University Krems, Austria, Krems: Ed. Donau-
Univ. Krems, S. 355-358. URL: http://goo.gl/0FssB
[4] A. Claes, S. Sizov, S. Angeletou, J. Reynolds, S. Taylor, und T. Wandhoefer, D4.2 Initial WeGov toolbox, 2010.
URL: http://goo.gl/22oGi
[5] Wandhoefer, Timo; Thamm, Mark (2011): WeGov Projektvorstellung und Live Demo des Prototypen.
Diskussion aktueller Anwendungsfälle. Deutscher Bundestag, Berlin, 31.03.2011. URL: http://goo.gl/7fKCb
[6] Joshi, Wandhoefer, Thamm, Mathiak, Van Eeckhaute, „Rethinking Governance via Social Networking: The
case of direct vs. indirect stakeholder injection“, International Conference on Theory and Practice of
Electronic Governance (ICEGOV2011), 26-28 September 2011, Tallinn, Estonia. URL: coming soon...
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