Falling voter numbers in elections across the European continent suggest people are increasingly disenchanted with the political process. Could an enhanced webcasting system, tested by local authorities in four countries, solve this ‘democratic deficit’ and help to bind communities together?

Martine Ruzza certainly thinks so. A member of the eParticipate project, part of the eTEN programme facilitating e-services for European Union citizens, she highlights the praise heaped on its system, and the resulting webcasts, by participants at the June 2006 ‘ICT for an inclusive society’ conference in Riga, Latvia. This event also generated a groundbreaking declaration on e-democracy.

“One-way internet portals are no longer good enough,” says Ruzza. “People want two-way communication with their local authorities, so they can consult documents, provide feedback and so on. Our system addresses all these requirements.”

The project, which ended in September 2006, builds on an open and interactive video platform developed by the UK company Public-i. Though based on webcasting, this platform offers far more than the streaming of sound and vision over the internet. Its main feature is ‘contextualisation’ – providing additional information on the speakers filmed at events. So a webcast may include textual details on their name and function, plus a biography, photos and email address.

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