EDem09 – Day 1

Reports from the EDem09 Conference, Day 1. Read the reports from day 2 here. You find excellent coverage of EDem09 at “Snurblog”.

Welcome address from the Austrian Computer Society: E-Governance – the challenges ahead.

Roland Traunmüller, OCG, University Linz

Reminds us of the history of E-Government, it’s 10 years ago that the term “E-Government” (in Europpe) and “digital Government” (in the USA) were “invented” as such. Now the “e” is increasingly being replaced with “m” for “mobile” or “k” for “knowledge” and public governance has a broader scope. Today it includes a number of themes, including E-Voting and E-Participation, evaluation, E-Democracy. Although E-Democracy is a special topic – it is about engaging citizens, it is about communication, community and individual empowerment, inclusion and feedback.
Now Web 2.0 promises to give E-Government, public governance a new impulse, to improve it. Here the user is central (as reflected in the Time 2006 person of the year: “You”), and can assume a number of roles, produce information, collaborate with other citizens and institutions. And ICT changes society, but at the same time, society changes ICT: the young generation pushes and demands for changes to happen.

eVoting at the Social Elections in the Federal Republic of Germany

Hans-Eberhard Urbaniak, Federal Commissioner for the Social Insurance Elections, Germany

The German social security agencies (pensions, medical insurance institutions) have “social elections”, as the citizens must administrate themselves and assume the responsibility for the work of the public social institutions.These elections are a reflection of democracy. Usually, the social elections are based on a postal vote – but increasingly people want to vote directly. Many citizens naturally also want to vote online, but the elections have to ensure the anonymity of the vote. Germany has decided to go this electronic way, so this is the main technical issue that needs to be solved at the moment. The technology is available and it has to be used – it already plays a central role in daily life, it cannot be ignored. Especially the young generation will expect e-voting and will not accept an alternative way of voting.