Project summary

WeGovNow will tap into emerging technologies for effectively supporting coproduction by civic society stakeholders and collective proposition development, whereby citizens are partners as opposed to customers in the delivery of public services. By integrating a set of innovative technologies within a unified citizen engagement platform, the project will overcome the current limitations of existing digital tools for citizen reporting, e-participation, and communication between the citizen and the government. In doing so, WeGovNow will enable a new type of interactivity, enhancing and expanding the viability of and capacity for citizen coproduction in the public sector, not only in a traditional citizen-to-government dynamic, but also in an arrangement where the government informs, assists, and enables private actions, or where citizens assist one another, with IT replacing the dependency on administrations as a vehicle for collective action. Building on previous research and technology development, an ambitious programme of service process innovation and technology innovation will be pursued by a multi-disciplinary project consortium. Outcomes will be validated in three European cities. WeGovNow will offer solutions that are truly inclusive by addressing risks of digital exclusion from the offset and throughout the project’s life cycle. Legal, ethical and other framework conditions for implementing the WeGovNow approach and digital tools in day-to-day settings will be systematically explored and considered, with a view to optimising the democratic legitimacy of the WeGovNow approach and the exploitability of tangible project outputs. An evidence base on impacts will be generated through a dedicated evaluation programme, thereby adopting multi stakeholder perspectives. This will enable the development of evidence-based guidance on the further mainstreaming of WeGovNow solutions and provide directions for further research.

Work Package 1: Conceptual & methodological framework consolidation

Work Package 2: Stakeholder engagement & local test trials

Work Package 3: Agile development of the WeGovNow platform

Work Package 4: Evaluation of local validation trials

Work Package 5: Exploitation support & project dissemination

Work Package 6: Overall project management

 

Work Package 1: Conceptual & methodological framework consolidation

Objectives:

The goal of WP1 is to ensure a truly common understanding of the project’s conceptual and methodologically approach across the multi-disciplinary project consortium and is focusing in consolidating the conceptual planning of the overall WeGovNow platform. The consolidated framework will help in ensuring exploitability of project outcomes by relevant stakeholders beyond the immediate project duration. WP1 outcomes will feed into all subsequent WPs in terms of consolidated descriptions of concepts and methods to be applied. WP1 has the following main objectives:

  • Proposed concepts and methods to be critically reviewed and detailed in relation to:

  • (a) the research and development work to be achieved throughout the project duration,

  • (b) specific requirements to be met in relation to the inclusiveness and e-accessibility of concrete outputs to be generated;

  • (c) dedicated legal and ethical requirements that are to be met.

  • Ensure that the general approach to be adopted for the purposes of WeGovNow as well as individual methods and techniques are optimally tailored towards the project’s higher level goals.

Description of Work:

Task 1.1: Research & innovation aspects

This task will focus on reviewing and consolidating the initial conceptual and methodological approach set out in this document when it comes to research & innovation aspects to be addressed throughout the project’s life cycle. Theoretical concepts and research methods to be adopted for the purposes of the project will be operationally specified and related guidance for their application by project partners will be developed.

Task 1.2: Usability & e-accessibility aspects

This task will focus on reviewing and consolidating the initial conceptual and methodological approach to be adopted by the project towards usability & accessibility aspects in the framework of a Design for All approach. Again, concepts and research methods will be operationally specified and related guidance for their application by project partners be developed.

Task 1.3: Legal, data protection and ethical aspects

This task will focus on reviewing and consolidating the initial conceptual and methodological approach to be adopted by the project when it comes to adhering to commonly accepted legal, data protection and ethical standards. Again, concepts and methods to be adopted for the purposes of the project will be operationally specified and related guidance for their application by project partners be developed. Among other aspects this will include:

  • details on procedures and criteria to be used for identifying/recruiting research participants
  •  details on the informed consent procedure to be applied;
  • clarification whether vulnerable individuals/groups will be involved, and if so description of the measures taken to prevent enhancing vulnerability/stigmatisation;
  • obtaining ethics approvals of competent for the collection of personal data by competent University Data Protection Officers / National Data Protection Authority where applicable;
  • details on procedures to be implemented for data collection, storage, protection, retention and destruction together with final confirmation that these comply with national and EU-level legislation;
  • confirmation that existing data are publicly available, and where this is not the case relevant authorisation.
  • Outcomes will be made available before the commencement of any research work involving any end users or end user related data.

Outcomes will be made available prior to commencement of any research work involving end users and/or personal data.

Description of Deliverables:

 

Work Package 2: Stakeholder engagement & local test trials

Objectives:

WP2 focuses on preparing and conducting all research & development activities to happen at the project’s three validation sites. This includes appropriate engagement of communities which form an integral part of the research carried out in this project and who will be actively involved in the development of WeGovNow tools and methods. Smooth implementation of a user-centred design process is to be ensured, with a view to testing the efficacy of new tools to ensure they are fit for purpose and so as to unlock the maximal potential for end user participation and wider uptake by stakeholders.WP2 has the following operational objectives:

  • Design and apply an engagement process to explore and evaluate which topics and approaches work best to address the identified target groups and beneficiaries and; through which channels / methods they can best be reached. 5 to 10 workshops will be held at each of the validation sites.

  • Develop use cases driven by the needs of the target audiences. Engaging with target groups will assist the project to define scenarios for the need for and use of certain tools and features (e.g. for visualisation of local issues, sending requests for volunteer assistance or for receiving alerts via SMS) for achieving certain kinds of outcomes (e.g. awareness, political agenda setting, collective action at local level). This will include citizens, local businesses, civil society stakeholders and government/administration representatives.

  • To prepare and conduct local trials to validate stable prototype solutions under day-to-day conditions.

Description of Work:

Task 2.2: Elaboration of WeGovNow Use Cases

  • This task will involve assessing the needs of local community and stakeholder representatives through a series of workshops. This task will help identify the boundary of the study area, inform the project of local facilities and activities that are suitable to be co-opted to WeGovNow, and will aid in the identification of potential champions that will work on the project.
  • User requirements will be modelled in the form of “use cases” and “user stories”, based on the SCRUM methodology. Stories may be clustered into actions required for different service.
  • Target groups will be presented with some generic use cases and user stories initially developed by the project team.
  • This will serve as a starting point for either refining, creating new or dismissing those user stories and use cases. In addition, this will also serve as a way to initiate part of the co-design process and engage the local community. Use cases and user stories will continue to be developed and built upon throughout the project lifecycle.
  • Feed results into WP3 (Agile development of the WeGovNow platform) as integral component of the development process.

Description of Deliverables:

  • D2.2 : WeGovNow Use Cases v.1
  • D2.3 : WeGovNow Use Cases v.2 (not yet available)
  • D2.5 : Local validation trial report v.1 (not yet available)
  • D2.6 : Local validation trial report v.2 (not yet available)

 

Work Package 3: Agile development of the WeGovNow platform

Objectives:

WP 3 focuses on developing the WeGovNow platform and tools using the agile methodology. The platform will be available both for desktop and mobile/tablets (for the main operative systems, i.e. Android and IOS). The work package has four sub-objectives, related to the main functionalities of the platform, plus production of an integrated framework for the data to be shared by the components:

  • Developing and implementing an online citizen network based on an interactive map, the starting points will be the initial development and research work

  • Developing and implementing a tool for Trusted Marketplace, by which users, their requests for support, interests in collective activities, offers of resources etc. can be brought to match in a way which supports the development of a sense of virtual-physical community;

  • Developing and implementing structured opinion formation support tools, building on earlier work done by LiquidFeeback, and integrating them with the map-based citizen network.

  • Providing a common repository of data to which the different applications ask and provide information. This repository will also include the management of Open Data to become POIs on the map or spatial overlays. Data when possible will be integrated in OpenStreetMap. Very first prototypes of service components are designed to start the agile development in Tasks 3.2 – 3.5. Informed by the use cases obtained from Task 2.2, these early prototypes will be further developed iteratively until the start of the validation trials.

Description of Work:

Task 3.1: System architecture

Based on state-of-the-art techniques, an overall architecture is drafted to incorporate web and mobile services, service platforms and interface interconnection.

  • The appropriate set of standards are identified for interfaces between components.
  • The design will concern the interfaces between the tools and their platforms, how data is transmitted, transformed, stored and processed, and the distribution of work between the tasks.

Task 3.3: Map-based citizen network

This task is in charge of developing the online citizen network based on an interactive map. Development work will focus on:

  • Integration of the data with the other three components (T3.3, T3.4 and T3.5).
  • Further functionalities emerging from the use cases elaborated in Task 2.2.

Task 3.5: Opinion formation support tools

The aim of this task is to adapt the LiquidFeedback platform to the needs of the project and to integrate it with the rest of the system. It also includes further development of the interface taking full account of the needs of a wide range of user types and with the look and feel of the rest of the platform.

Task 3.6: Data integration and data quality assessment

This task is in charge of coordinating the representation and access to data among the four different WeGovNow platform components and to represent and import Open Data relevant for the domain. It comprises:

  • Methods for deriving quality metrics for PSI and VGI data to aid in the determination of fitness-for-use both within the WeGovNow platform and for end users;
  • Identification and implementation of suitable methods and tools for portraying data quality information to different types of users; 
  • Techniques for importing PSI data into the WeGovNow platform (and OSM where applicable) including the georeferencing of data lacking geographic coordinates;

As far as licences and OSM Community Guidelines permit, OSM shall be used to store and obtain any data that is not personal, and in general, open standards shall be used, to facilitate reuse.

Task 3.7: Interlinking with existing systems at trial sites and technical support

  • Linking up WeGovNow with existing systems at the validation sites.
  • Trial site managers will organise a help desk service for supporting users in their respective languages. The help desk will be provided via the web using an open source ticket assignment platform. The help desk logs will be analysed by the consortium to get continuous feedback from the users.

Task 3.8: Crosscutting usability & accessibility support

This task is oriented to provide cutting-edge and practical support to software developers on how to build the different components of the platform in a way that can be easily used by a wide range of users (people with different disabilities,older users, and different citizens at potential risk of technological and informational exclusion), including:

  • Development of templates and interfaces taking into account usability and requirements;
  • Heuristic validation of sites and applications with following international recommendations and good practices;
  •  Advice on how to develop sophisticated designs following usability and accessibility criteria;
  • Information and practical examples about navigation, information architecture and cognitive aspects implicit in the interaction with e-Government services.

Description of Deliverables:

  • D3.1 : Consolidated system architecture
  • D3.3 : First release of WhereWeLive platform prototype (not yet available)
  • D3.4 : Second release of WhereWeLive platform prototype (not yet available)
  • D3.5 : Final release of WhereWeLive platform prototype (not yet available)

 

Work Package 4: Evaluation of local validation trials

Objectives:

This WP aims at planning and successfully implementing a dedicated programme of pilot evaluation activities throughout the project’s entire life cycle. Operational objectives include the following:

  • Consolidate the initial planning for evaluation activities for the purposes of pilot impact assessment, based the ASSIST evaluation approach;

  • Document feedback / insights / learnings from community engagement to feed subsequent steps in the research process.

  • Monitor implementation of the evaluation framework and take remedial action in case of any unexpected deviations or non-anticipatable problems;

  • Analyse and report all evaluation outcomes;

  • Feed evaluation outcomes into dissemination & exploitation (WP5).

Description of Work:

Task 4.1 Evaluation planning

  • With respect to pilot impact evaluation, the ASSIST methodology is critically reviewed and potentially required adaptations are drafted.
  • A detailed evaluation framework is finally agreed in collaboration with nominated task leaders in WP2 and WP3.
  • A dedicated Validation Roadmap is agreed with the validation site hosts in relation to all evaluation activities to be conducted at the validation sites throughout the project’s life cycle.

Task 4.2 Baseline evaluation

  • Instruments and guidance materials for conducting evaluation activities are designed in collaboration with the nominated task leaders of WP2 (stakeholder engagement) and WP5 (dissemination & exploitation support).
  • Webinars with the pilot hosts are conducted for capacity building purposes concerning the final evaluation methodology.
  • Evaluation activities are conducted and documented; outcomes are fed into relevant WP5 (dissemination & exploitation support) activities respectively

Task 4.3 Final evaluation and analysis

All evaluation data/information is processed and analysed. Desired and undesired impacts potentially flowing from WeGovNow are assessed on the basis of evidence generated throughout the validation trials. Moreover interaction with stakeholders takes place in the framework of exploitation support events organised under WP4 to derive hands-on experiences and lessons learned for the development of recommendations for exploitation of project outcomes. Other relevant sources of evidence (e.g. academic and practitioner literature) will be reviewed and related to the outputs generated by WeGovNow, with a view to enable the drawing of conclusion is relation to a number of challenges faced by emerging participative approaches to e-government.

Based on the evaluation findings, recommendations for the mainstreaming of WeGovNow solutions and guidance on further promising research directions are developed.

Description of Deliverables:

  • D4.1 : Evaluation framework
  • D4.2 : Preliminary outcomes of validation trials (not yet available)
  • D4.3 : Final outcomes of validation trials (not yet available)

 

Work Package 5: Exploitation support & project dissemination

Objectives:

  • Disseminate information about the project, its progress and its outcomes to the wider public and all relevant target audiences during the immediate project duration;

  • Guide the project towards successful joint exploitation of results by individual consortium partners, including the mainstreaming of the WeGovNow pilot solution at the validation sites beyond the immediate project duration;

  • Facilitate the sustainability of the project’s achievements after funding has run out through potential upscaling to other cities/regions/countries;

  • Establish and maintain an attractive and informative web presence for the project;

  • Prepare other materials for supporting external dissemination activities;

  • Liaise with other e-government projects and related EU funded initiatives to identify and exploit synergies;

  • Participate in workshops, networking events etc., as appropriate;

  • Organise workshops to facilitate further mainstreaming/upscaling beyond the project ending.

Description of Work:

Task 5.1 Planning of dissemination & exploitation support activities

  • All necessary planning is carried out for the dissemination of information on the project and its outcomes to the wider public and to targeted audiences during the project duration. A dissemination strategy will be finally agreed and documented in a dissemination plan.
  • Likewise, all necessary planning is carried out for activities directed towards supporting exploitation of project outcomes beyond the project duration, both externally (upscaling of the WeGovNow system to other cities and domains) and internally (by consortium partners). An exploitation support plan is generated.

Task 5.2 Project web presence and online media management

  • An URL is reserved and a layout agreed including PI, content structure and navigation. Good usability is to be ensured and accessibility to meet W3C WAI WCAG2.0 (Level AA).
  • Publication policy for the website includes that public deliverables, publications, presentations and press releases are uploaded immediately on release.
  • A subdomain is established private to the project on the same or an appropriate, different server. The private domain is maintained by WP leaders supported by all participants.
  • Operational procedures for ongoing project communication though selected social online media such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and others are agreed and maintained.

Task 5.3 Dissemination materials & activities

  • Based on the dissemination plan developed earlier, dissemination materials are prepared including a PPT presentation and project brochure. A list of (national & EU) target organisations & individuals is drawn up.
  • Tailored information about project progress and outcomes is communicated to the wider public and carefully defined target groups, as set out in Task 5.1. Execution of the dissemination plan is monitored and adaptations proposed where needed. Measures also include production of project videos, informing interested parties, writing of publications and presentation at relevant conferences and the like.

Task 5.4 Project Advisory Board

  • The Advisory Board is formally constituted including review of representation of all necessary areas of expertise/interests. A briefing document is developed specifying work tasks and co-operation modes. Board members are expected to comment on project plans and interim project results.
  •  A series of thematic meetings is scheduled well in advance of the first intended meeting. For each meeting, an agenda is drafted and provided to members for comment, and a chair selected. The project participants nominated to take part in the Board meetings ensure that minutes are drafted for participants.
  • The Advisory Board will be kept informed about progress in the project and provide feedback, as well as suggestions to cope with any challenges as they arise throughout the project.

Task 5.6 Strategic recommendations

  • Development of recommendations concerning WeGovNow mainstreaming, as well as implications for policy and research.
  • Recommendations will be based on the findings from the evaluation and the processed experience from all three validation sites as well as the preceding project steps (use case elaboration and agile development of WeGovNow platform).

Description of Deliverables:

D5.1 : Project Web presence and external dissemination plan

D5.2 : First report on dissemination & exploitation support activities

D5.3 : Second report on dissemination & exploitation support activities (not yet available)

D5.4 : Third report on dissemination & exploitation support activities (not yet available)

D5.6 : Strategic recommendations (not yet available)

 

Work Package 6: Overall project management

Objectives:

  • Ensure smooth operation of all aspects of the project and proper implementation of the Consortium Agreement;

  • Comply with provisions of the Contract and Consortium Agreement in respect of reporting including financial reporting;

  • Set up internal communications and ensure timely organisation and performance of consortium and PCC meetings;

  • To deal with risk management and quality assurance.

  • Provide a communication and collaboration infrastructure that fully supports the project’s agile development approach and focus on participation of system users;

  • Perform planning, internal progress control and technical evaluation of project progress;

  • Ensure project activities and service content conform to ethics and data protection principles;

  • Ensure project work achieves the highest quality measured against defined objectives;

  • To take effective steps to address any IPR related issues arising from the RTD carried out within the context of the project.

Description of Work:

Task 6.5 Ethics, gender & data management

  • This task is to oversee conformance with ethical principles and data protection legislation at project level. A framework is drawn up to cover both domains, covering issues such as consent forms, submissions to the respective ethics committee at each validation site etc.
  • The Ethics, Gender & Data Manager closely cooperates with the validation sites and reports regularly to consortium meetings on the status of the work and on activities that need to be undertaken by the partners. Outcomes of ethics management are reported in the framework of exploitation deliverables. The task is in charge of producing the Data Management plan, preliminary and final.

Description of Deliverables: