This report describes the engagement methodology to be adopted by the SIMPATICO project. It also describes the planning of the engagement activities in the three project pilot sites – namely, the two cities of Trento (IT) and Sheffield (UK) and the region of Galicia (ES) – for the second (and final) iteration of the project validation.
The deliverable presents a complete plan to involve citizens and stakeholders. It is a well-done and well structured deliverable.
The plan is in my opinion well explained and structured.
However, I also see a weak point in the absence of clear reasons for the choice of citizens involved. Moreover, perhaps distributing them in the various activities (focus groups, open meetings, and so on), considering their position and backgrounds, could be useful.
I also think that the use of co-design tools should be better explained, especially with reference to the kind of administrative power used in the case. in such perspective, citizens should be explained in advance what is the space for possible changes in administrative action and what are the reasons for the absence of the same space in other cases (technical reasons? Binding legislative rules in force?).
Another challenging side, that could be further developed, concerns possible initiatives to overcome the lack for digital literacy among population: this may be a real obstacle for equal and fair involvement of all categories of people.
The engagement and community plan presented in this deliverable is well structured. Very appreciated is the use of the different step of the engagement process (inform, consult, collaborate, etc.) of IAP2, the identification for each of them of tool/activity, stakeholders involved, expected results and how these elements are present in the specific pilots. Howevere, the use of more "advanced" open government strategies and tools (more oriented towards the co-design) ould have been implemented.
