Participa en Andalucía is a web platform for e-Democracy,driven by the Consejería de Innovación, Ciencia y Empresa de la Junta de Andalucía (España), the Andalusian regional Ministry for innovation, Science and Enterprise. Its is aimed to achieve the digital participation of citizens, local authorities and local associations.

Digital participation seeks to involve citizen participation in all aspects of civil and political life through the use of the new technologies and the new systems for local decision-making.

FLOSS and the new technologies offer a wide range of communication tools, allowing citizens to communicate, express their opinions, debate, associate and cooperate with leisure, social or political aims.

What is it?

What is it?

Participa en Andalucía is a web platform for e-democracy.

Participa en Andalucía was born in 2007 and has already integrated more than 25% of Andalusian towns in the project.

The project is developed to promote the digital participation of citizens and local authorities and organizations.

It is based on free software, allowing citizens to communicate, think, discuss, join or assist with political or social purposes.

EVOLUTION OF THE TOWNS ASSOCIATED IN THE PLATFORM

How does it work?

Participa en Andalucía is a “A2C” site ( Public Administration / Government for the citizen)

Developed in FLOSS. Intuitive and usable. It complies with "AA“ accesibility standards. It works with some obligatory Rules of Participation.

In this A2C portal, citizens may propose improvements regarding their towns, express their opinions, reject or subscribe proposals made by others.

The most voted proposals may be voted in town councils.

General organization

CITIZENS PARTICIPATION PLATFORM

Citizens Associations ®

Make proposals, give their opinion, debate, comment in blogs, make suggestions

Visitors

Make queries and sign up

Political Parties Councilllors

Local Agents

Manage their specific contents

Mayor

Local Coordinators

Technical management

Manage membership

Función delegada

Configure basic parameters

Regional follow-up committees

®

Moderate according to the terms of use

Present proposals in town councils

Participators

Follow-up committees

Technical Management

Users (citizens)

Coordination

Guadalinfo local agents

Association representatives

Politic Parties representatives

Local coordinators

Councillors

Mayors

The users

People linked to the town who have passed through the registration process,

providing data like their ID card number or e-mail.

Level of participation

These people may propose improvements regarding their towns, express their

opinions, reject or subscribe proposals made by others, all in accordance to the

terms of use of the platform.

REGISTERED

People who have not gone through the registration process.

Level of participation

These people can observe what happens in the platform, unable to make

proposals or express their opinion.

UNREGISTERED

The Guadalinfo local agents

People who work in the network of

Public Internet access centres in towns below 20,000 inhabitants.

Mission

Making the portal known to users of the

centre, explaining its values and providing

technical support so they can make the best

use of it.

Association representatives

Representatives of local legally established

associations with a presence in the portal.

Mission

They may propose improvements regarding

their towns, express their opinions, reject or

subscribe proposals made by others on

behalf of the association, under the terms of

use of the platform.

Representatives of political parties and groups

Representatives of political parties and groups with a presence in town and in the portal.

Mission

1. They may propose improvements regarding

their towns, express their opinions, reject or

subscribe proposals made by others, under the

terms of use of the platform.

3. If they wish, they can call for a survey on their

programs and proposals.

2. If they wish, they can make their manifestos and

programs available to users and participants.

Local coordinators

Local coordinators, freely chosen by the mayors of each town.

Mission

1. Keeping constant dialogue between the Town Council and the Technical Committee in order to

expedite the implementation and maintenance of the town’s website within the Portal.

2. Making the existence of the portal known to citizens, local associations, political parties or groups

and local authorities.

3. Maintaining constant contact with the Guadalinfo local agent to obtain information on the use of

the platform and include it in the monthly report.

4. Sending a monthly report to the Technical Committee on the development of the website,

detailing, where appropriate, obstacles in the town, as well as specific recommendations for better

operation of the Portal.

Town councillors

1. As registered users of the Portal, they may

propose improvements regarding their towns,

express their opinions, reject or subscribe

proposals made by others,

Councillors registered in the web portal.

Mission

2. They can give answers to proposals that

belong to his/her specific area of the

responsibility, always in agreement with the

mayor.

Mayors

Mayors, as presidents of the local authority, can guarantee the commitment of their government team with the aims, terms and procedures of the project.

Mission

1. They must promote the interest of citizens in the use of the portal.

2. They must make, at least, one proposal (directly or delegated) each month.

3. Including in the council sessions any proposal which has reached the set rate of support, discussing

and voting it.

4. They must determine whether a proposal raised at the forum must be addressed by the relevant Area

Manager.

5. They must moderate, directly or through the Local Coordinator, the proposals and opinions

expressed in the forum.

6. If designated, they must attend the meetings of the Follow-up Committee in representation of the towns in

their province.

7. They must ensure that information reaches the rest of the mayors of the province and convey, where

appropriate, the concerns of the mayors to the Follow-up Committee.

Mayors

They may:

1. Join any proposal made in the forum.

2. Allow portal users to access the

local budgets and comment on them,

thus enhancing the dynamics of

“participatory budgets".

3. Allow the publication of manifestos

and political programs by political

parties and local groups, so that

registered users can comment on

them.

Some data about our users

A) USERS BY GENDER B) EVOLUTION OF ACCESS

What are the main benefits for mayors?

A better knowledge about the real needs of citizens.

Updated information about

the situation of the town.

This allows the Council to act

more efficiently on a daily basis

How do we spread the use of the site?

Several communication actions intend to reach the highest

level of participation in every town.

Several communication channels will be used in order to reach out for new

participants and ensure their loyalty:

For this reason, our target audience are: • Andalusian citizens from towns below 20,000 inhabitants. • Associations, political parties and groups.• Mayors from the region.• Entities integrated in the Consortium (Consejería de Innovación, Ciencia y Empresa de la Junta de Andalucía, Diputaciones Provinciales y Consorcio Fernando de los Ríos).

• Promotion in local media. • Presentation of the project at events associated with e-Participation. •Signing cooperation agreements with other regions, projects and initiatives, at the national and international level. •Use of the main channels and tools of the social media in order to give the project a 2.0 dimension. Intensive use of the social network www.guadalinfo.es.

How do we measure the impact of the platform on our society?

Measurement tools for the project are aimed at assessing its social and political impact. This is done using both quantitative and qualitative methods. 

Quantitative data: reports are generated with a maximum level of disaggregation through an advanced statistical system online.

Qualitative data: are mainly based on human analysis through the collection of information that users provide in their speeches from the platform.

General access statisticsCitizen participationPolitical participationParticipation of associationsDebate triggered by proposals

Which are the main benefits already obtained?

We arrive directly to 1/8 of citizenry, almost 1,000,000 Andalusians out of 8.202.220 living

in the region.

1.046.229 visits to date.

800 proposals made since the begining of the project and an average of 60 active proposals every month.

Because your ideas matter

Participa en Andalucía