Good Practices and Innovations in Public Governance 2003-2011

Good Practices and InnovATIONS in Public Governance
to embed notes in the topics of discussion in order to annotate documents or maps, for
example. Electronic discussion platforms should also support public hearings, so that
local discussions can be watched by means of special user interfaces and later continued
in Web forums. The main challenge of the participatory budget project was to
reach and activate as much of the public as possible with the resources at hand. The
key strategies included:
• Reaching the public – citizens – activating the target groups;
• Generating public attention;
• Activating different social groups;
• Addressing the target groups in the best possible way;
• Designing interactive web pages to be user-friendly;
• Guaranteeing transparent processes;
• Generating lots of contributions – selecting good proposal;
• Securing the future;
• Long-term embedding in politics and administration; and
• Establishing a new culture of participation.
It is important to note that the Cologne budget allows for expenditures of about €3
billion. The participatory budget 2008 is the pilot project for a comprehensive initiative
to introduce e-participation in the City of Cologne. In this respect, the city’s finance
department has taken over control of the participatory budget in accordance
with the aim of the project. The office for e-government and online services is responsible
for the development of e-participation in the City of Cologne. On behalf of
the office, the Fraunhofer Institute AIS assisted in the implementation of the project
in cooperation with Binary-Objects by providing conceptual and technical support.
Further partners included the city’s press and information office as well as the office
for information processing.
In addition to the high-profile public phase (long-running ads in the print media, radio
and TV as well as letters to all Cologne households), the implementation of the
participation platform itself was of special importance. One important result of the
project is the fact that the citizens now have the opportunity to participate in the
preparation of the municipal budget: the citizens have a great need for information
about the budget and there is a great willingness to participate in its preparation.
One important result of the project is the fact that the citizens now have the opportunity
to participate in the preparation of the municipal budget: the citizens have a great
need for information about the budget and there is a great willingness to participate
in its preparation.
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