Online supported citizen participation in Sweden

Tomas Ohlin
Telo Konsult

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     Last modified: March 15, 2005

Abstract
Online supported citizen participation in Sweden
By professor Tomas Ohlin
Stockholm, Sweden
March 14, 2005

The Cybervote project (www.eucybervote.org) was a research project (partly funded by the European Union) that included representatives from seven European countries. The project was carried out from the year 2001 to the spring of 2003. Participants represented users, researchers and providers of technology. The focus was originally placed on the development of secure Internet voting software, and this focus remained central to the part projects of most of the participating countries during the duration of the main project. However, in the Swedish version, this was complemented by an interest in participation, discussion and agenda setting. Such a social approach varied from the other nations’ part projects, that mostly concentrated on technology.
There were three “user” part projects in the main project, one of which in Sweden. This was carried out in Kista, a northern suburb of Stockholm. It concentrated on citizen involvement in city planning. A unique aspect of the Kista part of the Cybervote project was that it only engaged elderly citizens, in an attempt to deal with the “digital divide” between the oldest and the younger generations.
With the help of local organizations of the elderly, it was distributed invitations that said: “Do you want to join in the shaping of history?” It was mentioned the use of new technologies and the participants to be was told that they would be instructed in how to use the equipment. This was a general appeal to the senior citizens to get involved in helping develop a new city plan for where they lived.
A sizable group turned up for the first meeting where the discussion centered on a variety of possible project topics to be addressed later. Through this process a list of about a dozen topics emerged as a discussion result. The next step was to get a smaller sample of the participants to use new communication and voting technology to go through the list and establish their own priorities. This included deliberation, plus testing new and more secure software.
The topics that was agreed on were: (1) Local planning: parks or commercial; (2) public transportation: buses or trains: (3) art and culture: a cultural centre or not. These priorities were then disseminated through printed materials and via the Internet. Two young researchers carried out a specific study of this part of the project. This showed that these elderly citizens did encounter certain practical problems in using these for them new PC machines, particularly in the voting aspects, but that they appreciated the possibility to take part in the agenda setting.
The main Kista trial project then took place in January 2003. Everyone who had pre-registered was invited to come to discuss and vote. 236 elderly participants showed up, not enough for any severe statistical analysis, but more than enough to show an interest in being able to participate in and discuss such an exercise, particularly one with a technological focus. Each person who came was given a password that they could use once at the final vote via the Internet. Their choices concerned the 3 topics listed above, from the earlier agenda setting process. There were discussion facilities available. The final voting could be carried through without major problems. The qualitative results showed majorities for a green environment, a new train line, and a cultural center. In fact, the participants were very pleased with their project experience, and several indicated that they would like to do it again in the future.
Surely, there are other Swedish experiments with citizen participation, but these normally concern citizens who are responding to agendas and ideas presented from “higher up”. Citizen participation in the formulation of agendas and priorities is unusual. It also turned out to be challenging and interesting for elderly users to experience online support and voting.