How citizen participation can change political life was the central topic of a workshop organised by the Zeppelin University (Germany) on September 18.

The workshop aimed at gathering experiences from municipalities in the region of Lake Constance, dealing with their use of modern media, such as social media, to promote dialogue between citizens and administrations.

At the workshop, Professor Von Lucke (Zeppelin University) gave details of some experiments that were being conducted, like a Wikipedia page in the Alemannic dialect and a wiki for citizens in Bavaria.

In his presentation, Christian Geiger, from the city of Ulm, detailed how the city intends to develop a 2.0 strategy in which Internet technologies and social media will play a key role. One of the key aspects is to promote dialogue and interaction between the city, the local government and citizens. How to engage citizens was at the centre of his presentation.

A long process to become a 2.0 city

While the city has already committed to promoting new technologies for eParticipation and information exchange, this global plan aims to develop a 2030 vision, the presentation stated. A long term process has been planned, starting in 2015, with a development phase through 2016 to put a plan in place. Implementation of this plan will occur in 2018-2019.

Ulm city was presented as a 2.0 city, where most of its public institutions (Town Hall, library, theatre, museum, tourist agency) have accounts on several social media, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr or Google+.

As we can read on the city’s website, Ulm has already developed a mobile app though which people can interact with the city. Ulm also wants to provide broadband Internet connection in the city.