wegovClosing the loop between governments & citizens

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission under the SEVENTH FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME THEME ICT 2009.7.3 ICT

for Governance and Policy Modelling.

WeGov_project

WeGov project

Get familiar with the WeGov projectwww.wegov-project.euinfo@wegov-project.eu

The Aim

The aim of the WeGov project is to improve the engagement between government policy-makers and citizens via popular social networking sites.

The Concept

Government policy-makers can better engage with citizens by utilising channels citizens already use and are familiar with! Social media – like Twitter and Facebook – have been identified as the most effective tools of engagement due to their popular-ity, ease of access, and the rapid information flow that they allow.

The Solution

The WeGov toolbox (software solution), is a web application, which includes tools and components that support policy-makers in the analysis of social networks. • Search - searches and monitors discussions on social networking sites according to parameters such as: which networks to search, keywords defining the theme of the query, and geographical locations. The output of searches can be used in WeGov’s analysis tools.• Topic Analysis - reorganizes & summarises comments according to groups of words (concept groups) that represent areas of discussions within a wider debate, enabling the user to quickly see themes running through the comments.• Discussion Activity Analysis - highlights important posts by predicting which posts and users will generate more atten-tion.• User Behaviour Analysis - predicts who the influential social media users are by classifying them according to their behaviour and interactions within social media.

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What is the added value?The WeGov solution intended to be flexible and applicable to many different use cases!

This web application enables beneficiaries to make full use of the high level of participation and rich discussions that already take place in existing social networking sites.

What’s in it for policy makers?Policy-makers benefit from the WeGov solution as they move away from the limitations inherent in the current practice of using bespoke and dedicated platforms to engage with their citizens.

The WeGov cutting-edge toolbox provides policy-makers an advantage in:

• using the power of social networking to improve the policy-making process;

• engaging with citizens via social media & understanding their actual opinions;

• highlighting those citizens’ opinions that should influence policy decisions.

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