1. Voting Advice Application from KohoVolit.eu in action

    Michal Skop posted on his blog on blog.aktualne.cz specific example of usage of their voting advice application on KohoVolit.eu. One of the senators, Jiri Dienstbier senior, has passed away (you might have seen it in the Guardian), so now new voting is required and planned for the upcoming weekend. When I asked about it, Veronika explained:

    “These elections are only little, but they are important, because it can quite substantially change the distribution of power in the senate (basically, before it was slightly for the left side of the spectrum (while we have middle-right coalition in government), now it is equal and everybody is waiting who is going to win.”

    If you go to the original post, even without understanding the language you can see the vast amount of reactions, including comments of users who decided to test the site!

    What a great way and timing to showcase the project! Well done!

  2. Sejmometr.pl this week

    Today Sejmometr.pl has introduced RSS feeds to Polish Parliament’s work they feature on this project’s portal:

    “You can subscribe to all or only few types  of projects entering Parliament, but also track the work on various projects. More info here: http://sejmometr.pl/rss”

    It’s a short update, but very important one. We will talk to the team in near future to see how this new functionality affects the traffic to and popularity of the site.

  3. Sejmometr.pl at eDemocracy 2011

    Sejmometr.pl has also posted about their presentation at eDemocracy 2011 in Prague. The team really enjoyed presentations of other projects too and suggested those to Polish audience to check out too.

  4. FixMyStreet in Poland?

    About a week ago Sejmometr.pl team was invited to a meeting of few organisations and individuals aiming to build a Polish version of FixMyStreet. Based on the post published on Sejmometr’s blog it looks like the discussion had no final result as of yet – attendees presented their ideas and technologies they would like to use, shared their experiences.

    This is exactly what Sejmometr team did too. They used the meeting as a new opportunity to present the project:

    “During the meeting we have also presented Sejmometr and while doing so, we have discovered that the the portal grew so much that it is quite a challenge to present it in 10 min.”

    Great news for the team! We also hope to hear more about potential FixMyStreet clone in Poland.

  5. KąVeikiaValdžia.lt – best civic initiative

    It has been quiet in Lithunania recently, but we spotted an update on KąVeikiaValdžia.lt Facebook fanpage – it looks like the project was recognized as the best civic initiative at a conference in the Lithuanian Parliament! Congratulations!

  6. Photos from eDemocracy Day 2011

    Veronika has posted the photos from eDemocracy Day 2011. Here is a short photo story from the event:

  7. InformataZyrtare.org last week

    Valon has sent us his update on work of their project last week.

    The team was working on better understanding of ruby and the code itself, but also git and places, as well as mode of adding their own, country specific bits of code. They added new institutions to the project list, finalised hosting of the site and developed their marketing strategy a bit too.

    Valon is also mentioning more specific points his team focussed on last week:

    • “Researched and developed a safer method to login to admin page
    • Tested first draft version of the new interface
    • Developed the second iteration of the FOI request flow chart
    • Developed first draft of stages that FOI request goes through”

    Lot’s of good work done! We hope to see the site up sometime soon and direct you to it so you can follow the developments there as well.

  8. eDemocracy Day

    We have posted earlier on about eDemocracy Day planned in Prague. Veronika has just updated us that the event was really successful. 25 projects from Czech Repubik, Slovakia and Poland were presented during the day. There was also scope for collaboration and additional questions. As posted a second ago on our blog – Jaroslav presented newly prepared API and discussed it with representatives other teams, who have similar plans.

    Veronika promised photo documentation, in the meantime posting the topics of the event:

    “The main topics were: Parliament watchdogging, Public procurement, Project sustainability, Data sharing and API, and Watchdog and Media.”

    We are really keep to hear more about it, so let’s hope we will have more information soon.

  9. KohoVolit.eu last week

    Jaroslav Semancik has updated KohoVolit.eu blog with information on their API:

    “We have now API working and providing access to database for our applications as well as for other sites interested in our data. Some optimizations and documentation of the code are needed yet.”

    Those recent developments within the project have been presented on the regional arena too:

    “I presented the API on our eDemocracy Day that was held yesterday. An interesting finding was that most of the projects are going to provide some API or thinking about it. We may have provided some inspiration how to do it.”

    Really good to see that their work is a potential source of inspiration to others! Great news!

  10. Sejmometr.pl mentioned in mainstream media

    Major Polish news portal, Gazeta.pl, has posted a short introduction to Sejmometr.pl yesterday including interview with Jakub Górnicki. Te article presents major functions, goals and sponsors of this project stressing in the role of the portal in raising awareness and increasing civic engagement in Poland.

    “Who is the service for? For everyone interested in its content, most certainly. Journalists and social activists have an endless data set to dive into. Sejmometr authors though wish to direct it at everyday citizens to provide them with tools of monitoring of their own representatives. The aim of the project is to explain clearly the processes behind Parliament’s work.

    – Our most important aim is for citizens, who participate in public life (taking part in elections) to have ability to track the work of their chosen representative – states Górnicki. – We hope that the awareness about the daily work of the candidate will build the right attitude of citizens and help making the right choices in the future.”

    Well done, Sejmometr.pl team!