1. Open LiepU

    What problem are you solving?:

    Liepaja is the third biggest town in Latvia with the second highest unemployment. In this economic situation people search different possibilities. One of it – to establish their own business. But the problem is that they haven’t practical skills to start small business.
    Liepaja University has all intellectual capacity to offer different courses to citizens of Liepaja. LiepU also wants to be more open to local community offering different activities.
    Idea will solve the problems:
    1) Advance practical skills of local community to start their own small business;
    2) Provide LiepU as open higher education institution;
    3) Advance initiative of citizens to start small business, what is very important to develop healthy economics.

    Describe your idea:

    LiepU are planning open lections in entrepreneurship. Idea is – that theese lections are free in different subjects (Organizational Management, Finances, Quality Management, Communication sciences etc.). Passing the exams – students will get certificate with credit points (ECTS) and also consultations to establish company.
    Second part of idea is going to open portal where everyone could watch open lections, get materials, and get presentations for free. But if he/she would like to get certificate after this self-learning, he/she should pass exam as other students.

    What country will this operate in?: Latvia

    Who are you?:

    Today the LiepU is a state financed higher education, science and culture institution with a student body of 3000 and 300 staff members, split over the 3 faculties (Faculty of Educational Science, Humanities Faculty and Faculty of Natural Sciences and Social Sciences. The faculties include 12 sub-departments, 9 science sub-fields that are managed by professors/ associated professors. The University has the following study profiles: Humanitarian sciences and Art, Social welfare, Teacher education and Education sciences, Social sciences and Entrepreneurship, Natural sciences, Mathematics and Infomation technologies, Services. The University is an active member of national and international collaboration networks between institutions of higher education and is a member of several international educational mobility programmes.

  2. TID in CESIS („Today I decide” in Cesis)

    What problem are you solving?:

    1.Political apathy and lack of interest. In Latvia there are the lack of interest in the political process by population and passive civic participation, which is concerned with state of mind in society and political traditions. Only the people themselves can change and eliminate attitude – taking active participation and engagement, where they are perceived as equal partners of a regular dialogue developing. 2. Temporary emigration rate of Latvia has sharply increased. The majority of Latvian citizens are working outside Latvia. This means that the regions are losing their intellectual potential. The ex-residents of Cesis are active, patriotic, and inclined to act with interests for benefits of city, even then they do not live in their native region.

    Describe your idea:

    To create Cesis district population social network, using the competence and experience of the open source free software “TID+”, which has been used in society e-participation site TOM [Täna Otsustan Mina = Today I decide] in Estonia. It is a software and a set of documentation that were developed under a project co-financed by the European Union, under the eParticipation Preparatory Action. TID+ is aimed at governmental and non-governmental organizations that are looking for a solution to allow citizens to take the initiative in proposing and discussing new regulation. For detailed information: http://tidplus.net

    In the site will be ensured such a activities:
     established and implemented an idea management tool;
     established voting tool on the proposals and decision-projects, organization of submitting the voted proposals to associated institutions;
     established registration tool for former Cesis distric countryman from all over the world.

    What country will this operate in?: Latvia

    Who are you?:

    Cēsinieku klubs was established in 2001. It was found to encourage and unite former residents from town Cesis – in purpose to support the prosperity and welfare of the city and its current inhabitants. Main task of the club was to strengthen an economic and cultural relations between Cesis and Riga and other cities in Latvia. In 2001-2004 we have taken part in discussions about development plans of the the city, prepared the plan of ideas for Cesis 800rd anniversary celebration, have promoted economic, cultural and educational relation between Cesis and other cities, also maintained the connection between Cesis and its former inhabitants. Since 2005 our tasks were to participate enthusiastically in the organization of Cesis 800rd anniversary celebration, support socially unprosperous and low-income families, organize different educational and informational activities about career opportunities and professions for students, give financial and material support to schools.

  3. Internet as a tool for learning about the election candidates: are they worth your vote?

    What problem are you solving?:

    General:
    Lack of accountability in the Latvian politics
    Explanation:
    Due to a low level of public participation in the political life, elections are almost the only instance when the society executes control over the political parties that they elect.
    However, during election campaigns proper scrutiny and requests of accountability are being overshadowed by the sound bites and emotional appeal of political advertising.
    In addition, in the present economic crisis situation the ability of the traditional media to provide a meaningful analyses of people on the political party candidate lists is low.
    For this reason elections in Latvia risk losing their role as measurements of political party integrity and the core tool for political accountability.

    Describe your idea:

    1. The project will generate a data base of electoral candidates dossiers that will not be accessible anywhere else in such a concentrated manner.

    2. It will be easily searchable, permanently on-line, accessible at any time not only during the times of traditional broadcasting of the traditional media.

    3. Using the present and also new ideas of social networking the information about the data base will be disseminated to the broadest public and especially youth audiences.

    4. The project will foresee a possibility to add comments and send direct questions to the candidates thus ensuring two way communication and accountability.

    What country will this operate in?: Latvia

    Who are you?:

    Transparency International Latvia was established in 1998. Since then it has worked in the broadest range of areas of good governance and anti-corruption. With the decline of the traditional media that has been amplified by the economic crisis that has hit Latvia especially hard, TI Latvia has started experimenting with internet based solutions for dissemination of our anti-corruption work. Our biggest web-based project to date has been a data base that we created in 2009 before municipal elections. There we included election candidates’ dossiers that evaluated the candidates in accordance with several anti-corruption criteria. This project, although just a pilot and not at a large scale, was well used by the media and active society members. An advanced project based on sophisticated web solutions would be something that TI Latvia would aim to achieve before the upcoming parliamentary elections of 2010.

  4. OpenBudget

    What problem are you solving?:

    Burocracy, Corruption, Conflict of Interests of Politicians, unfair competition, inefective governance, overcost of public sector, lack of clear goals and success measurements for public sector.

    Describe your idea:

    2 objectives:
    1) Any citizen can have full undersnading of state budget stucture
    2) Any citizen can be involved in defining goals and success measurements for gov.inst.

    Both objectives are incorporated in one webpage where
    1) Every government institution can upload they accounting books with detailed expenditure structure
    2) (if gov.inst resist) Citizens can submit official request to inst. and when data recieved input the data in webpage manualy.
    3) Citizens in the webpage can browse name of any gov.clerk or business entity and find how much money the particular entity has recieved from state budget
    4) Citizens can bring to public attention cases of possible corruption;
    5) Politicians (as well as citizens) on the website can define goals and measurements of specific institutions
    6) Citizens can vote on priority of the goals
    7) Citizens can follow how goals are reached;
    10) Citizens can follow if spending of tax money corresponds with goals defined by public.

    What country will this operate in?: Latvia

    Who are you?:

    Expert in process optimization and system thinking. Business consultant with experience in production and supply chain optimization. Former lecturer ar Stockholm School of Economics in Riga for ” Business Creativity” course. Currently Deputy Director in GRANDEG SIA (www.grandeg.lv). Knowladge base: General System Theory, Lateral Thinking, Theory of Constraints, LEAN, SixSigma, Chaos Theory.

    (for more goole: Pauls Irbins)