Challenge of eCitizen – Promoting eGovernment Actions in European Regions                            INTERREG III C -project
Outi Teittinen

City of Tampere
Administration and Personnel 
P.O. Box 487, 33101 Tampere, Finland
E-mail: outi.teittinen@tt.tampere.fi 
Tel. +358-2071 65129

Abstract 
Local governments and city administrations are undergoing far-reaching and comprehensive transformations in their governance and processes. Transparency and accessibility are the basis of open government. This implies improving participation and consultation of citizens towards local governments as well as ensuring that citizens have easy access to local government information and decision-making procedures. The development of local eGoverment systems provides the city administrations a useful tool for stimulating citizens’ involvement and participation in democratic decision-making and community empowerment. 
Means of (e)-Participation can be divided in the following way. Information is a one –way relationship in which administration produces and delivers information for use by citizens. It covers also citizens’ access to information upon their demand. Through Internet administration provides information about current issues and official documents, agendas and minutes are available too. What administration need to consider when providing information through the web is 1) how information is organized and presented 2) what kind of possibilities there are for citizens to produce information.  Consultation is a limited two-way relationship in which citizens provide feedback to administration. Administration asks for and receives citizens’ feedback on decision-making. It is mainly administration that defines topic, timing and means of participation. Here it is important to describe the whole process of decision-making and situate the participation in the process. Partnership is the most active form of participation. It means that citizens themselves take a role in the decision-making and set issues also on political agenda. Project called ‘Challenges of eCitizens aims at creating e-Participation Services that support strong government – citizen relations.  

Related Web links
Home page of City of Tampere: 
	www.tampere.fi
eParticipation in Tampere: 
http://www.tampere.fi/osallistuminen
Valma Preparation Forum:
http://www.tampere.fi/osallistuminen/valma
Arkkikone:
	http://inter3.tampere.fi/arkkikone/arkkikone.html