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Comparing Listeners' and Designers' Listening Experiences
04/06/2013 Aalborg University, Nordkraft, Teglgaards Torv, 9000 Aalborg
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Dr Ahmed Al-Dubai is the Guest-Co-Editor of a special issue in a leading international journal:...
11/05/2013
E-democracy Services for Highland Youth Voice
01/01/2000 - 31/03/2008
ITC worked with Highland Youth Voice (a youth parliament in the Highland Region) from 2000 to 2008. An e-voting website, with a discussion form, supported the parliament's first elections in 2000. From 2001 to 2007, we worked with HYV staff and members to create eParticipation tools that would support their work, including new e-voting systems, discussion forums for policy debates and external consultations, content management systems for news and photo diaries for events. These tools evolved with the parliament, while young people's use of and access to Internet technologies also changed dramatically.
During this period, we learned a lot about methods for working with users- including good ways to involve them in specifying and evaluating technologies. We also encountered issues which are now seen as priorities for eParticipation, for example:
Charles Kennedy launched the Youth Voice website in March 2002.
In 2002, the HYV website team won a Highland Council Quality Award and was shortlisted for an IPPR-Guardian Public Involvement Award.
More detailed information about the HYV project on the ITC website.
ITC's work with young people
During this period, we learned a lot about methods for working with users- including good ways to involve them in specifying and evaluating technologies. We also encountered issues which are now seen as priorities for eParticipation, for example:
- people with power to effect change need to be prepared to act on the outcomes of eParticipation and provide feedback online;
- updating the organisation's website needs to be integrated into its activities;
- participation needs to be meaningful AND fun.
Charles Kennedy launched the Youth Voice website in March 2002.
In 2002, the HYV website team won a Highland Council Quality Award and was shortlisted for an IPPR-Guardian Public Involvement Award.
More detailed information about the HYV project on the ITC website.
ITC's work with young people
E-democracy Services for Highland Youth Voice is a Research Councils project funded by Highland Council.
For further information please refer to http://itc.napier.ac.uk/ITC/projectSummaries.asp#Project9.
Related Projects
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The HUWY project aims to support young people’s eParticipation in policies about the Internet and its governance, through a distributed discussion. HUWY partners provide information, support and organise influential audiences for young people’s suggestions.
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The project aimed to establish a communication and information management network to increase democratic engagement in the Western Balkans. The network was managed by the National News Agencies in Albania, Macedonia and Serbia as they began to take on new roles during accession to the EU.
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An EU-funded project a trans-European Local Authority e-participation service providing distributed citizen engagement and interaction with the European Parliament's PETI Petitions Committee and the European Citizens Initiative. ITC is providing the evaluation function.
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The aim of RiLIES1 was to explore the impact of funded research projects on actual library practice, including the extent to which research output influences services delivery. http://lisresearch.org/rilies-project/ (A follow-on project - RiLIES2 - used the findings from RiLIES1 to build resources...
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InGSoc (Informing the Good Society: New Directions in Information Policy) is a three-year project, funded by an Arts and Humanities Research Council standard grant. The project, whose common thread is the social impact of information and technology and relevant public policy issues, has three...
Areas of Expertise 
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The technologies that help us to organise and share information on the internet are changing the way we live and work. This information society or knowledge economy people affects is in all kinds of new ways – as individuals, groups and organisations.
Project Team
Peter Eland
(not currently an institute member)
Research Student (previously Senior Research Fellow)
e.taylor-smith@napier.ac.uk
+44 131 455 2392
Professor Ann Macintosh
(not currently an institute member)
Associated Publications
Smith, E., Macintosh, A., Whyte, A. (2006). Organised use of e-democracy tools for young people. In: Wimmer, M., Scholl, H., Gronlund, A., Anderson, K. (Eds.) Electronic Government: Communications of the Fifth International EGOV Conference 2006. (pp. 260-267). Berlin, Germany: Springer-Verlag.
Masters, Z., Macintosh, A., Smith, E. (2004). Young People and E-Democracy: Creating a Culture of Participation. In: Proceedings of Third International Conference in E-Government, EGOV 2004. Berlin, Germany: Springer-Verlag.
Macintosh, A., Robson, E., Smith, E., Whyte, A. (2003). Electronic Democracy and Young People. Social Science Computer Review, 21(1), 43-54.
Smith, E., Macintosh, A., Whyte, A. (2003). Culture and context in an online voting system for young people. In: Duquenoy, P., Fischer-Hubner, S., Hovast, J., Zuccato, A. (Eds.) IFIP Summer School: 'Risks and Challenges of the Network Society'. Karlstad, Sweden.
Smith, E., Macintosh, A. (2003). E-voting: the powerful symbol of e-democracy. In: DEXA 2003, the 2nd International Conference on Electronic Government - EGOV 2003. Prague, Czech Republic: DEXA.
Smith, E., Macintosh, A., Whyte, A. (2002). Invisibility Vs Transparency. In: 16th British HCI Conference London, 2 (2 ed.). (pp. 166-70). London, UK.
See all publications