DEMOCRACY CAMP EUROPE
We are proposing an event in the Autumn of 2013 that bring together civic innovators, coders and others to support a good democratic debate in the run up to the 2014 European Parliament elections. The event would aim to:
- Build tools supporting participation in democratic debate, delivered primary online but of use to every citizen whether online or offline
- Create a European network of citizens, committed to building democratic governance at the European level
It would associate the Parliament with the growing civic activist movement, would demonstrate the commitment of the Parliament to European democracy, and show the ways in which representative and participative democracy are complementary rather than competing.
Why?
The 2014 European Parliament elections will be significant for several reasons. They will be the first where the Europarties present candidates for Commission President, giving each campaign a clear leader. They will be the first since the full impact of the eurozone crisis, and pan-European issues around austerity, growth, and jobs will be to the forefront.
However, the European political space is immature and debate still mostly happens at national level. Building a European political space, and by extension a European demos is essential if the institutions of the Euro currency and the Union are to be truly democratic and accountable.
The programme
The event would be a hackday (with some satellite events before and after) to create tools for building that European political space online.
We would gather up to 150 hackers and civic activists, with a wide range of member states represented, for two days of intensive creation, based around a set of challenges. The event would take place over a weekend from Saturday morning until Sunday evening. There is potential for a formal welcome or public discussion session on the Friday night.
Participants would work in self-organised teams to create a set of tools to support the European political space, and the best tool would win a small prize. The most important element, though, is creating a continuing network between the participants as the seed for a broader European community of civic and technology activists.
The main event
Our ambition is to host the event in the Parliament building, as the symbolic centre of the most democratic European institution. If this is not possible, or not possible for the entire event, it could also be hosted in another suitable venue in Brussels.
As with other hackdays, the participants would be provided with high-speed internet connection, through their own devices, and access to existing open data provided by the institutions through the data portal. In addition, we would give them access to any other EP or EU data that could be made available. The participants would work to create tools to meet a broadly-expressed challenge around creating a European political space.
Participants
Participants would not need to pay for attendance, and we would as far as possible attempt to cover travel expenses, particularly for those who are travelling from farther afield.
We would seed the initial invitation lists carefully to ensure that the participation was balanced between member states, and that we had a good range of skills in the group. Registration would be opened more widely later in the process.
Due to the impossibility of managing multi-lingual translation in a hackday environment, participants would need to have English at a working level, as this will be the medium of the event.
Satellite events
There is already agreement in principle from the European Commission office in the UK to hold a Challenge Day (or “Fix it” day) in London in September, where participants would discuss and agree both the principal challenge for the day, and the data that they would need to try to answer those challenges.
We have also had some initial conversations about a “mod[ification] day” where the tools created during the main event are revised at extended at a follow-up day. This could be held somewhere other than the London-Brussels-Paris triangle, perhaps in an A8 country to ensure that there is some geographical balance to the roster of events.
Proposed dates and venue
The main event would be held in November in Brussels, with the challenge-setting day in London in September and any mod day in either December or January.
Technical requirements
The most important requirement is fast wifi. Traditionally, hack weekends run through the night so there would be some benefit to having access available to the building through that period, though this is not essential.
The organisers
The Democratic Society. We are a reform and civic activism organization undertaking work with UK national and local government on democratic reform and openness. We have organised similar events in our home city of Brighton, and at national level through the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives. of CityCamp. Our director, Anthony Zacharzewski, has a background as a senior national and local government official.
Five by five. Five by Five is a Paris-based startup that designs and co-pilots open data initiatives. Its co-founders, Kat Borlongan and Chloé Bonnet, are social innovation enthusiasts that have worked with SNCF Open Data, Apps for Europe, Startup Weekend and Belgium’s Summer of Code.
The national partners
We would identify national lead partners in as many member states as possible, who would connect us into local networks of coders and democracy activists. We have already identified and contacted partners for the UK, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Poland, Sweden, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Austria, Spain and Slovakia.
The cost
We would anticipate the costs of the event being met through a combination of support from the European Institutions (in cash and kind), and external sponsorship from corporations or others.
The UK Office of the European Commission has already agreed to fund the costs of the challenge day, which we anticipate being €10,000 with no travel costs covered for participants.
Drawing on the experience of the EU Hackathons organised by N-Squared Consulting we anticipate the total budget of the event at a maximum of €90,000, of which €50,000 would be allocated to travel and accommodation for the 150 participants. The remainder would be promotion, catering, recruitment and organisational costs.
We would hope that the European Parliament would be prepared to provide venue and internet access as a contribution in kind, and also some direct financial support for the organisation and catering costs of the event.
We will look to national partners and sponsors to provide the travel and accommodation costs for participants on a “sponsor a hacker” basis. We think that it is important to support travelling participants as far as possible, to ensure that it feels like a truly pan-European event and the full range of member states is represented.
Next steps
We are already making preliminary arrangements for the Challenge Day. Once the principle of holding the event is agreed, we can begin to plan for dates and timelines, and begin conversations with our potential sponsors.
