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When I met with Eric, and his boss the cyber-mayor of France, http://www.andre-santini.net, I knew they were up to some good when they described their online citizen survey panel. Eric has written an original DoWire essay which is included below. Can a government trust the results of an online poll or survey that they themselves host? To what extent can they value it in the decision-making process? Yesterday's Pew Internet report <http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/toc.asp?Report=82> pointed out, that conservatives in the U.S. tend to fill out online polls <http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/01/06/politics/main535388.shtml> and others have found that liberals are more likely to sign petitions <http://apsaproceedings.cup.org/Site/papers/038/038007HindmanMat.pdf> online. Time to give up? No. Fear not, Issy has a solution. Have people sign-up anonymously to be part of an ongoing citizen survey panel. Collect demographic information from them and weigh the results based on that information. Excellent. I have added their information page in <http://www.issy.com/SousRub.cfm?Esp=1&rub=8&Srub=46&dossier=12> (in French) as a leading online survey example to my online consultations <http://www.publicus.net/articles/consult.html> article. Read on from Eric just below. Steven Clift Democracies Online http://www.e-democracy.org/do The "Citizens' Panel", the new tool for participative democracy by Eric LEGALE [EMAIL PROTECTED] Directeur d'Issy Média Consultation and cooperation must precede any major local project. In Issy-les-Moulineaux (France), public meetings, district councils or the Interactive Town Council are all opportunities for consulting the population on local initiatives. With the "Citizens' Panel", a new step towards local participative democracy was taken in September 2001. The town of Issy-les-Moulineaux, near Paris, has almost 60,000 inhabitants. Considered to be one of the most advanced French towns in the use of Information and Communication Technologies, since 1995, it has increased the new services available to inhabitants using the Internet. 51 % of the inhabitants of Issy-les-Moulineaux are connected from their homes (compared with a national average of 30 %) and 15 % of its households are high speed line subscribers (ADSL and Cable), i.e. twice as many as the national average. >From the youngest to the oldest, the population of Issy currently has a wide range of new services thanks to Information and Communication Technologies. Cyber-crèches, cyber-tea shops, Interactive Town Council, high speed Internet connection for the schools, web-tv, videoconferences with the holiday centres, administrative teleservices, digital creation at the Cube (multimedia culture area) now form part of the local everyday scene. The Internet is an incredible tool for communication and dialogue. Electronic mail has already shown it to be a tool that requires increased reactivity and speed in its processing. It also means that the population can be consulted more regularly on questions affecting local life. · A panel of 650 inhabitants of Issy-les-Moulineaux was set up by a specialist independent institute, "Opinion Way". This panel is representative of the entire local population. · It is consulted every three months by Internet on a matter of local interest: Local Safety Contract, Associations, Information Technologies, Local Urban Development Plan, District Life. · Each member of the panel is sent an e-mail containing a link towards the site dedicated to the questionnaire. Only the identified members of the panel can reply. The questionnaire, which contains ten to twenty questions, also comprises some stable indicators, to measure their evolution, and some topical questions. · This body is not intended to replace the Town Council, the legitimacy of which is derived from universal suffrage, but to provide an alerting and reaction tool, a tool to help in decisions, which can find out your opinions on our projects and initiatives. To register for the Citizens' Panel, just go onto the town's Internet site (http://www.issy.com), giving your name, first name, address, telephone number and particularly your e-mail address. The information passed on to the "Opinion Way" institute naturally remains anonymous and confidential, to comply with the Freedom of Information Law. The "Citizens' Panel" is a flexible, more participative form of local democracy. The results of the first surveys have been instructive, with several key points: · Contrary to preconceived ideas, the inhabitants of Issy-les- Moulineaux do not give priority to safety problems, but to traffic and car parking problems. Issy's significant economic development (57 % of established companies work in the Information and Communication Technologies sector such as, for instance, the French head offices of CISCO SYSTEMS and HP-COMPAQ and that of the WANADOO Group, European number 2 in Internet access providers) · The policy of extending new services to the inhabitants is strongly supported by the population, as this records the highest rate of satisfaction (64 % declare themselves completely satisfied, 35 % fairly satisfied), followed by our economic development action (46 % completely, 53 % fairly satisfied) and our communication policy (45 % completely and 52% fairly satisfied). · The population of Issy is very much in favor of the expansion of on- line administrative services: 76 % declare themselves very interested by the idea of registering on line on electoral rolls, 74 % by registering for cultural facilities. · 93 % of the people questioned stated they were very favorable or fairly favorable to the idea of voting on the Internet. In 2003, the Citizens' Panel will be used for each district in the town, in the context of the Participative Budget. Indeed, 10 % of the town's investment is decentralized at district level, and each District Council will have to make a decision on the investment priorities that directly concern it. The population will be consulted on the proposed choices, and the Citizens' Panel will contribute to the decision making. Eric LEGALE [EMAIL PROTECTED] Directeur d'Issy Média 62 rue du Général Leclerc - F-92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux Tél. : +33. 14.123.8268 - Fax : +33.1.14.123.8257 Web : http://www.issy.com/ ^ ^ ^ ^ Steven L. 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