The Voice of e-Democracy Panel in the City of Markham

The proposed project will help develop an online forum that can be used as a public consultation tool for governments as they make important public policy decisions. This forum will be developed and tested in the City of Markham as a case study. The model will then be refined so that it can be applied to other jurisdictions. The result will be a framework and online panel that can be used by various actors to communicate with and learn firsthand from citizens through digital technology. This model will also be the basis for the establishment of a Centre for e-Democracy, which will be facilitated through a collaborative partnership between industry, academia, government, and advocacy groups. The value for Delvinia is to build upon the AskingCanadians marketing panel the company established and create a new forum that goes beyond linking businesses and consumers, connecting government and citizens. This is a novel approach to bring citizens back into the democratic process by harnessing the power of digital technologies.

Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. David Wolfe

Student:

Nicole Goodman

Partner:

Delvinia

Discipline:

Political science

Sector:

Information and communications technologies

University:

University of Toronto