Hessian State Chancellery and University provide online platform for citizen participation

"Every municipality can implement this platform free of charge in just three steps and enable citizens to play an active role in shaping local life via digital channels. Particularly in the Corona era, it is important to maintain dialog and to continue to make political processes transparent and comprehensible. We would be delighted if this offer were to be used actively. It helps to strengthen local cooperation," said the head of the State Chancellery, Minister of State Axel Wintermeyer, in Wiesbaden today.

Via the digital platform "(M)one project for all, all for (m)one project!", citizens in participating municipalities can submit their own suggestions and projects. These can be viewed, shared and evaluated, for example. The platform guides users step by step through the process. The service was developed by the Department of Information Systems at the University of Kassel under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Jan Marco Leimeister. Project manager Dr. Christoph Peters clarified: "We have continuously developed the platform over the last few years. We are very pleased to now be able to offer it free of charge to all cities and municipalities thanks to the funding from the Hessian State Chancellery, thus making it easier to get started with good, digital citizen participation."

The head of the State Chancellery emphasized that "the Corona pandemic shows it like under a burning glass what opportunities are associated with digitalization. We live in a modern world and should also use the technical opportunities that present themselves for contemporary citizen participation."

Three steps to a platform - that's how it works: Everything it takes to make it happen can be found at https://www.digitalebürgerbeteiligung.de. In addition to downloading the solution (open source), there are instructions for setting up your own platform for the first time (step 1) and for adapting and using the platform to your own needs (step 2). Checklists, explanatory videos and tips for successful digital citizen participation round out the offering.

Background information

"(M)ein Projekt für alle, alle für (m)ein Projekt!" builds on the participation platform "Weck den Herkules in dir". This was awarded a prize last year in the "Hessen Smart Gemacht" competition by the head of the Hessian State Chancellery, Axel Wintermeyer, and Hessen's Digital Minister Prof. Dr. Kristina Sinemus. "Wake up the Hercules in you" was developed together with the other project partners and in close cooperation with the operator of the digital citizen participation platform, the city of Kassel, at the Scientific Center for Information Technology Design (ITeG) at the University of Kassel in the Department of Information Systems (Prof. Dr. Leimeister) as part of the "Civitas Digitalis" project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

Press contact:

Sebastian Mense
University of Kassel
Communications, Press and Public Relations
Tel.: +49 561 804-1961
E-mail: presse[at]uni-kassel[dot]de
www.uni-kassel.de
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