1 Putting eParticipation research on the service of Civil Society

Abstract: eParticipation research needs to become more closely aligned with citizens and civil society needs. The unavailability of eDemocracy systems that are fully adapted to the characteristics and capacities of civil society makes difficult for civic organizations to seize the potential of ICTs to promote civic participation. Since they don’t have the capacity and knowledge required to design and build those systems, as much as eParticipation researchers don’t have the capacity to experiment, leverage and replicate eParticipation experiences, such an alliance between researchers and civic organizations could prove to be very fruitful. By working cross-disciplinarily, eParticipation researchers will first need to identify civic organizations ’ needs and then use them as guiding objectives for their research. Evaluation of the results should increasingly consider civil society feed-back. This could probably be the most effective and quickest way to foster eParticipation