Applied E-democracy: the need for a information framework to support development

This article identifies a growing urgency for the digital facilitation of existing democratic processes. In order to develop succesful solutions it arguments that designers, developers and policy-makers need a formal framework describing the requirements of democratic processes. It notes the disappointing result of current e-democracy projects and focuses on the digital support of existing democratic processes, instead of just looking at the new possibilities of social media and their contribution to a transformation of democracy. To distinguish this approach it uses the "applied e-democracy". Its research concluded that (for a city of 500.000 inhabitants in The Netherlands) the annual number of existing democratic processes is between 200-300. The article further describes that a framework connecting democracy to technology, needed to create effective solutions, is missing. It gives examples and a proposal of possible frameworks and argues that these need to be developed and researched