Headstar Joins European E-Participation Network

The network was launched in May with European Commission funding. 'PEP-NET' is co-ordinated by TuTech, a technology transfer company founded by the University of Hamburg. It has 20 members from 12 countries including Headstar, the publisher of E-Government Bulletin, and two other UK bodies: the local e-democracy agency ICELE and 21c Consultancy.

The network is aimed at encouraging dialogue and the exchange of news, ideas and project information between analysts, researchers, practitioners, organisations and interested members of the public in all EU countries. It also hopes to encourage new e-participation trials and establish European leadership in this field.

Social networking tools such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Second Life are to be used by PEP-NET members to develop the network across as many channels as possible. The project held its inaugural meeting in Hamburg to plan an initial six-month activity programme, and will follow this up with a Brussels meeting in September and a London meeting in November, hosted by Headstar alongside our annual e-democracy conference.

For more information see the project's website:
http://www.pep-net.eu