Ubiquitous participation platform for policy making (UbiPOL): Security and identity management considerations

Abstract

Facilitating citizen participation in policy making processes is vitally important for a sustainable policy implementation in the public sector. Governments have often expressed concern in the lack of engagement of citizens in the development of public policies. Motivating citizens to participate and engage in the policy making processes has been a challenging task and public authorities are yet to find satisfactory solutions [1]. Researchers have also highlighted the need for new governance models which will enable the wider and the deeper participation of citizens in policy making processes [2]. UbiPOL (Ubiquitous Participation Platform for Policy Making) is research project funded under the EU FP7 Programme that targets to address these issues. UbiPOL is an e-government platform that employs a new governance model in which citizens can participate in policy making processes in the middle of their everyday life overcoming spatial and time barriers. The core of the governance model is a ubiquitous participation platform that motivates its users to be involved in policy making processes. The system will utilise location-based notification services with the aim to alert citizens for consultation requirements about policies that are relevant to them when they are moving around physical places in their everyday life. Although location-based services have been used to influence citizen/consumer behaviors in many fields, such as tourism, marketing or education, they have not been used to engage citizens in the policy making processes. Moreover, UbiPOL retrieval services are designed to provide citizens only with the policies that are relevant to their personal preferences and necessities. Additionally, UbiPOL policy sharing services enable citizens to view other citizens' opinion on a specific policy issue without revealing their identity. Finally, the platform will provide policy tracking functionality via a workflow engine and opinion tag concept to improve the transparency of the policy making processes. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.