WeGovNow: A Map Based Platform to Engage the Local Civic Society

Abstract

In this paper we describe the advancement of WeGovNow, an Horizon 2020 European Union project involving twelve partners from Germany, Sweden, Greece, Italy and United Kingdom, aimed at using state-of-the-art digital technologies in community engagement platforms to involve citizens in decision making processes within their local neighbourhood. Different software components, both previously existing and developed specially for the project and covering separate aspects of community engagement, were integrated in a single web platform offering an homogeneous experience to the users. One of the main common threads beyond this integration process is the ability to collect crowd mapped information and show them back to the users in an engaging way on maps, harmonizing data coming from the different components and making the mapped space easily explorable.