Programme Director of e-Democracy, eGA
Kristina Reinsalu is Programme Director of e-Democracy at the e-Governance Academy. She leads the initiation, planning, implementation, and monitoring of local, national, and international projects on digital engagement and open governance and on how ICTs can support these processes. Kristina helps central and local governments and civil society organisations to understand: how ICT influences the everyday political and societal practices of citizens and society as a whole how governments should respond to the expectations and demands of citizens to act as partners how to make decision-making processes transparent and participative and what added value it brings Local democracy is Kristina’s passion, as she sees it as a testbed for democracy innovations. She has led projects promoting open governance and e-tools for democracy in EaP countries such as Georgia, Moldova, etc., and consulted municipalities in Estonia, Latvia and elsewhere on open governance and participatory budgeting. Her most recent projects measure the impact of e-participation initiatives and how citizens’ engagement helps cities to become more resilient in facing green deal challenges. She is an internationally acknowledged public speaker on digital engagement. Her articles have been published in various international scientific journals and newspapers. Kristina holds an MA in Public Relations and a PhD in Media and Communications. She speaks Estonian, English, Spanish, Russian, and some German.
Digital solutions in governance have little meaning and use unless the people believe in the will and commitment of the decision-makers to put the people (citizens) at the centre. The aim of this workshop is to advance the knowledge and skills of the participants on engagement, policy and services development, and digital solutions, via practical examples showing the various ways digital engagement works in Estonia and other countries. We will discuss the topics of digital citizen engagement, trust and digital responsibility, what it is and what it means for the institutions as well as for the citizens, and how to raise awareness among the citizens about digital engagement. Kristina Reinsalu shares the Estonian experience of nudging citizens to be e-citizens and what are the main takeaways from this journey. Róbert Bjarnason demonstrates new platforms for digital engagement which are available for testing and use. Bardhyl Jashari presents the Western Balkan showcase from Increasing Civic Engagement in the Digital Agenda – ICEDA initiative. The participants are also active players in this workshop and they are encouraged to share their stories or dreams of digital engagement!
The aim of the session is to introduce an innovative method for digital policy-making: crowdsourcing. Learn how it works in theory and which are the digital tools to put it into practice. The method puts citizens at the centre and is based on the principle that the crowd is power and that digital tools remarkably increase that power. First, the visionary view on democracy innovations is given and the concept of crowdsourcing is introduced. The presentation and examples show how the collective wisdom of a crowd could be used by governments facing all sorts of challenges – from the Green Deal to Covid or War. Second, the keynote is followed by a short introduction of an ongoing crowdsourcing initiative on air quality in Tallinn (and some other European cities), and what are the main challenges in putting theory into practice. There is also a room for questions from the audience, reflections and discussions in the session.
Digital solutions in governance have little meaning and use unless the people believe in the will and commitment of the decision-makers to put the people (citizens) at the centre. The aim of this workshop is to advance the knowledge and skills of the participants on engagement, policy and services development, and digital solutions, via practical examples showing the various ways digital engagement works in Estonia and other countries. We will discuss the topics of digital citizen engagement, trust and digital responsibility, what it is and what it means for the institutions as well as for the citizens, and how to raise awareness among the citizens about digital engagement. Kristina Reinsalu shares the Estonian experience of nudging citizens to be e-citizens and what are the main takeaways from this journey. Róbert Bjarnason demonstrates new platforms for digital engagement which are available for testing and use. Bardhyl Jashari presents the Western Balkan showcase from Increasing Civic Engagement in the Digital Agenda – ICEDA initiative. The participants are also active players in this workshop and they are encouraged to share their stories or dreams of digital engagement!
The aim of the session is to introduce an innovative method for digital policy-making: crowdsourcing. Learn how it works in theory and which are the digital tools to put it into practice. The method puts citizens at the centre and is based on the principle that the crowd is power and that digital tools remarkably increase that power. First, the visionary view on democracy innovations is given and the concept of crowdsourcing is introduced. The presentation and examples show how the collective wisdom of a crowd could be used by governments facing all sorts of challenges – from the Green Deal to Covid or War. Second, the keynote is followed by a short introduction of an ongoing crowdsourcing initiative on air quality in Tallinn (and some other European cities), and what are the main challenges in putting theory into practice. There is also a room for questions from the audience, reflections and discussions in the session.
