In the rapidly developing world of information technology, 16 months is nearly an eternity. The last time the UNECE task force on electronic information tools met, experts grappled with draft recommendations to provide the public with electronic access to environmental information. This past week these recommendations, having been adopted by the Parties to the Aarhus Convention, were presented by UNECE at a side event to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
The World Forum on Information Society UNECE/UNEP side event “Capacity Building for Electronic Information Tools and the Environment” was held on 14 November in La Marsa, Tunisia (see http://irfd.org/events/wf2005/).
The e-tools experts won’t be resting on their laurels for long. At the 4th meeting of the task force, held 7-8 November 2005 in Geneva, experts debated a programme of capacity building activities to promote the use of e-tools to make government decision-making more transparent and democratic.
The session featured some of the latest techniques in e-democracy:
ñ Bluelink Network demonstrated a newly developed web platform used to elect NGO representatives to official public commissions and working groups in Bulgaria.
ñ Environment Agency for England and Wales showed off its new electronic public consultation web tool. In its pilot phase, residents in southwestern England will be able to register for electronic notification of applications for opening waste disposal sites in their community and submit public comments online. Officials hope to encourage dialogue between the public, waste managers and local authorities over the often contentious issue of where to store waste.
ñ European Environment Agency presented The Neighbourhood Project which aims to deliver community-level environmental information through the Internet. EEA plans to post ‘point and click’ air quality data on searchable web maps during the first phase of the project.
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