An Evaluation Framework for Participation: The VAAs Case Study

The number of electronic participation (eParticipation) projects introduced by different governments and international organisations is considerably high and increasing. In order to have an overview of the development of these projects, various evaluation frameworks have been proposed. In this paper, a five-level participation model, which takes into account the advantages of the Social Web or Web 2.0, together with a quantitative approach for the evaluation of eParticipation projects is presented. Each participation level is evaluated independently, taking into account three main components: Web evolution, media richness, and communication channels. This paper presents the evaluation of a number of existing Voting Advice Applications (VAAs). The results provide an overview of the main features implemented by each project, their strengths and weaknesses, and the participation levels reached.

• Luis Teran
• Aleksandar Drobnjak

• Evaluation Framework
• eParticipation
• e-Participation
• Electronic Participation
• eDemocracy
• e-Democracy
• Electronic Democracy
• Voting Advice Applications
• VAAs.

[1] C. Sanford and J. Rose, "Characterizing eparticipation," International
Journal of Information Management, vol. 27, no. 6, pp. 406 - 421,
2007. (Online). Available: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/
pii/S0268401207001041
[2] E. Panopoulou, E. Tambouris, and K. Tarabanis, "eParticipation Initiatives
in Europe: Learning from Practitioners," ser. LNCS, E. Tambouris,
A. Macintosh, and O. Glassey, Eds., vol. 6229. Springer, sep
2010, p. 237. (Online). Available: http://www.springer.com/computer/
information+systems+and+applications/book/978-3-642-15157-6
[3] A˚ . Gro¨nlund, "ICT Is Not Participation Is Not Democracy
- eParticipation Development Models Revisited," in Electronic
Participation: First International Conference, ePart 2009. Proceedings,
ser. LNCS, E. Tambouris and A. Macintosh, Eds., vol.
5694. Springer, sep 2009, pp. 12-23. (Online). Available:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-03781-8 2
[4] S. R. Arnstein, "A Ladder Of Citizen Participation," Journal of
the American Institute of Planners, vol. 35, no. 4, pp. 216-224,
1969. (Online). Available: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/
01944366908977225
[5] OECD, Citizens as Partners: Information, Consultation and
Public Participation in Policy-making. Paris: OECD, 2001.
(Online). Available: http://www.oecdbookshop.org/oecd/display.asp?
lang=EN&sf1=identifiers&st1=9789264195400
[6] C. J. Lukensmeyer and L. H. Torres, Public Deliberation: A Manager-s
Guide to Citizen Engagement, ser. Collaboration Series. Washington,
DC: IBM Center for the Business of Government, 2006.
[7] E. Tambouris, N. Liotas, and K. Tarabanis, "A Framework for
Assessing eParticipation Projects and Tools," in Proceedings of the
40th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, ser.
HICSS -07. Washington, DC, USA: IEEE Computer Society, 2007,
pp. 90-. (Online). Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/HICSS.2007.13
[8] A. Macintosh and A. Whyte, "Towards an Evaluation Framework for
eParticipation," Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy,
vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 16-30, 2008.
[9] IAP2, "Iap2 spectrum of public participation," (Accessed: October
2012). (Online). Available: http://www.iap2.org/associations/4748/files/
spectrum.pdf
[10] S. Smith, A. Macintosh, and J. Millard, "A three-layered framework for
evaluating e-participation," International Journal of Electronic Governance,
vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 304-321, mar 2011.
[11] A. Macintosh, "Characterizing e-participation in policy-making,"
in Proceedings of the Proceedings of the 37th Annual Hawaii
International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-04) - Track
5 - Volume 5, ser. HICSS -04. Washington, DC, USA: IEEE
Computer Society, 2004, pp. 50 117.1-. (Online). Available: http:
//dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=962753.962993
[12] E. Kalampokis, E. Tambouris, and K. Tarabanis, "A domain model
for eparticipation," in Proceedings of the 2008 Third International
Conference on Internet and Web Applications and Services, ser. ICIW
-08. Washington, DC, USA: IEEE Computer Society, 2008, pp. 25-30.
(Online). Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ICIW.2008.69
[13] G. Rowe and L. J. Frewer, "Public Participation Methods: A Framework
for Evaluation," Science, Technology & Human Values, vol. 25, no. 1,
pp. 3-29, jan 2000.
[14] A. Meier, eDemocracy & eGovernment - Maturity Levels of a
Democratic Knowledge Society, 1st ed. Berlin, Germany: Springer,
jan 2012. (Online). Available: http://www.springer.com/business+%26+
management/business+information+systems/book/978-3-642-24493-3?
cm mmc=Google- -Book%20Search- -Springer- -0
[15] S. Murugesan, Handbook of Research on Web 2.0, 3.0, and X.0:
Technologies, Business, and Social Applications, 1st ed. Information
Science Reference, nov 2009, ch. 1, pp. 1-11.
[16] S. Weber and J. Rech, Handbook of Research on Web 2.0, 3.0, and X.0:
Technologies, Business, and Social Applications, 1st ed. Information
Science Reference, nov 2009, ch. 2, pp. 12-38.
[17] S. Murugesan, Handbook of Research on Web 2.0, 3.0, and X.0:
Technologies, Business, and Social Applications, 1st ed. Information
Science Reference, nov 2009.
[18] R. L. Daft and R. H. Lengel, "Information Richness: A New Approach
to Managerial Behaviour and Organizational Design," Research in
Organizational Behaviour, vol. 6, pp. 191-233, 1984.
[19] J. E. Andriessen, Working with Groupware: Understanding and Evaluating
Collaboration Technology, 1st ed., ser. Computer Supported
Cooperative Work. Springer Verlag, 2003.
[20] A. Drobnjak, "Fuzzy clustering in social networks," Master-s thesis,
University of Fribourg, Boulevard de Perolles 15, 1700 Fribourg, aug
2012.
[21] A. Ladner, J. Fivaz, and J. Pianzola, "Impact of Voting Advice Applications
on Voters- Decision-Making," in Internet, Politics, Policy 2010:
An Impact Assessment. Oxford, UK: Oxford Internet Institute (OII,
University of Oxford), sep 2010.
[22] StemWijzer, (Accessed: October 2012). (Online). Available: http:
//www.stemwijzer.nl
[23] S. Walgrave, P. van Aelst, and M. Nuytemans, "Do the Vote Test-: The
Electoral Effects of a Popular Vote Advice Application at the 2004
Belgian Elections," International Journal of Political Science, vol. 43,
no. 1, pp. 50-70, apr 2008.
[24] J. Fivaz and G. Felder, Added Value of e-Democracy Tools in Advanced
Democracies? The Voting Advice Application smartvote in Switzerland,
Washington, DC, ch. 8, pp. 109-122.
[25] B'ussola Eleitoral, (Accessed: October 2012). (Online). Available:
http://www.bussolaeleitoral.pt
[26] Cabina Elettorale, (Accessed: October 2012). (Online). Available:
http://cabina-elettorale.it
[27] Choose4Greece II, (Accessed: October 2012). (Online). Available:
http://www.choose4greece.org/
[28] EU Profiler, (Accessed: October 2012). (Online). Available: http:
//www.euprofiler.eu
[29] Glasovoditel, (Accessed: October 2012). (Online). Available: http:
//glasovoditel.eu/media.html
[30] Kieskompas, (Accessed: October 2012). (Online). Available: http:
//provincie.kieskompas.nl/
[31] KohoVolit, (Accessed: October 2012). (Online). Available: http:
//en.kohovolit.eu
[32] Latarnik, (Accessed: October 2012). (Online). Available: http://latarnik.
nq.pl
[33] Manobalsas, (Accessed: October 2012). (Online). Available: http:
//www.manobalsas.lt
[34] Political Compass, (Accessed: October 2012). (Online). Available:
http://www.politicalcompass.org
[35] Politikkabine, (Accessed: October 2012). (Online). Available: http:
//www.politikkabine.at
[36] Smartvote, (Accessed: October 2012). (Online). Available: http:
//smartvote.ch
[37] StemmenTracker, (Accessed: October 2012). (Online). Available:
http://www.stemmentracker.nl/
[38] Testvot, (Accessed: October 2012). (Online). Available: http://www.
testvot.eu
[39] Vimentis, (Accessed: October 2012). (Online). Available: http:
//www.vimentis.ch/wahlen
[40] Vote Match, (Accessed: October 2012). (Online). Available: http:
//www.votematch.org.uk
[41] Vote Smart, (Accessed: October 2012). (Online). Available: http:
//www.votesmart.org/
[42] Votizen, (Accessed: October 2012)]. (Online). Available: https://www.
votizen.com
[43] Wahlomath, (Accessed: October 2012). (Online). Available: http:
//www.wahlomath.de
[44] Who Do I Vote For?, (Accessed: October 2012). (Online). Available:
http://www.whodoivotefor.co.uk/
[45] L. Ter'an, "A Fuzzy-Based Platform for Stimulating Citizens- Participation,"
in Proceedings of International Conference on E-Business and
E-Government, ser. ICEE 2012, vol. 4. Shanghai, China: IEEE, jun
2012, pp. 2353-2357.
[46] ÔÇöÔÇö, "SmartParticipation," (Accessed: October 2012). (Online).
Available: http://www.smartparticipation.org/
[47] L. Ter'an and A. Meier, "SmartParticipation - A Fuzzy-
Based Platform for Stimulating Citizens- Participation,"
International Journal for Infonomics (IJI), vol. 4, no.
3/4, pp. 501-512, nov 2011. (Online). Available: http:
//infonomics-society.org/IJI/SmartParticipation A%20Fuzzy Based%
20Platform%20for%20Stimulating%20Citizens%20Participation.pdf
[48] L. Ter'an, A. Ladner, J. Fivaz, and S. Gerber, Using a Fuzzy-Based
Cluster Algorithm for Recommending Candidates in e-Elections. IGI
Global, 2012, ch. 6, pp. 115-138.
[49] A. Drobnjak, "UniPortal," (Accessed: October 2012). (Online).
Available: http://www.uniportal.ch/