Some members of the Citzalia Team show the Citz USB sticks

ESN was at PdF Europe 2010 in Barcelona on 4/5 October, mixing with delegates that Alec Ross called “warriors against internet Stalinism”.

Discussions ranged from net neutrality to open government, and ESN succeeded in extracting an assurance from Randi Zuckerberg that translation of user content “is probably on the Facebook roadmap” – something we think will be important in opening up dialogue between EU citizens.

We attended two workshops on citizens’ petitions, and distributed Citzalia ‘citz’ USB keys to a number of activists in the field of European participatory democracy.

We also awarded a citz to Anne Christensen from the European Commission (see picture) and to Citzalia-sceptic Jon Worth, who promises to use it to store photos for future blog entries!

Anne Christensen with her Citz USB stick at PDfEU

Citzalia came about after ESN (European Service Network) proposed creating a virtual 3D interactive site in answer to a call by the European Parliament’s Directorate-General for Communication.

The Parliament wanted to co-finance proposals for the “development and launching of an innovative website which uses creative methods to generate interest and raise awareness about the role of the European Parliament”.

ESN’s proposal for a virtual Parliament was chosen for its innovative proposal to create a new social participatory space using virtual 3D. The total budget for Citzalia is €275,000. The Parliament is providing 75% of the budget as a grant. Such grants are awarded for projects of a non-commercial nature. ESN is funding the remaining 25% itself, which demonstrates our commitment to and belief in the project.

ESN’s managing director Koenraad Tommissen, supported the application for the grant even though there is no commercial gain for the company. “I simply want to help enable people to communicate about the European Parliament through a tool developed by ESN”, he says.

Under the Parliament’s co-financing grant terms, Citzalia will provide unbiased, accurate and up-to-date information on its activities. Citzalia will also:

• Explain and inform citizens as to the role of the European Parliament as a democratically elected European body, and its part in the decision-making process
• Link the decisions taken by the Parliament with their impact on the day-to-day lives of European citizens
• Take advantage of Web 2.0 technologies to allow interactivity between citizens in the same country or across borders, and provide a platform for debate and discussion of the issues which have been, are or can in the future be addressed by the European Parliament
• Engender a free and open debate in a politically non-partisan and impartial manner, while ensuring respect for basic ethical norms in the conduct of such discussions

We will achieve all these goals through Citzalia. They are the necessary components of a free and open networking forum. We also see the site as an educational tool that can be useful for teachers and for journalism schools.

Michael Fallise, Citzalia’s Senior Developer-Analyst, says his idea for the project arose out of his experience in developing one of the first social networking platforms in early 2000. It also started with a discussion during a cigarette break with another colleague, Erwan Martin, who helped develop the idea.

“Being specialised in user interfaces and having designed a few videogames of my own, I always wanted to develop another way of visiting websites,” Michael says. “I was thinking of something different from a classical web page with links for navigation. I wanted something more visual, like in cyberpunk novels. The European Parliament’s call for proposals provided an opportunity to develop this idea.”

He explains the virtual 3D concept as a means of navigating through information in a unique manner.

“Assuming the virtual Parliament’s building is a website, each room of this building is a page; each door is a link between those rooms or pages. Each room contains information or applications represented as objects or furniture. So, basically, the Citzalia world is no game or simulation in itself. It is just a more pleasant way to navigate through complex websites, like a portal website.”

Of course, the main difference between Citzalia and classical website navigation stems from the fact that you see, in real time, other visitors and interact with them, he adds. This is more like a graphical social network.

“Working in the EU communication field for years, we know that EU citizens feel far removed from its institutions and we also know that the institutions care about EU citizens,” says Michael. “We are continuously thinking about how to make this communication more accessible and how to involve people in the EU process.”

Erwan, who linked Michael’s concept with the launch of the call for ideas by the European Parliament, helped develop the concept further.

“I started to think about different modules we could implement in Mike’s 3D world, such as a discussion forum and press room, and an EU Lex Lab,” he says. “Mike and I are interested in video games, especially strategy games from the 80s and the 90s. We also haven an eye on the evolution of communication on the internet, with the explosion of social media and other applications.”

From this initial concept, our 15-member team at ESN is developing Citzalia as a fun place for EU citizens from the 27 Member States to network and have an intercultural dialogue.

While Citzalia is experimental in the sense that the concept of a virtual European Parliament has not been tried before, we are confident we are providing a platform for your views. Now, it’s all up to you to make it a success. Please help us by registering to take part in the beta test of the site so you can contribute to the development of Citzalia. We welcome your feedback.

Register for beta test

Journalists and bloggers: If you have any questions please contact our project manager for Citzalia, at pma[at]esn.eu.

You can now register to become a beta tester for Citzalia on our Take Part section of the blog. The beta version of the site should be open by late September, but don’t worry, we will get in touch with you when the time comes. By becoming a beta tester you can have your say about this project – we will need plenty of constructive feedback to make sure we are doing this right. Everyone involved in this project is committed to its success, and we hope you will be too!

We will be improving and expanding the beta site in the coming months, in preparation for our launch at the beginning of next year. Although the full site should be in all 23 official EU languages, we are planning to work entirely in English for the beta test, so please bear that in mind.

Becoming a beta tester will also get you plenty of extra experience points in the ‘bank’, so that you’re ahead of the game when Citzalia goes live officially!

So get involved now and register here: http://register.citzalia.eu

We look forward to seeing you there… But in the meantime, check the blog for progress updates and more information on how the world of Citzalia is changing. Of course, you are welcome to follow us on Twitter or Facebook.

The Citzalia Team

The buzz has started on the internet about Citzalia, sparked off by a posting from blogger Jon Worth. Thanks Jon! However Jon’s speculation on the source and amount of funding for the project was wrong (he has corrected it).
The total funding for Citzalia is about €275,000, much less than the €4 million he suggested. Citzalia is funded through a grant in which ESN is providing 25% of the funding for the project, which demonstrates ESN’s commitment to and belief in the project.

Citzalia came about after ESN put the idea forward in answer to a call by the European Parliament’s Directorate-General for Communication “for the development and launching of an innovative website which uses creative methods to generate interest and raise awareness about the role of the European Parliament”.

ESN’s proposal for a virtual Parliament was considered innovative and yes, experimental. This is the risk one takes with projects that are striving to leverage the internet and create a new social participatory space.
We see Citzalia evolving into a great learning tool that can be useful not only for the general public, but also for teachers in middle schools and even for journalism schools. Citzalia is a work in progress and when we launch the test site we hope you will become a beta tester so we can get your feedback.
If you or anyone else has any questions please do not hesitate to contact Paolo, our project manager for Citzalia, at pma[at]esn.eu.