ZA IN PROTI, ZAVOD ZA

KULTURO DIALOGA

ACTA – ACTIVE CITIZENS TAKE ACTION

Maribor, 14th – 17th March 2013

Thursday, 14th of March 2013

Arrival to Maribor to Dijaški dom Lizike Jančar, Titova cesta 24 a, Maribor

17.00 – 19.00 Welcome and getting to know each other.

19.00 Dinner

20.00 - 22.00 Overview of the program, finalising last details and responsibilities.

Friday, 15th of March 2013

Kino Udarnik 10.00 – 14.00, Grajski trg 1, Maribor

10.00 Opening remarks, overview of the program

Keynote: József Györkös, »Few dilemmas of prevailing information society«

Historically, technologies with high societal influence show that they become an inevitable long-term infrastructure. Infrastructures need reasonable regulation. What is reasonable? Is it measurable or it just serves the interests of market leaders and/or governments? The omnipresence of information and communication technologies sets higher requirements for research and innovation. Isn’t already an asymptote reached? Is convergence just a buzzword or finally a viable tool for needed multidisciplinary? Open access sounds as a Holy Grail of freedom on the Internet. Re-use of public data should propel the economy and expand participatory democracy. Why are we at the same time faced with ACTAs, SOPAs, PIPAs etc? Who is going to be the new prophet of the utterly needed different approach to the intellectual property in information society?

* Dr József Györkös is a professor at the University of Maribor, Faculty of electrical engineering and computer sciences teaching media communication and information society related courses. He was a deputy minister / state secretary in mandates of two governments in Republic of Slovenia with responsibility on higher education, science, technology and information society. By European Commission, DG Communications Networks, Content and Technology (former DG Information Society and Media) he is appointed as a member of the CONNECT Advisory Group.

11.00 Keynote: Filip Dobranić, »Making internet activism work«

The internet and services it spawned present an invaluable tool for citizen activism. However, the internet itself has brought change in the way we cooperate, socialize and organize. The way citizens expect us to communicate with them have changed drastically. Lastly we must not forget about the perils of clicktivism. It is therefore imperative to examine what the specifics of internet activism are and how to maximize its impact.

*Filip Dobranić is about to finish his studies of philosophy and sociology of culture at the Faculty of arts in Ljubljana, he is an expert and a researcher of social movements and Internet, a hacker, one of the funder and co-creators of the on-line platform »Danes je nov dan.«

12.15 – 13.30 Pannel discussion »Electronic direct democracy and popular uprisings on internet.«

Speakers: Simon Delakorda, INEPA, Filip Dobranić, Hekovnik, Sašo Miklič, Pirat party, Tamara Atanasoska, Metamorphosis. Moderator: Matej Delakorda.

13.30 – 14.00 Presentation of Europe for Citizens Program by Tiphanie Spanier

Project Officer, European Commission, Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA), Managing programmes and activities on behalf of the European Commission, Citizenship Unit

14.00 – 15.30 Lunch in Kavarna Astoria and walk to Druga gimnazija Maribor

Druga gimnazija Maribor, Trg Miloša Zidanška 1, Maribor: 16.00 – 17.30 Presentations

Room 1

Simon Delakorda, »Internet as an enabler of popular uprisings?”

Presentation will confront normative assumptions of electronic public sphere with Internet practices of popular uprisings. Both perspectives will be linked by grass-roots digital democracy model. An overview of Internet tools used by citizens during public protests in Slovenia will be presented in terms of resource mobilization, virtual struggles and alternative knowledge production. Issues with an on-line slacktivism and clicktivism will be addressed from uprisings impact perspective.

* Simon Delakorda, M.Sc. is a full time eDemocracy / eParticipation practitioner & researcher and founding director of non-governmental organization the Institute for Electronic Participation from Ljubljana (www.inepa.eu). Starting in 2000, he participated in an early Internet democracy projects within university and NGO's sector in Slovenia. He is an author and co-author of articles and case studies and conference speaker on democracy, political participation, active citizenship, non-governmental organizations and governments on-line. Currently, he is Ph.D. student of Social Informatics at the Faculty of Social Sciences in Ljubljana. During 2006-2007 he coordinated and managed the E-participacija web portal and facilitated the first successful e-democracy project in Slovenia - the Citizen’s Forum. His current projects and research focus include political informatics, democratic challenges of digital society, e-participation at the EU level and civil society e-democracy. His memberships include the Slovenian Political Science Association, Demonet: the eParticipation network of Excellence, CEE CN eParticipation experts group and Association of the Slovene NGO's managers. He received awards and experts recognitions as an e-democracy student, expert and facilitator.

Tamara Atanasoska, »Offline vs. Online activism – or why we shouldn't rely on Internet alone«

Every day in the media we hear about some nation's »spring«, about some internet mobilised protest that roams the streets. We are motivated, encouraged and constantly bombarded with the Internet put on a pedestal as the new tool that will change the world – and yet, so many years we have it, and the same fights are being fought. Myself being an active participant in several protests and movements that started onilne and moved to the offline world in the past several years, I have seen how they rise and how they fall. We have learned many things, and we keep the fight up. We learned that we celebrate victory too soon, and that the Internet is the place where the arrow starts towards the target and not the target itself. We learned that no matter how loud on the internet, the parliaments will not take us if we don't show some seriousness in the offline world. And beside what we can't do, we also learned what works. I am going to tell you those stories.

*Tamara Atanasoska: civil rights activist based in Skopje, Macedonia. She's been part (and still is) and an initiator of many grass-roots movements and civil initiatives in the last few years. She is mostly known for "Stop police brutality movement. She is also a columnist for the Youth Online Column project of Radio Free Europe for over a year.Tamara currently works as a web developer in Reactor - Research in Action, creating web solutions for awareness and advocacy of different questions, for the needs of Reactor itself and other NGOs (like React - Be safe! http://www.reagiraj-bidibezbedna.mk/). She is also an active member of Free Software Macedonia, and she is contributing in the free software wold trough advocacy and code for a few years.Tamara is currently pursuing a Masters degree in Software Engineering.

Room 2

Barbara Zagorc and Andrej Kirbiš »Two way communication? Analysis of websites of Slovene parliamentary parties«

Two-way online communication between political parties and citizens has a positive effect on citizens’ political involvement (Kruikemeier et al., 2013) and studies show that Slovenian citizens would like to have direct online communication enabled and would make use of it (Lenarčič and Trček, 2003). Past content analysis of web pages of Slovenian political parties (Franz, 2003) shows that political parties mainly make us of top-down communication. The aim of our research was to examine online communication possibilities and information provided by the Slovene parliamentary political parties on their official websites and to compare the results with Franz’s (2003) study. First, the results showed party websites are still mostly dominated by providing information, and less with enabling communication channels. Secondly, compared to 2002, there are presently more opportunities for two-way communication, although top-down communication still seems prevalent. In sum, communication options are still limited. The main limitation of our study is that we have not analyzed whether provided communication channels are actually used by parties and citizens. In addition, according to some past studies differences often exist between non-election and election period (Semetko and Krasnoboka, 2003; Oblak Črnič, 2010). Future studies could extend our study in the following ways: by analyzing more Slovene political parties (and movements), by analyzing other relevant indicators in accordance with past studies (e.g., Norris, 2001), and by adding other indicators in the content analysis. Implications of the results are discussed.

Keywords: online political communication, Internet, Slovene political parties, websites, political participation, citizen involvement.

*Barbara Zagorc is a Master’s student at the Department of Sociology, University of Maribor, Faculty of Arts, Slovenia. She is a political activist and active in bodies of University of Maribor. Her main research interests are political socialization, political participation, political parties and movements, protests, neoliberalism and hip hop culture.

*Andrej Kirbiš, Ph.D., is an assistant professor at the Department of Sociology, University of Maribor, Faculty of Arts, Slovenia. He has authored or co-authored numerous scientific articles and book chapters in areas of political participation, political culture, democratic consolidation, value change, religion and New Age, adolescent development, health and well-being, youth media use, leisure activities and educational success.

Ognenovska Simona »CSOs & e-tools: Spark of hope for increased democracy in Macedonia«

Macedonian center for international cooperation (MCIC) since 2008, throughout its programme “Good Governance in Macedonia” implemented as part of one of the MCIC`s long-term objectives “Good governance, participation and people-based policy” has been making efforts to contribute to good governance, participation and policies directed from and towards the people. MCIC during the last 3 years through this programme has focused its activities on researching and advocating citizens’ participation and strengthening the capacities of citizens, CSOs and civil servants for ensuring future public participation in policy and law making processes and has intention to continue contributing to the field even more on national, as well as EU level.

Since 2011, MCIC recognizes the importance of Internet for direct civic engagement and increasing influence of the civil society organizations in the process of policy making and has implemented two important and innovative Internet tools. “My Choice: Integrated Election Monitoring Platform in Macedonia (2011)” and “Government Mirror: Public Participation in Legislation Preparation Procedures (2012)” are two projects where web platforms are developed to enable/support e-democracy. MCIC will continue using and improving the developed web platforms, as well as design new e-tools that would spark hope for the democracy.

*Simona Ognenovska works as junior project officer in the Department for Civil Society and Democratization. Born on 14.7.1987 in Skopje, she graduated from the Faculty of Economics, department marketing management, at the European University - Skopje, where she continues her master studies in the field of marketing management. Currently preparing her master thesis and researching the effect of social responsibility of small and medium sized businesses upon the consumer buying behavior in Republic of Macedonia. Her focus is mainly to support the activities for development of a strong civil society actively involved in public policy creation.

Room 3

Jure Hederih, Slovenia, “On the Application of Conventional Concepts of Democracy to the Internet”

Internet is oftentimes perceived as a tool in everyday life. Since we live our everyday life in a material world, it is logical that we shape models, rules and laws into which we want our lives to fit. Thus, concepts like democracy, freedom, free speech and privacy are pretty straightforward when discussing a real life situation. However, it is rather intriguing how these concepts translate to their corresponsive clones in another space, which is similarly unlimited, powerful and widespread: the internet.

*Jure Hederih is the last year student at II. gimnazija Maribor. In his future studies he aspires to be a scientist with professional expertise in the field of medicine. Despite his keenness for natural sciences, he, in many aspects, engages in human sciences as well. As a member of WSDC team of Slovenia in 2013 he reaffirmed his status as a debater, while also engaging in other projects of non-competitive nature, such as volunteering. Majority of his studies and work are driven by the feeling of moral obligation to at least try to change the world for the better.

Zoran Fijavž, Slovenia, »Political participation of youth in the Pomurje region«

I have made a survey on the political participation of young people in the Pomurje region. It was made for the purpose of the ACTA project, as well as for the final Matura exam in sociology.

The data generated by the survey is used in the following ways:

For comparison with already existing research (for example European Values Survey)
To analyze the role of gender, family and socioeconomic status in comparison to political participation
To see whether young people in Pomurje see the Internet as a viable tool for political participation

Main focus in the presentation will be given to the third point.

*Zoran Fijavž is the last year student at Gimnazija Franca Miklošiča Ljutomer, one of the best debaters in Slovenia, active member of Leo club Murska Sobota.

Room 4 Julia Mikić, "British Parliamentary - from Zero to Hero!"
This workshop is intended for those switching from other debate formats as well as those who have never debated before and need to decode the language of British Parli. Making our way through extensions, squirrels, tables and whips, we'll emerge versed at debating BP-style!

*Julia Mikić has been active in parliamentary debate since 2001, and has since competed at Worlds, Euros, and more than 30 international competitions (speaking as well as adjudicating), given numerous BP workshops and lectures (most recently at IDAS), run tournaments, translated debating material, and preached debate as a religion (or a social activism tool at least). She's notorious for giving long feedback - debater beware. Currently she's running HERMES (Croatian education and development network for the evolution of communication), using knowledge and skills learned in debate to help improve the world, one project at a time.

17.30 Announcement of debate draw and debate topic for Debate 1

18.00 Debates and evaluation of debates

Debate workshops for non debaters: Public speaking lecture and exercises.

19.30 Dinner in Dijaški dom Lizike Jančar Maribor

Saturday, 16th of March 2013

Druga gimnazija Maribor 9.00 – 17.30

9.00 Role call, announcement of the draw and debate topic

9.30 Debate 2

Debate workshops for non debaters: Introduction to Worlds Schools Debate Format. Points of information lecture&exercises.

11.00- 13.00 Presentations

Room 1

Filip Dobranić »Communicating internet issues«

The internet is a vital piece of infrastructure provided to citizens. The European Union even pledged in its Europe 2020 goals to provide high speed internet access to all citizens. Given all that, issues concerning the internet and decisions governments make have multiplying effects. However, it is very hard to communicate internet issues with the general public, not least due to their technological nature. This paper examines the possibilities of effective communication and giving citizens the tools and knowledge to empower them to make decisions about the internet

Tomaž Gregorc, Slovenia, »Internet? But what about hardware?!«

It’s nowadays common to say that we live in an age of information and the ultimate tool of communication on all levels (from personal to corporate) in this era is The Internet. Debates about regulation of Internet are widespread, policies about its regulation everyday stronger. By the same means grow also critiques (and even movements – note the Anonymous) of Internet regulation. So it opens the debate of Internet as a tool of democracy.

But whose democracy? And we all know that without the material (meaning computer, doesn’t matter how it looks, from a stationary PC to the little pocket devices) – hardware – is impossible to connect to the Internet. So what about the “hard side” of Internet (regulation)?

The proposed presentation will stress and critically analyze the above-mentioned “ideologies” (common senses) and propose some possible answers/different visions and practices. To achieve this we’ll expose the Za-nič kišta (“Zero Dollar Laptop”) project which was carried out in Maribor in 2012.

* Gregorc Tomaž (1981) holds a bachelor degree in cultural studies and social anthropology. In the years 2007 to 2010 he was a teaching assistant and researcher in the field of social anthropology on the University of Primorska, Faculty for humanistic studies and the Institute for inter-cultural studies, University of Primorska. In years 2006-2010 he was organizer, facilitator and workshop leader of different international seminars, summer schools and workshops held by different universities in Europe. From the year 2011 (till June 2013) he works at the Public institute Maribor 2012 – European capital of culture (ECOC) as program producer and coordinator for the field of migration in Urban Furrows, an socio-ecological strand of ECOC.

Recently he co-authored the booklet “The compass of civil and workers’ rights for migrants in Maribor or How can you become integrated with your own rights?”, the handbook “Za-nič kišta [Zero dollar laptop]” and the book “Prihodnost znanosti: neoliberalizem, univerza in politika sodobnega znanstvenega raziskovanja [The future of science: neoliberalism, University and contemporary scientific research policies]”. In 2011 and 2012 he facilitated and leaded more than 90 workshops in migrants and workers’ rights and digital literacy on open-source software. His primary filed of action and researches are radical education, critical thinking, theoretic psychoanalysis, militant research, autonomous social action and the topic of social exclusion/inclusion with a specialization in migration questions/policies, worker’s rights, precarious work and formation of collective processes. In his free time he endeavors the path of experimental sound art and writes articles about noise/glitch/experimental electronic music.

Predrag Tasevski »Bullying of digital divide or not?«

The Internet is changing the average citizens as much as did other technologies, for instance: telephone, TV, computers, mobile phones etc. The mainly province was to help the science, engineering, and business. Many scholars, technologists, and social critics believe that these changes and the Internet, in particular, are transforming economic and social life (Robert , Micheal, Vicki, Sara, Tridas , & William , 1998). In the past few years, the scholars have done many researches to make a conclusion of difference in psychological and social tend of the Internet to the citizens. Therefore, the term “digital divide” is the gap that exists between those who have access to electronic and Information Technology – Internet and those who do not (University of Minnesota Duluth, 2011).

Whereby the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) set up could result in an order of restricting the universal access to the Internet. And representing a barrier to European development as an information, knowledge and technology society. In other words, could lead to the censorship of online content and control-restriction to the Internet's freedom, by intimidation the growth of electronic business, cultural exchange, as well as digital creativity.

In order to safe the Internet and to provide shelter to digital divide culture we will have to take actions.

*Predrag Tasevski: Master of Science in Engineering, in a field of Cyber Security. His objective research interests are in the field of cyber security as part of national security, cyber attacks, cyber conflicts, international security, cyber terrorism, critical infrastructure security, information warfare, risk assessment, identity/risk management, awareness of cyber security, strategy framework and socio-technical aspects. Predrag is an author of two paperback books: Messenger-Pigeon and Interactive Cyber Security Awareness Program. As well as an author in PenTest and Hackin9 magazines. Also he is a Microsoft Certified Trainer.

Room 2

Jure Čuhalev, Slovenia »Empowering citizens through online visualization«

Storytelling through visualization (and with extension - infographics) is gaining popularity due to accessibility of online visualization tools and lowering cost of production. This talk will showcase effective example produces by different advocacy and news organizations. Second part will provide a view into behind the scenes work that has to be done in order to start producing such visualization from data gathering and analysis point of view.

*Jure Čuhalev works in the web industry, where he helps different startups with product management. He produces different visualizations that are sometimes based on governmental data at night.

Dona Dzambaska »Activism through the lens«

Photography has always been a powerful and universal tool used to achieve great impact. The proper use of photography in our everyday lives for documenting events and capturing moments in time can have an enormous impact and bring positive changes to the world.

As far back as we can remember, the camera has always been one of the most used instruments in the world of activism. Today, the impact that each of us can have through photography is increasing with the use of the Internet and social media. It's important to take the "right" photo, but so is the proper way to share it, so the rest of the world can understand the message you are trying to convey. There are more then few examples from any country that can be numbered for such activism, lets say from Macedonia there is the »Protest over police brutality« (http://tinyurl.com/bok3hgx); »The opposition in front of Ministry of Internal Affairs« (http://tinyurl.com/c2pw9sf) ; the »Protest for air pollution in Skopje« (http://tinyurl.com/c7ekx6w) and many more.

*Dona Dzambaska: a volunteer at Metamorphosis Foundation. Studied Environmental еngineering and resource management at Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, faculty of mechanical engineering in Skopje and at the University of Florence, in Florence, Italy. She is currently working on her thesis and plans to enroll in a post-grad program in order to enrich her knowledge in environmental engineering.

Jaka Kukavica, »The First Amendment, Wikileaks, and Democracy«

Amid the tireless and continuous attacks and pressures exerted upon Wikileaks and Julian Assange throughout the past few years, this presentation argues that Wikileaks is an organisation, which, through opening new information channels, fundamentally enhances and purifies democracy. In this light, the persecution and prosecution of Wikieaks, Julian Assange and Bradley Manning will be put into a comparative context by examining a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in New York Times Co. v. United States.

*Jaka Kukavica is a debater and a law student at University of Ljubljana.

Room 3

Elena Ignatova »Informed Voters for a Stronger Democracy«

Metamorphosis Foundation has developed and maintained two groundbreaking websites designed to increase the accountability of public officials and inform citizens. The Vistinomer/Vërtetmatës (Truth-O-Meter) serves as a comprehensive political fact-checking database, providing nonpartisan information on the truthfulness, consistency, and degree of implementation of public officials’ statements and promises. The Glasomer/Votëmatës (Votemeter) tests issue-oriented voter preferences and inform voters about political party programs.The Vistinomer project focuses on promoting accountability of public office holders and political parties as well as all actors in the political and public sphere, who through their functions carry responsibility towards citizens. Truth-o-meter aims to direct the political and public discourse towards accountability as a basic principle of democracy.

Glasomer is a computer application for checking voter preferences and tt is designed so that the user, answering set of questions can check for themselves the degree of compatibility of their own thinking with the thinking of political parties. As an extension to the Glasomer, the application Political Compass was developed, enabling individual users to determine their political positions by placing them upon one or more geometric axes symbolizing independent political dimensions, akin to the Political Compass.

*Elena Ignatova: Project Coordinator at Metamorphosis Foundation. Holds a Bachelor degree in Internet and Mobile Technologies and Master degree in Communications and New Media. She is certified CompTIA Linux specialist and has extensive experience in the area of FOSS applications and development. Her expertise covers use of PHP-based CMS systems (Joomla, Drupal и Wordpress), both in the areas of implementation and trainings, in classroom environments and as e-raider. Within her engagement in Metamorphosis, Ms Ignatova is responsible for the development of the several tutorials for computer literacy. She is also responsible for the cooperation with Global Voices Online, and in particular the Macedonian and Albanian version of this influential citizen journalism portal.

Tvrtko Pater "A comparative analysis of emotional and rational attitudes of Croatian internet experts about the protection of copyright on the internet and its effect on democratic processes"

In this presentation we'll be exploring how and when changes in society occur on the examples of ACTA protests in Europe and answering key questions concerning how we ourselves can participate in social change.

*Tvrtko Pater,Debate trainer, HERMES member, participated in ACTA-related research in Croatia.

Room 4

Antonio Tokić and Julia Mikić:"Exploring synergies between civil society and business sectors: how debate can assist business and vice versa - an online project".

We'll be presenting a potential start-up aimed at providing both debaters, and businesses and general public with a new way of interaction, helping to both popularise debate and put it to wider social use.

*Antonio Tokić -A student, programmer, and a philosopher-theologian, Antonio has always seen himself in the IT-sector, while maintaining an interest in all things transcendental. Firm in his belief that there is too little real dialogue among people out there, he has decided to start an initiative that could help spread the debating virus, using the internet of course.

Petru-Claudiu Seicaru and Tewfiq Al-Sharaiyra “The Eurozone Crisis and the Role of Social Media”

The Eurozone crisis has exposed weaknesses on which the creation of the EU monetary union was premised. The response of bond markets to the creation of the single currency has been to offer low interests rates and good borrowing conditions to all Eurozone states, despite their economies not being equally strong. It became clear that the only viable means of coping with the ensuing debt crisis was the bailing out of the troubled economies by the richer states in order to preserve the integrity of the Eurozone. The argument runs that since Eurozone economies can borrow at low rates, due to the currency union and strength of big economies, they ought be prepared for fiscal supervision in return for this borrowing privilege in order to avert future crises. While this argument may rest on solid foundations, fiscal policy is regarded as being a firm prerogative of the nation state. However, the new forms of communications provided by social media can play a beneficial role in alleviating this issue. The so-called “Twitter Revolutions” that took place in the Arab World stand as proof of the potential of social media to generate social and political change. The EU should take advantage of the opportunities provided by online channels in order to adopt a more interactive and informed decision-making process, one that ameliorates some of its democratic legitimacy problems. In turn, a higher degree of legitimacy at EU level would allow for a wider scope of fiscal measures to be adopted, thus leading to a more coherent management of the Eurozone.

*Tewfiq Al-Sharaiyra is an Oxford historian with a particular interest in issues regarding sovereignty, regionalism and mass media. He has been Panel Chair at the Australian National University's Asia-Pacific Conference, a scholar at UC Berkley's Middle East Center. Currently, he is a researcher with Romania's National Council for the Study of Intelligence Archives (CNSAS), working to uncover the control structure of Romanian Communist mass media.

*Petru Seicaru is a postgraduate student pursuing a Master of Law degree at the University of Cambridge, having completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Oxford. His main academic interests lie in the field of EU law, with a particular focus on the external relations policy of the EU. In his free time, Petru coaches a debating club in Bucharest and provides counseling to students wishing to pursue studies abroad. On the long term, Petru is hoping to pursue a career at the Legal Service of the European Commission.

Blaž Leban »Net neutrality and why it is important for democratic discourse«

I will be discussing net neutrality. How does it effects the democratic discourse? What are the dangers of losing the neutrality of the internet?

*Blaž Leban BA in social informatics, associate of ZIP Debater and judge.

12.45 – 13.45 Lunch

14.00 Debate 3

Debate workshops for non debaters: Preparing proposition and oposition case.

16.0 - 17.30 Presentations/workshops

Room 1

Public Assemblies Initiative (Iniciativa mestni zbor) »Crisis of democracy in EU and national states, direct and indirect democracy.«

The idea to form Public district assemblies in Maribor, Slovenia is a direct result of our everyday experiences in the town and important consequences this experiences produce:

· We believe that in Maribor and all across Slovenia, various acts of civil disobedience should be followed by direct participation platforms for long term solutions development, which will change the way we think, work and coexist in a community thus improving the quality of life for all.

· We have found out that in our city there are no proper tools that would enable people to inform the city government about what the people really want and need. Public assemblies and agreements that will derive from them ARE that proper tool!

· We strongly believe that people should be the ones who decide about common public development policies in cities, towns, and villages as well as in the whole country. Not various city councils and politicians, who had so clearly showed the lack of interest in people’s actual needs and desires.

· We intend to disable once and for all the arbitrary decision-making of the governing city power structures which have shamelessly exploited the entrusted people’s mandate to feed of and steal from what is our common good and thus gradually destroying our lives, environment and everything the previous generations struggled so hard to build.

The result of people’s ideas gathered on assemblies and elaborated trough the methodology of consensus can be (among other things): efficient public demands, alternative projects and sustainable views. Due to wide public support (build trough solidarity actions), this people’s initiatives will carry significant weight and will therefore be able to exert efficient pressure on the city government as well as provide a public, transparent control (and possible sanctions) if the governing structures will not consider and follow the public will.

In the proposed workshop, 3 members of Public Assemblies Initiative (Iniciativa mestni zbor) will try to directly introduce (trough a simulation of an assembly) the participants to such form of direct democracy by:

· introducing possible forms of efficient communications in group discussions / debates

· introducing the role of moderators in group discussions / debates

· introducing the practice of direct action

· introducing methods of gathering views, ideas and opinions in relation to group dynamics and number of participants

· presenting how to establish an egalitarian decision making process (reaching an agreement trough consensus)

* Public Assemblies Initiative (Iniciativa mestni zbor) is a grass root movement of politically engaged individuals, interest groups and other formal or informal organizations, who wants to co-create and facilitate the development of positive practices for a better Maribor and, through this, a better Slovenia. Despite the fact that the group is highly political (politically engaged), we have no ambitions to participate in the system of parties but to build a grass-root politically engaged movement. Our work is based on the bottom up perspective, involving all interested and active citizens, because we believe this is the only way to achieve long-term (sustainable) positive political change. Workshop facilitators will be: Maja, Aljoša and Tomaž.

Room 2

Simon Delakorda »Drafting ACTA project recommendations for decision-makers.”

The purpose of this workshop is to present and further discuss results from two facilitated on-line discussions in frame of ACTA project - Internet privacy and On-line forums as a democratic tool. Different aspects of these two topics relevant for young people will be further addressed and consequently drafted in form of a key conclusions and recommendations from ACTA project. Workshop results will be delivered to decision-makers at the European and national level by project partner organizations asking them to provide feedback.

Elena Ignatova, Macedonia, »Anonymous browsing with TOR«