"There's a thin line between data confidentiality and transparency"

About a year ago along with two companions I travelled to London to learn about new kinds of linkages between people and governance. We met with a group called Mysociety which works in this area and learned about innovative ways to organize politics and citizenship. When I returned to Copons in the summer, I proposed, as the Councillor for Economic Development and New Technologies, implementing a similar kind of project in Copons, as I thought it could be worthwhile. The idea is that decisions should not be made exclusively by politicians but that citizens should be able to participate in decision making processes too, through social networks. There are two main problems. The first is to get people to participate. The digital divide undoubtedly exists, preventing people from becoming involved in this kind of project. That said, we?ve also seen how more people get broadband internet access, precisely because of such projects. It is the technology which leads them to become interested. The second problem is getting governance bodies ? like Barcelona Provincial Council, for example ? to believe in these open citizenship projects and to use social networks, bearing in mind that they don?t actually have to create anything; the tools are there and are used by the people as a way to participate. Using Facebook and other networks are points of contact where people can relate to one another using social networking. A debating forum is created covering a range of subjects and people organize themselves around problems. For example, some people are interested in the environment, others in education, others in town planning, etc. Each has specific problems that they want to resolve, and so they express their opinions on whatever interests them. That?s the idea, that people, first of all, become aware of the limitations on local authorities, which are great, as people think that the welfare society can provide unlimited guarantees. Social networks are useful because people can learn about these limitations and they can also see how their opinions can change an authority?s actions. The Copons project has been nurtured by a group called nuestracausa (http://nuestracausa.wordpress.com/), which fosters discussion on issues such as how politics and governance need to be more open. I think more projects will develop where people will see how they can bring pressure to bear on the politicians representing them, and the outcome will be that people will develop a greater interest in politics. We are finding that increasing numbers of young people are participating in Copons 2.0. Social networks like Facebook, in fact, are not particularly focused on old or young people. The main age bracket using Copons 2.0 was originally 30 to 40. Now we are finding that younger people are beginning to visit and express their opinions. I am convinced that this is the way to bring politics closer to the people and to get people to participate. Not only digital. Obviously the power of digital tools is immense. They enable people to organize spontaneously to resolve a specific problem and then disband. Organization is much easier over the internet as there?s no need to go anywhere in person. My feeling is that technology will be important ? especially as it becomes available to everyone ? but it?s not the only alternative. In Copons we always try to back up debating sessions with meetings, because people also need face-to-face discussion. I think we are managing to stay within the law. When I went to the Internet Law and Politics Conference I thought that surely a lot of what we?d been doing was possibly borderline legal. We do try to ensure that all the site content is covered by a Creative Commons licence and that digital profiles are used so that sensitive data is not published. But at the same time we are trying to ensure maximum transparency and that means we have to tread a thin line between data confidentiality and transparency. In fact, we consulted the Catalan Data Protection Agency, which provides guidelines in this area. However, technological development is so rapid that it is struggling to keep up. Basically, if you want to pioneer the development of a project you may have to stretch the limits when it comes to data confidentiality. Indeed ? but the resources available are hugely different. The other day I was asked this: wouldn?t it be a problem for citizens to ask questions after a plenary council meeting in Barcelona compared to Copons? I think not. You could use a moderator system. In Copons we obviously respond directly to the person asking a question and this, in a council like Barcelona?s, would be impossible. There would have to be a way of collecting information and a moderator who would collate it to pose a single question, and that way most citizens could have an answer to the issue that concerned them.