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VotenaWeb
Webcitizen
Brazil

The Problem

Empirical research on political science suggests political apathy is a key problem for contemporary democracies. In countries that have recently experienced a dictatorship, such as Brazil, this problem is even bigger, as most citizens think of politics as something distant from their lives or intrinsically corrupt. The lack of transparency in public institutions imposes a deeper difficulty, as citizens cannot find basic information about issues that affect their lives or even follow the work of political representatives they have elected. When information is provided by political institutions, it is often not fully accessible. Citizens face a thorny road when attempting to find organized and clear information about politics. Such problem feeds the vicious cycle that increases political apathy and the isolation of the political system from the rest of society. Democracy’s basic idea of structuring a government from the people and to the people is, therefore, undermined. As pointed by Habermas, the political system cannot build itself as an autopoietic social sphere if it is to be democratic.

Solution and Key Benefits

 What is the initiative about? (the solution)
The key benefit offered by the solution consists in creating a virtual arena that aims to bring the Brazilian political system closer to the country’s citizens. VotenaWeb (http://www.votenaweb.com.br/) offers a fully accessible and interactive platform that enables citizens to follow each bill proposed in the Brazilian Congress, besides allowing these citizens to express their opinions through their votes and debates. Additionally, VotenaWeb provides spaces for debate over these bills, and areas to compare the citizens’ views in different parts of the country, as well as the positions advocated by each deputy or senator.

In less than a year, VotenaWeb has already mobilized more than 13 thousand citizens that are more involved with political issues, finding information about them and debating their views with other citizens. Such webcitizenship strengthens Brazilian democracy. If citizenship is understood as the capacity to participate in the ongoing process through which a society defines its future, new forms of participation that renovate political action are extremely important. These 13 thousand citizens have collectively built a collaborative environment where open and respectful dialogue is stimulated. The existence of democratic deliberation can be easily found in the more than nine thousand comments made on forums about bills proposed in Congress. Politics is much more real and present in the lives of these citizens and their participation fosters a broader strengthening of democratic participation, as their engagement is not restricted to the online platform, but may affect their discussions in private and public settings with other citizens, as suggested by Harvard researcher Jane Mansbridge.

Actors and Stakeholders

 Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
VotenaWeb is an initiative of a corporation named Webcitizen, which employs digital technologies in the creation of participatory channels that bring citizens closer to each other and to public and private institutions. Webcitizen aims at fostering the opening, the transparency and the democratization of public administration through collaborative public dialogue. The team of professionals working for Webcitizen volunteer part of their work to maintain the initiative presented here (VotenaWeb), which does not receive any sort of funding. Citizens participate by voting, commenting, divulging and suggesting changes in the platform.

(a) Strategies

 Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
 a.      What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
The main goals of VotenaWeb are:
1) offering a simple way for Brazilian citizens to follow the work of their elected representatives;
2) helping citizens to be informed about the decisions made by the National Congress;
3) providing citizens a way to express their opinions about issues that affect their lives, thus bringing them closer to political life. Special attention is devoted to youngsters;
4) strengthening Brazilian democracy and helping rescue the credibility of the country’s political system.
In order to achieve these goals, Webcitizen developed an online platform (VotenaWeb) with a straightforward and attractive interface that presents bills sent to congress by deputies and senators (http://www.votenaweb.com.br/). The platform allows citizens to discuss these bills and to vote on them. Bills extracted from the official websites of the two houses of Parliament are “translated” to everyday language so as to facilitate citizens’ apprehension. In addition, the platform allows users to compare citizens’ votes with congressmen’s votes. It is also possible to compare the percentage of votes in different states of the federation through maps that allow a clear perception of the way a Bill is received in different areas of the country.

(b) Implementation

 b.      What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
The implementation of VotenaWeb started in the beginning of 2009. The abovementioned problem was theoretically diagnosed and the solution was technically planned and built. The full development of the platform took approximately six months. After the platform’s development, there was intense research on governmental websites and an effort to adequate their contents so that citizens could easily understand them. This step took around two months. The initiative was launched in November 2009, in the TEDx São Paulo, where it found a public apt to multiply the idea and foster its capillarization. Since then, the platform has evolved according to users’ suggestions and experiences. New possibilities were gradually created in order to stimulate broader participation. Some users have become volunteers, thus helping to update the platform. Everyday new bills are inserted and new discussions take place.

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

 c.      What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
The first obstacle faced by the initiative was to make it known, so that it could grow. The team responsible for VotenaWeb launched it in an event of great impact (TEDxSão Paulo). They then divulged the website in social networks such as Orkut, Facebook and Twitter. The most important thing, however, was the diffuse indication made by other users. Such indications really allowed the initiative to grow.

Another obstacle to be cited is related to the whole problem addressed by the initiative: the lack of political credibility. VotenaWeb works with bills proposed by deputies and senators and citizens are usually apathetic to these sorts of issues. The simple and graphically attractive way to present this sort of information, however, tends to reduce the a priori rejection people have in relation to political issues.

Lastly, an important obstacle to be mentioned is related to the difficulty of finding data to feed the platform. The team working on VotenaWeb depends on regular updates in governmental sites, but they do not always happen as they were supposed to. In order to foster a civic and participatory culture such information should be simplified and debureaucratized.

(d) Use of Resources

 d.      What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
Since the beginning, VotenaWeb has been completely sponsored by Webcitizen. A portion of the profits of this private company is used to fund the initiative, which has no other sorts of funding or public grant. A multidisciplinary team (involving professionals of law, communication, management, computer science and design) works regularly to update and improve the platform. They also monitor and manage the relationships with citizens and politicians.

Sustainability and Transferability

  Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
VotenaWeb is a totally transferable social technology. It could be employed in several countries, so as to facilitate access to public information and improve civic participation in political life. To implement VotenaWeb in other countries, it would be necessary to translate the applicative to other languages, and to hire a small team responsible for monitoring legislative work and for producing simplified abstracts of complex bills. All this work could be easily done by volunteers committed to the project. It is important to highlight that in countries with scarce use of the internet, the initiative may not work as well as it has been working in Brazil. However, contemporary worldwide projects aimed at targeting the issue of digital divide may help overcome this problem.
In what concerns the initiative’s sustainability, it must be emphasized that the costs of the project are not high, and it would be relatively easy to find companies or public administration actors willing to sponsor the project.

Lessons Learned

 What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
Since the initiative’s launch, the team responsible for it has witnessed the emergence of a civic engagement that indicates that the problem faced is not caused by the lack of political interest by citizens. Quite the contrary, we realized that people want to participate more and more. It seems that they did not have appropriate tools to make themselves heard.
The platform was easily appropriated by its users, who have rapidly and spontaneously divulged the initiative through their social networks. Such process has attracted the attention of the mass media and of bloggers from all over the country, increasing the dissemination of VotenaWeb. Although it is hard to measure the direct impact of citizens’ discussion on the procedures of effective decision making in the political system, I consider that the engagement of 13 thousand users, who have voted more than 300 thousand times, has already caused a significant impact on Brazil’s political life. These citizens may discuss politics in a qualified way and on a regular basis not only through their online conversations, but also in other arenas where they meet people. The possibility of fostering civic debate over bills proposed representatives is essential to democracy. I believe, therefore, that VotenaWeb enhances democracy through the promotion of webcitizenship.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   Webcitizen
Institution Type:   Non-Governmental Organization  
Contact Person:   Fernando Barreto Assunção
Title:   Director  
Telephone/ Fax:   11 2338-4325
Institution's / Project's Website:  
E-mail:   fernando@webcitizen.com.br  
Address:   Rua Juatuba, 80 conj. 31
Postal Code:   05441-030
City:   São Paulo
State/Province:   São Paulo
Country:   Brazil

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