To confuse you even more (and to add to what Bengt wrote), the eParticipation Community Portal was actually set up to support the projects from the first round of the EU eParticipation Preparatory Action, as they were asked to find common synergies and to make an effort to work together. Momentum came after that, as a project dedicated to supporting the projects in the first and second round of the EU Action (I hope I summarise all this sufficiently correct).

With the weightier projects I meant to indicate scope and longer existence, not importance per se. There are some international sites and outfits involved with e-participation and e-democracy, but the trouble is I’m not sure in how much they are concerned with or involved in the “European scene” (Democracies online can perhaps be named here, but I’m sure there are many others with an equally long and encompassing tradition). Likewise, of course, one can wonder in how far a place like ePractice.eu is interested in what happens outside Europe - even if it is definitely a credible candidate when it comes to bringing things together under a solid umbrella.

Call me utopian, but I still would like to see all sides from all oceans involved when this topic is concerned. After all, the value of eParticipation is to build more transparent and inclusive societies, something that is more relevant in other places than purely the EU or the US. Sharing practices globally and figuring out a way to do this in an appealing and understandable way is imo crucial to advancement and development in less privileged places. And that requires having different focus fields and angles. Not an indefinite number, I agree, but I feel there is still room before we reach saturation.

“ICT for development” is after all more than just a catchphrase. And by making information available and accessible, all of us are doing our little part.

So, what I’m hoping for is the emergence of an open network with open information, sufficiently disconnected from personal or project interests. I fully agree with you that one such a place would be enough, but in order for such a place to emerge, a lot more trial and error needs to be done.

In that sense, I welcome any serious and high-quality initiative which makes information available. Even if it is in a way that you and me find redundant, it might offer more insight to others who don’t have the information at present.

You have a point, of course - one comprehensive place would be much preferred - but it needs to be comprehensive in order to work.

Thanks for allowing and replying to this discussion, by the way. That is very much appreciated! Just like the rest of this blog

Fair points.

I’m not arguing that Ajax/widget technology isn’t good and useful (despite my sarky remark about the large page sizes that result). And Web2.0 certainly allows users to leverage a lot of useful functionality very quickly (just ask Simon)

I guess my point is that advertising is still the only game in town when it comes to making money directly off a website. If the advertising revenues don’t justify the server & bandwidth costs, some day the corporations will cut back. As Simon points out, YouTube and flikr are probably so big they can’t be allowed to fail, but there will be others that will disappear, possibly along with their users’ data.

All I’m saying is I think that where advertising is inappropriate (eg many government contexts) or will never cover expenses, the costs of Web2.0 will have to be directly born by the client, possibly through a service provided by their internet or communications consultants

So in conclusion: I’m not wanting to go back at all. Web 2.0 has been a tremendous enabling technology, it’s just that those of us who use it as part of their core processes have to be aware of two risks:

(a) That the service(s) could be withdrawn by their providers as part of corporate cutbacks, at best causing disruption while an alternative is found and configured

(b) Uncontrolled access to your information - eg through data-mining by the host companies, or other governments’ police taking an interest in what you’ve stored in the part of the cloud that happens to be hosted in their jurisdiction (another hobby-horse of mine)

Phew, that was a long comment! Might even write it up as a standalone item - but I’d be interested in what you think.

Wont the money follow the attention? Advertisers will go where the audience is? So if web 2 tools and techniques help build an audience (as they do) that will ultimately provide an income stream.

It’s a rather thin article. Doesn’t consider how web 2.0 is helping individuals and small business build value and customer base by engaging in an online conversation with existing and potential customers.

Is there something you want us to go back/forward to?

Btw: The article by Morton you mentioned (workshop results) will be followed by the results of the two other workshop groups: Solution providers and Citizens and Municipalities to provide a more complete picture of what PEP-NET will be.

Thanks for the feedbacks and clarifications. I wasn’t really meaning to be critical, I was just confused

It will be great to see synergies happen - much better than networks competing to occupy the same space, which is what I was initially worrying about. I’ll keep reporting on your activities to help spread the word…

I think you’re right about the panic only lasting a day or two, assuming you still have backups of the media files that is. If it came to it, it wouldn’t be that difficult (or expensive, once set up) for a business like yours to include media hosting as part of the package you offer your clients.

As for Web2.0, at least this time is the money has been lost by big corporations (eg Google/YouTube, News International/MySpace) rather than excited individuals buying into dodgy IPOs as happened back in ‘99.

You make a fair point about YouTube and Flickr. But I’m confident they’ve reached a critical mass, whereby their respective owners couldn’t seriously contemplate withdrawing the services (almost) regardless of their profitability. In a worst case scenario, yes, I bet there would be a day or two of panic. But when you consider the benefits you’d already enjoyed, you’d still unquestionably be in credit.