Principles for the design of virtual communities with governmental purposes and-Democratic

• Cristiano Maciel UFMT
• Licinio Roque University of Coimbra
• Ana Cristina Bicharra Garcia UFF

Abstract

E-democracy enable and consolidate consultative and deliberative processes. However, there is lack of participatory access and permanent engagement of citizens with e-democratic purposes. The reasons range from the unpreparedness of individuals in using the Web to the lack of supportive environments for such an exercise of citizenship. In this sense, we investigated some of the current experiences with e-participation and the principles for the design of virtual communities. Bases on such ecperiences and to integrate e-deliberative processes, we proposed the Government-Citizen Interactive Model. For testing the model, an application was developed and tested, the Democratic Citizen Community (CDC), both reported in this survey.

Keywords: e-participation, Government-Citizen Interactive Model, Democratic Citizen Community