E-Petitioner

E-petitioner is an online petition system developed in Scotland, characterised by its integration into the processes of representative democracy. It allows citizens to raise and sign a petition, read background information on the issue, and add comments to an online forum associated with each petition.

The system evolved from a research project conducted jointly by the Scottish Parliament, the International Teledemocracy Centre at Edinburgh Napier University and BT Scotland, as part of an investigation into the use of information and communication technologies in encouraging democratic participation.

It has been used by national governments, local authorities and a students union.

There are three groups of actors in the e-petition:

The principal petitioner provides background information, along with the petition text, which is published on the website.

After the petition is submitted, visitors may track the petitions progress through the parliament or local council, for example via a “progress in parliament” button.

Signatories’ names are displayed for transparency, but addresses are stored privately, ensuring that the system complies with data protection laws.

The system automatically deletes duplicate signatures and provides administrators with graphical indicators of confidence in the validity of signatures, based upon automated checks. These compare IP addresses, e-mail addresses and check the name against a list. These indicators support the administrator's scrutiny of input. Administrators may also remove signatures which are offensive.

Once the petition has run for its period, the system automatically generates figures of the numbers of signatures made (valid and invalid) as well as the regions from which these signatures came.

The discussion forum allows the petitioner to prompt the public into debate upon the issue. The forum serves as a place where those who disagree may register their opinion and reasoning. It also enables people to record their own experiences of the issue, providing anecdotal evidence to supplement abstract argument. During the petition's lifetime, the administrators moderate the discussion, in addition to the spam filters provided.

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Wikipedia