INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

FIRST FORUM FOR E-DEMOCR@CY IN BULGARIA

 Co-located with Hackaton-Burgas-2015

Beginning 10.00 h, Friday, 29 May, 2015

End 16.00 h, Saturday 30 May, 2015

Venue: Burgas, the Burgas Free University

Opening of Hackaton and Conference

Burgas is the 4-th largest town in Bulgaria (population 250,000) and the major Black Sea port of the country. It is equally distanced (380 km) from the Bulgarian capital-city Sofia and Europe’s largest city Istanbul. Burgas is the administrative center of a sea and cultural tourism region, having history of over 4000 years (ancient towns of Nessebar and Sozopol). Organizers: the Bulgarian Association for the Promotion of Citizens Initiative www.initiative, the Burgas Free University and the International Modern Media Institute – Iceland, which have set up a project partnership to implement the project “Enhancing e-Democracy in Bulgaria. Learning from Iceland” (2014-2015), co-financed by the NGO programme of the Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area.

Objectives: to bring together researchers and practitioners of e-government and e-participation, raise public awareness of the potential of e-participation and best working models in Europe, inform and inspire civic activists and decision-makers, bridge the gap between bottom-up and top-down approaches and initiatives for good governance.

Iternational Speakers (confirmed):

• Katrin Jakobsdottir, Member of the Alþingi , former Minister of Education of Iceland with a lecture on ‘Using the internet to strengthen democracy‘
• Gunnar Grimsson  and Róbert Bjarnason, founders of Citizens Iceland Foundation, awarded the European e-Democracy Award (2011)with a lecture on “How can we increase participation in civic society?”.
• Smari McCarthy, Pirate Party of Iceland,
• Gudjon Idir, CEO International Modern Media Institute – Iceland.
• Prof. Tanel Tammet, founder of the IT College in Tallinn, founder of the Green party of Estonia with a lecture on “Ten years of internet voting in Estonia: experiences and challenges”;
• Raphael Calvelli with a lecture on ‘Sharing the files: a low-tech approach to improve efficiency and transparency’ 

Bulgarian speakers:

• Daniela Bozhinova 
• Dr Penka Georgieva
• prof. Rumen Varbanov with a lecture on “Challenges and problems of e-democracy in Bulgaria”
• Diana Bancheva with a lecture on “Access to public information: Civil Audit for Active Transparency – results 2015
• Atanas Sirekov, from Burgas municipality with a lecture on: Development of E-services in Burgas Municipality