Constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Fourth IFIP WG 8.5 International Conference, ePart 2012, held in Kristiansand, Norway, in September 2012.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 5th IFIP WG 8.5 International Conference on Electronic Participation, ePart 2013, held in Koblenz, Germany, in September 2013. The 13 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 30 submissions. The papers cover a wide range of research in both social and technological scientific domains, seeking to demonstrate new theories, concepts, methods and styles of eParticipation with the support of innovative ICT. They have been organized in the following topical sections: research directions, social media and...

The rapid development and the growing penetration of information and communication technologies (ICT) provide tremendous opportunities for a wide and cost effective application of the ideas of participative democracy and public participation in government decision and policy making. ICT can drive dramatic transformations in the quantity and quality of communication and interaction of government organizations with citizens, revitalizing and strengthening the modern representative democracy which currently faces big problems of reduced citizens' trust and involvement. This book deals with...