EDEN

The general objective of the EDEN Project is the improvement of communication between Public Administrations (PA) and citizens in decision-making processes. The improvement to be obtained will be threefold: qualitative by simplifying access to professional quality data (support through Natural Language Processing (NLP) or by providing different views of a linked city map electronically; quantitative by offering access using different media, in order to reach the generally missing mass participation to Public Administration processes; and economically, by reducing the cost per citizens' participation action. Such an ambitious objective will be reached through the integration of tools into existing infrastructures which allow citizens to dialogue with the Public Administration using their natural language, so obtaining a direct pre-structured and, at the same time, richer interaction.

<p>The goal of EDEN is to allow a true bi-directional communication between citizens and Public Administration's staff. The project will achieve this goal by defining a multimedia platform for democratic consultation. The software platform will integrate tools based on new emerging technologies (NLP and Mobile Communication Protocols) in order to improve the accessibility and user-friendliness; it will be designed according to user requirements emerging from current problems and experiences in civic consultation; the pilot sites will develop applications in the domain of Urban Planning, based on the common platform, to perform real test and collect results</p>

• Natural language processing (NLP)

• Community building / Collaborative Environments
• Spatial planning