Gunnar Grimsson said: “We sincerely hope that the open active democracy platforms we developed, our own experiences and not least the lessons learned from Iceland’s history will contribute to further improve transparency and democracy around the world.” Robert Bjarnason added: “It is our sincere belief that the kind of software we developed can make a difference where people really want to debate, prioritise or discuss ideas that contribute to a better democracy”.
The other two short-listed entries in the European e-Democracy awards were Europatweets.eu, founded by Henri Lastenouse, aggregating twitter feeds from EU politicians and experts, and the Scottish Ideasforglobalcitizenship, enabling organisations and individuals involved in development and global citizenship education to share and prioritize their common ideas.
The World e-Gov Forum awarded its overall Grand Prix 2011 to Lina Ben Mhenni, the Tunisian internet activist, blogger and university teacher who became one of the muses of the revolution in Tunisia with her blog A Tunisian Girl. Earlier, she received the prestigious international award for the best blogger in 2011 and was short-listed for the Nobel Prize for Peace this year. Her acceptance speech is to be found on BlogActiv.eu.
The World e-Gov Forum was organised by the Media Acteurs Publics and the city of Issy-les-Moulineaux, a hub of internet and media activity near Paris.
