Information meeting

In preparation for the implementation phase, which will start in December 2017, the “inDialogue” project team started establishing contacts with the Marshal Offices. During meetings with representatives of the Offices, the inDialogue software is presented along with the conditions for entering the implementation phase and the possibilities of further development of the platform.

On May 25, 2017, at the University of Warsaw, in the Kazimierzowski Palace, an information meeting for representatives of Marshal Offices and Municipal Offices was held. The meeting was attended by 54 people, including representatives of the Ministry of Development and City Halls.

The meeting was opened by prof. Sławomir Łodziński, Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Sociology at the University of Warsaw. He welcomed the participants and reminded about the importance of cooperation between the university and public administration, pointing to the potential of the “inDialogue” project in establishing such effective cooperation. Dr. Tomasz Potkański, Deputy Director of the Office of the Association of Polish Cities, drew attention to the usefulness of the inDialogue software not only in the process of social consultations, but also for improving communication between local government units, as well as within municipal and city offices. Then, Dr. Anna Przybylska presented the basic assumptions behind the public consultation platform and discussed the most important functions of the software, indicating, among other things, how the use of the inDialogue platform will enable better planning and consultations by officials.

After the lunch break, the participants of the meeting took part in workshops led by Dr. Marta Kołodziejska. Participants had to perform several tasks that an official performs when planning consultations, e.g. adding the main question, setting the criteria for selecting participants, scheduling a debate, as well as moderating a text debate on the platform. The workshop was also attended by Bartosz Stępień, who provided information on the availability of the inDialogue software and its compliance with the WCAG 2.0 standard.

During the workshop part, comments and suggestions regarding the functionality of the platform were also collected, which will be taken into account in the subsequent stages of development of the inDialogue software.

The meeting ended at 15:00.