The Centre for e-Democracy believes in supporting next generation researchers and our team is keen to foster original and innovative research in this field.
At the Centre for e-Democracy we want to help to create more knowledge about the relationship between democracy and technology through initiating, translating and disseminating academic research in this area. We want to become the most comprehensive repository of digestible academic knowledge in the world. We also want to make this knowledge freely available and easy to understand.
Below, you’ll find a list of projects that the Centre is currently involved with.
Watch this space for more information, or sign up for our newsletter to receive updates on the progress of these research initiatives.
Release: January 30, 2015
Internet Voting Project
The goal of the Internet Voting Project is to disseminate and share academic research by social scientists addressing Internet voting. Internet voting has been actively used in binding elections around the world for over a decade, yet we know little about its social and political impacts. Part of the reason for this is the lack of data that has been collected from these elections, especially in a Canadian context. This project seeks to change this, by collecting attitudinal data from election stakeholders in jurisdictions that use Internet voting so we are better able to understand the impact of digital technology on electoral democracy.
Release: Winter 2015
The Voice of Guelph, Open Government
In the summer of 2013, the City of Guelph announced that the municipality was embarking on a strategy to create Canada’s first Open Government Action Plan. The goal: to create a more open, accountable, transparent and engaging municipal government. Using Delvinia’s Voice of e-Democracy platform, the City of Guelph sought to create new participation experiences designed to help the municipality increase citizen participation, gather opinion, promote informedness, and ultimately involve residents, local businesses and associations, and special interest groups in an ongoing dialogue with government.
Release: Spring 2015
The Impact of Digital Technology on First Nations Participation and Governance
This project seeks to address the impact of technology on electoral participation in band elections and band governance in First Nations communities. It also looks more closely at how First Nations members conceive of citizenship today and whether this sheds light on their inclination to take part electorally, both within their band, and also more broadly in Canadian society. While the entire First Nations community will be examined, special focus will be given to young people under the age of 30 given that they participate at lower rates than older cohorts of First Nations electors.
The Intelligent Communities Project
The Intelligent Communities project is part of a $5.1 million project led by University of Toronto and Munk School Professor, Dr. David Wolfe, to examine Canada’s digital economy performance from a global perspective. This SSHRC funded research, entitled Creating Digital Opportunity, brings together researchers from 16 universities and 12 corporate and organizational partners to tackle this important topic. The Intelligent Communities component of this research program will examine the role of digital technologies in building intelligent communities with the goal of acquiring a better sense of what an intelligent community is.
