As information technologies have increasingly penetrated the public sphere in recent years, governments in Europe and throughout the world have considered the use of these tools to remodel democratic practice and transform relations between citizens and public services.

The Worldwide Forum on Electronic Democracy was created in 2000, with the aim of providing a regular meeting place to examine and discuss these major developments, which concern all those with a role to play in city life.

With an increasing number of participants, overseas contributors and exhibitors, the forum’s flourishing success illustrates the importance of information and communication technologies in daily life and, more particularly, democratic life.

The forum also benefits from the participation of European and world networks such as ADMINET, the Internet Rights Forum, Global Cities Dialogue, the Brazilian public information technology conference, the e-ID Contest and major institutional actors.

This participation reinforces the forum’s goal of making a real contribution to the implementation of e-democracy in tomorrow’s world. Indeed, since the forum’s participants are present in the field, they have the means by which they are able to apply proposals made over the course of the event.