Today we live in a world of networks and communities. There is a general trend towards freedom of expression, identity and being. At the same time we have to give up part of our time, privacy and freedom to become part of these systems. The information technology has contributed to all this, providing a more connected and at the same time interdependent reality. In this virtual environment, e-g...

Information lies at the core of freedom of expression since it empowers citizens to understand the functions of media and other information providers, to access and critically evaluate their content, and to make informed decisions as users and producer of information and media content. Information and related technologies have become increasingly essential to education, employment, social inter...

The EU FP7 project DRIVER is conducting a number of experiments to assess the feasibility of addressing known deficiencies in crisis management. In this paper, we introduce experiments that investigate two-way communication solutions between crisis managers and citizens or unaffiliated volunteers. In the so-called “Interaction with Citizens” experiments we are testing the usability and acceptan...

E-government includes electronic communication between citizens and governmental agencies. In the present on-going research project, we have focused on asynchronous communication that handling officers establish and maintain with citizens through the use of e-mail. In particular, we are designing and developing a language technology-based system to support communication that handling officers c...

FREEDOM of speech and its democratic corollary, a free press, have tacitly expanded our Bill of Rights to include the right of persuasion. This development was an inevitable result of the expansion of the media of free speech and persuasion, denned in other articles in this volume. All these media provide open doors to the public mind. Any one of us through these media may influence the attitud...