City of Helsinki Picture Bank / Niko Soveri

ESF
SAL
HUT

The internet provides new possibilities for interaction, communication and decision support which are particularly interesting for environmental decision making where visualization, value trade-offs and distributed geographic locations are typical. These characteristics represent drivers for the need of electronic support and the web in participation.

The workshop will review the needs, possibilities, experiences and applicability of decision and communication models in internet supported participation methods. Our special focus will be participation methods which include the use of decision support tools. Behavioural issues as well as GIS will also be considered. The expected participants include researchers in decision modelling, decision support, participation methods and GIS as well as practitioners in environmental policy and management.

Workshop goals

Earlier literature on participation methods describes ways to gain acceptance of the stakeholders and to generate citizens a fair process. How can these goals be reached when using the new electronic opportunities? This is the main topic of the workshop. We hope to review the state of the art of this field and generate ideas for new approaches based on e-participation. The aim is to create a forum for interdisciplinary exchange of ideas and outline an agenda for future research. The possibility of editing a book or a focused special issue in a journal based on the papers presented is being considered.

Topics

The topics listed are representative areas of interest for the workshop

- stakeholder participation with web support
- use of web based decision support software
- multicriteria decision support
- group support systems
- web supported facilitation
- multiobjective planning and optimization
- negotiation support and game theoretic approaches
- GIS supported participation processes
- e-voting
- e-auctions
- risk and decision communication
- behavioural issues and stakeholder perceptions
- contingent evaluation
- internet, media and stakeholder interaction

Program committee

Prof. Raimo P. Hämäläinen, Chairman
Prof. Ortwin Renn
Prof. Simon French

Local organizing committee

Prof. Raimo P. Hämäläinen, Chairman
Prof. Ahti Salo
Mr. Jyri Mustajoki, Registration
Dr. Paula Siitonen, General organizations
Mr. Antti Punkka, Facilities, web-site
Mr. Totti Könnölä, Intensive courses
Ms. Leena Porraskorpi, Secretary

emails: firstname.lastname@hut.fi

Arrangements and participation

The workshop starts in Helsinki and continues on the conference ship Silja Serenade sailing through the archipelago from Helsinki to Stockholm and back. The workshop organizer is the Systems Analysis Laboratory at the Helsinki University of Technology.

The accommodation on the ship and hotel as well as meals during the workshop are free for the speakers. The number of presentations in the workshops will be limited. There will also be a possibility to present research results by posters. Doctoral students and practitioners are also encouraged to participate. Non-speaker participants have to cover their hotel (~ 110 euros/night) and conference ship costs. The ship package includes all meals and will cost 355 Euros in a single cabin, 220 Euros in a double cabin and 184 Euros in a triple cabin. Registration info will be sent later to the accepted participants. The workshop website is http://www.ted.tkk.fi/ .

Intensive courses

There will be pre and post workshop intensive courses for doctoral students. The lectures will be given by Professors Ortwin Renn (May 16 - 19) and Emery Roe (May 26 - 27). The courses are open to everybody but priority is given to full time doctoral students. For details see the web-pages: http://www.sal.tkk.fi/Opinnot/Mat-2.136. For practical arrangements contact Mr Totti Könnölä at SAL/HUT.

Sponsoring organizations for the courses

- Systems Analysis Laboratory, Helsinki University of Technology
- Helsinki Institute of Science and Technology Studies (HIST), a research institute established jointly by HUT, University of Helsinki and Helsinki School of Economics
- the Graduate School in Systems Analysis, Decision Making and Risk Management of the Helsinki University of Technology and the Helsinki School of Economics