Town Meeting on living will
Florence and Turin, 25th April 2009
MBI has developed the electronic voting system which the citizens who took part in the Town Meetings of Florence and Turin of 25th April 2009 used to cast their votes.
The Town Meetings were part of the project "Biennale della Democrazia" of the city of Turin. The city of Florence and the Tuscany Region both took part in the project with the city of Turin and the Piedmont Region. Sergio Chiamparino, the Mayor of Turino, Leonardo Dominici, the Mayor of Florence and Claudio Martini, the President of the Tuscnay Region gave speeches during the event.
Nearly 400 citizens, over 250 in Piedmont and 110 in Tuscany, gathered around tables in groups of 10-11 for a discussion on living will, a much-debated topic of great interest.
The “electronic town meeting” [e-TM] method combines the advantages of small group discussion with those of wide public surveys. The alternation between moments of discussion and moments of reflection and individual voting offered many advantages, such as the possibility of defining the agenda in a progressive way.