Citizalia, the truth drips out

Futher to the ongoing story of the Citizalia European Parliamentary game, so expertly skewered by Mr Worth comes this missive (Click on picture to read) from the Secretary General of the European Parliament, in answer to questions from Godfrey Bloom and for the project's managers it is a bit of a curate's egg.

The total cost of the project is Euro 275,279, to which the Parliament contributes Euro 206,450. To date, Euro 82,580 has been paid in pre-financing in accordance with the terms of the grant agreement.

Which is all well and good for the Citizalia, and chimes with what they told Jon after he highlighted their work.

But, and here is the rub, another of their claims was as follows,

Current Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and European officials will be on hand to guide you through the procedures and provide background information.

Seems to be a little less certain, according to Mr Welle,

DG Communication has contacted the European Services Network to ask for an explanation of the reference to on the web-site to "European Parliament Officials being on hand to guide the citizens through the virtual Parliament" and I will come back to you once this has been clarified.

Now, given that the author of this letter is Mr Welle, and he is the boss at the European parliament, he should, one might have thought, be aware if his staff were to be moonlighting as Simocrats. And even more interestingly is the way that the Citizalia team have, at some point recently taken down this claim from their website. Maybe they did so after the Welle minions asked them about it, who knows?

Whatever, it seems pretty clear that they over-egged their pudding, overstated their importance to drum up credibility for their project. Normal behaviour in PR puffs I guess, but surely for any prospective punter the presence of these people, the Parliamentary staff, MEPs and so on is the point. Otherwise the only people wandering round the virtual parliament will be other lost (and seriously bored) souls trying to get a handle on the what it is the Parliament does, and engaging in similarly pointless conversations with each other.

First insomianc
"Did you find anything out?"
Second insomiac
"Nah",
In unison,
"There's nobody here".

In virtual Europarliamentary space nobody can here you scream (or discuss the technical workings of the commitology procedure preceeding a trilogies into the workings of the Working Time Directive)

(To be fair to them, they do provide a link to the old claims - so it isn't a pure case of stealth editing).

All hail Jon Worth: worster of Simocracy

And his ongoing campaign against European Parliamentary 'tinterweb excess.

And the latest cyber boondoggle in his sights is Citizalia. And boy oh boy it does seem worthy of his contempt. (See virtual MEP - Green perhaps - on the right) For the paltry sum of about 1 million Euros (out of a budget of about 4 million - see below for update) the firm, European Service Network has been commissioned to create a virtual Parliament. (page 21. and I note that Mostra behind the infamous and useless MyParl website is involved in the largesse)

It is an exercise in Sim-democracy (simocracy?) He reckons it looks alright (I think it looks about 10 years out of date). According to its PR puff,

Citzalia is democracy in action. It is role playing game and social networking
forum wrapped in a virtual 3D world that captures the essence of the European
Parliament. You may even recognise parts of the building.

I can see the huge crowds of 'der kidz' getting excited about it now. Clamoring to be part of the project

Citzalia is a world you inhabit and help create. Using your avatar you can walk around, interact, network, debate the issues of today, propose legislation, vote and learn about how the European Parliament works for citizens. You can be a
Member of the European Parliament (MEP), a journalist, a student or any role you
want to create.

Any role I want to create - Guy Fawkes perhaps? Can I set fire to it? Or maybe be a belligerent member of a French trade union and throw week old virtual offal at the walls? Or a Euro Banksy?

Others will be able to vote on the quality of your proposals and you will be able to vote on theirs. By earning experience points you will be able move up to new expert levels in Citzalia.

The question remains. Do points win prizes? Once I have mastered the trialogue and comitology, do I get a virtual audience with a virtual Buzek? Can I slide a digital stiletto between the ribs of a saturnine pixilated Kalus Welle?

Current Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and European officials will be on hand to guide you through the procedures and provide background information.

Not that they have any real work to do. maybe this is a good idea after all, it would keep them out of trouble and stop them legislating and regulating for a short while... who knows. There again if EP officials are to be spending time on this, who is paying them to give one to one tutorials to bored students in Vilnius, how many staff will be online 24/7? And how much will that cost?

Via Jon

A certain Paolo at ESN has told us that the website's, "total funding for the project is about 275,000 euros". Which is odd as the Parliament's tender document says that the maximum allowed is 250,000. So he must be including the co funding from ESN itself.