The fourth day of the first course from the national program “Governing Skills” started with an outdoor team building. In the afternoon, the classes were dedicated to the topic of citizen participation in politics. The topic concerning the place of political causes on the internet was introduced by Doc. Orlin Spasov, who teaches at SU “Kliment Ohridski”. He made a review on how, in the last few years, the political parties in Bulgaria used, and continue to use the internet in order to reach the citizens. According to him, the internet communication cannot substitute the traditional media, as in Bulgaria, still 42% of the citizens have not used the internet.
Mr. George Ganevwho is a program director at the Centre for Liberal Strategies talked about the online tools “Votewatch”and “Votelead”. He showed the methodology, on which those tools are based and the way they function. Those online tools are created through a project, financed by the thrust for civil society of Central and Eastern Europe. Kiril Avramov, lecturer in political science at the New Bulgarian University put an accent on the necessity of an insightful choice.
A special guest in the rubric ‘30 minutes in the company of’ was Doc. Leander Litov, head of the Bulgarian scientific team at CERN, Switzerland. He talked about the role of science in the social development, about the necessity of innovations and interdisciplinary scientific research.