La piattaforma Open municipio alla prova dei fatti

The main purpose of this article is to illustrate a case study regarding use of the municipality of Udine’s online platform Open Municipio, which was designed to broaden citizen participation in the management of the res publica. The study of the platform was carried out through three research methods. The first, a quantitative one, offered a picture of the citizens’ use of the platform. The second research, also of a quantitative nature, used a short questionnaire investigate motivations that led citizens to use the platform. The third qualitative research consisted in a series of informal interviews with some key people (politicians or administrative managers) who introduced the platform, or who manage and monitor it. The study shows that the introduction of the platform has not significantly affected participation, although Open Municipio is considered an important opportunity for making more transparent political decisions.