Citizens iTV was an experimental project focused on the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) as a potential and powerful new channel to deliver public contents and interactive services from local public bodies to citizens and companies.
The lead partner was Veneto Region- Informatics Systems Office, who commissioned the fulfilment of the project to TeDIS.
The project was part of the Regional Programme for Innovative Actions (PRAI), financed by the European Community fund FESR.
The project aimed to evaluate the opportunities and functionalities of Digital Terrestrial TV (DTT), defining the usability and interactivity requirements needed to realize effective services through this technology and designing a possible technical and business model to support DTT for Public Administration.
In order to do this, the Citizens iTV project was made up of two main phases: an analysis of DTT in Italy and Europe, with a focus on public services delivered through this channel; a pilot project set in a specific area in Veneto Region (the district of Belluno), where some DTT services will be implemented and 250 user tests will be involved – and monitored - throughout the experimentation.
The main tasks were:
- the analysis of DTT models and experimental services definition;
- the project management and leading activities of the different ICT partners, broadcasters and Public Administrations -as the content and services providers-;
- monitoring and promoting activities about the experimentation.
The Citizens iTV project was linked to the My Portal e-governemnt project, in a wide scenario in which the Veneto Region promotes different channels and instruments to organize E- and T-government (government by television) actions. In order to realize this strategy, some services of Citizens iTV were the same as My Portal, by an integration of the DTT and the E-government platforms; these services regarded institutional information, news, territorial events and also more interactive services such as ICI tax payment. Other services were developed specifically for the new media, to deliver interactive information about labour market - for unemployed citizens - and administrative, business-financial and juridical information to territorial SMEs, involving local institutions and business associations as the content providers (which is a real innovative aim of the project).
The project started in May 2006 and ended with the experimental phase, which was scheduled between October 2006 and March 2007.
On March 23, 2007 was held the Project Final Event“Il digitale terrestre e la pubblica amministrazione: l’esperienza della Regione del Veneto a confronto con altre amministrazioni italiane e straniere"
Publication: AA.vv., 2007 Citizens iTV: un modello di servizi per il territorio attraverso la televisione digitale terrestre. Il progetto sperimentale della Regione del Veneto, FrancoAngeli, Milano
