Project Overview

European citizens do not participate equally in the Information society: in fact, the digital gap is moving down from infrastructures to uses. Based on this observation, local authorities in Europe have developed Digital Public Spaces (DPS) promoting e-inclusion.

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1.Gironde County Council (FR)

 

Lead Partner of the E-COOP Project

Our territory

Gironde is the largest county in mainland France: 10,725 km², or almost 2% of the French territory.  With its 236 000 inhabitants, Bordeaux is the capital of Gironde, the metropolis counting around 800 000 people.

Not only is the county world-famous for its excellent wines, but also has other exceptional natural resources (126km of coastline and beaches along the Atlantic Ocean; 480,000 ha of maritime pine forestland, Europe’s biggest estuary).

Overall, Gironde is not just a tourist destination: research and cutting-edge technologies (aerospace, lasers) have been developed, making the area both competitive and attractive.

The administration

The inhabitants are summoned every 4 years to elect 63 local representatives for the County Council. The main competences of this institution are social policies, transportation, and education. It also leads actions in economical, cultural and environmental policies areas and it is a key partner for municipal and local authorities, providing them with substantial financial and technical support.

As a main actor in public policies and territorial planning, Gironde CC has a very tight relationship with local decision makers, regional and national authorities and political leaders. Therefore its decisions and activities have a large impact on public policies and on the definition of innovative strategies.

GCC’s General Manager and elected vice-Presidents in charge of ICT policy, European cooperation, Culture and Territorial planning will be directly involved in the E-COOP project activities.

A digit@l commitment

In 2004, the GCC launched "Gironde Numérique" with ERDF support. The program aimed at providing broadband on the whole territory, local authorities taking a lead role in this initiative. It was closely followed by the implementation of programs targeting the development and the improvement of e-services. The reduction of the digital gap was becoming more and more a priority, and so the SAPIENS program was born. SAPIENS offers training and expertise, working for the appropriation of digital uses by all citizens, through support tools and resources for the network of Digital Public Spaces (DPS). A 2009 study identified 213 public internet access points in the County, including 56 Digital Public Spaces providing individual assistance to users.  

During 3 years (2012-2014), GCC will be lead partner of the E-COOP Project. The institution’s competences in ICT policies and its accurate knowledge of local issues, altogether with the various skills and experiences of its 11 partners, are to be a key factor of success for the project.

Contact:              ecoop@cg33.fr  www.facebook.com/lp.ecoop

 

 

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