Information Democracy Fund to support startups

Information Democracy Fund plans to finance a number of projects aimed at the development of the Russian Internet. This is stated by Ilya Massukh, the head of the fund, who adds that it is not only about the promotion of some particular projects, but also about the support for new start-ups.

The transition from e-government to the information democracy has been discussed today at the first meeting of the Expert Club that took place at ITAR-TASS news agency.

The Fund has considered two acting projects and will choose one of them to finance.

According Massukh, the money will be given to project which provides correct visual representation of certain laws; the fund also intends to finance the implementation of Russian public initiative project, under which the laws that get more than 100K signatures will be considered by the authorities. Now, however, the project exists only as a concept, and will be presented in mid-November.

The fund also considers a site builder for regions and municipalities, as well as an idea of creating a virtual book of complaints when customers’ complaints will be posted online.

The panelists believe that the opportunities of citizens to participate in the promotion of their own initiatives should not be limited to one online resource. One of the problems that hinders the development of the information democracy, according to experts, is the complexity of the Russian legislation.

Recall that Information Democracy Fund was initially intended to provide independent oversight of the voting during the presidential elections in Russia on March 4, 2012.