In the current program of OpenFest there are two talks by Bozhidar Bozhanov:
- Electronic identification, about the expected smart-card chips in the personal IDs, which would be usable for electronic signatures and for on-line representation to the state, and
- On-line voting, for the expected idea for on-line voting.
For the first talk the program committee was unanimous that it should be presented at OpenFest – it would use open technologies, and will affect all of us, e.g. it’s relevant not just for OpenFest, but for most of the visitors, too.
The second created a lot of discussions, not only because the program committee is split on the whole topic of on-line voting and if it’s a good/meaningful/implementable idea, but because it requires some special circumstances to accept two talks by the same speaker. Also, the referendum on the 25th of October could render the whole talk meaningless, if most of the people had voted against the idea.
There could’ve been a few different outcomes from the referendum:
- To be less than 20% activity, which would’ve rendered the result non-representative;
- To have between 20% and 54% activity with most people being against – then there wouldn’t be a lot of sense to have the talk;
- To have more than 54% activity and for most people to be against – then there wouldn’t be any sense to for the talk to be presented;
- To have between 20% and 54% activity and most of the people to have voted for it (which happened now, as it’s visible on the site of the Central Electoral Commission) – then the discussion has to go to Parliament and there’s the need of this talk, so we should know what is coming up ahead;
- There tho be more than 54% activity and most people to have voted for it, which would’ve made the talk mandatory.
In the current circumstances, the OpenFest team thinks that it’s important for this talk to be presented to the community.
