2. Key Take-Aways
• Technology and the internet provide a
lot of opportunity for broadening and
deepening civic engagement, specifically
public participation
• You can do this!
• Please do this (and let us know how it
went)
3. Does Online Make Sense?
Opportunities Challenges
• Bridge limitations of • Digital divide
time and space
• No replacement for
• Ability to scale face-to-face
• Participants as • Uncivil behavior
resources
• Very resource-
• Cost savings intensive and
expensive
4. Project Examples
• Public information and community building
on Facebook
• Community asset mapping with Google Maps
and Drupal
• Participatory budgeting with IdeaScale
• Civic contest (crowdsourcing) around
redistricting in Ohio using ArcGIS
5. Public Information &
Community Building
Type Social Media
Year 2009 — current
Context Urban planning in
Portland, OR
Goals Inform, community
building
Technology Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/pdxplan
6. Community Asset Mapping
Type Collaborative
mapping
Year 2009
Context Development of
after-school
program
Goals Assess, Discover,
Inform
Technology Google Maps,
Drupal
http://biloxiyouthassets.org
7. Participatory Budgeting
Type Crowdstorming
Year 2010
Context Seattle city budget
2011/2012
Goals Consult
Technology IdeaScale
http://seattlecitycouncil.ideascale.com
8. Civic Contests &
Crowdsourcing
Type Civic contest,
mapping,
crowdsourcing
Year 2009
Context Redistricting in the
state of Ohio
Goals Capacity building,
awareness, consult
Technology ArcGIS
http://www.sos.state.oh.us/sos/redistricting.aspx
9. The Tool Landscape
• There are hundreds of tools (generic,
specialized, custom)
• Often multi-purpose, broadly applicable. Not
always easy to clearly match tools to processes
or desired outcomes
• Online participation and the tools involved
often require a broad skill set (technology,
social media, community management, online
facilitation, editing etc.)
10. Some Web-Specific
Considerations
• Accessibility • Moderation
• Data security • Archiving
• Identity • Legal
• Privacy & • Mobile
publicness
• Tool support
• Intellectual
property
11. Design Principles &
Success Factors
• Know your objectives, audience, resources
• Apply good process (e.g. IAP2 framework)
• Find the right combination of people, process
and tools
• Be transparent about commitments, set
realistic expectations
• Consider web-specific issues (e.g. privacy,
security, identity)
12. Resources
• Intellitics Blog
http://www.intellitics.com/blog
• ParticipateDB
http://participatedb.com
• NCDD 2010 Resource Guide on Public Engagement
http://www.ncdd.org/files/NCDD2010_Resource_Guide.pdf
• Promising Practices in Online Engagement
http://www.publicagenda.org/pages/promising-practices-in-online-
engagement
• Social Media Club
http://socialmediaclub.org
15. Some Rights Reserved
Except where noted, the contents of this presentation are
licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-
Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. The terms
of this license are available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
by-nc-sa/3.0/us/
v1.0 2010/11/05