PEOPLE POWERED'S October news: digital impact stories, platform survey, regional hubs

The focus of this newsletter is digital participation platforms and the concrete benefits they can offer. With support from TICTeC, we developed four, in-depth case studies showcasing how some of the most highly rated platforms (and social media channels) are used to boost and improve public participation, and the resulting impacts for governments and communities. These stories show how to put our Guide to Digital Participation Platforms into action in diverse contexts. Read about them below:

In China, popular social media platform is harnessed to increase participation

China’s Participation Center, a People Powered member, has developed a WeChat “mini app” to grow the number of participatory budgeting participants to more than 3 million in Chengdu city.

Participation must be designed to ‘leave no one behind’: Argentina case study

Involving vulnerable people, such as those with disabilities, in the development of a participation platform increases their engagement in civic life and trust in government, while improving governance. In this case study from Rosario, Argentina, a team of people with disabilities offers tips to assure that blindness or low vision isn’t a barrier to online participation.

Chilean institute harnesses digital platform to engage young people as change agents

Chile’s National Youth Institute uses an online participation platform to increase engagement among its thriving network of young people who it incentivizes to develop solutions to social problems. One of those solutions is health education and protective clothing for rural residents with chronic overexposure to the sun.

Digital platform and training boost participation in rural Kyrgyzstan

In Kyrgyzstan, the World Bank shows how donors can support local decision-making and enable community residents to decide which projects will most benefit them. In this story, rural residents propose and vote on initiatives related to electricity, social cohesion and economic enterprise.

Survey: Rate the digital participation platforms you use

Are you using a digital participation platform? We want to hear about your experience, to help update our ratings of the best platforms. 

In February, People Powered launched a Guide to Digital Participation Platforms and ratings of the top offerings. The guide helps advocates and policymakers choose an online participation platform that best suits their needs. The ratings were developed by a Technology Review Committee composed of six independent experts in participation technology. The experts rated platforms using six criteria: cost, capacity requirements, features, accessibility, ethics and transparency, and track record and reliability. We are now asking people and organizations implementing and/or managing digital participation platforms to rate them. If you have used any of these platforms, we want to hear your opinion based on your work experience. 

Help us provide more accurate assessments of the best digital participation platforms by completing the user survey by November 25! Everyone who completes the survey will be entered into a raffle to win one of five US$50 cash prizes.

Welcome new People Powered team members

People Powered just welcomed four new team members from diverse countries and professional backgrounds: 

• Pamela Nwakanma, research coordinator 

• Melissa Zisengwe, civic tech fellow 

• Luiza Jardim, community building fellow 

• Elizabeth Talatu Williams, learning program fellow

On our blog, we summarize their bios and share their answers to some fun questions, including the city to which they’d most like to return to, the book that has most influenced them and their favorite “productivity hack.”

• Participatory budgeting in prison. Learn more about this innovative use of PB in Italy.

• Guidelines for public observers of citizens’ juries.

• Occupy Politics, a program by our member in Colombia, Exituto de Política Abierta, to create a direct link between residents and campaigns for public office.

• Why don’t voters care about local government?, Journal of Democracy

• Can g0v be replicated abroad?, Taiwan Insight

• Revolution, reform or something in between? (a series of perspectives on the push for reform in Chile and the failed attempt to adopt a new constitution), The Forge

• America and civic language, PACE (Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement)