4 Advantages of Online Citizen Engagement

image courtesy of UWW ResNet via flickr

Civic engagement is an age-old democratic concept: getting regular people to participate on an individual or collective level in order to direct the government. It’s also a mandate at almost every level and (at this point) a basic public expectation.

But the tool set is changing from having town hall meetings and rooting through suggestion boxes, to a more social and collaborative set of digital tools that can be accessed anywhere, at any time. Think about it: while voting turnout has shown a downturn, engagement on Twitter has skyrocketed. This has happened for a number of reasons, including a vast difference in content that users are engaging with, but there are also a number of advantages offered by crowd-based, digital platforms that present ease and opportunities to both citizens and organizations.

A 2010 study found that 48% of adult internet users have looked to engage with a public policy or issue online. That number equates to millions upon millions of people who have suggestions to offer, solutions to propose, and valuable insight that could change the course of policy and governing for the better. With crowdsourcing, not only can they share these ideas, but they can vote and comment on the ideas of others and help define the next generation of government.

What’s more, they can do it and offer four distinct advantages over traditional methods of content collection:

Low Cost: In-person meetings, arduous processes of managing hard copy suggestions lead to high costs for the government. Introducing a digital collaboration system for suggestion offers a significant savings to government organizations and the taxpayer.

Rapid Response: Because organizations can receive, parse and forward suggestions so quickly in a digital environment, it is also possible to improve delivery efficiency. Numerous IdeaScale and Ideavibes projects have cut the typical implementation cycle in half.

Transparency: Not only does it make government projects visible, it also allows for collaboration and participation. Citizens can solve one another’s problems, become a resource for another, and stay in contact as each idea progresses.

Expanding Reach: Numerous government organizations utilize crowdsourced citizen engagement solutions like IdeaScale not only to gather ideas, but also to get the word out about different government initiatives and source new advocates for new policies.

If you’d like to learn more about how a crowdsorucing campaign might benefit your organization, please download this white paper by Paul Dombowsky, Founder of Ideavibes and crowd expert, who will explain the potential applications of a crowd campaign.

Features that Support Citizen Engagement

image courtesy of Grzegorz Łobiński via flickr

Civic engagement is the act of involving regular citizens in the machinations of government. And because most governments benefit from the input and approval of their public, there are often numerous ways of involving citizens. In an offline fashion, this could mean making an appointment with a government official and discussing important issues, town hall meetings, or even door-to-door canvassing.

In the online world, most of these activities can take place at the digital level. It is now possible to sign digital petitions, email political teams, and communicate opinions and ideas en masse through crowdsourcing. And as the digital realm continues to expand and become more sophisticated, we will continue to see a trend of engaging in an online context more than in an offline context.

And although officials have expressed apprehension in the past about managing large-scale conversation and sometimes feel daunted about making any solution as accessible as possible, IdeaScale has worked to develop a software platform that bears these challenges in mind.

Next week, IdeaScale will host a joint webinar between Paul Dombowsky, Founder of Ideavibes and IdeaScale’s own Audrey Zuro who will highlight solutions within the IdeaScale platform that support maximum, positive civic engagement, including

-Threaded comments
-Real-time multi-lingual translation
-Section 508 settings
-Decision matrix solutions
-And more.

If you’re interested in hearing how IdeaScale can fully support successful citizen engagement campaigns, simply register for next week’s complimentary webinar “Engaging Citizens for Positive Change: Ideavibes Introduces IdeaScale” on Wednesday, May 28th, 10 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. PST.

Engaging Citizens for Positive Change: Ideavibes Introduces IdeaScale May 28th, 10 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. PST

In every government, at every level, the collective actions of citizen groups are enhancing community participation, spurring change, and promoting transparency. With the advent of collaborative media and social networks, it is even easier to benefit from the actions of the engaged crowd along with the additional advantages of meeting these goals more rapidly, at a lower cost, while enhancing overall messaging capabilities.

Hosted by IdeaScale and featuring Paul Dombowsky, founder of Ideavibes, and Audrey Zuro, from IdeaScale’s Innovation Account Development Team, this complimentary webinar will include:

• an introduction to the opportunities presented by crowdsourced citizen engagement
• methods of handling crowd challenges
• functionality within the IdeaScale platform that facilitates the rapid deployment of citizen engagement programs.

In addition, attendees will be invited to participate in a live question and answer session at the end of the presentation.

Join us and register for this complimentary webinar today.

Ideavibes and IdeaScale: Expanding the Innovation Realm

You might remember Ideavibes from some of their great work with the City of Ottawa, the Canada Council for the Arts, TELUS, and many others. Their work in the civic engagement space and private sector crowdsourcing campaigns has long been recognized.

And this week, of course, IdeaScale was glad to announce the acquisition of this Canadian-based, bootstrapped, crowdsourcing start-up.

We’re excited to welcome the Ideavibes platform and team into the IdeaScale fold for a variety of reasons, but there are a few qualities that bare special mention:

Veteran Crowdsourcing Expertise. IdeaScale adds the expertise of an early entrant in the space, CEO Paul Dombowsky, who is a thought leader not only in the field of innovation, but also in the areas of digital engagement and consumer insights. Ideavibes engineered numerous successful initiatives with high levels of engagement and ideas that were delivered on the back end.

Embeddable Product. One of the most important aspects of the Ideavibes platform is its ability to be embedded in almost every digital environment. Accessibility has long been a priority for IdeaScale, which is why IdeaScale has always committed to offline ideation, 508 compliance, real-time translation and much more. The capability to embed is hugely important to reaching the broadest, most inclusive audience and giving organizations the ability to keep their brand front and centre.

Expanded Crowdfunding Functionality. Ideavibes has demonstrated thought leadership in the crowdfunding space that will augment IdeaScale’s existing crowdfunding offering.

Ability to Deliver on Crowd Feedback. Ideavibes has been able to deliver on numerous crowd-generated ideas: from generating interest in sustainability plans to installing a city ice rink in the winter, Ideavibes has a great record of closing the communication loop with contributors – a value that IdeaScale tries to communicate to all its clients.

Join us in welcoming Ideavibes to the IdeaScale family!

IdeaScale to Acquire Ideavibes as Part of Continued Global Expansion

San Francisco, CA – April 24, 2014 — IdeaScale, the world’s largest open innovation software provider today announced its acquisition of Canadian crowdsourcing platform provider: Ideavibes.

Ideavibes’ mission is to offer an accessible crowdsourcing platform utilized by cities, brands, and organizations in order to foster innovation and effect change in the world. Ideavibes’ unique offering has served corporate and government clients such as the City of Ottawa, TELUS, Canada Council for the Arts, The Ottawa Public Library, and many others.

“Ideavibes has built a tremendous product and developed a proven methodology that we are proud to welcome into the IdeaScale family,” said Rob Hoehn, CEO of IdeaScale, “The Ideavibes platform already offers amazing embeddable capabilities that tallie with IdeaScale’s mission to innovate everywhere at every level. We are excited to bring that great experience to more organizations and help them achieve their innovation goals.”

Paul Dombowsky, CEO of Ideavibes said “We’re thrilled to join IdeaScale, a long-time player in the innovation market. Their approach to engagement and innovation along with their mature product offering will continue to make innovation easier for organizations and deliver on ideas that can have a positive impact on the world.”

IdeaScale is glad to offer servers and an established presence in Canada as it continues to build a more comprehensive presence worldwide in Europe, Asia, and elsewhere.

About IdeaScale

IdeaScale is the largest cloud-based innovation software platform in the world with more than 25,000 customers and 4 million users. The software allows organizations to involve the opinions of public and private communities by collecting their ideas and giving users a platform to vote. The ideas are then evaluated, routed, and delivered on the back-end, making IdeaScale the engine of innovation. IdeaScale’s current client roster includes industry leaders, such as EA Sports, NBC, NASA, Xerox and the White House. For more information about IdeaScale, visit ideascale.com.