Help Build a New Guide on Digital Participation Platforms

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We’re excited to announce the development of a new resource! The Digital Participation Platforms Guide, to be introduced in December, will help policy-makers and advocates successfully engage residents online. And we want to engage you in shaping this free, public resource.

Why this guide?

People Powered’s members voted to create this guide as their top priority in our organizational participatory budgeting process last year! We then secured additional funding for the project from the National Endowment for Democracy, in collaboration with the nonpartisan International Republican Institute.

The guide aims to address a few common problems:

  • It’s difficult for advocates and policymakers to find accessible, relevant, and practical guidance for how to select and use online participation tools, especially in the Global South.

  • The quality of online participation varies widely, with many programs failing to address common challenges or deliver equitable outcomes.

  • The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified gaps in governance and participation, especially when engagement quickly transitioned from in-person venues to digital spaces.

Who is the guide for?

The guide will support advocates and policy-makers around the world, with a focus on people working at the local government level in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe:

  • Advocates: Government reformers and civil society activists trying to win approval for participatory programs.

  • Policy-makers: Government policy-makers and community partners trying to plan and design participatory programs.

What will the guide include?

The guide will be a long-term resource that we will share and regularly update. It will explain key features of digital participation platforms, lessons learned from users, best practices, a checklist for platform administrators, a process for evaluating platforms, and more. We will also share an annual review and comparison of the most recommended platforms.

Who is developing the guide?

Matt Stempeck is writing the guide content. Matt curates The Civic Tech Field Guide and recently joined Cornell University as technologist in residence to contribute to its growing body of public-interest tech programs. 

You will help develop the comparisons and recommendations of the top platforms. We will conduct a global survey of digital participation platform users, to understand user experiences and recommendations. Based on the survey results, a Technology Review Committee composed of independent experts on participation technology will then produce the annual review and comparison of the most recommended platforms.

We want to hear from you!

To develop content for the guide, we need your help! If you have experience managing or using digital participation platforms, please complete the brief initial survey below.