What if citizens set the city budgets?
It’s not a fantasy, it happens in an ever growing number of cities, both small and big. By 2015, citizens of over 1,500 cities worldwide were helping to decide on what their city budget should be spent. This is...
How to make digital participation inclusive?
Digital participation succeeds in approaching certain groups that are difficult or impossible to reach with traditional forms of participation. But does digital participation also exclude certain groups?...
Our Team Retreat to Rethink Citizen Engagement
We spent a fantastic three days together with the whole team in the woods around Durbuy, Belgium. Wait, why a team retreat in the first place? That was exactly the question we asked everyone on the team before...
7 conditions for a successful online engagement process
The reason why so many cities and municipalities use digital platforms? A decision-maker always strives for the greatest possible transparency, inclusiveness and responsiveness. This is not only the case for daily...
10 Must-Read Books about Digital Democracy
As winter’s coming, you might find some more time to grab a book and learn about our democracies in the digital age. We have curated our favourite list of recently released books exploring how the Internet...
Participatory budgeting: insights from more than 20 governments
As we are currently finalizing our platform’s new module for participatory budgeting, we researched this emerging domain extensively and listened to more than 20 city councils. From the Canadian Toronto (2.8...
‘Disco Sour’: a dystopian handbook for Internet democracy
What if our democracies would evolve to a Tinder-alike swipe system that promotes citizens to direct decision-makers? This all-too-imaginable techno-future makes the perfect playbook of 'Disco Sour'.
Internal organization for online citizen participation within your municipality: a practical guide
Cities and municipalities are daily looking for ways to involve their citizens in policy and decision making. Using online applications are a common practice. But how do you install such an application in your...
Introducing the smart groups: the easiest way to segment users
Our platform is getting smarter: one of our main concerns is that you should spend your time on what matters and leave some other tasks to the platform. Like manually creating groups of users for instance. That’s...
Introducing a new powerful role: projects moderators
We’re happy to announce a new feature that is going to change the way how CitizenLab is used inside your organisation. Do not longer only count on the admins to get most out of your projects. Welcome project...
Introducing invitations: an easier way to get users onboard
What use is a participatory tool if those you want to collaborate with are not using it? We decided to make it easier for you to ask them to join in by launching the invitations feature. You now have several ways...
What Makes a Good Online Citizen Participation Tool?
As you may have understood by now if you are a regular reader of the CitizenLab blog, enhancing your citizen engagement processes by adding a digital component is crucial. It is the answer to most of your questions...
CitizenLab launches its civic engagement platform in France
We are glad to finally share the news with you: CitizenLab is launching in France! Two French cities have chosen CitizenLab to help them in their online citizen participation processes: Rueil-Malmaison and...
![How to Reach 25% of Your Population at the Platform Launch [case study]](https://www.citizenlab.co/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/large_image-1.jpeg)
How to Reach 25% of Your Population at the Platform Launch [case study]
Marche-en-Famenne, a small town with 17.401 inhabitants in the Belgian province of Luxembourg, did a fantastic job at launching its CitizenLab participation platform. In less than one-week time, their e-democracy...
Launch Successful Online Participation Initiatives with the CitizenLab E-Participation Canvas
Launching a successful participation initiative online is not something that you should leave up to chance. It is essential that, even before the start of the citizen consultation, all the stakeholders sit around...
CitizenLab platform enables South Africans to share ideas with their new President
In the run up to the State of the Nation Address, the new South African president launched GovChat, a nationwide initiative to boost citizen engagement. Via the online platform, powered by the Belgian startup...
Vancouver Chose Citizenlab for its Smart City Strategy
The cities of Vancouver and Surrey, in Canada, are partnering together to submit a joint application for the Infrastructure Canada Smart Cities Challenge, a nationwide competition encouraging cities to share their...
Product Update January: Maps, Timelines & More!
We have an exciting product update to share with you! January has been a busy month for us. Let us walk you through the newest platform features. Platform updates 1) Maps One of the new methods to collect input...
Our Year in (P)review: Towards Most Impactful Citizen Participation
As we are stepping into the new year, it’s time for the CitizenLab team to look back at the past year and set the pace for the next year. Read below about our citizen participation realisations in 2017, and our...
“Citizens have one expertise: the one of their needs” – Interview with Stephen Boucher
During the Interconnectés Forum 2017 in Lyon (France), we met up with Stephen Boucher, professor at the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management of the Université Libre de Bruxelles and author of the book...
3 Creative Ways the New CitizenLab Cities Are Using Their Platforms
In the last three months, the CitizenLab team accompanied more than ten cities and municipalities in launching their online participation platform. With each of these platforms, we saw different examples to collect...
Here’s Why Flemings and Walloons Agree on the Priorities for Brussels
At the beginning of 2017, the Cabinet Citoyen & Burgerkabinet initiatives were launched by the Flemish Region and the Federation Wallonia-Brussels with one idea in mind: get a better hold of what citizens...
What’s the Difference Between “Civic Tech” and “GovTech”?
Civic Tech and GovTech—“Potato, potato”, I can hear you thinking. Although many amongst us use the term interchangeably, there are important differences between both. This article sheds a light upon the existing...
7 Unmissable Talks at Smart City Expo World Congress 2017
This year the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona will be bigger than ever: more cities, more exhibitors, more speakers, and more inspiring talks by experts! The focus of this year is citizen empowerment,...
5 Indices & Frameworks to Evaluate E-participation
Source: Freepik Below, we are listing 5 metrics, tools, solutions and frameworks which are useful to measure how governments are performing when it comes to implementing e-participation initiatives. This article is...
CitizenLab, Winner Solution for the Smart State Germany
From Left to Right: Benedikt Lahme, door2door; Gerhard Hammerschmid, Hertie School professor and myGovernment jury member; Thomas Balbach, CitizenLab; Tino Mittelmeier, Little Bird; Laila Oudray, Polyas;...
Arlon is launching its CitizenLab citizen platform
The City of Arlon decided to make citizen participation one of the main pillars of its policy strategy. It is way to enable participative democracy and to develop new projects in full transparency. CitizenLab was...
![European Local Democracy Week 2017: Meeting the Democracy Builders [Videos]](https://www.citizenlab.co/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Capture-d’écran-2017-10-26-à-12.11.36.png)
European Local Democracy Week 2017: Meeting the Democracy Builders [Videos]
Earlier this October, the European Local Democracy Week took place, and we grabbed this opportunity to meet the ones who build local democracy: officials, civil servants, entrepreneurs, etc. Discover below what...
Discover What Made Mons Citizen Participation Platform so Successful
After 4 months of citizen consultation with the CitizenLab platform Demain Mons, the city of Mons (in Belgium) decides to carry on the experience. The Demain Mons platform takes place within the making of the 2025...
How to Implement Successful Online Citizen Participation: 5 Tips We Heard From the Citizens Themselves
At CitizenLab, we come to work every day because we want to shape digital citizen participation. As an unstoppable urbanisation is taking place and cities might become more important than nations, it’s time to...
The Framework That Will Make You Understand E-participation
In the past years, the communication between governments and citizens has evolved: from a one-way « government to you » perspective, to a two-way « government with you » perspective. This is the result of the...
6 Urban Projects Built Thanks to Online Civic Engagement
Citizens and administration often work hand in hand on a lot of different projects: culture, urban planning, budget or even the organisation of a city event. But which projects are most likely to foster...
![13 Podcasts About the City of Tomorrow [Updated]](https://www.citizenlab.co/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Capture-d’écran-2017-08-10-à-15.09.54.png)
13 Podcasts About the City of Tomorrow [Updated]
If you need company during your tanning sessions on the beach, a relaxing sunday evening on the couch, or during your commute, or even if you just want to impress your friends and colleagues with your new found...
![30+ Must-Attend Upcoming Smart City Conferences [2018 Update]](https://www.citizenlab.co/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/SmartCityExpoinBarcelona.jpg)
30+ Must-Attend Upcoming Smart City Conferences [2018 Update]
Within the emerging field of Smart Cities, there are many events organized worldwide which offer you the opportunity to connect with government leaders, civic tech startups and other urban innovators. We, at...
How Liège Gathered 95k Votes on Its Civic Engagement Platform in Less than 4 Months
“We have been pioneers in citizen participation, but this time we really want to accelerate and change paradigm so as to hit a milestone.” – Jean-Christophe Peterkenne, Strategy Director of the City of Liège....
3 Newsletters to Fill Your Inbox with the Best of Civic Tech
Are you struggling to make time to keep up with the latest Civic Tech trends? In an industry that moves fast, it is indeed sometimes tough to follow the latest news – granted. But it’s also essential to do...
