Our 5 take-aways from #govtech talks at Impact2019
Did you make it to the Impact conference? This annual event is about innovation and digital economy, with conversations about the future of health, finance, education, space… and of course governments....
Renewing European democracy in a digital world
The 21th Century and the Information Age have changed our lives. We are now more connected than ever before. People sharing the same ideas but living worlds apart can suddenly be in touch. We can now raise our...
How to increase engagement on a participation platform
The launch of a participation platform can have a decisive influence on the rest of the project, but it’s often overlooked for lack of time or resources. In order to reach as many citizens as possible and...
Civic Tech Reads of the Week #12
It’s Friday again, and we’ve got a fresh catch of democracy, civic tech and smart city news ready for you! As you know (unless you’re new here, in which case: hi!), we craft a new selection of...
What’s the difference between deliberative and participatory democracy?
Deliberative and participatory democracy seem to be pretty similar. And they are, in ways: both are democratic systems that give citizens a role in governance. In both deliberative and participatory democracies,...
Applying artificial intelligence to citizen participation: the Youth4Climate case study.
Youth for Climate used CitizenLab’s NLP technology to turn thousands of citizen contributions into concise and actionable insights. Here’s what we learned from analysing over 1,700 ideas. On August 20, a 15 year...
The human factor: helping governments tap into collective intelligence
Can natural language processing and machine learning technologies foster quicker political response to citizen views on digital democracy platforms? With the Nesta Collective Intelligence Grants Programme, this is...
Natural Language Processing at CitizenLab: how machine learning can transform citizen engagement projects.
This article has been written in close collaboration with the NLP experts at NLP Town, who supported us through our own NLP journey. Will robots take over the world? Probably not. However, NLP (or Natural Language...
Civic Tech Reads of the Week #10
This Friday, we’ve got even more reason to celebrate than usual. Not only is the weekend rolling around and is your beloved Reads of the Week selection in your inbox, but it’s our TENTH edition! A true...
Civic Tech Reads of the Week #9
The weekend is right around the corner, and that’s always a reason to be in a good mood. Well, let us add a little more joy to your day, because it’s time for our Reads of the Week! Every week, we hand-pick...
8 Steps to Effective Participatory Budgeting
Participatory budgets are a powerful tool for inclusive and accountable governance. They allow cities and towns to educate, engage, and empower their citizens along with strengthening their governance. This blog...
Offline vs. Online participation: A Case Study of Mol & Temse
Citizen participation may be hot and happening right now, but it’s not a new phenomenon. Besides heading to the ballot box every few years, citizens have been showing up to town hall gatherings or collecting...
Civic Tech Reads of the Week #8
If you’re reading this, that means the weekend is almost here! Let’s dive right in, because like every week, we’ve hand-picked the hottest civic tech news for you. 1. “How Civic Tech can steer development and...
Civic Tech Reads of the Week #7
What time is it? It’s not summertime quite yet, but something even better: time for our Reads of The Week! Every Friday, we share our weekly selection of interesting civic tech reads. If you missed some of our...
What is the Difference between Citizen Engagement and Participation?
Over the last few years, there’s been a shift from top-down governance to more horizontally organised types of government. This new political current includes all the stakeholders of public policy projects,...
Civic tech reads of the week #6
Friday’s here! Another week has flown by, and more sizzling civic tech news has rolled off the (digital) presses. And that means it’s time for our selection of the hottest civic tech reads of the week! In our list...
How to choose the right participation method
Survey, idea gathering, participatory budget… when launching a citizen participation project, there are many options to choose from. A survey will yield different answers and reach different audiences than a...
Our 7 key takeaways from TICTec 2019
We came, we listened, we learned : here are our 7 key take-aways from the TICTec conference . TICTec, the conference focusing on Civic technology and digital democracy, is now in its 5th edition. We attended the...
Civic Tech Reads of the Week #5
It’s that time of the week again! Spend your Friday productively by diving into the depths of civic tech with us. And we’ve got quite the selection this week, ranging from the French gilets jaunes to the nature of...
Civic Tech Reads of the Week #4
A special birthday, a computer game and great news for our hearts — we’ve got a really interesting selection of must-reads for you this week! You know the drill by now: Friday stands for compelling and...
Case Study: citizen participation in Kortrijk
Kortrijk, the Flemish city known for its textiles, medieval bravery and mayor Vincent van Quickenborne, kicked off its citizen participation project with ambitious plans. The West-Flemish town aims to become...
![6 Must-Attend Upcoming Smart City Events [2019 Update]](https://www.citizenlab.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Screen-Shot-2019-02-14-at-16.06.32_32-500x293.jpg)
6 Must-Attend Upcoming Smart City Events [2019 Update]
Are you fascinated by the concept of Smart Cities, or are you an expert in the field? Every year, there are hundreds of interesting Smart City events across the globe, allowing you to network and connect with...
FREE DOWNLOAD: The Beginner’s Guide To Digital Participation
Innovation and new technologies are changing the way governments foster participation and connect with their citizens. Citizens today have the whole world at their fingertips, and it has made them more empowered...
10 Easy ways to be a more engaged citizen
If you clicked this article and started reading, chances are you have the intention of being an engaged citizen and leaving a mark on your local community. But you probably feel it, too: it’s so easy to get...
Case Study: Grand Paris Sud and its triple mission
Grand Paris Sud (346.826 inhabitants), an inter-communal structure south of Paris, decided to pull up its sleeves and work towards progress. In the spirit of democracy, they chose to seek the opinions of those who...
‘Slacktivism’: Legitimate Action or Just Lazy Liking?
It sounds like a contradictio in terminis, like ‘sound of silence’ or ‘sensible Trump tweet.’ But ‘slacktivism’, a contraction of ‘activism’ and uh, ‘slacking’, has become a widespread phenomenon that urges us...
Recap: 5 Memorable E-Democracy Cases of 2018
The year is quickly drawing to a close. That brings along a sense of warmth and family, along with the pleasant prospect of lots of food and bubbles. But it’s also the perfect moment to reflect on the year that...
Why Citizen Initiatives Are Vital to Local Democracy: 4 Key Success Factors
Citizen initiatives are often presented as a potential antidote in the face of growing political disaffection in many parts of the world. However, all citizen initiatives differ from each other. We identified 4 key...
Idea Sourcing to Solve Housing Crisis in Vancouver: A Case Study
In tackling the challenges of affordable housing, the Canadian city of Vancouver put the decision-making power where it belongs: with its people. The 2,530,746 Vancouverites were encouraged to share their ideas on...
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...
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...
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...
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...
