Civic Engagement Archives

16/04/2018 • 0 Comments What Makes a Good Online Citizen Participation Tool?

As you may have understood by now if you are a regular reader of the...

13/03/2018 • 0 Comments 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...

13/03/2018 • 0 Comments 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...

Stephen Boucher CitizenLab citoyens citizens

18/12/2017 • 0 Comments “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...

Semaine Européenne de la démocratie locale

26/10/2017 • 0 Comments 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...

21/09/2017 • 0 Comments 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...

15/08/2017 • 0 Comments 6 Urban Projects Built Thanks to Online Civic Engagement

Citizens and administration often work hand in hand on a lot of different projects: culture,...

10/08/2017 • 0 Comments 13 Podcasts About the City of Tomorrow [Updated]

If you need company during your tanning sessions on the beach, a relaxing sunday evening on...

20/07/2017 • 0 Comments 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...

19/06/2017 • 1 Comment 3 Citizen Profiles You May Be Missing out If You Don’t Use Online Citizen Participation

As a policy-maker, you are aware that citizen participation is key to building inclusive municipalities....

22/05/2017 • 0 Comments Civic Tech’s Next Breakthrough? Spatial Cocreation

Crowdsourcing platforms already are a great solution for environment planning, but they could revolutionise it...

19/04/2017 • 0 Comments How to Measure Success in Online Citizen Engagement

Engaging citizens in policy-making on the internet is a relatively new practice, but one that...

31/03/2017 • 0 Comments 5 Tips for Opening Government Data

It seems we still live in the infancy of open government data, which is all...

07/03/2017 • 0 Comments Opening Government Data for Citizen Engagement [a Checklist]

It seems we still live in the infancy of open government data, which is all...

01/03/2017 • 1 Comment How can open data feed citizen engagement?

Open Belgium 2017 –the Belgian conference on open knowledge– is now only a few weeks...

Somber view of political participation in Belgium

14/02/2017 • 0 Comments Belgium Has Got a Problem with Citizen Participation

The Economist has just released the ninth edition of its annual Democracy Index, and it...

06/02/2017 • 0 Comments Designing Community Participation, Building Political Engagement

Opportunities to engage directly with decision-making have been flourishing for citizens over the last few...

citizen engagement vs citizen participation

03/01/2017 • 0 Comments What is the Difference between Citizen Engagement and Participation?

Over the last years, there has been a shift from a top-down governance to a...

27/12/2016 • 3 Comments 8 Steps to Effective Participatory Budgeting

Participatory budgeting is an important process for inclusive and accountable governance. It allows cities and towns to...

20/12/2016 • 5 Comments Participatory Budget: The Beginners Guide

A participatory budget is an innovative policymaking tool which directly involves citizens in policy decisions. It...

12/12/2016 • 2 Comments 3 Tips to Blend Online and Offline Citizen Engagement

Online or offline citizen engagement, which strategy is best? Both online and offline platforms have their...

13/11/2016 • 0 Comments 5 Citizen-Centric Sessions You Cannot Miss at SCEWC16

Gathering over 600 cities and more than 14.000 visitors, the Smart City Expo World Congress...

31/10/2016 • 4 Comments How These 10 Belgian Cities Are Using CitizenLab

Already more than 10 Belgian cities and municipalities are using CitizenLab to boost their online citizen...

11/10/2016 • 1 Comment How to Inject Startup Mentality into Bureaucratic Governments

Governments – these bureaucratic, inefficient organisations we all know – are more and more willing...

27/09/2016 • 6 Comments 4 Emerging Technology Trends in Citizen Engagement

Digital technology is rapidly transforming the way cities are engaging with their citizens, and vice...

05/09/2016 • 1 Comment From Talk to Action: Kickstart Your Smart City Plans

Wondering how to make your city smarter? But what does the buzzword “smart city” actually...

10/08/2016 • 5 Comments 5 Most Common Myths About Citizen Participation

There are a lot of misconceptions out there about citizen participation and what it entails....

27/07/2016 • 7 Comments The Ladder of Citizen Participation in the Digital Era

Citizen participation refers to the process during which citizens are given the opportunity to participate...

12/07/2016 • 1 Comment Open Data for Government: A Gentle Introduction

“Open data is the idea that some data should be freely available for everyone to...

28/06/2016 • 1 Comment Three Alternatives to a Referendum

With the Brexit just behind us, questions arise about the eligibility of a referendum for...

08/06/2016 • 6 Comments City as a Platform: How It Changes Governance

What is the future role of city governments? As digital technologies are changing the way...

11/05/2016 • 0 Comments Four Steps to Enhanced Crowdsourcing

Over the past decade, crowdsourcing has grown to significance through crowdfunding, crowd collaboration, crowd voting,...

04/05/2016 • 0 Comments Why Govtech Is Europe’s Next Big Thing

Even in the digital era we’re currently in, using online government services can sometimes feel...

5 inspiring talks about how government will change in digital age

19/04/2016 • 0 Comments 5 Inspiring TED Talks About Our Governments In The Digital Age

New governance technologies are redefining authority and change what it means to be a citizen in the...

CitizenLab: Smart Cities are created by Smart Citizens

12/04/2016 • 2 Comments Only Smart Citizens can enable true Smart Cities

The concept of a Smart City, as advertised by tech giants like IBM, Cisco and...

05/04/2016 • 4 Comments Gamification in Citizen Participation

Before getting your hands dirty with building a citizen participation programme, rethink why citizens would...