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...
![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...
“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...
![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...
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...
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 civic tech podcasts you should be listening to [Updated]](https://www.citizenlab.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-14-at-13.54.58-500x282.jpg)
13 civic tech podcasts you should be listening to [Updated]
Brushing up on civic tech and digital democracy while you’re on the bus, doing groceries or even running your 5k? All hail to podcasts! We carry a goldmine of information in our pockets at all times, and a podcast...
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 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. To collect the ideas of your fellow citizens, you know the drill: paper polls, town hall meetings, and even...
Civic Tech’s Next Breakthrough? Spatial Cocreation
Crowdsourcing platforms already are a great solution for environment planning, but they could revolutionise it altogether. Web platforms for local cocreation are an essential component of the ongoing democratic...
How to Measure Success in Online Citizen Engagement
Engaging citizens in policy-making on the internet is a relatively new practice, but one that usually comes with massive expectations. But what exactly should be measured when we speak of true success in an online...
