Three Alternatives to a Referendum
With the Brexit just behind us, questions arise about the eligibility of a referendum for asking people’s opinion. A referendum issue should stand on its own. In the Brexit case, it was clear that the EU...
Belgian city of Geel launches citizensourcing platform for urban planning
The city of Geel has launched its city platform one week ago! They will use CitizenLab to gain insights in how the citizens imagine the future of Geel, in order to co-construct the urban plans. Geel promotes...
City as a Platform: How It Changes Governance
What is the future role of city governments? As digital technologies are changing the way we interact with each other, cities have to undergo a transition as well. Tomorrow’s government is not merely a...
Four Steps to Enhanced Crowdsourcing
Over the past decade, crowdsourcing has grown to significance through crowdfunding, crowd collaboration, crowd voting, and crowd labor. The idea behind crowdsourcing is simple: decentralize decision-making by...
Why Govtech Is Europe’s Next Big Thing
Even in the digital era we’re currently in, using online government services can sometimes feel like stepping into a time machine. However, governments across Europe are waking up to the need to bring their...
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 21st century. Thanks to this digital transformation, decision-making will become more collaborative,...
Only Smart Citizens can enable true Smart Cities
The concept of a Smart City, as advertised by tech giants like IBM, Cisco and Siemens, is a city with sensors in every aspect of everyday life, gathering large amounts of data and using algorithms to optimize...
Gamification in Citizen Participation
Before getting your hands dirty with building a citizen participation programme, rethink why citizens would participate nota bene. Understanding the motivations and motives of citizens correctly leads to a more...
10 Must-Read Books About The City Of Tomorrow
With the Easter holidays coming up, you might find some more time to grab a book and learn about the city of tomorrow. We have curated our favourite list of books in the fields of urbanism, governments,...
Why Citizen Experts Are The New Paradigm
We have the means to build a strong digital environment where citizens can connect with each other. This opens up the possibility of calling upon their collective expertise. So, why do we still put forward an...
Hack With Refugees: A Roundup
More than one month ago, CitizenLab started — in collaboration with a community of Brussels-based positive impact entrepreneurs — crowdsourcing ideas about how to turn the arrival of refugees into...
3 Key Learnings To Move Forward With Citizen Engagement & Co-Creation
We’re moving towards a new era. An era of smart cities with citizens actively involved in problem-solving, innovation and decision-making. Smart cities are often depicted to be about digital technologies only, but...
A Network of City Makers
Over the past couple of years, the City Makers movement has been taking off. City Makers are people who singlehandedly initiate change in their urban surroundings and are shaping the city in transition. Citizens in...
Hack with Refugees
Beyond the emergency and the emotional reactions generated by the massive arrival of refugees in Europe, it’s time now to think about mid-term and long-term issues and opportunities. What can be done to...
From Tech to People: Takeaways from Smart City Expo 15
Last week the CitizenLab team was present at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona. It won’t be exaggerated if you’d call it ‘a gathering of the brightest minds in the urban...
Meet CitizenLab at the Smart City World Expo in Barcelona next week!
Next week from November 17th until November 19th, the CitizenLab team will be present at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona. This is the world leading event for smart cities – bringing together...
5 Reasons Why Your City Should Start Online Civic Engagement
Civic engagement refers to the practice of encouraging citizens to become involved in the community life and help shape the community’s future. Thanks to the rise of modern technologies, your city...
What is Citizensourcing?
Everybody has heard of crowdsourcing, the practice of engaging a ‘crowd’ or group for a common goal — often innovation, problem solving, or efficiency. Thanks to the modern web and its growing connectivity,...
Podcast about CitizenLab and Digital Nomadism
CitizenLab meets AppsCoast We’re building CitizenLab while ‘traveling’ through South East Asia. Hopping from one (co-working) place to another offers us the possibility to meet interesting people,...
CitizenLab selected for Tech in Asia Tokyo!
We received great news today. Our application to have our own booth at the 2‐day Tech in Asia conference in Tokyo was successful: we’re selected! We’re thrilled at CitizenLab to meet all those bright...
Citizen participation for the digital age
Why we’re building a digital platform for civic participation As a citizen of any city, you daily see things that could be improved. Be it an idea to bring communities closer together, be it a mobility solution...
We’re looking for a Meteor developer!
Hi there, Ready to dive into a SaaS business that is going to shape the way tomorrow’s cities are governed? We hope that you love building great products as much as we do. Our product is a highly reactive...
CitizenLab is born!
A big announcement: CitizenLab will shape the way tomorrow’s cities are governed, through citizensourcing and crowdgovernance. More info coming about the what, where, why, how and when. Pass by from time to...
