In recent years, the promotion of citizen participation has become a strategic axis for many governments. City councils and regional administrations are committed to the creation of councils and departments for citizen participation. The most advanced ones even launch participation websites where neighbors can get involved in the design of public policies.
Today there are numerous technology providers that offer citizen participation tools. If you are an elected official or a public employee and work in the area of participation, you may have already been approached by more than one salesperson from these companies offering their services. But how do you sort the wheat from the chaff, which solutions best suit your needs and, not least, how much should you be willing to spend?
Kuorum has been advising local and regional governments in six countries on citizen participation for years. In most cases, the administration's biggest challenge is not technological but strategic. Some invest in technology before creating a participation census, analyzing the state of the associative fabric in the municipality or modernizing the participation regulations. This causes the results to suffer. And that is why our consultants offer a free first meeting in which key aspects such as these are discussed.
Once the strategic part has been resolved, it is time to choose which technology suits us best. The first thing to ask ourselves is how the platform will help us to organize our contacts: will it allow us to segment the participation census, will we be able to identify the most active users, and will we be able to send mass mailings? All these functionalities are essential to increase participation rates.
Moreover, participation is very different in a large capital city with millions of inhabitants and in a small rural municipality. Participatory budgets, for example, may make sense in the former, especially if there is already a strong culture of participation. While for the latter it may be more convenient to organize digital assemblies, or even face-to-face assemblies. That is why we must ask ourselves what types of process will allow us to open our platform and how well they will fit our specific case.
Keep in mind that developing web services is a highly complex task that requires the work of many skilled professionals: engineers, designers and, very importantly, experts who are in charge of optimizing the user experience. If when trying to use an engagement platform you feel lost and don't know where to click, then your provider has not invested enough in the design of the tool. This will cause your participation rates to plummet.
Finally, remember that you can choose between the implementation of a website on a server (either your own or in the cloud) and the use of software as a service (SaaS). The latter option has the advantage of a lower price that will also include all the updates made over time for free. And don't forget, the engagement platform is not an end but a tool. Your constituents are the most important thing. If they adopt your technology, then all is well.
If you need help or would like a free demo of our technology contact us at without obligation.
