Digital Pioneers and D-CENT

Introduction to Nesta’s work on digital democracy

September 2016

Government Innovation Team

Investments - in early stage

companies, social enterprises and venture

intermediaries

Research & Analysis - understanding how innovation happens and

how to support it

Innovation Skills – supporting abilities to innovate via tools,

training, networks

Innovation Lab - supporting

innovation in governments, local authorities and

civil society

D-CENT (De-CEntralised Citizens Engagement Technologies),

Project aims and achievements

1. Developed a collection of new tools for digital democratic engagement.

2. Collaborated with partners across Europe to deliver pilots, as well as technical and research assistance

for a number of existing tools.

3. Developed extensive network of collaborators and practitioners, in Europe and beyond (parties, city

governments, parliaments, third sector organisations).

Open source. Privacy-aware. Easily integrated. Interoperable

• Identify the most promising and pioneering examples of digital democracy from

around the world.

• What are the most promising tools, technologies, uses and platforms for digital

democracy?

• How can institutions better engage the public in their deliberations and decisions?

• How can they tap into collective intelligence and distributed expertise?

• Where and how have these been applied and used by parliaments, cities and

political parties to improve the quality and legitimacy of decision-making?

Activity Description Examples

Informing Citizens

Providing information about debates and decisions and notifying citizens of relevant debates, votes and

consultations.

BBC Parliament channel

Hansard Online

Issue Framing Enabling citizens to raise awareness of particular issues and set the agenda for public debate

No10 Petitions site Avaaz.org

Change.org

Citizens providing

information

Providing citizens with opportunities to share information about specific problems, or to understand

individual needs (through e.g. ethnographic research and user led research) or larger patterns and

trends (through e.g. citizen generated data and online polling)

Fix My Street

Patients Like Me

Deliberative polling

Old Weather initiative

Float Beijing

Citizens providing ideas Enabling citizens to provide ideas for new, improved or future solutions

Seoul Metropolitan Government’s Ideas Bank

Challenge.gov

Citizens providing

expertise

Platforms and tools to tap into people’s distributed expertise.

Peer to Patent

Citizens developing

proposals

Enabling citizens to generate and develop specific proposals through, e.g. crowdsourcing and co-

production. This could include channels: which allow citizens to make suggestions, amendments etc.

individually; which allow citizens to work together to make suggestions collectively or collaboratively;

and channels which enable citizens to work with government or parliamentary officials to work

collaboratively on proposals.

Citizens initiating legislation through, e.g. Open Ministry in Finland

Crowdsourcing e.g. the Icelandic constitution

Deliberation Platforms and tools which enable citizens to deliberate Pol.is

vTaiwain

Citizens scrutinising

proposals

Enabling citizens to scrutinise specific options.

Public Reading Stage of Bills (UK)

Parlement et Citoyens

Citizens making decisions Enabling citizens to make decisions e.g. through referendums, voting on specific proposals or

participatory budgeting.

Madame Mayor, I have an Idea

Citizens monitoring and

assessing public actions

and services

Providing information and transparency about decision making processes within government and

enabling citizens to monitor, evaluate, and assess the quality and performance of public services.

Open data

Open budgets

Notify and inform

Generate Ideas

• The city processes 15 ideas a month

• 1.9 million Euros allocated (5 per cent of the construction budget for the

city)

• 70,000 visitors, 420 approved ideas

• More work, but better decisions

Generate Ideas

Better Reykjavik

Generate Ideas

Madrid City Council Generate Ideas

Decide

Consult, scrutinise and collaborate

Consult, scrutinise and collaborate

Consult, scrutinise and collaborate

Consult, scrutinise and collaborate

Key points for representative systems

• Representatives hold the final say

• However, citizens see they’re

making a difference

• Biggest challenge is uptake by

politicians (and people!)

Consult, scrutinise and collaborate

Deliberate and establish consensus

Deliberate and establish consensus

“We’ve worked to

make it so simple to

deploy on a daily or

weekly basis that

there’s no excuse to

not find out what a

given population

thinks.”

Colin Megill Liz Barry article

Deliberate and establish consensus

“We need to have a platform to allow the entire society

in rational discussion.” Minister Jacelyn Tsai

Some lessons

INCENTIVES

● Unify participation channels

● Set clear rules and expectations, stick to them

● Inform users as much as possible

● Ask serious questions

● PR budget!

DESIGN

● Determine the appropriate tool for the task

● Determine and frame the problem carefully.

● Determine the appropriate target audience

● Active facilitation for more difficult issues

● Engage early

EVALUATION

● Representative?

● Feedback and iteration

Thank you