This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
© 2009-2013. An Intellitics, Inc. production.
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Last updated: November 29, 2012
ParticipateDB is a collaborative catalogue for online tools for participation (often referred to as tools for web-based engagement, online participation, e-participation, e-consultation, online dialogue, online deliberation etc.).
Our goal is to build a comprehensive directory that allows people to easily share, discover, explore and compare the tools available today and how they can best be applied.
ParticipateDB has been around for 1342 days and currently boasts 223 tools, 255 projects and 162 references, joined by a total of 670 associations. The site is maintained by 60 contributors.
ParticipateDB is brought to you by Intellitics, Inc., a digital engagement startup based in San Jose, CA (USA). We help organizations in the public, private and non-profit sector apply the right technology to engage their communities in high-quality dialogue, problem solving and decision making. We're building Zilino, a social web app that enables public engagement practitioners to design and host well structured, well facilitated community conversations and other participatory processes online.
ParticipateDB is a non-commercial initiative serving the public good. Our hope is to establish ParticipateDB as one of the premier community-driven resources in this field. The site will be free for anyone to use. There are no plans at this point to make any money off of it (aside maybe from a little swag here and there). We believe that the site has the potential to create a lot of value and is sure to reward its contributors in many, albeit non-monetary ways.
Sorry, we don't have a media kit ready yet. This FAQ should be a good starting point, though. If you plan to write about ParticipateDB, feel free to give us a heads-up and we'll answer any additional questions you may have. There's a number of ways you can contact us.
As of April 2010, the site is in closed beta. Sorta kinda.
Because ParticipateDB is still in closed beta you need an invite to get in (contact us if you're interested). Eventually, the site will be open for anyone to join and add content.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Apologies, we're currently still working on those two important documents. Needless to say, we strive to protect our users' personal information and would never do anything harmful.
No. ParticipateDB aims to collect tools and projects from around the world, not just the U.S. (if you look around you can see it's already pretty international). We especially look forward to seeing contributions from non-English speaking countries. In fact, we already have entries from 245 countries.
For the time being, we will define tools fairly broadly as any kind of information and communication technology (ICT) that is being used in or being developed for the purpose of public participation. We expect the majority of entries to be web-based services of some sort but don't want to exclude other interesting approaches to e-participation.
A project is usually defined as a temporary endeavor (meaning it has a defined beginning and end) undertaken to create a unique product or service. In the case of public participation, this could include certain deliverables informing the decision making process and, ultimately, the decision itself.
For the time being, however, we will include examples of ongoing participation efforts as well (often called programs). We'll worry about proper categorizations later.
A reference to us is any kind of related information on the web that can provide more context and detail to any of the tools and projects covered on ParticipateDB. For example, this may include but is not limited to: product brochures, white papers, video tutorials, any kind of research, case studies, or interviews.
We like how James L. Creighton defines public participation:
Public participation is the process by which an organization consults with interested or affected individuals, organizations, and government entities before making a decision. Public participation is two-way communication and collaborative problem solving with the goal of achieving better and more acceptable decisions. Public participation prevents or minimizes disputes by creating a process for resolving issues before they become polarized. Other terms sometimes used are "public involvement," "community involvement," or "stakeholder involvement."
We realize there are many overlapping definitions, and public participation is only one of the terms that are frequently used to describe similar things.
Great question! We find helpful what the International Association of Public Participation (IAP2) has defined as their Spectrum of Public Participation (PDF, 624KB), which defines five interrelated levels of public participation:
This is not to say that other ways of looking at the world aren't relevant (far from it), but if your tool or project involves any of the above it's likely that it deserves its place on ParticipateDB. And if in doubt, we'll probably still want to add it anyway (for now, at least).
Not really. Lucky for us, there is a healthy ecosystem of people and organizations who care about public participation. A number of online resources already exist that capture knowledge about public participation work in the U.S., in Europe and elsewhere -- each from slightly different angles, each with a slightly different focus. Increasingly, their materials include information about online tools. ParticipateDB is not in the business of replicating any of the work that has gone into creating these in-depth resources. Instead, ParticipateDB will simply link to these references whenever possible. ParticipateDB's main focus is to document:
For the most part, we expect any detailed analysis beyond these basics to occur elsewhere on the web.
Listed below are a few of the valuable resources we have relied on in the past to discover interesting tools, projects or references:
The idea for ParticipateDB grew out of many conversations with people in this field at various conferences and events over the past couple of years. As the interest in online tools continues to grow, the need for an online resource like this one was commonly expressed.
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Can't see your question? Not happy with the answers? Just contact us and we'll get back to you. Thanks!
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
© 2009-2013. An Intellitics, Inc. production.