ParticipateDB

Active Citizen is an open-source machine learning software designed to lower barriers to participation through better informing community members through the use of reminders for participation opportunities, suggestions of relevant ideas and news stories, and notification on important issues. Active Citizen’s AI algorithm makes recommendations to users based on “what they have liked or disliked before, in a similar way that Facebook creates your feed." AI filtering is mobilized to analyze ideas and find news stories according to the user’s preference. DEEP -Linking Youth’s (Digital Ecosystem for E-Participation Linking Youth) dashboard , an EU-funded project encouraging young citizens to actively discuss and contribute their perspectives on decision-making processes, is built on Active Citizen. Development of the software was partly funded by the European Commission, first through CHEST FP7 and later by Erasmus+. Active Citizen is continually being developed with the implementation of additional AI and VR features in each new prototype. Read more about its progress and objectives here . The tool is being developed by the Citizens Foundation, based in Reykjavik, Iceland. The Citizens Foundation , a non-profit organization founded in 2008, is also responsible for e-democracy initiatives like Your Priorities (the crowdsourcing web app) and Better Reykjavik. The source code is on Github .

The Community Forums Network enhance citizen participation, civic engagement, and citizenship education in government through a network of periodic public forums where people gather in small groups throughout the county to discuss current issues and provide important feedback to county government and other public officials. It uses both face-to-face and web-based services to engage as many people as possible. It is highly scalable and can be used by neighborhoods, cities, counties, and states. The current platform demonstrates a working state-based model. It’s county-based model was recognized by the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2.org) as a finalist for its 2009 Project of the Year Award. A national-based model is being considered for an NCDD Catalyst Award . For more information, please write to John Spady at jspady@mac.com . Update : Community Forums Network has been discontinued. View the most recent archive of the tool here .

CommunityCOUNTS is an attempt to help nudge political discourse away from soundbites and towards substance. In its current form it helps spark, collect, rank and compel discussion around an assortment of web-content by leveraging a community’s voice. It can be used to run simple contests, petitions, and Q&As. CommunityCOUNTs runs 10Questions , where users could submit questions for political figures in the United States and decide which ones should be prioritized in future Q&As. Two iterations of 10Questions were created in Mexico ( 10preguntas ) and Brazil ( 10perguntas ). Update : The original 10Questions website as well as its iterations have been discontinued. View the web archive for the United States , Mexico , and Brazil . CommunityCOUNTS and its various 10Questions iterations are developed by David Colarusso, James Kotecki, Jamie Bernstein, and Esther Brady.

From the at a glance page: CoPe_it! is a tool of the “Web 2.0 era”. * It lets webizens easily collaborate by sharing opinions and resources. * It enables and encourages participation in private or public community workspaces. […] CoPe_it! fosters the growth of and augments the collaboration within communities. * It enhances the production and overall management of collective knowledge. * It builds on an argumentative collaboration approach that allows communities’ members to express their point of view on the opinions and resources of a workspace Work towards the development of CoPe_it! is carried out within the framework of the IST FP6-2004-028038 PALETTE project, which is partly funded by the EU. CoPe_it! is developed by IST , an organization part of the EU.

direktzu (meaning “straight to” in German) is a German company that offers “many-to-one” communications solutions. Their flagship product is used by German politicians at the local, state and federal level and allows participants to suggest questions as well as vote each other’s questions up. Participating politicians usually seem to commit to answer a few top-rated questions every other week or so.

From the FAQ : What is Discourse? Discourse is the 100% open source discussion platform built for the next decade of the Internet. It works as: * mailing list * discussion forum * long-form chat room What’s different about it? Discourse is a from-scratch reboot, an attempt to reimagine what a modern, sustainable, fully open-source Internet discussion platform should be today – both from a technology standpoint and a sociology standpoint.

From the website : What is echo? echo is the instrument for a new kind of participatory democracy […]. Unlike usual Web 2.0 applications, echo provides a clearly structured opinion base and allows for a solution-oriented social collaboration. It unites technical innovation and human scientific knowledge into a unique concept. This helps people to better understand backgrounds and interrelations of topics, jointly make sound decisions and turn them into reality. Accordingly, echo comes with three main functional areas: Discuss – Connect – Act! Through the combination of these three functional areas, echo establishes a unique virtual space for a fully democratic collaboration, which is able to lead to visible results in everyday life of the people with minimal effort. Additionally, by spreading its functionality beyond the limits of individual websites, echo lets all forces be bundled for a sustainable change throughout the whole internet. echo is open-source and its source code is available on Github . echologic is developed by Berlin, Germany-based echo source e.V. Update : echo has been discontinued. In order to access the site, view an archived copy .

Php Bulletin Board is a popular message board for community building. It is an open-source software based on a PHP / MYSQL architecture.

From Web Lab’s “about page”: Web Lab is a New York-based non-profit think tank that encourages and supports innovation on the Web, with a special emphasis on developing the potential of the medium to bring people together to explore both personal and public issues in powerful, transforming ways. It was created on the premise that the Web can be more than an efficient place to find and buy commercial products or to access information on any topic under the sun. It is also an extremely powerful communications medium that provides unprecedented opportunities for people with diverse backgrounds and experiences to connect with, and learn from, each other. Web Lab sets up simultaneous small discussion groups and is designed to "avoid the verbal fistfights that often plague Internet discussions and instead encourage “dialogues across differences” – in-depth exchanges between people with varying backgrounds, experiences and perspectives." This Small Group Dialogue method aims to do so by fostering participants’ sense of belonging and investment through frequent visits. Web Lab was founded in the spring of 1997 by Marc Weiss. It is the operations program of Digital Innovations Group, a 501©(3) non-profit incorporated in the state of Delaware. Web Development Fund is another project of Web Lab. It provides funding and support services for innovative sites proposed by independent producers. The first two rounds of the WDF were conducted in association with PBS ONLINE .

From the website: The Virtual Design Charrette Wikiplanning is an online solution for improving civic engagement, an important component of most urban planning initiatives. […] Wikiplanning requires an email address and a zip code, but input is always given anonymously. A project specific ‘Invitation Strategy’ is prepared by Wikiplanning for each new project. This increases participation from all demographic areas, including disabled individuals, who rarely attend public meetings, but should be heard as a part of any planning project. Wikiplanning offers an integrated approach utilizing new technologies that increasingly are available to a wide number of a Charrettes’ desired audience. Utilizing the Wikiplanning tools, residents are invited to log into their community’s project, and then are led through a series of activities throughout the project life. These activities include a mix of project-specific Multi-Media Learning Sessions, Online Chat Events, Message Boards, Surveys, and even downloadable Podcasts offering potential walking tours through the project’s principal sites. Taken together, these logically sequenced milestones achieve the desired objectives of Teach; Discuss; Gather Input; and Build Consensus that are fundamental to the Charrette process; and at much higher rates of participation. Although some sessions would occur in real-time, like chats with project managers, most of the activities can be done day or night at the user’s convenience, allowing for far greater participation by people in the workforce. An intangible advantage is the participation of younger members of the community. Generation Y residents rarely attend public meetings, but are increasingly comfortable with online social networking. Wikiplanning draws this usually unheard from, but important demographic group into the public process. The platform is no longer in operation, but an archived version can be viewed here . Wikiplanning was a resource of Ryan Harris LLC , a Landscape Architecture / Urban Design firm headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.

From the website: YetAnotherForum. NET ( YAF ) is The Open Source Discussion Forum for sites running ASP . NET . 100% written in C#, YAF (pronouced like “laugh”) is a unique combination of Open Source, Microsoft’s . NET platform and an international collaboration of the . NET developer community. Growing and changing daily, the YAF project is lead by Jaben Cargman of Tiny Gecko. YAF runs on any web server that supports ASP . NET v2.0 (and above) and SQL Server. YAF is licensed under GPL .