What should you do? Require that users register to participate or allow anonymous submissions? That is the question. In traditional online community applications, systems ask users to log in or register upfront in order to participate. As we’ve seen, asking users to register before they interact, deters some users from participating. So you end up with fewer submissions. But you don’t have to go all the way to allowing anonymous submissions. There’s a better way to do this.

Natural Resources Canada used 76engage to power their online consultations in support of the Canadian Minerals and Metals Plan. Read more to see an infographic of the early feedback received through the platform to-date.

As more and more people have access to the Internet, the connected city of the future will unequivocally incorporate citizens’ input in everyday decisions. Therefore, organizations must encourage, promote, support and participate in active dialogue with the communities they serve.

Participants must feel at ease knowing that organizations will respect their privacy and protect their personal information. When trust deteriorates, participants will simply stop providing input.

Visual interfaces are inherently deficient in addressing a visually-impaired audience. There is an argument to be made about embracing these limitations and seek solutions outside the CLI and GUI realms.

Governments are increasingly keen and open to listening to citizens through consultations and online civic engagement. A small set of data points by the Pew Research Center reminds us that while we are keen to include, the digital divide is still pretty much alive.

A recent IAP2 event got me thinking about why not more people participate in public engagement opportunities. One of the topics discussed was what could be done to get more people to participate in public engagement? The assumption was that even though some people do participate, more could be done to make engagements more inclusive.

We’ve all been there. We see a flyer on a street post inviting us to attend a town hall, only to realize that it happened last week. Or we made it to the event, but it was so crowded that the shy people at the back of the room, we didn’t feel confident enough to participate. All of this is gone when public engagement goes online.

The web is a great place for public engagement. But analyzing the growing amounts of data resulting from the increases in participation is discouraging some practitioners. Here’s how they can fight back.

Comment moderation and screening of participant input can be time consuming during engagements where participant input must be screened before it is published. To make life easier for moderators, we have integrated the machine learning Perspective API into 76engage.