local government innovation

Betri Reykjavik has potential to be a model for many others since it is an example of digitally-enabled open innovation platform with uniquely high levels of ongoing participation, progress, and engagement. It is also unique in that (1) it is “developed and maintained by a grassroots nonprofit organization, and not by a government, (2) rapidly... See more

Betri Reykjavik, or Better Reykjavik, is the City of Reykjavik’s online engagement platform used for the crowdsourcing of solutions to urban challenges developed and launched by the Icelandic Citizens Foundation in May 2010. The website gives everyone the opportunity to submit original ideas and solutions to municipal-level issues within the city.

There is evidence that participatory exercises tied to formal decision making processes - from participatory budgeting (C. Johnson, Carlson, and Reynolds 2021) to deliberative polling (Fishkin et al. 2024; “Collective Intelligence Case Studies,” n.d.) - lead to increased democratic engagement and satisfaction. This has the effect of bolstering... See more

However, most of these experiments have been failures. The trouble is that most of these platforms cannot keep the attention of the people who are supposed to use them. Too few of the platforms are designed to make online engagement compelling. So, figuring out how to make online engagement in government fun is actually a serious question for... See more