Why use digital participation platforms?

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Digital participation platforms offer a variety of benefits. When used well, digital platforms expand the reach and inclusiveness of civic engagement, allowing more people—including those who may not attend town halls or public hearings—to have their say. They can make participatory processes more transparent, provide accessible records of inputs, and support more continuous engagement over time.

For example, everyone with internet access can track a public project's status as it's developed and launched (or stalled!). Likewise, participation platforms often serve as communication hubs for participating communities to meet, communicate, and organize.

Developers of digital participation platforms promise other benefits, such as:

  • Reaching more people than via in-person meetings, because residents can take part when they're not busy and without traveling.

  • Lower costs compared to traditional outreach methods.

  • Integration with other participatory democracy processes, such as by collecting ideas for in-person deliberation.

  • Automated analysis of large amounts of resident feedback.

  • Easier follow-up communications with residents based on their interests and ideas.

  • More open and transparent decision-making. 

Besides digitizing traditional engagement tactics, online platforms offer new modes of participation. For example, consider the group decision-making tool Pol.is. It invites people to draft value statements that others can vote on and rally around. An example is, "Rideshare drivers should make a living wage." The platform then uses algorithms to map existing (but unrecognized) areas of consensus between otherwise opposing stakeholders.

When used effectively, digital platforms can amplify the benefits of public participation, resulting in better-informed decisions and more trust in public institutions. Digital platforms also can make it easier and cheaper for officials to open up decision-making more often. A wider range of people can thus share their perspectives, better informing decisions before governments finalize plans. People hopefully trust government more when they have had the opportunity to take part early on in a process. And increased public attention to decision-making and implementation can contribute to more responsive governments.