Over the past 15 years, governments and other institutions have leveraged digital platforms to engage citizens, residents, and constituents in decision-making. Platform developers, open source contributors, consultants and program administrators now comprise an ecosystem that invites the public to take on a greater role. They are increasingly digitizing existing programs like participatory budgeting, and envisioning entirely novel engagement patterns made possible by AI.

The maturity of the digital participation platform sector can be seen, for instance, in the endowment of international foundations to steward open source platforms like Decidim and CONSUL. And in the launch of an industry trade alliance, Association Civic Tech Europe, to collectively represent many of the for-profit platforms.

Around the world, entrepreneurs and civic hackers have developed a growing array of digital participation platforms to serve growing demand for people power. These tools help administrators within all levels of government, plus civil society organizations and other institutions, engage constituents. Collectively, they address almost any participatory method imaginable, including support for digitizing fully offline engagement methods.

Digital participation platforms are being used before, during, and after participatory processes to enhance activities like urban planning, budget prioritization, citizen assemblies, and co-developing policy. And they're rapidly introducing AI-powered features to help participants and administrators alike run more frequent and more meaningful engagements.

While we often hear about technological platforms developed in wealthier countries, they have been used to enable participatory decision-making in a wide variety of global contexts. At their best, platforms enable decision-makers or communities to facilitate:

• Stakeholder engagement.

• Forging consensus or compromises.

• Collective deliberation and decision-making.

• Effective communication with the public.

• Transparent project tracking and monitoring.

• Department-spanning internal coordination.

• Sensemaking to legibly share the results of a process.

If you are looking to engage your community, or are interested in how digital tools can strengthen community engagement, this guide is for you. It explains what digital participation platforms are and walks you through how to choose, set up, and run them.

Introduction continued…