08 apr Citizens Foundation’s main projects
One of our main measures of success is participation, without participation there is no democracy. Following here is a short recap of our participation highlights as well as other worthy mentions.
Since we started in 2008 we have had over 500.000 unique visitors to our e-democracy websites, over 250.000 visits were in 2013.
Better Reykjavik, Iceland
Following the formal collaboration with the city of Reykjavík started in October 2011, 15 top ideas are processed by the city council every month. 70.000 citizens (out of 120.000 inhabitants, 58%) have used Better Reykjavík which is an official an active collaboration with the City of Reykjavik.
http://betrireykjavik.is
Rahvakogu, Estonia
After political scandals in Estonia in 2012, grassroots organisations were asked to come up with ideas to improve the democratic framework in the country. They decided to crowd-source this reflection process using our Your Priorities system. Over 50.000 people took part in this process and 2000 proposals were submitted. The top 18 ideas were presented to the Parliament. As of March 2014, two of the ideas have been adopted as Estonian law.
http://rahvakogu.ee
Participatory budgeting in Reykjavík, Iceland in 2012, 2013 and 2014
Every year a 300 million ISK budget (EUR 1.875.000) for 180 smaller projects in all 10 neighbourhoods of Reykjavík. Citizens were invited to put specific ideas for budgeting into Better Reykjavik and the ideas were then costed by the city administration. They were then taken to a binding vote on in a secure online voting system and finally executed. Over 500 ideas have been voted in with over 300 already executed. No link as only open during participation period.
True Stories from 10.000 years in the future, EvE Online
The game does not have a plot from its designers, it’s a virtual life for its participants and they create their own world. CCP Games wanted to find the best stories from those 10 years to use in spin-off products such as comic books, tv shows, books and movies. They used Your Priorities to that purpose, over 100.000 participated and the result was a huge success with the first comic book already in production.
https://truestories.eveonline.com
National Health Service (NHS), United Kingdom
The UK publicly funded health care system, is using Your Priorities to help identify the issues that should be addressed by the NHS. Ideas which will generate the most online discussion or will have the biggest national significance will be further discussed among the NHS board.
http://nhs-citizen.yrpri.org
Your Prioirites
Most of our work uses Your Prioirites which is our open-source e-democracy platform. You can check out more examples and register for your own e-democracy website at https://yrpri.org/home/world or contact us at [email protected]
