Let’s Get Digital! – 52 Tools for Online Public Engagement

Caitlyn Horose pulled together the list ’50 Tools for Online Public Engagement’  to which we have added two more to the list to make it 52. We have reprinted this list below.

So, here are 52 tools for online engagement in no particular order (and with no implied endorsement). These digital platforms can help  government consult, collaborate with, and empower citizens in community decision-making.

Feel free to get in touch if you would like to discuss using any of these tools for future projects.

1. coUrbanize: List project information for development proposals and gather online feedback.
2. Cityzen: Gathers feedback by integrating polling and social media sites.
3. Community Remarks: Map-based tool for facilitating dialogue and collecting feedback.
4. Crowdbrite: Organizes comments for online brainstorming sessions and workshops.
5. EngagementHQ: Provides information and gathers feedback for decision-making.
6. MetroQuest: Incorporates scenario planning and visualizations for informing the public and collecting feedback.
7. SeeClickFix: For reporting and responding to neighborhood issues.
8. Neighborland: Forum that encourages community discussion and action at the neighborhood level.
9. PublicStuff: Communication system for reporting and resolving community concerns.
10. MindMixer: Ideation platform for community projects. 
11. NextDoor: Private social network and forum for neighborhoods.
12. Adopt-a-Hydrant: Allows citizens to help maintain public infrastructure. 
13. CivicInsight: Platform for sharing progress on development of blighted properties.
14. i-Neighbors: Free community website and discussion forum. 
15. Recovers: Engages the public in disaster preparedness and recovery.
16. EngagingPlans: Information sharing and feedback forum for productive participation.
17. Street Bump: Crowdsourcing application to improve public streets.
18. neighbor.ly: Crowdfunding platform to promote local investment in improvement projects.
19. TellUs Toolkit: Map-based tools for engagement and decision-making.
20. Budget Simulator: Tool for educating about budget priorities and collecting feedback.
21. CrowdHall: Interactive town halls meetings.
22. Citizinvestor: Crowdfunding and civic engagement platform for local government projects.
23. Open Town Hall: Online public comment forum for government.
24. Shareabouts: Flexible tool for gathering public input on a map.
25. Poll Everywhere: Collects audience responses in real time, live, or via the web.
26. Tidepools: Collaborative mobile mapping platform for gathering and sharing hyperlocal information.
27. Community PlanIt: Online game that makes planning playful, while collecting insight on community decisions. 
28. Open311: System for connecting citizens to government for reporting non-emergency issues.
29. DialogueApp: Promotes dialogue to solve policy challenges with citizen input.
30. Loomio: Online tool for collaborative decision-making.
31. PlaceSpeak: Location-based community consultation platform.
32. Citizen Budget: Involves residents in budgeting.
33. e-Deliberation: Collaborative platform for large group decision-making.
34. CrowdGauge: Open-source framework for building educational online games related to public priority setting.
35. Citizen Space: Manage, publicize, and archive all public feedback activity.
36. Zilino: Host deliberative online forums and facilitated participatory meetings.
37. WeJit: Collaborative online decision-making, brainstorming, debating, prioritizing, and more. 
38. Ethelo Decisions: Framework for engagement, conflict resolution, and collective determination.
39. Community Almanac: Contribute and collect stories about your community. 
40. GitHub: Connecting government employees with the public to collaborate on code, data, and policy.
41. VividMaps: Engages citizens to map and promote local community assets.
42. OSCity: Search, visualize, and combine data to gain insight on spatial planning. (EU only.)
43. Civic Commons: Promoting conversations and connections that have the power to become informed, productive, collective civic action.
44. Crowdmap: Collaborative mapping.
45. Codigital: Get input on important issues.
46. All Our Ideas: Collect and prioritise ideas through a democratic, transparent, and efficient process.
47. Neighborhow: Create useful how-to guides for the community.
48. OurCommonPlace: A community web-platform for connecting neighbours.
49. Front Porch Forum: A free community forum, helping neighbours connect.
50. PrioritySpend: Prioritization tool based on valuing ideas and possible actions.
51. Engage: Open engagement platform which includes email, SMS, survey, web tracking and event management.
52. townhall:  Townhall is for government and community groups to increase participation in online consultations. They have redesigned the traditional survey to be simple, quick and shareable on social media.

Feel free to add any others in the comments below.