Civic engagement is challenging to accomplish in a society where individuals no longer congregate around a few common public spaces, such as a town hall or church. However, crowdsourcing harnesses the ideas of large, disparate groups of people (citizens) to gather input and create awareness that leads to change.
This paper outlines how crowdsourcing can be employed to build participation in citizen engagement campaigns.
2.
Engaging the Ci+zen Diaspora
Crowdsourcing & Civic Behavior
Low voter par+cipa+on
High social media ac+vity
The Best of Both Worlds
Offline Engagement
Online Engagement
Prac+cal Applica+ons of Crowdsourcing for Civic
Engagement
Crowdsource to Solve Problems
Crowdsource to Get the Job Done
Crowdsource to Increase Par+cipa+on
Crowdsource to be More Transparent
Crowdsource to spur change
Benefits of Crowdsourcing
Long-‐Lived
Budget-‐Friendly
Immediate
Transparent
The Crowd is Talking. Are You Listening?
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Practical Crowdsourcing For Civic Engagement
3.
Civic engagement is challenging to accomplish in a society where individuals no longer
congregate around a few common public spaces, such as a town hall or church. It is ever more
difficult for governments, citizen-focused organizations and elected representatives to reach
constituents who divide their discretionary time between a wide variety of specific social
groups, various sports and hobbies, travel and more. But, social media does provide a cost-
effective and efficient tool to reach this citizen diaspora.
Through social media, individuals expand their social networks globally while bringing the
entire world closer to them—making it a smaller, more accessible place. By taking advantage of
the underpinnings of social media behavior and Open Source principles, crowdsourcing
harnesses the ideas of large, disparate groups of people (citizens) to gather input and create
awareness that leads to change.
In this paper, I will demonstrate how of crowdsourcing can be employed to build participation in
citizen engagement campaigns.
Engaging the Citizen Diaspora
3PRACTICAL CROWDSOURCING FOR CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
“...social media has demonstrated its capacity to compel social
movements and create large-‐scale change quickly.”
Citizen Engagement Laboratory (Berkley)2
Reality talent shows and websites that enable viewer-audience voting have proven that
individuals are naturally driven to give their input when they can see the immediate results of
their contributions. Voting is a proven way of enabling participation and it is a yardstick of civic
engagement—it is also a key component in many crowdsourcing activities.
The American Psychological Association has defined civic engagement as, “Individual and
collective actions designed to identify and address issues of public concern.” The kinds of
activities that comprise civic engagement “can take many forms, from individual voluntarism to
organizational involvement to electoral participation...Civic engagement encompasses a range
of specific activities such as working in a soup kitchen, serving on a neighborhood [sic]
association, writing a letter to an elected official or voting.”1
Crowdsourcing & Civic Behavior
4.
4PRACTICAL CROWDSOURCING FOR CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
Civic participation is critical to involving citizens in learning about, contributing to, supporting
or improving issues that affect them, such as decisions about public spaces, large public
expenditures, solving problems in communities, and accomplishing tasks through volunteerism.
Crowdsourcing compliments these goals by providing organizations and governments with a
means of engaging individual awareness and input on a large scale. It builds upon citizens’
natural inclinations towards creativity, competition and involvement to generate powerful ideas
and solutions.
Crowdsourcing is particularly relevant for civic engagement efforts because it bridges the
divide between two current phenomena in civic behavior: low voter participation and high
social media activity.
Voter turnout in the most recent Canadian federal election and the United States presidential
elections saw a slight increase over previous elections. Both campaigns engaged more social
media elements than ever before, which may have contributed to the slight lift in participation.
Yet, the number of voters is still too low: the 2011 Canadian federal election saw a voter
turnout of 61.4%3, and the 2008 American presidential election saw a turnout of 63.7%4. With
nearly 40% of the population not voting, the outcome of these elections does not necessarily
represent the overall wishes of an entire population.
Low voter participation
The number of people using social media websites grows daily, including an increasing number
of adults. Social media usage data from May 2011 collected by Ad Age indicates that nearly
36% of male Facebook users and more than 27% of female Facebook users fall between the
ages of 30 and 54.5
These individuals are using Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to connect with family members,
friends, people who share similar interests, or who work in the same industry. Canadians in
particular spend a great deal of time online—more than people from 11 other countries
(including the U.S. and U.K.), according to a 2011 comScore survey:
High social media activity
5.
• 25 billion: number of tweets
sent on TwiMer in 2010
• 100 million: new accounts
added on TwiMer in 2010
• 175 million: people on TwiMer
as of September 2010
• 600 million: people on Facebook
at the end of 2010
• 250 million: new people on
Facebook in 2010
• 30 billion: pieces of content
(links, notes, photos, etc.) shared
on Facebook per month
• 70%: share of Facebook’s user base
• located outside the United States
• 20 million: number of Facebook
apps installed each day
• 2 billion: number of videos
watched per day on YouTube
• 5 billion: photos hosted by
Flickr (September 2010)
• 3000+: photos uploaded per
minute to Flickr
• 3+ billion: photos uploaded
per month to Facebook
“The study found that Canadians spent an average of 43.5 hours
online in the fourth quarter of 2010, nearly double the average of
23.1 hours surfed by the 11 countries surveyed… The study also
tracked Canadians’ social networking, with Facebook (seven per
cent), Twitter (11 per cent) and LinkedIn (35 per cent) all claiming
significant increases in unique visitors.”7
5PRACTICAL CROWDSOURCING FOR CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
TWITTER FACEBOOK VIDEOS & PHOTOS
Given these numbers, it is certain that citizens can be—and should be engaged with online, and
that social media activity must be embraced and used to connect with and reach out to citizens.
Consider these additional statistics regarding social media use in 20106:
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6PRACTICAL CROWDSOURCING FOR CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
In order to improve citizen engagement, elected representatives and civic organizations must
combine tried-and-true traditional methods of campaigning with more innovative approaches
that reflect these changes in citizen behavior. Barack Obama’s campaign during the 2008 US
presidential election was one of the first large-scale political campaigns to do this—I’ll discuss
that campaign later in this paper.
Organizations, government agencies and governments can engage with their audience through
a number of offline and online mediums.
The Best of Both Worlds
The Pew Internet & American Life Project conducted a study called The Current State of Civic
Engagement in America, which outlines some of the various offline methods that citizens use to
contact politicians at various levels8:
• Contact a government official in person, by phone or by letter
• Sign a paper petition
• Send a letter to the editor through the mail
• Make a political contribution in person, by phone or through the mail
• Communicate with a civic/political group by face-to-face meetings, print letter or
newsletter or telephone
• Some of the offline methods that politicians use to reach out to citizens include:
• Door-to-door canvassing
• Mass mail-outs or flyer drop-offs
• Town hall meetings, in-person Q & A sessions, public debates
• Interviews
These tactics represent traditional offline activities that are still important elements of citizen
engagement, particularly among the over-40 voter population.
Offline engagement
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7PRACTICAL CROWDSOURCING FOR CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
The Internet has made way for new civic engagement opportunities. As Nicol Tuner-Lee notes9:
“The Internet has become the new platform for freedom of speech, and the expression of civic
ideas. With more than 66 percent of Americans online, virtual micro-communities, or niche web
portals, have made it easier for people to deliberately seek out and sustain relationships with
those who share similar interests, opinions, and backgrounds. Citizens can pick and choose
both the online destination where they want to share, and the preferred format to
communicate their opinions whether through a blog, video, podcast, or tweet. Before the
Internet, these ideas were shared at community town hall and block club meetings.”
According to research by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, citizens are using these
online methods to communicate with their local leaders:
• Send an email to a government official
• Sign a petition online
• Email a letter to the editor
• Make a political contribution on the Internet
• Communicate with a civic/political group by email, text messaging, instant messaging,
using the group’s website or using a social networking site
Online Engagement
Author Jeff Howe was one of the first people to coin the term, crowdsourcing. The practice
applies Open Source principles to fields outside of software by taking a task traditionally
performed by one person and outsourcing it to a large group of people. Crowdsourcing is like
an open call for ideas.
Practical Applications of Crowdsourcing
for Civic Engagement
8.
8PRACTICAL CROWDSOURCING FOR CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
Crowdsourcing can engage audiences in projects, challenges and decisions. It gathers the
collective wisdom of large numbers of people to arrive at outcomes and conclusions that are
more accurate than, or otherwise superior to, the wisdom of any individual.
James Surowiecki, in his 2004 book, The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than
the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations,
acknowledges that not all crowds are wise—for example, a crazed mob.
He identifies these four attributes of a wise crowd:
• Diversity of opinion—each contributor/source has private information or interpretation
of the topic
• Independence—contributors’ opinions are not determined by those of others
• Decentralization—contributors can specialize by drawing on local knowledge
• Aggregation—a mechanism is in place to gather private judgements into a collective
decision
Effective crowdsourcing leverages these attributes to gain more accurate insights into
problems and solutions than can be achieved through discussions with individuals or small local
groups. These are some ways that you can engage a crowd to achieve civic engagement goals:
Crowdsourcing is frequently used as a problem-solving tool and can therefore be a tool to
improve results-oriented civic engagement. For example, some cities and communities have
embraced crowdsourcing as a means of incorporating residents into decision making and
getting them to help solve problems. Civic leaders may be hesitant to use social media tools
because they are afraid they will be used as centres rather than remaining focused on the task
at hand. Crowdsourcing is ideal for overcoming this concern because it can be highly specific.
For example, it can be used to have citizens first vote to determine the highest priority problem
to solve, then to have them vote on solutions to the problem—including solutions that they and
others post.
Crowdsource to solve problems
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Crowdsourcing relies on social media behavior (such as sharing and liking) to build awareness
among and get the members of the crowd’s own networks involved. Through increased
participation, the impact of a crowdsourcing campaign becomes stronger. It can also be used to
solve issues in a very cost-effective way compared to hiring market research firms, or in concert
with traditional market research. Tapping the wisdom of the crowd brings new ideas to the
table very rapidly and at low cost. It also attracts experts who can offer their services, expertise
and advice to help get the job done in the way citizens want it done.
Crowdsource to get the job done
9PRACTICAL CROWDSOURCING FOR CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
Crowdsourcing is very accessible and makes it easier for individual citizens to be heard,
because posting an idea or voting for an idea is very easy to do. Even busy individuals who are
not able to participate in community organizations or attend interest group meetings can have
a voice through crowdsourcing. It is also a viable tool to engage younger citizens who have
grown up with the Internet and social media as an integral part of their day-to-day lives.
Barack Obama’s 2008 federal election campaign in the United States offers one of the greatest
examples to date of using social media and online collaboration to foster greater participation:
“Most recently, the 2008 election demonstrated how the Internet could drive public opinion
and voter participation. President Barack Obama’s campaign used online tools and social
networks in a way that contributed to his victory as the first African American President of the
United States. The Obama campaign used the Internet to raise half a billion dollars, the largest
amount of contributions to a political operation ever received through online donations. His
website, MyBarackObama.com, gathered thousands of e-mail addresses and, in turn, nurtured
a vast base of national volunteers supporting the campaign’s field tactics.”10
Crowdsource to increase participation
Today’s consumers demand transparency from major corporations, governments and elected
officials. Taxpayers want to know where their dollars are being spent and to ensure that public
funds are not being wasted. They also want to be included in the decision-making process.
Transparency is also critical to good governance—another quality that citizens demand from
major corporations and our governing bodies.
Crowdsource to be more transparent
10.
10PRACTICAL CROWDSOURCING FOR CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
Crowdsourcing can be used to improve access to information; it can ensure that information is
timely, accurate, complete and relevant to citizen inquiries; it can disseminate messages very
quickly to large audiences; and, it makes it possible to incorporate citizens in the decision
making process. Some organizations use crowdsourcing as a customer feedback tool—the same
concept can be applied to civic life as well, giving citizens easy access to the lines of
communication and empowering them to contribute by giving them a voice.
Crowdsourcing has applications far beyond the campaign moment: it can be used in everyday
activities to continually engage with citizens and address real-time issues. Crowdsourcing
gathers a wealth of information, ideas and opinions that leaders and citizens never used to have
access to. As Diana Scearce writes:
“Throughout history, social change has been possible only through the contributions and
dedication of many citizens. Today’s network-centric engagement builds on existing know-how,
drawing in particular on grassroots community organizing and the open-source software
movement.”11
Crowdsourcing can be used to engage individuals and grassroots community organizations in
meaningful change at any time.
Crowdsource to spur change
In addition to the capabilities discussed above, crowdsourcing offers a number of benefits over
traditional methods of civic engagement, including:
Budget-Friendly
Crowdsourcing uses networks of people and social media tools to spread the word about
campaigns, projects and ideas. This makes it possible to create a far-reaching effort that
stretches campaign dollars. It can also be used to improve the return on investment of
traditional campaigns. By bringing people’s attention to crowdsourcing campaigns in offline
engagement activities (for example, calls to action to “go online and vote for the change you
want” printed on campaign pamphlets or referenced in TV ads), the value and ROI of traditional
engagement tools can be increased.
Benefits of Crowdsourcing
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11PRACTICAL CROWDSOURCING FOR CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
While door-to-door and telephone campaigns provide representatives with immediate
feedback from citizens, these methods by necessity reach only a small percentage of the
population. Combining these activities with crowdsourcing provides governments and
politicians with a more complete picture of opinions and preferences. Crowdsourcing
campaigns can deliver a broad understanding of general opinions very quickly—information
that can be leveraged during walk-abouts and phone campaigns to dig deeper into citizens’
opinions and to validate crowdsourcing campaign findings one-on-one.
Immediate
As discussed earlier in this paper, crowdsourcing provides citizens with a new kind of
transparency into government. It does so by enabling greater access to information and decision-
making processes, as well as providing a platform for citizens to participate in those processes.
Transparent
Everyday, citizens are having conversations about their government and its decisions. Being
able to tap into those conversations and gather meaningful opinions that can be used for
decision-making is critical to the effectiveness of governments, civic organizations and elected
officials. Crowdsourcing—and other social media—are tools that ignite conversations and turn
bystanders into active participants in government.
Crowdsourcing is a key component in the digital democracy—a social reality in which “the divide
between media [message] producers and consumers has dissolved and citizen [produced]
media rules… While before citizens had to rally for mainstream media attention to catch the
ears of politicians, now it is easier than ever before for citizens to launch awareness campaigns
and get their message heard by the masses.”12
Through its participatory nature, crowdsourcing gives governments and elected
representatives useful insights and valuable information that would otherwise be too costly or
otherwise unfeasible to gather. Able to reach a more diverse citizen base than traditional
methods of civic engagement, crowdsourcing can provide equally valuable input and direction
and can be used to enhance the value of traditional tools. Perhaps most importantly,
crowdsourcing expands the reach of a message or idea to networks beyond one’s immediate
crowd.
The Crowd is Talking, Are You Listening?
12. 1. American Psychological Association. ìCivic Engagementî
webpage as of 03-05-11: http://www.apa.org/education/
undergrad/civic-engagement.aspx
2. Using Social Media to Organize Social Movements: A Look at
Citizen Engagement Laboratory. http://
www.triplepundit.com/2011/05/social-media-citizen-
engagement-laboratory/
3. http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadavotes2011/
story/2011/05/03/cv-election-voter-turnout-1029.html,
CBC News, ëVoter turnout inches up to 61.4%í, May 3rd
2011.
4. http://www.census.gov/prod/2010pubs/p20-562.pdf, US
Census Bureau, Voting and Registration in the Election of
November 2008, May 2010
5. Carmichael, Matt. The Demographics of Social Media.
AdAgeBlogs, May16, 2011: http://adage.com/article/
adagestat/demographics-facebook-linkedin-myspace-
twitter/227569/
6. Coleman, Rebecca. State of the Union: Social Networking,
citing Royal Pingdom blog post, Internet 2010 in numbers:
http://www.rebeccacoleman.ca/2011/02/04/social-media/
state-of-the-union-social-networking-2/
7. Barber, Michael. Survey finds Canadians spending more
time online than those in other countries. The Vancouver Sun,
March 9, 2011: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Survey
+finds+Canadians+spending+more+time+online+than+those
+other+countries/4408671/story.html
8. Pew Internet & American Life Project. The Current State of
Civic Engagement in America, 2009: http://pewinternet.org/
Reports/2009/15--The-Internet-and-Civic-Engagement/2--
The-Current-State-of-Civic-Engagement-in-America.aspx?
r=1
9. Tuner-Lee, Nicol. The Challenge of Increasing Civic
Engagement in the Digital Age. The Future of Digital
Communications: Policy Perspectives: http://
twcresearchprogram.com/pdf/TWC%20Policy_Turner-
Lee.pdf
10. Tuner-Lee, Nicol. The Challenge of Increasing Civic
Engagement in the Digital Age. The Future of Digital
Communications: Policy Perspectives: http://
twcresearchprogram.com/pdf/TWC%20Policy_Turner-
Lee.pdf
11. Scearce, Diana. Connected Citizens: The Power, Peril
and Potential of Networks. Crowdsourcing.org, 2011:
http://www.crowdsourcing.org/document/connected-
citizens-the-power-peril-and-potential-of-networks-/3490
12. Campbell, Lisa. Dotmocracy: Crowdsourcing, mashups
and social change: http://www.mobilerevolutions.org/
Dotmocracy.pdf
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