Shelby Switzer
open data (245) civic tech (29) civic unrest (2) civic rest (1)
August 10, 2022
I hear “participatory” being thrown around a lot these days, including by myself. Participatory budgeting . Participatory democracy . Participatory modeling . Participatory development . It’s an idea I wholeheartedly strive for in my own work with governments and communities, with varying degrees of success and frustration. But what does this actually look like, for public digital infrastructure and the policies/programs that technology supports?
“Participatory” fundamentally means “affording the opportunity for individual participation.” 1 I’ll let you dive into the links above for other examples of how to apply “participatory” to important public policy programs, but for tech, I’ve summarized how we can think about levels of participatory engagement in a maturity model, illustrated by this pyramid chart with a deliciously default blue gradient.
Shelby Switzer