Past Engagements
Listed here is our earlier tech-enabled online engagements from the Burnes Center, the GovLab and/or Beth Noveck and partners.
Solution identification
Partner: Second Life
State of Play Public Space Design Competition
First-ever competition to design the public square of the future in a virtual world.
DetailsPartner: Second Life
Democracy Island
Virtual world island for experimentation with practices of citizen participation and collaboration, including first 3D Wiki, in Second Life.
DetailsSolution identification
Partner: Cairns Project
Cairns Project
Open-source, web-based knowledge management software to promote collective action and participatory ways of working. Studies visual deliberation techniques and maps best practices in collective action.
DetailsProblem identification
Partner: United States Patent and Trademark Office
Peer to Patent
In cooperation with USPTO, the first expert networking system for federal government decision-making. Studies mechanisms for connecting institutions to networks and building networks of online experts to extend institutional intelligence.
DetailsProblem identification
Partner: Linux Foundation
Linux Defender
Crowdsourcing/Open Innovation - Building community knowledge base about patents and prior art for open source developer community.
DetailsSolution identification
Partner: Obama Transition Team
Policy Wiki
Developed and deployed platform for public engagement in campaign policymaker using Atlassian Wikis
DetailsSolution identification
Partner: Obama Transition
Citizens Briefing Book
Citizen's Briefing Book is a compilation book of recommendations made to President Barack Obama by visitors to the Change.gov website, given to the President after his January 20, 2009 inauguration.
DetailsPartner: White House
White House Open Government Initiative
White House Open Government Initiative
DetailsPartner: White House
ExpertNet
The goal of ExpertNet is to enable government officials to search for and communicate with citizens who have expertise on a topic, giving them the opportunity to participate in a public consultation relevant to their areas of interest and know-how, and pose questions to and interact with the public to receive useful, relevant, and manageable feedback.
DetailsProblem identification
Partner: 10 Downing Street
The Red Tape Challenge
An innovative cross-government programme to tackle the stock of unnecessary and over-complicated regulation, saving taxpayers money, and supporting economic growth by increasing business competitiveness.
DetailsPartner: State of Texas Legislature
Texas Red Tape Challenge
A unique web-based project designed to enhance public participation in the policy-making process
DetailsPartner: Network of Innovators
Network of Innovators
Patented groupware for self-moderated democratic deliberation
DetailsPartner: Crowdsourcerer
Crowdsourcerer
State of Play Public Space Design Competition. Ran first-ever competition to design the public square of the future in a virtual world.
DetailsSolution identification
Partner: Smarter Crowdsourcing: Innovations in Disaster Management
Smarter Crowdsourcing: Innovations in Disaster Management
Government of Quito, Ecuador: Series of four online deliberations to identify citizen sensing and reporting tools for disaster management.
DetailsSolution identification
Partner: San Pedro Garza de Garcia
City Challenge: San Pedro Garza Garcia
12-month project designed to evaluate a replicable process for Latin American cities to solve social problems more quickly and effectively.
DetailsSolution identification
Partner: City of Rio de Janeiro, Argentina, Colombia and Panama and the Inter-American Development Bank
Smarter Crowdsourcing-Zika
Smarter Crowdsourcing for Zika
DetailsSolution identification
Partner: Government of Mexico, Inter-American Development Bank
Smarter Crowdsourcing: Anti-Corruption
Through the Smarter Crowdsourcing | Anti-Corruption initiative, six online conferences will be held to identify innovative and practical approaches to combat corruption in Mexico. Through the conferences, which will be held in the summer of 2017, experts from different countries are being convened in a variety of fields, such as public administration, data analysis and science, technology, business and law enforcement, among others. The project is designed to turn good ideas into implementable solutions.
DetailsProblem identification
Partner: AARP
Big Health Data Challenge
AARP, the nation's largest nonprofit, and The Governance Lab (The GovLab) launched an online consultation to better understand AARP members' concerns about big health data.
DetailsProblem identification
Partner: Smarter NJ
Smarter NJ
SmarterNJ works with government to tap New Jersey's most valuable resource: the intelligence, expertise, and know-how of its people.
DetailsSolution identification
Partner: Innovation eNJine Challenge
Innovation eNJine Challenge
This open innovation challenge leveraged the knowledge of state employees to source ideas that make government more effective and efficient.
DetailsProblem identification
Partner: NJ Future of Work
NJ Future of Work
We engaged with over 4,000 workers to understand what challenges were most important. Participants highlighted concerns such as lack of affordable training, negative work-life balance, and privacy intrusion.
DetailsPartner: Cities of Hermosillo, Reynosa, San Nicolas de los Garza,. San Pedro Garza Garcia, Torreon
Multi City Challenge: Mexico
The challenges of the five municipalities addressed relevant issues such as economic reactivation in the face of the COVID-19 crisis, measures to stop the transmission of the virus during the reopening, urban mobility, pollution and social inclusion of older adults. Explore the challenges of the participating cities in the profile of each city.
DetailsSolution identification
Partner: Cities of Accra (Ghana), Bahir Dar (Ethiopia), Kampala (Uganda), Kano (Nigeria), and Mutare (Zimbabwe) and UNDP
Multi City Challenge: Africa
The Multi City Challenge is a process by which cities facing common problems pool expertise from residents to discover and implement innovative solutions. We want to hear your solutions to three complex urban challenges in five African cities.
DetailsSolution identification
Partner: Federation of American Scientists
Ask a Scientist
Do you have COVID-19 questions? Our scientists have answers. A collaboration with the Federation of American Scientists.
DetailsProblem identification
Partner: State of New Jersey
Symptom Tracker
An online tool that provides COVID-19 health guidance to users based on their symptoms.
DetailsSolution identification
Partner: Inter-American Development Bank and Governments of Argentina, Bahamas, Brazil, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Peru.
Smarter Crowdsourcing: Coranovirus
Series of six online deliberations to identify strategies for governments in Latin America and the Caribbean to more effectively respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
DetailsSolution identification
Partner: Northeastern University
Smarter Crowdsourcing: Experiential Learning
Two online deliberations to identify innovations in experiential learning in higher education and beyond.
DetailsSolution identification
Partner: NJ Department of Education, Gates Foundation
ReinventED: Your Education, Your Voice
Engaging diverse students, families and educators in education policymaking
DetailsSolution identification
Partner: Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress
Smarter Crowdsourcing: Modernization of Congress
Two online deliberations to inform the Committee's process of developing recommendations on evidence-based lawmaking.
DetailsSolution identification
Partner: City of Oakland
Oakland City Challenge
Online open innovation process using Your Priorities to address challenges our city faces regarding homelessness, violent crime, and abandoned vehicles and illegal dumping.
Details