Engagement Strategy

All partners have done it! They completed the survey: How Participatory Can You Get? With their answers the work to improve and strive towards a more efficient collaboration continues. 

Out of 16 OH partners involved in this project, 15 partners took part in this survey. The total number of individual participants who answered questions is 30. 

It was great to see our partners so engaged! Keep it up!

1.Question: Describe what in your opinion is a participatory platform, what are its main functionalities?

They've got it! All definitions listed by the OH partners can be used for defining a participatory platform! Here is a brief sum-up of key words we've collected based on their answers (these keywords are sorted from those that were used the most to those that were used the least):

2. Question: Please list collaborative online tools that you use (in case it is not applicable please write NA)

It is useful to know that majority that answered the Survey do not use collaborative online tools (NA), thus we will keep this in mind when giving further assistance:

3. Question: Please list all participatory platforms you used or wanted to take part in (if not applicable please write NA)

Interesting! The majority who answered the Survey do not use participatory platforms (NA). Good to know! We will keep this in mind when giving you further assistance. We have come across many names for participatory platforms. Some that are familiar to us and some that are not. Excellent! This will help us test other platforms and improve ours (Urban Governance: Decide Madrid, Consul, Next Hamburg, Wien Gibt Raum, Licz na Zielen / Count for Green, Loomio, transformCity, https://neighborland.com/, Potere al Popolo/Liquid Democracy, Diem 25; Others: Reter, Rebirth Roma Forum, SoDA societa romana delle azioni/atlante pop della cittadinanza attiva, Mappina, etherpad, Zooniverse; Omeka; Google Crowdsource).

4. Question: What are the benefits of a participatory platform?

Their answers have provided us with a list of key benefits for using a participatory platform! This is a motivation for those who are not familiar with the participatory platform. Keep in mind these perks when going thorugh a learning process.

5. Question: What are the challenges of a participatory platform (please list all the cons you can think of)?

These are the key challenges detected thus we shall do our best to tackle them!

• Make it attractive to Participants (meets the needs, attract new users, user-friendly, clear, fun, motivating, one can benefit using this platform, engage)
• Monitoring and Transparency (decide on official language, keep track of the whole project, moderating racist and sexist comments, data protection, visibility, possibility of fake accounts + trolls)
• Sustainability (long term sustainability)
• Not Applicable
• Complex or Not Efficient (too many processes, navigating information that might be little relevant, saturation of information, repetitive information, the participatory platform needs to be well structured; Many cities struggle to streamline their participation, having a different platform for every project, fear that it cannot replace off-line communication; to be effective, users need to come back on the platform often; requires high involvement of stakeholders, misunderstandings in communication)
• Tech Savviness (The main challenges of a participatory platform are due to digital divide, i.e the difficulty for some segment of the population to access broadband and acquire digital devices. Intellectual property rights must be considered as well as the regulation of the content and quantity of the information diffused through the platform).
• Measurable (challenging to prove if it is better than face to face / old fashion management)

6. Question: OH participatory platform should be clear in what it can offer (explanatory, easy to understand thus also user-friendly). Choose one option that can provide the best explanation:

It is interesting to see that most prefer texts and easy navigation rather than other options that we offered. Thank you, this is useful to know in order to make this platform clear and user friendly!

Here are the answers provided by those who opted for ´Other´: Clarity of purpose; Participatory platform should reflect the mission and vision of the project; Emphasis on meeting the needs that targeted audience has or might have; Not Applicable.

7. Question: OH platform should encourage networking: people to join and share ideas, skills, knowledge and possible opportunities. Choose one option that is the most important for you.

For sure one of the most important challenges of participatory platforms is keeping the team on track and in regular communication. This indeed was the number one choice for networking.

Answers provided by those who opted for ´Other´: I don´t know; Contacts with related projects and other stakeholders; I am sorry I am not sure I understand this question.

8. Question: OH participatory platform should provide "community perks" which aim to make participants feel as part of a group. Perks that can encourage them to generate perceptions, desires, common needs or affections. Choose one option that is the most important for you.

Good! It seems that learning is the number one motivation. It is nice to have such positive spirit in the OH team!

Answers provided by those who opted for ´Other´: the field was left empty (no answer).

9. Question: OH participatory platform seeks to get attention (bring awareness) of its stakeholders. The process or activity meets common expectations, it is achievable and feasible. Choose one option that mostly appeals to you.

Answers provided by those who opted for ´Other´: I don´t understand the question; I'm not yet sure how we are going to use the platform as a project.

Thank you for the comment mentioned above. We will see to elaborate on this question so that it is perfectly clear for next time! This question is similar or better yet slighly different to the following question. Here we wanted to communicate that there are few important things to keep in mind so that this platform can be successful in bringing awareness of stakeholders (for example attracting more participants...what is important so that more people are engaged via the participatory platform). We gave you few choices that could lead to this objective and these are the results:

10. Question: OH participatory platform should engage and motivate its users. What are the levers that motivate you to continue participating? Choose one option that mostly appeals to you.

Answers provided by those who opted for ´Other´: learning from others; Value; It lets me get a quick and clear overview of what is, was and will be going on in the project; good offline and online promotion. Other channels should send me here periodically.

11. Question: OH participatory platform should reward its users. Which incentive or compensation would be the most attractive for a user? Choose one option that is the most rewarding for you.

Again! Learning is the most chosen option: developing new skills and meaningful knowledge!

12. Question: OH participatory platform should provide a safe environment for its users. In which way is a user guaranteed that the platform is safe on a technical level, privacy, and mutual respect … Choose one option that makes you feel the safest as a user.

Each administrator of a participatory platform should strive towards providing a safe environment for its community. First and for most in order to have a successful platform safety must be guaranteed. Here is what makes OH team feel the safest:

13. Question: OH participatory platform should provide transparency. In what way does the platform provide the relevant and open information (not disclosing anything) to a user? Choose one option that is the most important for you.

Answers provided by those who opted for ´Other´: I don´t know.

14. Question: OH participatory platform should provide personal environment for users to identify with. How can a platform help user to identify with the objective that is persuaded? How to foster engagement through stories, design and tone? Choose one option that is the most important for you.

Answers provided by those who opted for ´Other´: It's too early to tell; Maybe with local ambassadors. Visual content. Offline channels still important in bringing people on the platform.

GREAT WORK EVERYONE!

Thank you for participating! Indeed, the results of this survey have been super useful. Hopefully our OH Partners can apply what we've learned on their CHL websites.