Citizen Engagement

Interaction between citizens and governments to canvass and influence collective public opinion on civic policy-making and budget spending

What is Crowdfunding?

Crowdfunding in Sweden

Crowdfunding in Sweden continues to grow and make headlines, from startups using donations-for-rewards crowdfunding as a sales channel for innovative products to quickly achieve high turnover, to the electric vehicle manufacturer Uniti raising €1.2m through its own...

Energy Sustainability and Decentralization (Part II)

Energy Sustainability and Decentralization (Part II)

In Part 1 we looked at decentralization of electricity generation, largely due to the availability of affordable equipment for domestic-scale production from renewable sources. Part 2 looks at the distribution side of the industry, where digitization will enable...

Sweden is a Crowdsourcing Leader

Sweden is a Crowdsourcing Leader

Sweden is recognised as being at the forefront of using crowdsourcing to develop both business and community social opportunities. Perhaps it’s an almost inevitable extension of central government policy to eradicate gender discrimination and treat everyone equally....

Crowdsourcing & Cybersecurity – A Supercell Against Cyber Threats

Crowdsourcing & Cybersecurity – A Supercell Against Cyber Threats

We live in a technology-driven world, where information spreads like wildfire. However, this information can sometimes be very dangerous if it gets into wrong hands, while at other times it can be fairly valuable. For instance, a cybercriminal gets their hands on a...

Benefits of effective crowdsourcing shown by 10 top US projects

Benefits of effective crowdsourcing shown by 10 top US projects

Crowdsourcing can reduce costs, speed up project timelines, tap in to crowd intelligence and creativity, and engage citizens at all levels of corporate and government processes. It’s not just for new startups, iconic organisations including NASA and GE have specialist...

Countdown to CSW Summit Arctic Circle 2017

Countdown to CSW Summit Arctic Circle 2017

A previous article shone a spotlight on several crowdsourcing success stories from Sweden, and the country that birthed technologies from Skype to Spotify is striving to foster other technologies that could influence the world in coming decades. Ahead of our CSW...

What To Expect From Crowdsourcing in 2017

What To Expect From Crowdsourcing in 2017

In recent weeks, as Trump has assumed his position as the President of the United States, the differences between himself and the Obama administration have become clearer. Despite all odds, however, there is one area common to both administrations that is set to...

Crowdsourcing Competitive Innovation

Crowdsourcing Competitive Innovation

Peter Diamandis is saying: 99.999% of people don’t understand or appreciate the ramifications of what is coming and I agree 100% here. Innovation is the essential component when we are considering how to solve the world’s biggest challenges, and the best place...

Decentralized energy is the future – and it’s closer than you think (part two)

Decentralized energy’s the future, sooner than you think (Part 2)

In my last post I looked at some of the technologies that are ushering in the decentralized energy revolution, such as cheap solar power, home batteries and the blockchain. But there’s another type of battery that could also change the way we store and use energy –...

How co-creation is shaping the future of cities

How co-creation is shaping the future of cities

As the famous urban activist Jane Jacobs once wrote, “Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.” It’s a truth that lies at the heart of a number of urban co-creation...

Searching for the Crowdsourcing Stars

Searching for the Crowdsourcing Stars

For many of us, it’s possible when we think of ‘Crowdsourcing’ what comes to mind is the Kickstarter of an exciting cause or product that we recently contributed financially to (often to support a friend whose involved in it) after seeing it promoted...

Are You Ready for the Second Wave of the Crowd Economy?

Are You Ready for the Second Wave of the Crowd Economy?

In my last blog post, I talked about how disruptors are getting disrupted and elimination of the business ‘middle man.’ Today I want to look back at the first wave of the Crowd Economy and the impact it has made since its birth at the height of the last recession. But...

Citizen Engagement Earns Greater Urban Mobility in Copenhagen

Citizen Engagement Earns Greater Urban Mobility in Copenhagen

In Denmark’s capital, cycling and citizen engagement are bywords woven into the city’s culture — and this week the two have been rewarded with Copenhagen City Council’s announcement that it’s investing big in new intelligent traffic signal technology. With a budget of...

Will Crowdfunding Make This Candidate the Philippine President?

Will Crowdfunding Make This Candidate the Philippine President?

We’ve seen the mantra “by the people, for the people” many times and now a Philippine presidential aspirant initiated a unique take on crowdfunding to support his campaign. His initiative is also embedded with a mechanism to protect his votes in the upcoming 2016...

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How Governments Apply Crowdsourcing To Spark Citizen Empowerment

Crowdsourcing. We talk about it. We educate people how to use it. But it is also an overused and underappreciated word, according to Forbes. Its influence is now spawning to government affairs thanks to the Internet.  In 2013, President Obama called out to the federal...

Civic Crowdfunding Can Revive the Citizens-Politics Relationship

  The relation between citizens and representative democracy is in a deep crisis, as indicated by a fall in the number of voters l in many countries all around the world. It’s a global phenomenon caused by the wide gap, that is growing every day between...

Digital Diplomacy to put Kosovo on the Global Map

“Facebook has recognized Kosovo.” You must have seen these viral headlines about a year ago. Now we get behind the scenes at CSW Europe in Copenhagen and get to know who has driven this change. The project of Digital Kosovo  has existed for a little over one year. In...