A successful participatory budgeting program is one that delivers what has been decided… It is very fashionable right now to use technology to engage with citizens, but you’re not able or willing to respond to citizens, then don’t engage with them.

Tiago also emphasises the escalating impact of mobile technologies to enable a more inclusive participatory budgeting program:

One of the things that you see is… the power of using mobile phones for citizen participation…We’ve been in areas where citizens walk further to charge their mobile phones than they walk to get water!

About Tiago Peixoto

Tiago Peixoto is an Open Government specialist in the ICT4Gov program of the World Bank Institute.  Having worked for 10 years as a practitioner and researcher in the field of ICT and participatory governance, Tiago is currently an open government specialist at the ICT4Gov program of WBI’s Open Government cluster. Prior to joining the Bank, Tiago has managed projects and worked as an advisor and consultant for various organizations in the field of participation and technology, such as the European Commission, OECD, the United Nations, and the Brazilian and UK governments. He is also research coordinator of the Electronic Democracy Centre, a joint venture of the European University Institute, the University of Zurich and the Oxford Internet Institute of the University of Oxford.

About the World Bank Institute

The World Bank Institute (WBI) is a global connector of knowledge, learning and innovation for poverty reduction. It is part of the World Bank Group, and connects practitioners, networks and institutions to help them find solutions to their development challenges.

How you can use this episode

Listen to the episode

Episode links and resources

• World Bank Institute
• Project overview of Participatory budgeting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Recent Participatory Budgeting conference in New York
• Participatory Budgeting Facebook Group
• Non-exhaustive map of Participatory Budgeting Cases Around the World. Markers in red indicate cases of e-participatory budgeting (ICT facilitated)
• Article on mobile phones and Participatory Budgeting
• Mobile Participatory Budgeting in South-Kivu
• La Plata Multi-Channel Participatory Budgeting including PDF Case study
• Belo Horizonte’s (Brazil) e-Participatory Budgeting (PDF)
• ICT facilitated Participatory Budgeting in the DR Congo
• Brief report of NYC Participatory Budgeting Process, prepared by the Community Development Project at the Urban Justice Center (PDF)
• World Bank / Open Government Partnership webinar on “ICT for Citizen Engagement”

Videos

Participatory budgeting project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Participatory Budgeting and CrossVoice

Mobile Participatory Budgeting in South Kivu

La Plata (Argentina) Multi-Channel Participatory Budgeting

Belo Horizonte Participatory Budgeting

Recife Participatory Budgeting

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• People and organisations:
  @participatory
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• Tags: #opengov #edem #demopart #pbconf

Space Apps Challenge

Chris Vein, Deputy US CTO for Government Innovation and Nicholas Skytland, head of NASA’s Open Government Initiative, discuss how momentum for open government and open data is building internationally within policy leadership and also practical on-the-ground problem-solving events and initiatives.

Chris Vein shares some insights into how open data and code-a-thon events are a useful ‘sensemaking’ tool for open government, and ways in which this can turn into sustainable innovation inside governments. He encourages public sector agencies to…

…find groups of people, bring them together around an issue or problem that needs to be fixed, then step out of the way and let the collective energy of the people in the room come together and really take that data and solve things in creative and imaginative ways that we would never have done ourselves.

Nicholas Skytland talks about the inspiration and background to the initiative, which currently has 25 cities, around 70 organizations and more than 800 people across the world signed up to participate.

You’re able to solve challenges that might take months to do in government, but only take a weekend when you get the right people in the room together.

About Chris Vein

• Chris Vein is the Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer for Government Innovation in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. In this role, Chris searches for those with transformative ideas, convenes those inside and outside government to explore and test them, and catalyzes the results into a national action plan. Prior to joining the White House, Chris was the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the City and County of San Francisco where he led the City in becoming a national force in the application of new media platforms, use of open source applications, creation of new models for expanding digital inclusion, emphasizing “green” technology, and transforming government.

About Nicholas Skytland

• Nicholas Skytland is a NASA engineer, designer, entrepreneur, and advocate for NASA’s Open Government Initiative. He has a passion for engaging all generations in the adventure of space exploration and is continually working to help NASA embrace new technologies, increase public participation and innovate on how the Agency does business. Combining elements of space exploration, science, technology, visual art and storytelling, Nicholas is well known for many of his presentations promoting NASA, the human space program, participatory exploration and the Open Government initiative.

How you can use this episode

Listen to the episode

Episode links and resources

• International Space Apps Challenge website
• NASA Open Government website
• Open Government Partnership website
• US Government’s Open Innovator’s Toolkit

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You can use the social sharing links at the top of the page to easily share this story with your networks. You can also follow and join in the social conversation about this episode with:

• People and organisations:
  @WhiteHouseOSTP
  @skytland
  @intlspaceapps
  @NASA
  @opengovpart
• Tags: #spaceapps #opengov #opendata #nasa #OGP