Citizens Foundation
The Citizens Foundation is an Icelandic non-profit founded in 2008 that develops Your Priorities, an open-source platform for idea generation, deliberation, and citizen–government engagement. The platform surfaces the most broadly supported ideas rather than amplifying the loudest voices — closer in spirit to consensus mapping than to open comment threads.
Its flagship deployment, Better Reykjavík, allowed residents to propose and vote on ideas for city improvements. By 2022 it had engaged 70,000 of Iceland's approximately 120,000 eligible citizens, making it one of the most cited participatory democracy case studies globally. The platform has since been deployed in 45+ countries, reaching over 2 million people.
Links
- Website: citizens.is
- Source code: github.com/CitizensFoundation/your-priorities-app
- Wikipedia: Citizens Foundation
See also
History
-
2008-01-01
Founded by Robert Bjarnason and Gunnar Grimsson
Sourcing: High
The Citizens Foundation is a non-profit organization based in Reykjavík, Iceland, and founded under Icelandic law to promote electronic collaborative democracy around the globe and to develop the software needed for that purpose.
↗ View source - 2010-02-01 Launched Shadow Parliament, importing real Icelandic Parliament proposals for citizens to vote on
- 2010-05-25 Launched Better Reykjavík (originally "Shadow City"); nearly 3,000 users and 400+ ideas within three days