Wise Economy White Paper on Online Platforms for Public Engagement

Our friends at Wise Economy Workshop have recently published a white paper entitled: Online Public Participation Platforms  and Applications.  PlaceSpeak is honoured to have been included as one of the featured platforms.

From the introduction:

This white paper was developed to orient readers who are interested in local public participation to some of the existing online platforms and services available at this time, and create a base level of understanding with regard to each approach’s strengths and most appropriate applications.

Here is what they had to say about PlaceSpeak:

Still in beta stage, PlaceSpeak is a young, growing company based in Vancouver. PlaceSpeak, like  many of the other platforms discussed, is an online community engagement and public consultation
platform designed to connect people with issues affecting their local communities. As such, the  platform allows for participants to post and share ideas, and administrators to post background
information and survey constituents.

However, the distinguishing  characteristic of PlaceSpeak is that it requires users to first input  their residential address so the program can link user identities with geographic locations. This allows administrators to focus a dialogue on residents in targeted, specific neighborhoods, and helps to ensure that feedback received is from the people who will be most affected by the project or policy in question. Additionally, the geo-tagging feature facilitates future notification and engagement of residents in the event that another project necessitating extensive public engagement should arise in a neighborhood that has already
used the platform.

PlaceSpeak is a modest operation with minimal staff, and most of the projects the company has been involved with have been in the greater Vancouver area. There are different stratas of PlaceSpeak platforms. Plans range from the most basic level Bronze ($200 annual fee + $20 monthly), to Gold ($5000 annually + $500 a month). There is also an Enterprise level boasting the most features; however the pricing for this plan is customized per the needs and wants of the customer.

You can download the entire white paper HERE. (pdf)