Online Idea Competition
Online Idea Competition allows for collective idea storming by letting an open or invited audience bring in suggestions on an issue and to achieve a decision by voting on them.
Level of participation
Ideation
Co-Decision
Duration of participation process
Preparation: 1-6 weeks for tool set up, invitations etc.
Implementation: 2-4 weeks
Follow-up: ½-1 day for idea publishing and documentation
Target group size
<15 people
15-30 people
30-100 people
100-250 people
> 250 people
Costs
$
$$
Cost for tools, moderation etc…
Human resources needed
At least one person for preapartion, moderation and documentation
The method: what is it, when to use it and what outcome to expect
Online Idea Competition is a module and specific feature of the participation platform ‘Adhocracy+’. Its aim is to involve citizens in finding (unexpected, uncommon) solutions for public topics. It is accomplished by providing all participants access to all contributed ideas, co-developing ideas together and finally voting to find the best fitting solution.
Online Idea Competitions can be run as a separate event initiated e.g. by a municipality or social initiative or as part of a larger process that foresees ideation. Any topic with relation to its resident can be used, like how to make a city park safer or a neighborhood more enjoyable.
Online Idea Competitions result in citizen-centric, diverse ideating with great potential of finding a solution that satisfies affected citizens.
The process: how to conduct it in an in-person setting or online using a PC/laptop with video option
- Preparation: Decide if the Online Idea Competition is to be conducted as a stand alone event or as part of a planned citizen event. Determine which questions/subject should be ideated on and until when. If needed, plan how to reach participants from all desired citizen groups. Invite participants, providing access information to join. Set up a point of contact for participants. Hire or assign a professional to moderate the process.
- Idea submission: Invite participants to contribute their own solutions and challenge and comment on solutions from others using the online platform.
- Idea evaluation: Participants evaluate the solutions by voting on each idea, casting a winning idea.
- Winner announcement: Announce the winning concept and next steps to the public.
Blended participation
The debate is conducted online, using one of the available online tools. However, you can accompany the process with face-to-face meetings where the idea is discussed to give further background information or to answer questions by citizens.
Digital communication
- It is recommended to use one of the existing online tools – see “Read Further”.
Good to know
- Consider 1-2 weeks for idea submission and 1 week for idea evaluation and extend/shorten depending on the question/subject and number of participants
- Consider 2-3 hours per week for the moderation of contributions
- The digital method on Adhocracy+ also allows ideas to be marked on a map
- Read further: https://adhocracy.plus/info/use-cases/innovationswettbewerb/