People working in government have suffered too long with digital tools that aren’t good enough. We’re helping change that. If you work in government (or a related organisation), we bring you tools that make it easy to involve citizens in decision making.
Simulator has helped us to engage and involve our residents in a very complex and difficult process. The comments that we got back from residents show that those who participated got a real insight into the decision-making process that touches so many people’s lives.”– Matt Jukes, Chief Executive, Hull City Council, UK
Our goal is better public services and a healthy, functioning democracy. For citizens (and we’re all citizens), our platforms make it easier for you to be involved in policy decisions.
OUR STORY
There are thousands of democratic processes running in government, all day, every day – democracy doesn’t just stop with voting in elections. Huge amounts of policy, service delivery, and government decisions are democratically accountable and provide opportunities for public involvement. The problem is, these opportunities are often hard to find, hard to take part in, outdated and tedious. We take these processes online with our three tools – Citizen Space, Simulator and Dialogue – and make them cheaper, more transparent and more rewarding to contribute to, all of which in turn yield better outcomes. We also make our products easy to buy, with simple subscription models and great support.
Citizen Space has transformed the way we are able to engage.– -Head of Consultation, Transport For London
I found Dialogue to be an essential tool in the debate. It helped to focus discussion around self-selecting themes in one inquiry, and opened out the debate beyond the two main arguments in another, helping the committee to understand the entire spectrum of debate. The platform encourages thoughtful, considered debate – more than a standard online survey or poll – and I have found it to also elicit respectful discussions, even when opinions are in conflict. Dialogue is also incredibly easy to understand (for users) and to extract and summarise the contributions (for officials). I love it, and can’t wait to use it in future inquiries!– – Hannah Johnson, Senior Researcher, Welsh Assembly
Our approach is to analyse what’s not working in democracy, and then to create tools that help fix it. That means low barriers to entry: with Citizen Space and Simulator, you don’t need to create an account, give an email address or share any non-relevant details to have your say. All our tools are fully optimised for use on mobile as well as desktop and everything in between – so you can take part while you’re in the park, or on the bus, or on the loo…
Delib is innovative not because our products have lots of bells and whistles and shiny things attached, but because we keep them as simple and user-friendly as we can. We’re trying to move participation in democracy away from a box-ticking exercise to something more involving, educational and enjoyable for both administrators and the public. (Too often, engagement tools are designed to be helpful for one or the other – not both.)
We didn’t invent digital democracy, but we’ve been around it for a long time. There are about 25 of us, based around the world (primarily spread between Bristol in the UK, Brisbane, and Canberra in Australia and Wellington and Christchurch in New Zealand). We’ve worked with government at the highest levels on projects that are high profile, but we’re affordable for everyday use. We meet lots of dedicated people working in government, with a deeply-felt public service ethos which we find inspiring. We love seeing how our customers use our products, and they’re constantly surprising us with inventive ways to use the tools and engage citizens on issues that matter. They have an active voice in the way we further development; our tools have been co-designed and co-funded by our customers.
Whether it’s a consultation on installing a mini-roundabout in a UK village, or a national government department reviewing health legislation in New Zealand, we’re connecting people to democracy and building trust, accountability and transparency along the way.
