www.CollaborationProject.org

Tools for OnlineIdea Generation

A Comparison of Technology Platforms for Public Managers

March 2011

Overview

The past several years have seen a dramatic increase in the use of web 2.0 tools at all levels of government. Beyond simply using them as communication vehicles, many public managers have adopted these tools as a means to solicit and aggregate ideas from employees and external stakeholders on how to solve problems and enhance government services. However, the plethora of platforms and variety of functionalities available can make a manager’s choice of technology challenging.

This comparison of dierent platforms is part of a series developed by the National Academy of Public Administration’s Collaboration Project based on our experience conducting online stakeholder consultations with government. It aims to assist public managers early in the planning process of such an initiative by comparing the purposes and functionalities of dierent ideation tools. Because the features of each of these tools are constantly being updated and enhanced, we intend this document to be a “living” resource that will be updated to reect changes over time.

Other resources in the Collaboration Project’s series on conducting online stakeholder engagement, including the Online Dialogue Brainstorm Guide, can be found at www.collaborationproject.org.

Please note: The information in this document is compiled from information

publicly available on the vendors’ websites, supplemented by the National

Academy of Public Administration’s rst-hand experience with several of the

technologies. The National Academy and the Collaboration Project are

technology-neutral: this document is not intended as an endorsement of

any particular technology or vendor. Please feel free to contact us at

collaborationproject@napawash.org to recommend changes or tools that

should be added to this document.

Considering your needs

Many technologies are commercially available for online idea generation, ranging from low-cost, out-of-the-box tools to large scale, custom-built solutions. As such, many factors should be considered in deciding which technology best ts your needs. These include:

Duration of engagement. How long will the idea generation project run? Will it be limited duration or an ongoing “market” of ideas?

Community. Do you need to be able to identify your “power users,” those whose ideas tend to be the most inuential? Do these users need to stand out among participants?

Responsiveness. Do you need to respond to ideas and comments as the dialogue happens or provide updates on the status of particular ideas?

Output. What kinds of data and analytics do you need the technol-ogy to provide?

Structure of dialogue. Do the ideas need to be strictly organized or siloed (e.g., by topic), or can all ideas mingle together?

Cost and resources. What budgetary and sta resources can you allocate to this engagement?

Support. What degree of technical support might you need from the vendor?

Deployment. How quickly do you need to launch the engagement?

Remember:While deciding on a technology is important, this decision is best made by aligning the the technology to your core purpose for engagement. In other words, let the tools t your needs, not vice-versa.

Platform Description What it does well What it gives the decision-maker

Pricing Examples

Bubble Ideas

Bubble Ideas is an off-the-shelf idea generation tool enabling idea aggregation and two-way communication between host and participants. The platform allows users to submit, comment, and vote on ideas. The host can update users on the status of ideas and shape the user experience by allowing only-positive or positive and negative ratings.

• Hosts a two-way conversation in which the host can respond to input, particularly by updating the status of suggestions over time

• Allows a degree of custom design and branding

• An aggregation of participants’ suggestions sorted by the thumbs-up-thumbs-down votes received for each idea

• A listing of ideas categorized and sorted by status (e.g., under review, in progress, implemented)

• Comment threads for each idea that refine ideas further

• Analysis of the discussion using advanced qualitative tools

• Free: Up to 50,000 server hits for the duration of the dialogue; 2 moderator accounts

• $99/mo: Up to 500,000 server hits; custom URL; 4 moderator accounts

• $299/mo: Up to 2 million server hits; 8 moderator accounts; sentiment/semantic analysis; analytics/reporting

• $499/mo: Up to 7 million server hits; unlimited moderator accounts; enhanced security; API access; sentiment/semantic analysis; analytics/reporting

Mock Bubble Ideas Gov 2.0 site

Solve Oil Spill

Crowd Wise

Crowd Wise is a participative tool for making collective decisions by helping participants find common ground, avoid polarization, and achieve productive outcomes. The platform works using consensus voting, in which participants suggest, discuss, and prioritize options for a decision, allowing for common-ground options to emerge that might not otherwise be considered.

• Helps a dialogue host move engagement efforts beyond ideation and into decision-making

• Offers a method to find common ground between different interests or stakeholder groups

• Results that reflect a process that moves toward consensus

• A more holistic view of the community’s preferences, which could be useful when the decision needs to be supported by a large portion of the constituency

Product is still in development, with plans to offer a free web-based tool.

(Product is still in development)

Platform Description What it does well What it gives the decision-maker

Pricing Examples

Delib Dialogue App

Delib’s Dialogue App is an idea-generation and dialogue tool built for a range of civic-engagement activities. The tool allows idea submission and commenting and uses a five-star rating system on which each idea’s ratings are averaged. The Dialogue App offers a simple, user-friendly interface and features intuitive tagging functionality to allow for visualization of cross-cutting themes. Delib also offers consultative services on the engagement process to pair with a technology solution.

• Aggregates ideas based on a simple 5-star rating scale in a way that shows the “average” level of support of participants

• Supports more open-ended dialogue than simply idea generation

• Provides consulting in combination with technology to lend expertise in stakeholder consultation

• Allows for a range of custom design and branding, from default to fully “white-labeled”

• An aggregation of ideas sorted by average rating on a 5-star scale, by volume of comments, and by time submitted

• Comment threads for each idea that refine ideas further

• An aggregation of the topics discussed using “tags,” which be useful for navigating through the ideas

• Free: Up to 100 users for 100-day duration

• $350/mo: One forum; unlimited users and moderators; custom logo

• $550/mo: Up to 8 discussion forums; custom demographic fields; downloadable reports (CSV)

Further pricing depends on scope and a menu of additional features, including advice and consultation by Delib staff. Delib also offers mobile apps.

National Dialogue on the Homeland Security Review

UK Spending Challenge

National Dialogue on Green and Healthy Homes

Google Moderator

Google Moderator is a tool that allows distributed communities to submit and vote on questions for talks, presentations and events. The platform allows participants to promote or demote each submission by a simple check mark mechanism.

• Prioritizes simple questions or short ideas from a group, without the need for deeper discussion

• Gathers and sorts questions or ideas in real-time during an event

• A quick aggregation of short, simple questions or ideas

Google Moderator is free for organizations using Google Apps or for individual users with Google accounts.

White House Open for Questions (now closed—link goes to project summary) Google Apps Feature Requests

Platform Description What it does well What it gives the decision-maker

Pricing Examples

IdeaScale

IdeaScale is an off-the-shelf platform that enables idea generation and refinement through a simple, intuitive thumbs-up/thumbs-down rating tool. This tool aggregates ratings into a net vote total, which makes negative ratings possible. IdeaScale allows for a moderate degree of customization in look-and-feel and also allows the discussion to be structured into hierarchical categories. IdeaScale was used as the platform to gather input into the open government plans for 24 federal agencies in 2009.

• Aggregates ideas with simple up-or-down votes in a way that distinctly separates popular ideas from unpopular ones

• Helps generate ideas and discussion without needing to infer users’ magnitude of agreement/disagreement

• Allows host to structure conversation using pre-set categories

• Allows a degree of custom design and branding

• An aggregation of participants’ ideas prioritized by simple thumbs-up/thumbs-down votes on each idea

• A sorting of ideas into hierarchical categories, e.g., by topic

• Comment threads for each idea that refine ideas further

• Free: Unlimited ideas and comments from unlimited users; e-mail and twitter integration; 1 moderator account

• $15/mo: Addition of a custom logo

• $99/mo: Customized site design; file attachments; custom registration fields

Open Department of Transportation

Open NASA

NARA Open Government Idea Forum

Microsoft Town Hall

Microsoft Town Hall is an ideation tool enabling users to voice opinions, identify problems, offer solutions and come together around common interests and concerns. It is also a for generating and aggregating questions, allowing the most popular or relevant questions to bubble to the top.

• Provides a robust web platform to aggregate the top questions or ideas on a constituency’s mind

• Supports dialogue with leaders that need to check the pulse of the public or stakeholders on a range of issues

• An aggregation of participants’ ideas prioritized by simple thumbs-up/thumbs-down votes on each idea

• An aggregation of the topics discussed using “tags,” which be useful for navigating through the ideas

• Comment threads for each idea that refine ideas further

TownHall is free from Microsoft but requires hosting on Windows Azure, a platform for managing cloud-based services. Windows Azure pricing begins at $59.95/month.

America Speaking Out

NASA Martian Town Hall

Platform Description What it does well What it gives the decision-maker

Pricing Examples

PubliVate

The PubliVate Engagement Platform is an ideation tool that allows participants to post, view, comment, and vote on ideas that respond to a question. The platform is marketed toward “challenges” in which participants submit responses to a challenge issued by the host. Examples of the platform’s use generally have a high degree of design customization.

• Aggregates ideas based on user ratings

• Allows for a high degree of design customization

• Supports initiatives needing in-depth analytical reporting

• An aggregation of ideas sorted by participant votes

• Comment threads for each idea that refine ideas further

Pricing details are not publicly available.

Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing

Salesforce Ideas

Salesforce Ideas is an out-of-the-box tool enabling constructive idea generation with a particular focus on creating a personalized, interactive user experience. The platform can host parallel discussions for different communities simultaneously and empowers responsiveness through idea status updates and blog integration.

• Hosts a two-way conversation in which the host can respond to input, particularly by updating the status of suggestions over time

• Supports longer-term innovation efforts in which the user community grows and segments into groups based on areas of interest

• Allows a degree of custom design and branding

• An aggregation of ideas sorted by votes of “promote”/”demote”

• A sorting of ideas by topic area

• Comment threads for each idea that refine ideas further

• Identification of “power users,” whose ideas have gained the most traction in the community

Salesforce Ideas is packaged with other Salesforce cloud services in 3 tiers of pricing, ranging from $65/month per user to $260/month per user.

My Starbucks Idea

Salesforce Idea Exchange

Platform Description What it does well What it gives the decision-maker

Pricing Examples

Spigit Spigit is an innovation-management platform intended to facilitate the generation of ideas over a long-term process. Spigit allows for the creation of discussion forums where users can submit ideas and vote on the best ones over time. It also enables a two-way conversation in which the host recognizes ideas, updates the status of suggestions, and identifies “power users,” those whose ideas gain the most traction in the community. The product’s design is generally highly customized, and the platform includes a suite of other social media tools as well, such as profiles, blogs, and wikis, for added dimensions of collaboration.

• Hosts a two-way conversation in which the host can respond to input, particularly by updating the status of suggestions over time

• Supports longer-term innovation efforts in which the user community grows and segments into groups based on areas of interest

• Allows for extensive of custom design and branding

• Supports the creation of detailed user profiles

• Highlights the participation of “power users”

• An ongoing market of ideas that decision-makers can use as a source for innovation and continuous improvement

• A collection of aggregated ideas by participants’ support

• Identification and recognition of “power users,” those whose ideas have gained the most traction in the community

Price depends on services and level of customization, but the basic package starts at $499/month.

Manor Labs (Manor, TX)

New York City “Simplicity”

Platform Description What it does well What it gives the decision-maker

Pricing Examples

UserVoice

UserVoice is an off-the-shelf idea generation tool originally built for product improvement, but increasingly used for engagement initiatives involving two-way communication between host and participants. The platform is most useful for ideation specifically, as opposed to open-ended dialogue, and provides intuitive mechanisms for host to show responsiveness to input. The tool enables idea submission and commenting and requires users to budget their votes by allocating 0-3 votes per idea, up to a pre-set limit in each discussion forum.

• Hosts a two-way conversation in which the host can respond to input, particularly by updating the status of suggestions over time

• Steers dialogue toward popular ideas, as opposed to focusing on disagreements

• Allows a degree of custom design and branding

• An aggregation of participants’ ideas and suggestions sorted by level of support and volume of conversation

• Comment threads for each idea that refine ideas further

• Identification and recognition of “power users,” whose ideas have gained the most traction in the community

• Free: Offers one administrator account and one forum, which can be used by up to 100 voters

• $19/mo (Tin): Offers analytics, moderation tools, domain aliasing, up to 100 voters, unlimited forums, private forums, and email support

• $89/mo (Bronze): Offers single sign-on (using Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and the ability to export dialogue data to excel or CSV. Allows up to 1,000 voters

• $289/mo (Silver): Offers commercial API, SSL encryption, and up to 5,000 voters

• $589/mo (Gold): Allows "white labeling"/customizable branding and design in CSS

Discounts are available for public-facing, government- sponsored forums

Better Buy

Ideas for Seattle

Ideas 4 Oregon

About the Collaboration Project

For more information:

Danielle Germain, Director(202) 204-3632collaborationproject@napawash.org

Daniel Honker, Analyst(202) 204-3633

The Collaboration Project (www.collaborationproject.org) is an independent forum of leaders who share a commitment to the adoption and use of collaborative technologies to solve com-plex problems of public management. With the support of dedicated sta and access to the National Academy’s distinguished Fellows and other subject matter experts, the Collaboration Project convenes members in person and online to share best practices; produces research on the opportunities and challenges of collaboration; and assists agencies in implementing collaborative tools and approaches.

This work is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

See collaborationproject.org/copyright for more information.

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