1 – they provide information on cities, regions, lands, thus offering first-hand information and space for creative input and discussion

2 – wikis stimulate communication through allowing citizen to edit, discuss and write wiki entries

3 – wikis allow people to network, being an alternative to well-known social networks. Since citizen wikis are offered by the government, they may seem more secure in terms of privacy policy to some individuals

4 – additional function of wikis is entertainment, because they inform on a variety of issues and can be an engaging pastime for citizens

Citizen wikis are a rather new issue on the governmental agenda, and the discourse around this issue needs to be fostered. Currently there are city wikis and regional wikis in Germany, like, for example, Stadtwiki Karlsruhe.

Being simple to use and offering open and transparent content, citizen wikis seem to possess considerable potential for citizen involvement in the public sphere.

There are various ways to organize citizen participation – via online platforms, mobile alerts, discussion websites…

Here are some of the options ( listed from easy to advanced):

1 – Unify – a web platform is created, citizen are offered questions with answer choices, they also have the possibility to comment. The data goes to the city council/agency.

2 – Movo – mobile alerts containing questions and answer choices. Citizen can send comments and answer questions via mobile phones.

3 – Capture – a web platform fosters user contribution via gathering citizen opinions and visions on certain issues, especially on events and situations unfolding here and now.

4 – Reveal – crowd-sourcing of citizen ideas and generation of visions coming directly from the people. By voting for best ideas, the community moves them to the top (digg for the public sector).

5 – Converge – full service destination community, allowing to share opinions and run an open deliberation within your community.