Communications assistant professor discussed the Better Reykjavik project, which deals with participation and collaboration in city governance.
Derek Lackaff, an assistant professor in Elon University’s School of Communications, co-presented research on a case study of Better Reykjavic at The Internet, Policy & Politics Conferences Sept. 25 at the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford.
The case study, titled “Better Reykjavik: Policycrafting from the Autonomous Grassroots,” illustrates Better Reykjavic as “a socio-technical initiative designed to promote citizen participation and collaborative problem-solving in city governance.”
From Lackaff’s paper:
“Better Reykjavik is an ‘e-petition’ or ‘open innovation’ website that enables citizens to submit policy proposals and ideas for consideration by the city government.
“Developed in 2010 by grassroots activists, the initiative was endorsed by a newly-formed political party that went on to win the election, and later formally adopted as an official channel for citizen petitions of the government. As of March 2014, citizens have used the platform to propose and discuss over 1,800 policy proposals and ideas, of which over 400 have received formal consideration from the municipal government and over 300 have been implemented or are in the process of implementation.”
Lackaff co-authored the paper with Gunnar Grímsson and Róbert Viðar Bjarnason.