We just added Zilino to the collection of online tools for participation on ParticipateDB.
About ParticipateDB:
ParticipateDB is a collaborative catalogue for online tools for participation (often referred to as tools for web-based engagement, online participation, e-participation, e-consultation, online dialogue, online deliberation etc.).
The site aims to build a comprehensive guide to the many online tools for public participation and related forms of citizen engagement — large and small, commercial and open source, mature and experimental — as well as the context in which they are being applied.
Going forward, we will add projects, case studies and other references over there.
One challenge with public participation today is the fact that issues often tend to get fairly complex, even at the local level. In order for participants to be able to lead an informed discussion, they need to have a minimum understanding of the topics at hand.
To help achieve this goal, it has traditionally been the convener’s responsibility to provide the participants with “complete, unbiased information”.
Our alpha version already supports this basic requirement. A resource library allows the facilitator to share links to relevant online documents and websites and provide some context where needed.
Over time, we want to make information sharing and learning on Zilino a lot more collaborative and a lot more social. Here’s what I wrote back in March of 2009:
We often talk about the obvious shortcomings of e-participation as compared to face-to-face engagement. In this case, however, I see a lot of opportunities how web-based tools could be used to allow the participants to collaboratively improve the quality and completeness of the informational materials provided, in ways that could ultimately strengthen the credibility of the organizer/sponsor or convener organization.
Instead of being strictly a consumer of information, the new participant takes on additional roles such as researcher, editor, curator etc. in ways that help educate the group as a whole.