Affiliations: Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Economicas (CIDE), Mexico City, Mexico
Correspondence:
[*]
Corresponding author: Cesar Renteria, Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Economicas (CIDE), Carretera México-Toluca 3655, Col. Lomas de Santa Fe. Ciudad de México, 01210, Mexico. Tel.: +52 55 5727 9800; E-mail: cesar.renteria@cide.edu.
Abstract: Digital platforms are suitable alternatives to help governments open policy-making and public service delivery to external ideas. Platforms are very flexible and customizable, which makes them effective for a variety of participatory purposes, such as co-creation, co-production, innovation, or transactions. However, this diversity makes it difficult to define how different technical designs could shape the performance of these platforms. Literature has described different types of platforms, based on their participatory goals, but we still do not know enough about the diversity of platforms in terms of technical design. To address this gap, we conducted a cluster analysis to find patterns in the technical design of 52 participatory platforms worldwide. We observed three main architectures: Ideas for the City; Decisions and Debates; and Mapping. These findings are one step forward to better understanding how digital platforms could impose certain dynamics on the participatory processes.
Keywords: Digital platforms, citizen participation, crowdsourcing, government-citizen relationships, open innovationKey points for practitioners:•We developed a conceptual framework to analyze the functionalities embedded in a digital platform.•We describe strategies and mechanisms through which digital platforms foster participation.•The three main strategies are (1) ideas for the city, (2) decisions and debates, and (3) mapping.•Our findings contribute to better understand how technical designs can shape the dynamics of participation in digital platforms.
