PublicInput Blog

Read best practices on everything related to community engagement.

Should I setup a Facebook page for my public project?

Should I setup a Facebook page for my public project?

Many times, early in project planning, teams find themselves wanting to expand public involvement in projects. The promise of social media looms large in increasing participation which leads many teams to ask: should this project have a Facebook page? The answer...
NCDOT’s innovative use of PublicInput.com highlighted at TRB conference

NCDOT’s innovative use of PublicInput.com highlighted at TRB conference

Last week we had the privilege of presenting on our partnership with the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) at the annual Transportation Research Board (TRB) meeting in Washington, DC.
PublicInput.com Again Named to the GovTech 100

PublicInput.com Again Named to the GovTech 100

For the second year in a row, PublicInput.com was excited to be named to the GovTech 100, a listing of the top tech companies that serve government. A full listing of the GovTech 100 is available here
Online surveys are empowering your loudest residents. Here’s how data management can change that

Online surveys are empowering your loudest residents. Here’s how data management can change that

Today, while much has changed, some hasn't. Democracy, at its best, conveys the voice of the people to the institutions built to serve the people. But the tools, channels, and means of conveying that voice have multiplied.As those channels have multiplied, complexity has reared its ugly head, making the simple act of listening into something much more involved than once encountered.
Isn’t it time public engagement tapped the power of local media?

Isn’t it time public engagement tapped the power of local media?

Since the dawn of digital engagement tools, public engagement has suffered from an echo chamber effect where a small handful of people dominate both the online and offline public involvement process. This makes outreach a key piece of any public involvement effort....
Isn’t it time public engagement tapped the power of local media?

Isn’t it time public engagement tapped the power of local media?

The failure of “if you build it they will come” Since the dawn of digital engagement tools, public engagement has ...
A Data Dashboard for Civic Engagement

A Data Dashboard for Civic Engagement

To simplify data reporting and sharing, PublicInput.com partnered with Reach to develop the all-new Data Dashboard tool.  The dashboard is a central toolkit to find and share insights from the data collected through text messaging, embedded news surveys, EdNC.org, paper surveys, and offline events. It also makes it easier for our reporters and researchers to access the data and stories.The dashboard is designed to bring together the data collected through Reach along with related public datasets, such as US Census Data. The results are highly visual insights that can be shared on social media or embedded on the web.
Innovators Wanted: Now accepting beta partners for ‘Mayor Mode’

Innovators Wanted: Now accepting beta partners for ‘Mayor Mode’

We’re keeping this beta so we can focus our effort and attention on a handful of users interested in developing a dashboard for their stakeholders — such as the mayor, council, or city manager...
How to get the most out of your online surveys

How to get the most out of your online surveys

We are all about public engagement at PublicInput.com, but more importantly effective public engagement. An important step of this is lowering the barrier to getting people’s input. So the question was posed, “are we getting the most out of our online surveys?”As the Lead Data Scientist at PublicInput…I got excited. We hit the data and here are some of the high level points we came up with....
Visualizing Demography to quantify public engagement success

Visualizing Demography to quantify public engagement success

We hear the question almost weekly from clients doing public outreach on on planning initiatives and public projects:“How do I know when I’ve heard from enough people?”For many years, the answer to that question has been “it depends”. How many people came to the meetings? What do you know about your area’s residents? Do you feel like you heard from more than the usual suspects...
Auto-sharing takes Historic Tax Credits Campaign Viral

Auto-sharing takes Historic Tax Credits Campaign Viral

In a partnership with the NC Metropolitan Mayors Association, Cityzen has launched a homepage for the campaign to restore historic preservation tax credits in North Carolina. The credits expired in 2014 when they were not renewed by the state’s legislature...
GovCups and Chapel Hill Invite Bright Ideas for Government

GovCups and Chapel Hill Invite Bright Ideas for Government

In a variation of the popular “1 Million Cups” events across the country, the Town of Chapel Hill is introducing GovCups. The focus of the event is on ideas and solutions to innovate how government interacts with people. Cityzen is presenting along with local startup Pix at the event, and here’s why...
This age group out-participated all others in Raleigh polls

This age group out-participated all others in Raleigh polls

So when the City of Raleigh looked to gather public feedback on its overhaul of the southern gateway to downtown, they chose to augment the traditional public hearing process with new approaches to online engagement. The city partnered with Cityzen to setup an interactive project home page that integrated directly with project social media posts...

Engage using standard survey question formats that you’re used to with consumer survey tools. From the single and multi-select, to Likert, slider, and text input formats, you’ve got the basics covered.