This is part three of a three-part series. You can view the first part with a brief introduction at this link, and part two here.

Experimenting with new technologies to engage citizens in Poland

In March of this year, the Polish organization Fundacja ePaństwo re-launched their popular parliamentary monitoring platform Sejmometr as mojePaństwo, or “My Country.” Like Parliament Watch and Congreso Visible, a desire to continue to broaden the organization’s reach to everyday people in Poland has pushed ePaństwo to experiment with entirely new strategies.

The alpha version of mojePaństwo was recently launched to replace Sejmometr.

The process to redesign the platform started two years ago, when the organization realized that although they had been widely successful in creating a site that engages citizens with information about what is happening in their parliament, traffic to the site had stagnated after two years at about 150,000 people per month. Traditional methods to improve the site—search engine optimization, simplistic designs, traditional media partnerships—weren’t working. At the time, ePaństwo chief operations officer Jakub Górnicki penned an article at The Huffington Post asking if gamification might be the answer to getting more citizens interested, which is the route they eventually took.

Just before mojePaństwo’s launch this year, Górnicki explained the rationale behind the shift. “Basic parliamentary data is mostly attractive to NGOs, media, activists and a selective group of hardcore citizens. Others activate themselves during election time or during national debates regarding controversial laws. But we needed to find other tools to get citizens to engage regularly.”

ePaństwo’s work has extended beyond just the provision of parliamentary information. Like Parliament Watch, the group has been involved in advocacy, winning two Supreme Court cases to compel the release of information by the government. ePaństwo also has tracked politicians’ statements, famously calling out the Polish Prime Minister for not living up to a promise to deliver a certain number of bills each month.

The new mojePaństwo platform encourages personalization by connecting people with their local areas, representatives and the issues they’re interested in. It also includes social interaction with friends and loyalty programs to specific causes—”For example, you register, you go there and connect your Facebook profile. Then we can generate a message to you, ‘Hey Dan, Magda is already taking part in civic action and you aren’t. How lame is that?” says Górnicki.

Perhaps most vital to the new initiative is a shift in focus from online to mobile. Before the shift, Sejmometr already had more than 25% of its users accessing the site on a mobile device, but they aim to move that closer to 100%. Górnicki says that the reason for the shift is the nature of the devices. “You use your desktop to work, search and browse. You use tablets to consume. But you use a mobile phone to check something and react to it—a message, email, push notification.”

The goal, he explains, is to compel citizens not just to view information, but to engage with it and use it. “Imagine that you’re running a shelter for dogs and you publish on your website weekly that you have new dogs to adopt, but no ones reads it. On a mobile phone they would get a push notification with a picture. Their reaction is totally different.”

mojePaństwo is still in its alpha version and has a long way to go. Only time will tell if this new strategy is successful, but its certain that organizations around the globe will benefit from insights gained through the attempt. This type of experimentation, whether in Poland, Colombia, Germany or elsewhere, is vital to informing a global answer to the question of how citizens can best engage with their governments.