Participedia is a crowdsourcing platform and global network for researchers, educators, practitioners, policymakers, activists, and anyone interested in public participation and democratic innovations. Our active community of contributors use the site to study and design effective methods of citizen engagement. The site is currently available in seven languages, and features two key types of contributors: Publishers and Editors.

Publishers

Many people who publish new entries on Participedia are students, practitioners, or organizers of participatory events. Students may be assigned course work that involves researching and documenting participatory initiatives, such as this collection developed by graduates of the Coady International Institute at St. Francis Xavier University. Practitioners and activists use the site to document and publicize methods, cases, and organizations.

People who publish entries on Participedia benefit from increased discoverability of their work, while also contributing to a collaborative effort to document participatory initiatives. The content that “participedians” contribute makes it possible for others to explore a large and diverse database of inspiring case examples and the methods that inform them.

Key Considerations for Publishers

• Use the site in your preferred language. New entries are automatically translated into all supported languages, but only the first time they are published. Read more about how translations works in our faq.
• Participedia contains three entry types: cases, methods, and organizations. Read more about entry types in our faq.
• Like Wikipedia, Participedia is focused on documentation rather than persuasion or opinion.
• All content must be cited so readers can fact-check original sources.
• Contributions should draw from credible sources whenever they are available, such as academic papers, reports, official evaluations, official websites of organizations involved, or news outlets.
• Write in the third person, not the first person.
• Click the “Quick Submit” button on desktop, or the “+” on mobile, to get started. Quick Submit

Editors

The project’s staff editors review Participedia content, curate collections, and flag entries with editing prompts such as level of completeness and whether the content requires citations. In addition, all users are encouraged to assist in improving Participedia entries made by other contributors. This could include, for example, things as basic as improving grammar and readability, revising translations of entries that have been machine-translated into other languages, and adding images or links to supporting documents and relevant websites. Users with relevant subject-matter expertise are invited to make substantive changes to entries.

Key Considerations for Editors

• Use the site in your preferred language. All fixed-data changes are applied across all languages, and text changes are applied in your language only. Read more about how translations work in our faq.
• On the search page, use the search filter called “entry completeness” to find entries listed as stubs, partially complete, or content that needs citations. For example here are cases that are flagged as stubs.
• Add information or images related to a participatory event you attended
• Use search filters to look for cases that took place near you. After doing research, add more content to those entries. For example, an entry might benefit from links to supporting documents and external websites.
• Click the floating, red “edit” icon on any entry to get started. Edit