Participedia Help

NOTE: You need to register as a user in order to create content on Participedia. Sign up here.

Welcome to our help page

This help page covers the basics, and we hope it will become more detailed over time.

Participedia has very limited tech support resources at this time, so we can not provide hands-on tech support help for site users. If the issue you need help with an issue that isn't addressed here, you can post your questions or tips in the help forum to see if other Participedia users can help. We will be working on our help section, and your input will let us know where to focus and what to clarify.

Finding information on Participedia

Almost all the content on Participedia is in the form of a case, method or organization.

• Articles about Cases include examples of participatory politics and governance of all shapes and sizes. Cases can be contemporary or historical, completed or ongoing.
• Articles about Methods provide information on the many processes used to guide innovations in participatory politics and governance, such as citizen juries, deliberative polling, and participatory budgeting.
• Articles about Organizations provide profiles of formal and informal groups that design, implement, or support innovations in participatory politics and governance.

You can search or browse cases, methods and organizations in several ways.

1. Browse: If you visit the cases page, the methods page or the organizations page, you will be able to browse all the articles of that type in either geographical or chronological order (according to the date the article was added, most recent first). By default you will see only articles that are complete or partial; this excludes "stubs", which are meant as placeholders or suggestions for articles that still need to be filled out.


2. Search with an article type: Within each type of article (cases, methods, or organizations) you can select criteria (in the boxes on the right-hand side of the page) to filter which articles you see. The search filters treat each additional criterion as an "AND" -- so Participedia reads the criteria in this illustration as, show me every case that is in Country: Italy AND Type of interaction: Discussion AND Geographic Scope: Local.
   


3. Site-wide search: Use the search box at the top of the page to conduct a site-wide search on any keyword; this will take you to a set of search results that include any case, method or organization articles containing your keyword. Hint: You can leave the search box empty, and just click "search", to see a complete list of ALL cases, methods and organizations on this site. Once you're on the search results page, you can once again filter your results by selecting criteria. However since many criteria apply to only one type of article, clicking on criteria may quickly lead you to a set of results that includes only cases, methods or organizations. For example, filtering on a country name may show you both cases and organizations from that country, but filtering on a decision method will show you only case results (because only cases include "decision method" as a criterion).

You can also search or browse user profiles on Participedia. By filling in your own user profile to share information about your interests, work or location, the more likely it is that you'll be able to find other users with related challenges or expertise. Finally, you can find information about the Participedia project itself by visiting the About pages, or by looking at the latest News.

Contributing content to Participedia

It is very easy for anyone to contribute content to Participedia about a case, method, or organization. Please register today so that you can contribute to the site; you will need to register in order to add or edit articles, or participate in discussions.

Once you are registered and logged in, you can contribute in several ways:

1. Create a new case, method or organization article. From the Create Content page, choose the type of article you would like to draft. You don't have to be ready to write a complete article; you just need to get the article started. (If you just want to suggest an article for someone else to write, just enter the title of your article, and choose "stub" from the completeness drop-down.) Tabs toward the top of the entry form (for example, “purpose, history, participants” etc.) help guide you through the form. Some fields are open and ask you submit text, including a brief narrative description. Other fields prompt you to select from lists of possible responses.


2. Edit or add to an existing entry. While viewing a case, method or organization article, click the "edit" tab at the top of the article to jump in and add to or amend the current entry. The "Revisions" tab allows you to display of all the contributors to the article and when they made their contribution.
   


3. Start or join a discussion. You can comment on any case, method or organization by starting a discussion thread on that specific article. These discussions are a good way to flag an issue that needs further consideration or coverage, or to raise concerns about past revisions to an article. Just as every Wikipedia entry has a "discussion" tab for debates over that entry, we hope Participedians will engage in lively debates about our articles. You can start a new discussion on any entry, or if there is a discussion already underway, join in.

Important note to contributors

This is still a beta site, so glitches may occur. Don't let a glitch or accident eat your carefully-crafted article or comment! The longer your contribution, the sadder it would be to lose it by accidentally reloading the page! We strongly encourage you to draft any content in a text editor (such as TextPad or TextEdit) and copy-and-paste your text into Participedia. If you use Word, please copy-and-paste from Word to a plain text editor (e.g. TextPad), and then copy-and-paste from there into Participedia; Word text often includes hidden code that can mess up the formatting of your contribution.

Other ways to participate

You can support Participedia's growth in many other ways, too. Give us feedback on how to make the site better. Click that "Like" button to build awareness of this project Facebook, or click the "SHARE" button (directly under the title of every single article page) to share a case, method or organization on the social network of your choice. Most of all, please tell your friends and colleagues about Participedia, so that this site can be useful to as many people as possible.