Problems and motivations
The City of Zurich's ideas competition was held from November 4 to December 12, 2010, and was designed to promote exchange between citizens and the city. The participants of the competition were able to participate regardless of their place of residence or residence. They had the opportunity to contribute their own ideas and to vote on other suggestions. The framework of the ideas was very broad in advance. They shouldn't be too complicated, imply a strong vision, and have a positive tenor. In addition, the ideas had to meet a digital background.
Founding organizations and funding
In 2010, the City Council of Zurich set a legislative focus with the platform eZürich to promote digital projects so that the city becomes a better location for IT companies. Citizens should also be made more familiar with computers and the Internet. The idea competition was the starting point. The ideas were collected and discussed on the eZürich website.
eZürich was to be given a foundation through two further projects. In addition to the ideas competition, which included the population, an initialization workshop in January 2011, which was to reach business and science, and an in-town workshop in April 2011 formed the basis for eZürich.
Participant selection
The target group was the citizens of the city of Zurich. However, it was not a requirement to be a Zurich citizen in order to participate. The ideas should relate to the digital future of the city of Zurich. For this reason, self-regulation was assumed, which should preferentially attract interested citizens from Zurich.
Procedure and functionality
The ideas competition was held between December 4th and December 12th, 2010. A month before the competition, a website was launched on the eZürich website to promote the process. The initiators held an introductory event on November 4, 2010, at which politicians and entrepreneurs from Zurich made statements. In addition, there was the opportunity to submit ideas on site to generate additional attention. The competition took place online in a special forum. Registered users were able to create ideas that could then be commented on by other users. No registration with the portal was required for the comment function. In this forum there was also an area where you could give feedback for different parts of the process as well as for the overall impression. A total of 1013 comments were written. The moderation of the competition wrote 98 comments. The ideas were evaluated using a ranking system. Registered users were able to rate the ideas with one to five stars. The stars were then summed up for one idea and the three ideas with the most stars won the competition. Each user was allowed to rate a different idea only once. His own idea could not be evaluated.
Deliberations, decisions and public impact
The initiators set various incentives to participate. The initiators of the three best ideas were given the prospect of being able to present their proposal to an IT specialist audience. The organizers are also raffling material prizes among all participants. It was also announced that the city of Zurich would choose up to three ideas to pursue and promote.
In the course of the competition, 14,187 participants are said to have accessed the website (this information probably refers to the number of users with different "cookies"). There were a total of 159,006 page views. 1,223 participants registered on the site, which authorized them to submit and evaluate ideas. Guests could only write posts and comment on ideas.
When registering, they were asked to provide personal information voluntarily. Approx. 50 percent of the participants were willing to do so. Among these users, 38 percent came from the canton of Zurich, another 16 percent from Switzerland and one percent from other countries. Mostly men and people aged 26-35 participated. The participants submitted 612 ideas and wrote 1013 comments. The competition moderators wrote 98 comments. 131 ideas related to eAdministration were submitted. An example of this would be the proposal to digitize the city administration. 100 ideas related to public WiFi, 84 to business development and 78 to climate and energy issues. The other ideas focused on many different subject areas, such as the disposal of waste or care.
The idea with the most points was a project in which young people should impart computer skills to older people. Second place went to the idea of developing a small computer that promotes the media and operating skills of schoolchildren. The third best idea was to strengthen eParticipation in Zurich, against the background that citizens not only wanted to be the source of ideas, but also had a say in decisions and wanted to be communicated transparently.
Influence, results and effects
With the ideas competition, the city of Zurich is not committed to implementing any suggestions. The three ideas with the most votes were allowed to present their suggestions to a specialist audience. The city was also able to pursue up to three ideas. This wording releases the city from any obligation. The focus was on the dialogue between the city and the citizens. When choosing their ideas, the participants expressed their desire for more eParticipation. In the city's results report, the initiators came to the conclusion that citizens' ideas about the digital future of the city would coincide with those of the city council.
Conclusion
In the run-up to the ideas competition there was criticism from the Swiss press because the implementation of eZürich was carried out by a German company and not by a local company. The city wanted to give its population the feeling of being involved in the administrative process without having to commit to decisions. From the city's perspective, the competition was a success as similar competitions from other cities attracted fewer participants. The third place in the competition is particularly interesting, since there was no idea in the actual sense of the competition, but a political message from the participants to the city administration, with the request to involve the population more in the political process. Afterwards, the three winners were able to present their ideas to a specialist audience. The city decided to pursue several ideas. In the “CompuSternli” project, young people tried to help older people with their problems with computers. At the beginning of 2013, the "Züri wie neu" online platform was launched. There, citizens can report damage and deficiencies in the urban infrastructure. The platform was created from the “Fix my Zurich” winning project in the ideas competition. In the competition, many people expressed the wish to be able to access a free WiFi network in Zurich. The city rejected the idea over the years because there would not be enough money available. Finally, it can be questioned to what extent the results of the ideas competition represent the population of the city of Zurich. The majority of the participants were men and people between the ages of 26 and 35. These facts give the impression that a limited range of people has been addressed.
Secondary sources
http://www.ezuerich.ch/ezh/de/index.html
Riedel, Daniela & Märker, Oliver (2011). Results report ideas competition eZürich. http://www.ezuerich.ch/content/dam/ezh/downloads/Ideenwettbewerb/eZuerich_ErScore Report.pdf
Left
http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/digital/Kein-GratisWLAN-Fuer-Zuerich-ist-das-eine-Schande/story/27401879
