Welcoming IdeaMapr to Neighborland
Neighborland is thrilled to announce that we are acquiring IdeaMapr, an online civic engagement platform funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Government agencies make hundreds of decisions that have a profound effect on our lives every year. To act in the public interest, we believe agencies must engage with residents in a broad, inclusive, and representative way. As Jane Jacobs famously said, “Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.”
At Neighborland, we help our partners collaborate with the public in an accessible, participatory, and equitable way. This includes educating the public about the decision making process, and helping residents play a meaningful role in those decisions. Currently, most of these decisions occur at in-person meetings that many residents cannot easily attend. These processes are also complex and difficult to structure in a way so that residents can understand. At the end of a process, it is difficult to summarize what was said and who participated, which is needed to ensure that the public’s primary concerns were addressed. Government agencies should make these processes as accessible as possible, demonstrate how the public influenced their decision, and document the process so that it becomes repeatable.
IdeaMapr, funded by the Knight Prototype Fund, launched in 2015 to improve how government agencies collaborate with their constituents. It was designed and built in close partnership with several government partners, including the City of Austin, City of Sacramento, and the State of Idaho Transportation Department. IdeaMapr could not have pursued their mission without the support of the Knight Foundation and the amazing work and guidance from Sameer Siruguri (Engineering Lead), Ryan Wold (Technical Advisor), Steve Pascucci and Amos Stoltzfus (Partnerships Advisors). Civic innovation is a team sport.
IdeaMapr was an open source project from day one and will continue to remain open to agencies and civic technologists who want to stand up their own instances and contribute to making civic decisions more open and high quality. Find the project on GitHub.
IdeaMapr’s founder, Matt Hall, was a part of the Neighborland team in 2012 and will now rejoin our team an advisor. We look forward to working together to empower people to shape the development of their neighborhoods.
Neighborland continues to lead the field of public engagement in both the quality of their tools and their passion for helping communities develop their neighborhoods together. I’m looking forward to teaming up with this great team to pursue this meaningful mission.”
Matt Hall, Founder IdeaMapr
“Matt has a passion for public engagement technology. Through his work on IdeaMapr, along with his experience at Accela and Granicus, he is developing an expertise in how government agencies and their constituents can collaborate more effectively. We are delighted to have Matt back on Team Neighborland as an advisor.”
Dan Parham, CEO Neighborland
