CONNECT
·
2015 Grants Challenge

Engaging LA Online in Solutions that Unite Us

The possibilities are limitless if the people of LA can come together and make things happen. This is the platform that brings in all of the residents of LA that are “too busy” by giving them a way to participate online with text and video which matches both their schedules and how they want government to communicate with them; and democratically distills the contributions of millions of participants in to a small, high-quality, representative set for city and neighborhood council meetings.

Donate

In what areas of Los Angeles will you be directly working?

City of Los Angeles

How do you plan to use these resources to make change?

Engage residents and stakeholders

Implement a pilot or new project

Mobilize for systems change

Implement and track policy

How will your proposal improve the following CONNECT metrics?​

Voting rates by race

Participation in neighborhood councils

Government responsiveness to residents’ needs (Dream Metric)

Total number of local social media friends and connections (Dream Metric)

Describe in greater detail how you will make LA the best place to CONNECT.

Synaccord is building the platform that engages people in finding the solutions that unite us. Unlike other online forms, Synaccord provides structured discussions by text or video clip in small diverse groups that are fair, balanced, and civil. The deliberation and voting process democratically distills the many thousands of ideas into a small, high-quality, representative set that can easily be considered by a neighborhood or city council. We make democratic participation scalable.

For this project we will build on the platform we have developed that asks “What are the most important issues in the US” (see the 1 minute demo at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-P5xMvOZ0Y). The platform allows discussions to be structured, and the depth and headings of the structure can be configured. LA’s Great Streets Project needs this kind of application, and we would also work with city and neighborhood council members to put other specific meeting topics with broad appeal.

Neighborhood Councils will be able to increase their participation, effectively, because people will be able to engage at the time of their convenience, using the device that they are comfortable with. It will be effective because online participation also fairly distills the contributions in to a small, high-quality, and representative set that can be reviewed by the neighborhood council during their meetings.

The project will enhance government responsiveness because Residents of LA will be able to get together and find their most important issues, uncover the underlying problems, and create the solutions that unite them and make their support visible to their government in terms that are most meaningful to it – the number of registered voters for and against it. By seeing majority support on issues, elected representative can more confidently act on them.

Voting rates by race will increase because we measure and market to achieve to balanced participation compared to census data and we drive people to register to vote. When there is an under represented segment we will increase market spending in that demographic in order to achieve balance. When people register online they are asked to register to vote or to verify their registration. (but it is not required. It is also possible for Citizens of other countries whom are residents of LA to register and participate).

This is a new form of civic social media that people will be able to connect through.

Please explain how you will evaluate your work.

We will evaluate our work by the growth in participation, and the demographic balance of the participants, as well as the number of solutions reached with overwhelming support. These statistics will be available through a web page on the platform and will be updated in real-time.

How can the LA2050 community and other stakeholders help your proposal succeed

Money (financial capital)

Volunteers/staff (human capital)

Publicity/awareness (social capital)

Infrastructure (building/space/vehicles, etc.)

Community outreach

Network/relationship support