Online Course: Crowdsourcing for Civil Society Organizations

Approximate reading time: 1m 46s

Enroll in ECAS’s free online course "Crowdsourcing for Civil Society Organizations" and gain the skills to leverage crowdsourcing for effective citizen engagement. This course offers comprehensive insights into the application of crowdsourcing across a variety of contexts, including citizen organizations, national settings, EU-level initiatives, technological platforms, and citizen participation campaigns.

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Why Join This Course?

This carefully structured online course is designed to help participants understand how to use crowdsourcing as a powerful tool for citizen involvement, drawn from real-life practices, including the 2021-2022 "Co-Deciding Europe: Civic Tech for Good Governance and Active Citizenship" (CODE Europe) project.

Key Learning Outcomes:

By the end of this course, participants will:

• Master the use of crowdsourcing to boost citizen engagement.
• Understand the application of crowdsourcing in diverse areas such as national and EU-level projects, citizen organizations, and technological settings.

Course Breakdown:

The course is divided into four modules:

Module 1: The Fundamentals of Crowdsourcing
This module explores the key principles and historical context of crowdsourcing, explaining why it’s a leading tool for engaging citizens. You will learn how it compares to other citizen participation methods used at the EU level, with case studies from Iceland and Finland showcasing collaborative decision-making with citizens.

Module 2: Crowdsourcing in Action – CODE Europe and DigiDEM Case Studies
This module provides practical insights from a transnational crowdsourcing project on air quality conducted across 10 European countries. Participants will study the phases of crowdsourcing, analyze its impact, and receive practical recommendations for implementing similar initiatives in their own organizations.

Module 3: IT Solutions for Crowdsourcing
Learn about the technical infrastructure necessary to build and sustain digital crowdsourcing platforms. This module covers platform design, security measures, and scalability. You will also receive expert advice on selecting the right technology for a smooth and user-friendly experience.

Module 4: Engaging Citizens Through Communication
The success of crowdsourcing initiatives relies on citizen participation. This module focuses on creating effective communication strategies to engage citizens, including message framing, storytelling, and using diverse media channels to reach broad audiences.

Meet the Experts:

• Assya Kavrakova, ECAS Executive Director, has over 25 years of experience in senior management roles in the non-governmental sector, specializing in European Citizenship rights, good governance, digital empowerment, and EU-related policies.

• Elisa Lironi, Programme Director for European Democracy at ECAS, is an expert in digital democracy and e-participation, with extensive research and publications on crowdsourcing in EU legislation.

• Róbert Bjarnason, President of Citizens Foundation, Iceland, is a pioneer in open-source technology and democratic participation, with a background in AI and 3D software development spanning over 25 years.

• Petko Georgiev, Communications Officer at Proinfo, has more than 25 years of media experience and leads communication strategies for public institutions, citizen organizations, and corporate clients. He spearheaded the communication efforts for the CODE Europe project, which implemented the first pan-European crowdsourcing initiative.

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Project Funding:
This course is co-funded by the CERV programme of the European Union under the EURECA project.