On Saturday, my volunteering experience at “Community budget
priority setting” event San Jose, CA was amazing. It was an eye opener. It just
demonstrated that with interesting game a great civic participation can be
ensured.
To promote open governance and residents budget preparation
exercise, San Jose city is organizing a series of events. In this series,
yesterday’s evet was first one. All residents of San Jose city, 12 years and
older were invited to participate in game where they can allocate money ($64 M)
to thirty items for “Neighborhood Services (Aesthetics, Beautification,
Anti-Blight)” budget head.
The game was pretty straight forward. In Parkside Hall
tables were arranged to accommodate eight hundred residents. On each round table, there were ten seats.
First two seats were for volunteers - facilitator & observer and remaining
eight seats were for participants. Each table had $64 M which will be evenly
distributed among residents. Each resident was provided list of items under
consideration, its impact (benefits), and FY15-16 budgeted amount. In this list
high ticket items were listed first. The allocated time for the game was
approx. 90 minutes. During this duration, each resident has to fund items of
her choice – fully or partially. She also needs to persuade other residents to
fund items of her choice. Residents can choose to defund any item or increase
the allocation assuming more money will bring more benefits.
Facilitator job was to maintain the money allocation across
residents and items. Since residents supposed to change allocation as they
discuss more about various items, so he was provided be recoding sheet, pencil,
eraser and calculator.
Obliviously, observer ‘s job was to observe how discussion
is progressing, which item is consuming more time, what type of discussion is
taking place, etc. He was also provided an observation sheet to record his
observations.
Apart from listed thirty items, residents can add two more
items (per table) to the list and allocate the money. But total money on the
table remain same - $64M.
The engagement level was fantastic.
The next phase will be online version of the same game. I am
waiting to experience one more burst of constructive civic engagement and power
of gamification in open government.
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