About Open Town Hall
Open Town Hall is a new channel for civil civic engagement.
Elected officials introduce important issues for community discussion on this website. Read your elected official's introduction, and comments from your neighbors. Then post your own opinion. Elected officials will consider all statements in their decision process.
Elected officials want to interact with their residents, but they rarely have easy access to the opinions of many citizens. Open Town Hall is a valuable additional channel through which elected officials connect with their residents.
Open Town Hall is one of several Democracy Projects run by Peak Democracy, a non-partisan company whose mission is to broaden participation in democracy, and to build public trust in government.
Take a look
Browse some Open Town Hall communities to see how it works.
Open Town Hall in the news
- June 2, 2008
National Public Radio - Jefferson Exchange
Expanding Civic Dialog Beyond the Usual Suspects - May 4, 2008
Eureka Reporter
New Web Site Connects Citizens and City Councils
Frequently Asked Questions
THE BIG PICTURE
What is Open Town Hall?How does Open Town Hall work?
Why do elected officials participate?
Will my elected official send me a response to my post on Open Town Hall?
I can contact my elected official via email, phone and in person. Why should I use Open Town Hall?
City council meetings are open community discussions. Why should I use Open Town Hall?
What about people without computers?
Do opinions on Open Town Hall accurately represent general public opinion?
REGISTERING FOR OPEN TOWN HALL
Is Open Town Hall free?Do I need to register to participate?
Why do I need to provide my name and home address to register?
How else do you use my address?
Do you share my address with elected officials?
How do you ensure that users provide their real addresses?
POSTING STATEMENTS
Who can post statements?Why do you display statements from nearby communities?
What about statements from far away?
Do I have to write an elaborate statement?
Why do you allow anonymous statements?
I've seen on-line forums where a few people dominate the discussion. How do you control that?
How do you know that each person is posting only one statement?
MODERATING STATEMENTS
Do you moderate statements?Why do you screen personal attacks and inappropriate material?
What do you do when you find a personal attack or inappropriate material?
How many statements have you held?
If I disagree with someone, can I post my opinion?
How do I know if my statement is a 'disagreement' or a 'personal attack'?
What is "inappropriate material"?
ISSUE LIFE CYCLE
Who selects issues?I would like to see my elected official post a specific issue. What do I do?
What happens after a decision is made on the issue?
Issues evolve. How can I stay informed?
If I subscribe to announcements, will I be spammed?
What are 'geo-targeted announcements'?
Can I analyze trends in statements?
STARTING OPEN TOWN HALL IN YOUR COMMUNITY
How do I convince my elected officials to start Open Town Hall in my community?I am an elected official. How do I start?
THE BIG PICTURE
Q: What is Open Town Hall?
A: Open Town Hall is a website where elected officials and residents discuss local issues. It is run by Peak Democracy, Inc., a non partisan company whose mission is to broaden participation in democracy and build public trust in government.
Q: How does Open Town Hall work?
A: Elected officials introduce issues for community discussion. After reading the introduction and statements from other constituents, residents post their own opinion. Elected officials read the statements and incorporate them in their decision process.
Q: Why do elected officials participate?
A: Elected officials want to interact with their residents, but they rarely have easy access to the opinions of many citizens. Open Town Hall is a valuable additional channel through which elected officials connect with many residents.
Q: Will my elected official send me a response to my post on Open Town Hall?
A: No. If you need a personal response from your elected official, contact him or her via email, phone or in person.
Q: I can contact my elected official via email, phone and in person. Why should I use Open Town Hall?
A: Unlike email, phone and private meetings, Open Town Hall is an open community forum where every participant can read ideas from all other participants, and carefully consider the issue from multiple points of view. After you post your statement, it influences further discussion on the forum. Communities make better decisions when they are informed by open community discussions.
Q: City council meetings are open community discussions. Why should I use Open Town Hall?
A: Open Town Hall does not replace existing channels for participation - it merely gives you more channels to choose from. There are many advantages to live interaction with people in the same room, and if you have the opportunity to attend city council or other meetings, please do.
However, if you are unable to attend the live meeting, you can participate on Open Town Hall from the convenience of your own computer on your own schedule. Open Town Hall is particularly beneficial to people who are home-bound or just too busy to attend meetings at city hall.
Q: What about people without computers?
A: Most public libraries have computers and computer support available many hours per week. People without computers can usually access the public library easier than they can attend city hall meetings.
Q: Do opinions on Open Town Hall accurately represent general public opinion?
A: Not necessarily. Just as opinions expressed in city council or private meetings do not necessarily represent general public opinion, so too could Open Town Hall forums be skewed by the selection of people who choose to participate.
Elected officials understand that in any public comment process, participation is voluntary and not necessarily representative of the whole population. Elected officials look to Open Town Hall to stimulate public input and generate innovative solutions. They don't use it as a referendum or scientific public opinion poll.
REGISTERING FOR OPEN TOWN HALL
Q: Is Open Town Hall free?
A: Open Town Hall is free of charge to the general public. Elected officials pay $20/month to cover our operational costs.
Q: Do I need to register to participate?
A: You don't need to register to read the forum. You will be asked to register after posting your first statement. We will ask for your email, name and home address.
Q: Why do I need to provide my name and home address to register?
A: First of all, we understand and share your concerns about privacy - and assure you that we will zealously guard your contact information (name, email and home address). We never share your contact information with anyone for marketing purposes without your consent. Here is our privacy policy.
Having said that, we need your contact information because Open Town Hall issues are local issues. It is important for all users to know that forum participants are local. By providing us your home address, it helps us ensure that forum participants are local. We also use your address for other purposes.
Q: How else do you use my address?
A: When users read statements, they sometimes want to know whether the participants are living near or far from the center of an issue (e.g., a development project). Users can query the database of statements and display just those from participants living within a certain distance to the center point. We geocode your address so that we can decide whether to include your statement when a user queries the database about distances.
Again - we never share your contact information with anyone for marketing purposes without your consent. We just use it to make Open Town Hall work for local issues.
A: No. We never share your contact information with anyone for marketing purposes without your consent - not even with elected officials.
Q: How do you ensure that users provide their real addresses?
A: In our experience, the vast majority of users provide their real address. Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee that all users are honest. However, we have developed procedures to check for systematic fraud, and giving us your real address strengthens those procedures.
POSTING STATEMENTS
Q: Who can post statements?
A: Anyone can post statements, though the website usually displays only statements from residents of your community and nearby communities.
Q: Why do you display statements from nearby communities?
A: Because many of those residents work or go to school in your community, and have important insights to contribute.
Q: What about statements from far away?
A: You can query the database to view statements from any distance to the center point of the issue, using the 'advanced search' link on the statements page.
Q: Do I have to write an elaborate statement?
A: No - you can just click 'Yes' or 'No'. Comments are optional.
Q: Why do you allow anonymous statements?
A: Because there are people with great ideas who will only share them anonymously. Some people cannot sign their statements because doing so will interfere with their job, business or other personal relationships. Even though Open Town Hall is not a referendum, this policy is completely consistent with the deep democratic principal of vote by secret ballot.
Q: I've seen on-line forums where a few people dominate the discussion. How do you control that?
A: We allow each person to post only one statement per issue - even if done anonymously.
Q: How do you know that each person is posting only one statement?
A: We use the user's registration and other procedures to check for duplicate posts.
Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee one post per person. However, we have developed procedures to check for systematic fraud so its unlikely to occur. Remember, elected officials use Open Town Hall to stimulate ideas and community discussion - not to conduct a referendum or scientific poll.
MODERATING STATEMENTS
Q: Do you moderate statements?
A: We screen statements and videos for personal attacks and inappropriate material.
Q: Why do you screen personal attacks and inappropriate material?
A: We promote participatory democracy, and want to encourage people to participate. People will not participate if the website has personal attacks or inappropriate material.
Q: What do you do when you find a personal attack or inappropriate material?
A: We hold the statement, and ask the author to edit it.
Q: How many statements have you held?
A: We have held less than 0.1% of the statements. More than half of those were subsequently edited by their
authors and have been released.
Q: If I disagree with someone, can I post my opinion?
A: Yes. We encourage open dialog which, by necessity, includes disagreements.
Q: How do I know if my statement is a 'disagreement' or a 'personal attack'?
A: Personal attacks are disparaging remarks which impute motives to a person's action. Statements of fact, or of your own opinion are generally not personal attacks.
Here are some examples of statements which are, and are not, personal attacks.
| Personal Attack | Not A Personal Attack |
|---|---|
| He lied. | He said he did X, but in fact he did Y. |
| She misrepresented the truth. | I don't trust her. |
| He is greedy. | He is making plenty of money. |
| It is merely a power play on her part. | She will announce her candidacy soon. |
Q: What is "inappropriate material"?
A: Statements or video which, in Peak Democracy's opinion, is obscene or completely irrelevant to the issue. Less than 0.1% of statements/videos are deemed inappropriate.
ISSUE LIFE CYCLE
Q: Who selects issues?
A: Elected officials.
Q: I would like to see my elected official post a specific issue. What do I do?
A: You can click on the 'Suggested Issues' tab and submit your suggestion. Elected officials review all suggestions as they select their next issue.
Q: What happens after a decision is made on the issue?
A: The issue moves to the 'Closed Issues' tab and no further statements are accepted.
Q: Issues evolve. How can I stay informed?
A: Click on the announcements tab to read and subscribe to announcements.
Q: If I subscribe to announcements, will I be spammed?
A: No. You can set your subscription to only receive announcement digests at most twice per month. Also, you will be automatically excluded from geo-targeted announcements outside your neighborhood.
Finally, we never share your contact information with anyone for marketing purposes without your consent.
Q: What are 'geo-targeted announcements'?
A: Sometimes your elected official wants to notify people nearby a specific event location - for example, if there is a new development planned, or an upcoming traffic alteration. Elected officials can send announcements to just those subscribers whose address is within a certain distance of that event location.
Q: Can I analyze trends in statements?
A: If your elected official has enabled the tally function, you can see a tally of statements by statement position (e.g., "Yes", "No" etc.). You could also query the database to modify the tally based on various selection criteria (e.g., distance from center point).
STARTING OPEN TOWN HALL IN YOUR COMMUNITY
Q: How do I convince my elected officials to start Open Town Hall in my community?
A: Enter your zip code and click 'Start'.
Q: I am an elected official. How do I start?
A: Click here.