A unique citizen participation exercise in which young people ‘govern’ a virtual simulation of their borough through an online platform echoing the popular computer game ‘Sim City’is being used to help shape policy in Croydon Council, E-Government Bulletin has learned.
The Croydon2040 project (http://www.croydon2040.com), which ran from September to December 2009, allowed teams from 25 schools and colleges around the borough to compete against each other, taking on the role of their local authority and local strategic partnership using an online decision-making tool.
Teams logged in to a website every Monday for a ten-week period and were presented with three decision questions about their local area such as how to spend council funds; whether Croydon should have a university; and whether more council housing should be built in the borough.
The teams were then encouraged to explore the positive and negative aspects of their decisions by making and uploading to YouTube a series of ‘news bulletin’ videos, and writing press releases. Social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter were also used to publicise the team’s decisions.
Sophia Papadopoulos, project officer at The Campaign Company ( http://www.thecampaigncompany.co.uk/ ) – the organisation that developed Croydon2040 – told E-Government Bulletin that initial concerns that the students would go to extremes when making their virtual decisions proved short-lived. “In the end they all self-balanced themselves. They all wanted to win and have the best Croydon, and in order to do that they had to consider all the aspects of life in the borough and balance everything out.”
Although the 25 teams contained between 8-35 students, mechanisms built-in to the game meant that the teams had to consult with others including teachers, other students, and school councils, meaning that thousands became involved in the consultation process. Matthew Upton, project manager for Croydon2040 at The Campaign Company, told E-Government Bulletin that the project is the first of its kind: “There have been similar examples, budget simulators and so on, but as far as we’re aware – in terms of scope and scale – we’re fairly sure it’s unprecedented and unique in its reach,” he said.
Woodcote High School and Croydon College were deemed joint winners of the competition, topping a points-based league table measuring factors such as residents’ health and crime levels in their virtual boroughs. They received £1,500 each from project sponsors Capgemini to spend on IT equipment.
As a result of the initiative plus other consultations carried out as part of the wider ‘Imagine Croydon’ citizen consultation project, a document, ‘We Are Croydon’, is being produced for April publication, outlining a new vision of the borough.
Damian Roberts, director of strategy and communications at Croydon Council, told E-Government Bulletin there had been far more enthusiasm for the schools ‘Sim City’ project than anticipated. “I think using a range of different electronic media – from use of video on YouTube to social networking – rather than just one channel was a really important lesson for us.”
Roberts said both the work in Croydon2040 and the wider Imagine Croydon project would “hugely” influence council policy-making. “It’s already resulted in driving the content of our new local development framework, and in rewriting our sustainable community strategy. It’s going to inform every strategy we make as a council, but also, more importantly, that our partners produce across the local strategic partnership,” he said.
NOTE: Article originally published in E-Government Bulletin issue 305.
Click here to visit/return to issue 305 index
