Why Use Engaged Public?

Engaged Public is not intended to be a substitute for face-to-face dialogue, public engagement or public policy processes—such as a board, commission or task force. Instead, Engaged Public is intended to provide an additional way that the public can participate in public policy discussions.

As user ship of the internet increases among all demographics and the software that power websites becomes more interactive, there is a natural opportunity for those who truly care about genuine public participation to bring thousands more people into the dialogue. For example, often public meetings are held in the evenings. While that timing works for some people, it does not support participation by those who work at night, parents of young children, and others who have difficulty leaving the house. Engaged Public provides a rich way for those who cannot or do not typically attend public meetings to participate anytime that is convenient for them and at a level of involvement that they choose—whether it is active participation on a forum or simply responding to questions on a survey.

Finally, organizations would benefit from using Engaged Public rather than creating their own website for two reasons. The first is that using Engaged Public is much less expensive than creating a new website with similar capabilities. The second is that Engaged Public is a magnet for the type of people that care about public issues. Therefore, hosting your Engagement on this site is likely to help you to involve many more people than you would otherwise have been able to attract.