are also considered a closed environment which does not allow for the community to see others ’ positions or weigh in on the debate . Consider choosing a platform that offers a spectrum of engagement feedback tools ( including surveys ) to provide greater flexibility to support :

• Listening to and understanding stakeholders ;

• Crowdsourcing ideas and priorizing them ;

• Discussing solutions interactively ;

• Consulting and collecting quantitative and qualitative submissions ;

• Visualizing and co-designing options ;

• Co-creating and collaborating to deliver solutions ; and

• Building long-term online participant communities as a source of reputation capital .

The ability to measure through reports and analytics should be the most important consideration . Not only is the ongoing measurement of the process helpful ( i . e ., promotion monitoring , participation analytics ), but reports can be used to increase internal and public understanding of decisions to foster support . Management and council will be making policy- and project-related decisions based on strong purpose-built reports . Engagement-centric analytics can provide accurate and relevant feedback reports while helping understand how people are interacting

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with project-related media . This is important as it helps measure how well informed people are regarding a project , issue or initiative . You may , for example , conclude a high level of community satisfaction for a draft proposal through low participation numbers ( few comments ) when the project ’ s informed analytics are high . A small number of negative comments in this scenario may also indicate a vocal minority which is not a true representation of the community .

Other Ontario-centric considerations in choosing an online engagement platform include :

• Web content accessibility compliance to standards : WCAG 2.0 level AA ( for AODA compliance );

• You own your data which are hosted in Canada by the vendor ;

• Reputable vendor ( similar clients based on region and / or population size );

• Vendor can provide local support ( phone and in-person ).

Here are some examples of Ontario-based live online engagement sites :

• City of Oshawa - www . connectoshawa . ca ( Connect Oshawa )

• Township of Centre Wellington - www . connectcw . ca ( Connect CW )

• Town of Halton Hills - www . letstalkhaltonhills . ca ( Let ’ s Talk Halton Hills )

• City of Niagara Falls – https :// letstalk . niagarafalls . ca ( Let ’ s Talk Niagara Falls )

• City of Mississauga – https :// yoursay . mississauga . ca ( Your Say Mississauga )

Ron Shaw is the president of Ron Shaw & Associates , Inc .

44 Q3 2017 www . amcto . com