Case Study: Agora 2.0 achieves 25% increase in onsite civic engagement with IdeaScale

Agora 2.0 Increasing Engagement with Onsite Public Display

Agora 2.0 is a research project led by PhD students from the University of Trento and Fondazione Bruno Kessler that used IdeaScale’s open API to test whether an onsite public display in Trento’s public relations office could boost civic participation—especially among citizens over 65 who have low internet access. The challenge was to engage an older, less digitally connected population and increase overall local participation in civic decision-making.

Using IdeaScale’s API, the team built an interactive public display that showed community questions and projects, allowed on-site voting with color-coded clicks, and linked visitors to supporting information. Over one month, about 1,000 people visited the office and roughly 250 (25%) interacted with the display; onsite participation even exceeded online activity. Key drivers of engagement were relevant topics, interest in the technology, and informational notices, leading to design lessons: large, easy-to-use displays, relevant content, and multi-channel engagement improve community participation.

Agora 2.0

Gianluca Schiavo

Project Lead