While preparing the 2021 SDI Digital Democracy Report, we came across countless examples of e-democracy platforms inspiring communities, driving innovation, championing diversity & inclusion and impacting nations.
The 2021 SDI Digital Democracy Awards seek to recognise these achievements by awarding category winners across Inspiration, Innovation, Inclusion & Impact. Lastly, we also wanted to highlight those who took part in our report for the first time in our Newcomer Award.
So get inspired and join us in celebrating the 2021 Winners and be sure to click on the vendor names to find out more about these outstanding organisations!
Category: Inspiration
Winner: politik-digital e.V.
For its innovative decision-making platform aula, which lets school-age children experiment with digital, direct democracy and make decisions for the day-to-day running of their schools.
Honorable Mention: Delib
For pioneering digital technology in public sector consultations for over 17 years, inspiring many of the technologies and processes local councils take for granted today.
Short List: politik-digital e.V., Delib, Rousseau
Category: Innovation
Winner: Polys
For the successful implementation and mass utilization of a Blockchain-based voting system that addresses many of the current challenges of creating a secure online democracy.
Honorable Mention: Ethelo
For Ethelo’s ability to allow users to weight their votes in a multi-decision exercise, allocating the biggest impact to questions the user is most passionate about.
Category: Inclusion
Winner: Delib
For not just implementing the WCAG 2.1 standard for accessibility of its software, but for pro-actively training customers and users, via webinars and online videos, on accessible design to create a truly inclusive platform.
Honorable Mention: CitizenLab
For their commitment to accessibility, through both certification (WCAG 2.1 AA) as well as an independent audit by Belgian organization AnySurfer which validated CitizenLab’s platform against accessibility standards.
Short List: Delib, CitizenLab, Civil Space
Category: Impact
Winner: Rousseau
For demonstrating that a direct democracy system need not be limited to local decisions by operating a platform which has been used for local, regional, national and trans-national (EU-level) democracy with hundreds of thousands of active users, impacting major political decisions including two national coalition agreements, candidate selection for over 2,000 elected offices, and the drafting of national laws.
Honorable Mention: Slido
For helping the vTaiwan initiative during the Covid-19 crisis understand and react to the public’s priorities in combatting the pandemic.
Short List: Rousseau, Slido, Polys, ManaBalss, Estonian Cooperation Assembly
Category: Newcomer
Winner: ManaBalss
For creating a mass-participation petition platform which has been used by over 10% of the Latvian population, with 36 petitions resulting in changes to the law.
