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Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Crowdsourcing Solutions for Societal Issues


Thanks to Kevin Harris for bringing this one to my attention:

Nosago are a public consultation forum set up to find solutions for societal issues' They say that they "bring together many people, on a local, national, or worldwide basis, to collaborate on issues. Organizations have the expertise of many, giving the best recommendation on any issue. People can be involved in the decision making process on issues that affect them, and to help offer advice to people in other parts of the world."

"We gather a crowd from our community together on issues, and obtain from their collective intelligence everything possible to resolve issues and to produce recommendations giving best choices, which are achievable, and manageable. Numerous studies have shown the collective intelligence, expertise, wisdom and innovation of a group can usually find the right answer to any question or project put before them. In today's online world, people demand to be consulted on issues that affect them; consultation provides a stronger bond between organizations and their constituents."


It looks like it's about a month old. They seem to have over 300 members but little activity in terms of new projects or contributions to the few added. But it's a great idea.

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Hugh, from the - admittedly few - examples posted this seems to be decision by tickbox; the total dumbing-down of consultation and involvement. Or am I reading it completely wrong?

I begin to think people are getting hung-up on e-everything. And perhaps forgetting that there are many other ways in which individuals and groups pool and exchange their data and knowledge to arrive at wisdom. And that, before microchips and the Internet - tools existed which enabled people to join in dialogue; to share and learn; to inform and become informed; to discuss, debate, argue, question, inquire . . . . and crucially, to build better judgements.

Again I may have got completely the wrong end of the stick, but the examples on this website seem to ignore the reality that decision-making on contentious issues is not some neutral technical process. It's always about power and existing power relations. Very often there are underlying moral and political principles in operation. And of course, the personal will intrude - family and social networks; who we know and who we trust.

Perhaps we all need to turn off our laptops and i-phones from time to time; and simply make many more opportunities for face-to-face conversation?
I see this more as brain-storming.

As for dumbed down consultation, even it were that, in my opinion it wouldn't necessarily be a retrograde step from inaccessible or half-hearted consultation that too often characterises how it's done by local authorities.
I remember we discussed an online brainstorming tool some month ago.

Crowdsourcing is an interesting concept, I've read about it a couple of years ago as one of the solutions to tackle the crisis of talents.
Both off-line & on-line meeting rooms are important and better still if they co-ordinate to get things done. HOL has shown how this can work but, it does help if people co-ordinating online to get something achieved already know each other off-line.

Sharing ideas freely to get things resolved is important and on-line forums can facilitate this, especially if a problem needs specialist help from across the globe. However people (consultants) also get paid to do this!
Don't think people have to "already" know each other Matt. For example I think I can honestly say that I knew none of the HoL people pre-HoL.
Oh sure, but I think the HOL drinks (for example) helped off-line meetings happen further down the line.
Exactly- the whole point is to blend on line with offline (where real things start to happen). But with some exceptions, the relationships weren't there to begin with Matt.
Yup, that's exactly what I was saying.
" Nosago donates twenty five percent of their revenue to charity "
Where does their revenue come from ?

Why would governments etc take any notice of the recommendations ?

Who decides what is the "best choice" ?

All a bit vague, it seems to me.

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