The Paradoxes of Crowdsourcing

In the Icelandic constitutional experiment cautious steps were taken towards involving the public in writing a new constitution. Public involvement was of several kinds: the public was invited to send formal proposals to the Constitutional Council, the individual council members engaged in discussions with interested citizens through social media and public assistance was actively sought to work out specific problems in writing the constitution. This paper argues that it may be a mistake to think of crowdsourcing as merely opening electronic channels of participation and influence on policy toward the general public. The challenge institutions face may rather be how to encourage and elicit public participation than just to achieve openness and transparency. We claim such efforts might be considered as one of the main moral requirements of public administrations committed to democratic innovation and increased democracy in public affairs, to design approaches that actually increase public participation and concern.