Singapore's government launches a lot of websites. One of their latest is 10 TouchPoints. On November 27, one of Singapore's ministers introduced the concept as follows:
The creative cluster helps improve our quality of life. To this end, we launched 10 TouchPoints, an initiative which encourages the general public to identify 10 everyday things to be redesigned with a more user-centric focus. It could be ideas to improve our bus shelters or our currency notes which we use everyday without paying much attention to it. The response to this initiative has been very encouraging. Within two weeks, we have already received over 70 nominations of what need to be redesigned. Such ideas could lead to better appreciation of good design and enhance our public service and lifestyle.
(The site today has 124 nominations, one of which is mine. Go and vote!)
But what is this website? Some Singaporean bureaucrat has cleverly realised that the culture of participation and user-generated content that has quickly become a way of life for many consumers could be harnessed to good effect by the government to improve design in public services. (See the website for more information.)
What this initiative does is to not only get suggestions from the public (something the government already does via various media) but also allow people to vote. Voting is crucial, IMO, because this harnesses collective intelligence, which is the key strength of large groups of reasonably informed people thinking and acting independently. In the ideal scenario, you would get zillions of ideas, the 'best' of which would bubble up to the top (however you define 'best').
What remains to be seen now is whether this initiative really takes off and what comes of it in the end. I think that will depend to an extent on the the number of ideas they receive but, more importantly, on how actively people search for and vote for their favourite suggestions. I think it is a fair assumption given Singapore's reputation that the best suggestions will make it to implementation, so I don't think implementation is a concern. It seems to me that publicising the initiative and making it easy for people to vote should be the key areas to focus on.
I guess the last word on this subject --at least for now-- should go to someone called Chris (bottom of this page):
Fantastic concept of asking people's opinion for free R+D btw. Innovative
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