The Austrian city of Vienna is weighing 172 ideas and proposals submitted by its citizens for inclusion in the next phase of the city’s Digital Agenda. The city is now finishing a draft IT strategy for Vienna, which will be open for public discussion sometime in March.

In October, the city council began inviting its citizens to submit suggestions for its Digital Agenda. The city received 172 ideas and 300 comments, from 478 citizens, which, Vienna writes in its press release, received over 2500 likes and dislikes. In a ceremony on 12 February, the city thanked all the participants for their ideas and comments.

Using the internet to get citizens to provide input for a strategy is new for the city. “Rarely, if ever, have the citizens been involved in gathering new ideas”, the city says in the statement. “It is the right time for citizen participation; it is an important contribution to the quality of life in the city. We can use the creative potential of all interested parties to enhance digital democracy", the press release quotes Sandra Frauenberger, the councillor responsible for Information and Communication Technology, as saying.

Over the past few weeks, Vienna has sorted the ideas submitted by citizens into nine broad groups, such as ‘citizens and society’, ’health and social services‘ and ‘traffic and urban development’. The city is also making the ideas themselves publicly available, as open data.

More information:

Vienna’s Digital Agenda (in German)
Ideas submitted by citizen to Vienna city administration (in German)
Vienna press announcement (in German)