Project brief: Give a Minute is conceived of as 311 for new ideas and seeks to reinvent the public process for the 21st century. The project makes use of technology to gather input and ideas from citizens in what become virtual civic forums. Ads in various U.S. cities pose questions to citizens and provide a phone number where they can text their responses. These answers are then compiled and forwarded to city officials as well as logged into a website (giveaminute.info). This form of collaborative citizenship empowers residents to get their voices heard by city officials, businesses and civic leaders.

Approach: Give a Minute has already undergone trial runs in Memphis and Chicago, where it posed questions to residents about how to increase public-transit usage and what professional skills people would like to develop or put to use. New York is planning similar programs to tackle other issues, including soliciting ideas for how to make the city a greener, better place to live.

Effectiveness: Give a Minute assumes interdependence between public, private and civic interests, and offers a platform for collectively organizing solutions to a city’s most challenging issues. The program engages an entire city with a single positive question, solicits new ideas, then connects participants through Action Groups. These groups are organized around specific solutions and sponsored by anyone from a citywide not-for-profit to a neighborhood group to a passionate individual. Recognizing that making progress involves a broad spectrum of effort, these solutions will be listened to and endorsed by a range of leaders, including city officials, business and civic leaders and civic celebrities. The project will offer resources to help actualize solutions, from fund-raising efforts to city programs to neighbor meet-ups. It takes a whole city to change, but for each of us, all we need to do is Give a Minute.

This is exactly what we are looking for: great combination of community, technology and actual space.

Design offering a solution. Use of technology, real-world and physical space, all tied back to the website. Redefines civic engagement to make people feel powerful. Inviting rather than shrieking activism.