Advanced Studies: Innovative Ways to Engage Citizens

When you're trying to encourage the use of new communications tools in a large and often disparate group of users, one of the challenges you face is finding ways to encourage innovation and experimentation in the top users while simultaneously helping less advanced users master the basics.

In our evaluations of congressional websites we found that there is a digital divide in Congress (PDF), with 'A' and 'F' being the two most common letter grades. While we will continue to cover the basics, we also want to highlight a few new and innovative ways Members of Congress are engaging citizens in the 112th Congress:

It is important to remember, of course, that no single tool or forum is going to be able to reach everyone. But that is true of offline outreach as well, and it's no reason to forgo finding ways to reach new audiences and engage citizens in new ways. The only way to figure out what works and what doesn't is by giving it a try, and learning and sharing with others who are trying to do the same thing.