Using Voxiberate in a citizen participation experiment in Finland

Finland conducted an experiment in late 2024 using digital participation platforms for citizen deliberations. Voxiberate was selected as one of the three platforms that were used in the experiment which focused on life events and — more specifically — on the death of a loved one. The experiment was funded by Sitra, the Ministry of Finance and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. It was carried out by a group of experts representing Aalto University, University of Turku, DVV, Finnish Association of the Visually Impaired, Disability Forum, VTT, and Sitra.

The main goal was to make it easier for citizens to do business in various life events by combining the services people need into unified, electronic service packages. This required the participation of citizens and non-governmental organizations in the design of public digital services. It was realized that current methods of public consultation were not sufficient for this. More effective ways of involving citizens had to be found.

The experiment enabled interested citizens, organizations and service providers to express their opinions on how to deal with the death of a loved one easier. In the experiment, digital participation platforms developed for citizen participation and consultation were also assessed for suitability in consulting citizens in the development of public services. The goal was to find out whether public administrations could use such platforms in the future to develop their services.

How Voxiberate was used

We translated our platform into Finnish and integrated it into the website of the experiment organizers. Moreover, we worked closely with the organizers to train them in the use of our platform and conduct trials.

Deliberations on dealing with the death of a loved one took place in two phases in November-December 2024. After the discussions on dealing with the deceased’s relatives were concluded, the proposed measures were put forward to an expert workshop in December 2025. Voxiberate was used mainly in the conduct of workshop where service providers and other experts deliberated further key suggestions and findings. Indeed, users suggested that this was the best use of the Voxiberate platform, as it provided a forum to explore consensus and points of disagreement ahead of entering the live workshop.

Next steps

The results of the experiment will be communicated to the Ministry of Finance of Finland and service providers developing digital service packages.

In spring 2025, an event will be organized to explain how the proposed measures and lessons learned regarding the use of digital platforms have been considered in the development of public administration services.

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