We created the Active Citizen service in 2014 at the initiative of the Government of Moscow. This is a service of electronic polls for citizens, enabling them to make decisions on important citywide issues. Active Citizen is unique case – the service allows ordinary citizens to influence what is going on in the city. Any Moscow resident who has a Russian mobile operator SIM card can register and get involved in changing Moscow.
To attract citizens, we use elements of gamification — for participation in polls and other activities, users are encouraged with points, which can later be exchanged for various kinds of benefits. As of July 2019, about 2.3m users have registered using the application and more than 4,000 polls have been conducted. Among the decisions made by users, it is worth noting the creation of 25 local parks, 10 new bus routes and bicycle lanes. In addition, citizens can choose names for various urban innovations. For example, this is how the name was chosen for the Moscow Metro’s Third Circle.
Active Citizen is one of our most important services and despite the fact that now it is already successfully operating, we are still devoting energy and resources to promoting and popularizing it.
This year, the service turned five years old and we organized a big celebration in one of the main parks of Moscow. We run these events not so much to attract more users but to increase loyalty among current users.
In addition to Active Citizen, I would like to talk about the launch of the My District service. In simple words, this is like a small version of Active Citizen, where residents of a particular district can make decisions on how to improve their area. We believe that decisions at all levels are important, and My District allows residents to exercise more autonomy in matters of city infrastructure.
Of course, we have been repeatedly criticized for the fact that Active Citizen offers a limited choice and range of issues for consideration. So, this year, we have launched the Crowd.Mos service, which allows people to independently propose their own urban planning initiatives. I can say that we are proudly a world leader in the implementation of ideas proposed by citizens.
I would also mention an experiment with blockchain elections to the Moscow City Parliament this year in the context of e-government. Connecting blockchain technology will not only enable online voting but also ensure the transparency of the elections and the impossibility of changing results, which will be securely encrypted.