News & writing since 2011
Blog
- AI for Skills-First Hiring: Removing Barriers Hidden in Public-Sector RulesJune 13, 2026
With Northeastern University's Burnes Center, Citizens Foundation uses Policy Synth to help states remove hidden degree requirements.
- From 2,200 Worker Voices to AI Policy: The New Jersey ModelMay 22, 2025
New Jersey workers ranked concerns about generative AI, then Policy Synth helped turn top priorities into evidence-based proposals.
- People Decide: How AI Can Help Governments Use Public InputDecember 31, 2024
Citizens Foundation shows how Better Reykjavik and Policy Synth help governments turn public input into better decisions.
- The Power of Citizen Engagement: Why “Your Priorities” is the World’s Leading PlatformOctober 1, 2023
Since 2008, Citizens Foundation has refined Your Priorities into a leading open-source platform for digital democracy.
- Scotland Embraces Digital Democracy at Parliamentary LevelOctober 1, 2023
Democracy Technologies covered how the Scottish Parliament uses Your Priorities to support online public participation in committee work.
- Building Democracy Technology as a Non-Profit OrganisationOctober 1, 2023
Robert Bjarnason discussed what it takes to build democracy technology as a small non-profit, from funding to trust and long-term maintenance.
- New analytics and promotion toolOctober 16, 2022
We have released a major new feature for Your Priorities, a built-in Analytics and Promotions tool.
- We use AI to empower citizensOctober 15, 2022
Robert Bjarnason discussed how artificial intelligence can support citizen participation and help governments make better public decisions.
- PaCE DashboardMarch 20, 2022
The PaCE Dashboard allows us to reveal relative trends between different topics driving the discourse regarding populism, nativism and civic engagement.
- Citizens Foundation Case File: Your Constitution, The GameDecember 7, 2021
Josh Lanthier-Welch explains how a constitutional game became part of Citizens Foundation America's pro-democracy civic work.
- Populism and Civic Engagement ConferenceNovember 8, 2021
The PaCE project hosted a Populism and Civic Engagement conference exploring democratic resilience and public participation in Europe.
- Thoughts on the future of governanceSeptember 18, 2021
Some thoughts on the future of governance from our CEO Robert – part of a new #futureofgovernance op-ed series at Re-State.
- Interview with Robert Bjarnason our co-founder and CEOSeptember 18, 2021
Robert Bjarnason discussed Citizens Foundation's origins, Better Reykjavik, and lessons from building open-source democracy technology.
- Free hosting and support for all nonprofit, educational & health organizationsMarch 16, 2020
Citizens Foundation offered free hosting and support for nonprofit, educational and health organizations using online engagement tools.
- Free hosting and support for all nonprofitsMarch 7, 2020
Citizens Foundation offered free hosting and support to nonprofits that wanted to engage communities online or run internal idea generation.
- Pilot episode of Citizens Foundation TVSeptember 12, 2019
In this first pilot episode of Citizens Foundation TV, we will introduce you to the foundation and some of our work.
- Your Priorities version 8.2 releasedJanuary 8, 2019
Your Priorities 8.2 introduced stronger content moderation and new tools for safe, constructive online participation.
- We are 10 years old today!October 19, 2018
Citizens Foundation marked ten years of building open-source tools for citizen participation and better public decision-making.
- Our open source platforms recognized as one of the world’s bestAugust 29, 2018
Our open source digital democracy platforms have been recognized as one of the world’s best in the Apolitical digital government atlas 🌎. Check it out!
- Your Priorities version 7.3 releasedAugust 8, 2018
We’ve just launched version 7.3 of our open source digital democracy platform, Your Priorities.
- Can we trust privatised democracy?September 8, 2017
Can we trust privatised democracy? Article first published on Medium. Democracy is at crossroads today.
- DEEP-Linking Youth: a European youth e-participation projectDecember 2, 2016
An EU Erasmus+ project led by ECAS, with Citizens Foundation as a partner — building a digital ecosystem to bring young people's voices into European policymaking.
- Digital Commons for Open GovernmentNovember 19, 2015
Citizens Foundation proposed a Digital Commons for Open Government: an open-source marketplace for public-sector civic technology.
- Citizens Foundation awarded seed financing for Active Citizen AI NotificationsNovember 16, 2015
Citizens Foundation received CHEST seed financing to develop Active Citizen, an open-source AI notification project for civic participation.
- Our Better Neighbourhoods wins the Nordic Best Practice ChallengeJune 25, 2015
In May our open source community platform Better Neighborhoods was declared as a Nordic Best Practice Challenge winner in the category – Public Communication.
- New Estonian law creates a new law through citizens petitionsFebruary 26, 2015
A citizen petition developed through Estonia's Rahvakogu process and Your Priorities became law, marking a concrete democratic reform.
- 23% increase in electronic voting in Better Neighborhoods 2015February 25, 2015
Participation in Better Neighborhoods voting increased by 23%, showing growing resident use of Reykjavik's participatory budgeting process.
- The importance of youth organisations for society and democracyJanuary 20, 2015
We had a great experience doing a presentation at The Icelandic Youth Councils conference.
- Seasons Greetings 2014December 30, 2014
A very merry seasons greetings to all from us at the Citizens Foundation in Iceland!
- Better Neighborhoods PB for the 4th timeNovember 26, 2014
Reykjavik opened its fourth Better Neighborhoods participatory budgeting process, inviting residents to propose and prioritize local improvements.
- “Your Idea – Our Priority” crowdfunding campaign launchedAugust 28, 2014
We have launched our first e-democracy crowdfunding campaign on Goteo.org website to support the development of open source electronic democracy in Serbia.
- International conference “Participation of Young Citizens in New Era”, IstanbulMay 13, 2014
Citizens Foundation joined an Istanbul conference on youth participation and new technology, presenting lessons from Your Priorities and Better Reykjavik.
- EVE Online True Stories Project was a great successApril 18, 2014
The EVE Online True Stories project drew more than 100,000 visitors and thousands of player submissions through Your Priorities.
- Citizens Foundation’s main projectsApril 8, 2014
One of our main measures of success is participation, without participation there is no democracy.
- Citizens Foundation participated in Level Up conference in TunisiaMarch 25, 2014
Citizens Foundation participated in the Level Up conference in Tunisia, sharing experience from open-source civic engagement platforms.
- NHS uses Your Priorities to engage with citizensMarch 3, 2014
Announcing NHS Citizen — the NHS in England adopted Your Priorities so patients, carers and the public could surface and debate the issues for its assembly meetings.
- Citizens Foundation at SEECOM conferenceSeptember 30, 2013
Citizens Foundation joined SEECOM to share lessons from Icelandic digital democracy and online citizen participation.
- Online Citizens Participation in Iceland and Worldwide, POINT conferenceMay 28, 2013
Citizens Foundation presented Icelandic and international citizen participation work at the POINT conference on political accountability and new technologies.
- CCP Games collect True Stories with Your PrioritiesApril 4, 2013
CCP Games used Your Priorities to collect and prioritize player stories for EVE Online, showing how open participation can support large online communities.
- Better Reykjavík wins two more awardsFebruary 3, 2012
Better Reykjavik won awards for Most Original Website and Most Interesting Website, recognizing early public support for digital democracy in Iceland.
- Róbert and Gunnar are geeks of the year 2011 in IcelandJanuary 24, 2012
Róbert Bjarnason and Gunnar Grímsson were chosen by a vote from more then 10.000 people in and connected to the IT industry.
- Better Iceland opens at AusturvöllurNovember 16, 2011
The Citizens Foundation opened today at 12.30 a new democracy website called Better Iceland.
- 16 priorities from Better Reykjavík are now in process with the city of ReykjavíkOctober 31, 2011
Over 10.000 unique visitors to Better Reykjavik which have added more then 200 priorities since the website opened on October 19th.
- New Better Reykjavík opens in collaboration with the City of ReykjavíkOctober 19, 2011
Today the Citizens Foundation opened a new and improved version of Better Reykjavík in collaboration with the City of Reykjavík, the capital of Iceland.
- Citizens Foundation awarded the European eDemocracy AwardOctober 18, 2011
Last week, Fondation EurActiv PoliTech handed out the European award in the 2011 eDemocracy Awards to the Icelandic Citizens Foundation at the Quai d’Orsay.
- Citizens well received at Digital CitiesSeptember 26, 2011
We, the Citizens Foundation, did two presentations at the Digital Cities conference in Athens, Greece during the last weekend.
- Citizens Foundation participating in Digital Cities conferenceSeptember 18, 2011
We will be participating in the Digital Cities conference in Athens, Greece where Róbert Bjarnason, Gunnar Grímsson and Óskar J.
- Citizens Foundation nominated for the e-Democracy Awards 2011September 18, 2011
Citizens Foundation was nominated for the 2011 European eDemocracy Award for its work running Better Reykjavik and Your Priorities.