This week, we distill insights around The City 2.0 - a new platform from TED to crowdsource ideas on how cities can be better equipped for the future and inspire urban citizens to take action. 100+ thinkers and planners within MSLGROUP share and discuss inspiring projects on social data, crowdsourcing, storytelling and citizenship on the MSLGROUP Insights Network. Every week, we pick up one project and do a deep dive into conversations around it -- on the MSLGROUP Insights Network itself but also on the broader social web -- to distill insights and foresights. We share these insights and foresights with you on our People’s Insights blog and compile the best insights from the network and the blog in the iPad-friendly People’s Lab Quarterly Magazine, as a showcase of our capabilities. For more, see: http://peopleslab.mslgroup.com

1. crowdsourcing | storytelling | citizenship | social data
People’s Insights Volume 2, Issue 6
The City 2.0

2. People’s Insights
100+ thinkers and planners within MSL- In 2013, we continue to track inspiring
GROUP share and discuss inspiring proj- projects at the intersection of social data,
ects on social data, crowdsourcing, story- crowdsourcing and storytelling, with a fo-
telling and citizenship on the MSLGROUP cus on projects that are shaping the Future
Insights Network. Every week, we pick up of Citizenship.
one project and curate the conversations
Do subscribe to receive our weekly insights
around it — on the MSLGROUP Insights
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Network itself but also on the broader
reports, and do share your tips and com-
social web — into a weekly insights report.
ments with us at @PeoplesLab on Twitter.
Every quarter, we compile these insights,
along with original research and insights
from the MSLGROUP global network, into
the People’s Insights Quarterly Magazine.
We have synthesized the insights from our
year-long endeavor throughout 2012 to
provide foresights for business leaders and
changemakers — in the ten-part People’s
Insights Annual Report titled Now & Next:
Ten Frontiers for the Future of Engage-
ment.
People’s Insights People’s Insights People’s Insights
weekly report quarterly magazines Annual Report
Volume 2, Issue 6, Future of The City 2.0
January - March, 2013 Citizenship

3. What is The City 2.0?
In 2012, TED announced a new platform, The collaboration and to inspire urban citizens take
City 2.0, to crowdsource ideas on how cities can action. Ten of the best ideas would be awarded
be better equipped for the future, encourage $10,000 each to kick start change.
Source: thecity2.org
As Nate Berg, staff writer at The Atlantic Cities said:
“TED unveiled a new website that aims to crowdsource ideas on city-focused projects and award mini-grants
to enable the best ones.”
According to TED, the vision for the platform is century city using up-to-the-minute crowdsourcing
to build an “ever-expanding network of citizen-led, techniques.
scalable experiments.”
“The ambitious goal is to create a clearinghouse
Writer Anthony Flint describes The City 2.0 as: for tools and methodologies and best practices to
reshape cities around the world.”
“a kind of global Wikipedia connecting citizens,
political leaders, urban experts, companies, and
organizations, with the goal of improving the 21st
3

4. Source: 2012 TED Prize Wish: The City 2.0
The City 2.0 platform was re-designed in
January 2013.
Inspiring people to become
changemakers
Source: theatlanticcities.com The City 2.0 mobilizes people to participate
in the process of driving change. As
The platform and the innovation competition
Inhabitat’s Tafline Laylin commented:
are supported by a $100,000 TED Prize
and funding from private foundations and “It’s a novel idea, but it is also incredibly
corporations. Changemaker Conor White- inspiring. Instead of placing the responsibility
Sullivan noted: of our future in the hands of a few politicians,
TED is encouraging all citizens to take it back
“The platform is supported with $250,000
into their own.”
in funding from the Knight Foundation, and
a number of large corporations are throwing People can participate online by sharing
their weight behind it as well, including IBM inspirations, stories and projects on The
and Autodesk.” City 2.0 platform, submitting resources,
competing for a grant and sharing feedback.
Offline, people can organize or participate
in TEDxCity2.0 events and TEDxLive viewing
parties for the same.
Source: thecity2.org/tips
Volume 2, Issue 6, Future of The City 2.0
January - March, 2013 Citizenship

5. To learn more about city initiatives, The City leaders right in our backyard, but it will take all
2.0 encourages people to browse through of us working together to become the City 2.0 “
city-themed TED and TEDx talks and has
To encourage sharing of stories, inspirations
created a book City 2.0: The Habitat of the
and projects, TEDxCity2.0 introduced a new
Future and How to Get There.
initiative – Action Pitch Sessions – which
TEDxCity2.0 – An amplification invites five members to share their ideas on-
stage in a two minute pitch. After the pitches,
channel event organizers encourage the audience to
The City 2.0 is further supported by the support one or more of these ideas and help
TEDx program, through which passionate bring them to life. Talks and Action Pitches
individuals and changemakers organize from the TEDxCity2.0 events are available on
independent TED-like events in their YouTube here and here.
communities. In October 2012, 28 global
A second TEDxCity2.0 day will be organized
TEDx communities hosted TEDxCity2.0
in 2013.
events, helping the initiative increase its
reach, build a network of changemakers, The City 2.0 Challenge
crowdsource more ideas and inspire action at
the grassroots level. The City 2.0 Challenge bootstrapped
the crowdsourcing process and served
AlexanderDSM commented: as an incentive for participation. People
“With TED’s City 2.0 [the focus is] not just big submitted their ideas online, and winners
American cities, but cities around the world. were announced on a rolling basis first at
TED’s core competency is not just in the TEDGlobal in June 2012, and then on the
curation of ideas, but it’s also worth noting TED blog. The winners received $10,000
the TEDx program. With over 3,000 TEDx each to fund their project.
events in three years, there is the chance for ArchDaily’s Vanessa Quirk reported:
the TEDx communities in cities to embrace
this year’s TED prize and enact it in their local “The Award, which offers $10,000 to 10
communities.” innovative ideas in Urban Transformation,
has been awarded – so far – to an eco-artist, a
Wikipedia of house-building, a noise mapper, a
couple of sign-post rebels, and a public-health
activist and educator.”
Source: ted.com/pages/tedx_tedxcity
Mark Dewey, who organized a TEDxCity2.0
event in San Diego, commented on the
event’s contribution to creating a global
community of changemakers:
“Being a part of this global event opened the Source: Playlist: 8 City 2.0 award-winner videos
exchange of ideas to include what has and has
not worked in other cites (sic) and questions
about we can adopt best practices from proven
models. Far too often, these events only
dive into local problems with local solutions.
Sometimes we need to expand beyond our zip
code to understand what our problems really
are. We have an incredible pool of thought
5

6. Can crowdsourcing drive civic
change?
While The City 2.0 benefits from the size and create change in cities. We have realized that
reach of the TED and TEDx communities, the public sector isn’t going to solve every
thinkers debate the potential of the civic crisis alone, but in fact works best when
crowdsourcing platform in creating the city of partnering with the private and non-profit
the future in real life. sector. It could be that the Internet, by itself, is
also insufficient.
Jake Barton who runs a similar platform,
Change By Us, commented: “While the competition portion of The City
2.0 is clearly oriented toward that kind of in-
“Creating a website is not terribly difficult. But
person collaboration that is required to create
creating a project that actually has an impact
change in cities, the TED prize, with its “wish
on communities? That’s really hard. From my
list,” suggests that the Internet is the magic
experience, the website is a great way to gain
wand that’s going to jumpstart change in our
attention and motivation and traction, but to
communities.”
actually make real change happen, it’s people.”
Blogger Kyle Rogler feels the ideas shared
Diana Lind, director of Next City and one
can inspire solutions:
of the winners of The City 2.0 Challenge,
believes the challenge model is more “Crowd sourcing ideas from citizens may
efficient than the open collaboration not provide exact solutions to the problems
platform: faced by a city, but it will help inform general
opinions and generate a huge variety of unique
“While the Internet is great for ordering shoes
ideas that designers can draw inspiration from
or reading blogs, it might just not be the
to provide more precise solutions.”
best holistic system to organize people or to
Models of innovation
Several changemakers and organizations have used crowdsourcing and collaborative social
innovation to drive civic change. For instance, crowdsourcing initiatives like Open Ministry in
Finland and programs that incorporate collaboration like Let’s Move! Cities, Towns and Counties
in the U.S. are seeing early signs of success in enabling citizens to propose new laws and
mobilizing local leaders to take action.
Source: Open Ministry (avoinministeraio.fi)
Source: Let’s Move! Cities, Town and Counties
(healthycommunitieshealthyfuture.org)
Volume 2, Issue 6, Future of The City 2.0
January - March, 2013 Citizenship

7. People’s Lab:
Crowdsourcing Innovation & Insights
People’s Lab is MSLGROUP’s proprietary comment on other people’s content and
crowdsourcing platform and approach that collaborate to find innovative solutions.
helps organizations tap into people’s insights for
innovation, storytelling and change. The People’s Lab crowdsourcing platform
and approach forms the core of our distinctive
The People’s Lab crowdsourcing platform insights and foresight approach, which consists
helps organizations build and nurture public of four elements: organic conversation analysis,
or private, web or mobile, hosted or white MSLGROUP’s own insight communities, client-
label communities around four pre-configured specific insights communities, and ethnographic
application areas: Expertise Request Network, deep dives into these communities. The People’s
Innovation Challenge Network, Research & Insights Quarterly Magazines showcase our
Insights Network and Contest & Activation capability in crowdsourcing and analyzing
Network. Our community and gaming features insights from conversations and communities.
encourage people to share rich content, vote/
Learn more about us at:
peopleslab.mslgroup.com | twitter.com/peopleslab

8. For People’s Lab solutions, contact
pascal.beucler@mslgroup.com