Crowdsourcing solutions to Lebanon’s crisis

ENAR

To overcome the current crisis, the new Lebanese government will need to develop innovative policies—quickly. Currently, authorities are following a conventional model by seeking ideas from a bureaucracy of civil servants and consulting agencies. Perhaps a more effective way for the government to find solutions is to engage citizens directly via a digital crowdsourcing campaign. Crowdsourcing is obtaining information and ideas by asking for input from a large group of people, often sourced via the internet. It is based around the theory of collective intelligence, where Swiss researchers estimate that a million individuals working independently have a 97.7 percent likelihood for solving any problem. The most basic form of crowdsourcing is to run an open online contest for solutions to specific challenges. The relevant ministry drafts and posts a challenge for citizens to respond to with ideas. The proposals can either be voted upon online by peers or judged by