BC Participate Survey Tool

I have followed the use of key pad polling for years and can appreciate what it has done for public meetings. Participants are allowed to answer questions anonymously and the audience can see the results immediately on the screen. However, I find the hardware is expensive and participation is limited to those attending the meeting. In keeping with the mission of BalancedCommunity, I decided to provide a public participation tool that is more accessible and usable than key pad polling. I used text messaging (SMS) and interactive voice response (IVR) technology to develop an efficient and cost effective way to gather live input at meetings and beyond. Users simply use their own phone to call or text a number and participate in the meeting or survey.   This is brand new technology and here are some highlights:

• no hardware purchase necessary
• no software purchase necessary
• accessible to both meeting attendees and those watching from home or elsewhere
• you get your own local phone number that you OWN
• you don't have to share a short code with other users
• you can have the participant text, call, tweet, or fill the survey out on the web
• the data is displayed on a LIVE dashboard, which can be publicly accessible or private

For an example of the tool, visit http://balancedcommunity.com/tools/bcparticipate/ to take the sample survey and see your results updated live.