It’s time to share Citizen OS’s highlights from 2024. How did we bring democracy closer to 7 million people? How was our participation platform recognized? Read on to discover the answers and learn more about our achievements and future plans!
The 4th Indonesian Opinion Festival made history in several ways and stands out as one of our key highlights of the past year.
At Citizen OS, we believe in the power of collective decision-making. Our mission is to empower people worldwide to participate in meaningful discussions and collaboratively decide on issues that affect them.
Through our open-source participation platform and civic engagement projects, we are helping individuals, communities, and organisations make their voices heard and shape the future together. This mission is exactly what has guided our focus in 2024.
A New Look and Enhanced User Experience
One of our biggest achievements in 2024 was the revamp of our Citizen OS participation platform. In March 2024, we launched a fresh new design, making the platform more user-friendly, visually appealing, and intuitive to navigate
Key improvements included:
- A redesigned dashboard – Users can now see all their topics and groups in one place, making participation smoother and more engaging.
- Step-by-step creation flows – Setting up topics and groups has never been easier, thanks to interactive guides and tutorials.
- Flexible topic phases – Users can now structure decision-making processes to fit their specific needs.
- Improved discussion features – Enhanced readability, clearer reply threads, and sentiment visualisation help users better understand group opinions.
- Better mobile experience – We’ve made participation seamless on all devices, ensuring accessibility from anywhere.
To further support idea generation and decision-making, we introduced a new idea gathering feature in July 2024. This tool allows users to post, discuss, and organise ideas before moving to a vote, fostering creativity and collaboration.
In 2024, the Citizen OS participation platform received an enhanced look and improved functionalities.
Recognised Among the Best Participation Tools
We are proud to share that in 2024, People Powered recognised Citizen OS as one of the world’s leading participation platforms. The evaluation, conducted by a panel of independent experts, highlighted our platform’s accessibility, ethical transparency, and cost-effectiveness. Our commitment to open-source, multilingual, and inclusive democratic participation remains stronger than ever.
Diving Into Research: Listening to Our Users
To make sure our platform meets the needs of our diverse user base, we launched a user needs research project in November 2024. Through interviews and usability testing, we gathered insights from organisations, community groups, and activists.
The research focussed on these key topics:
- The biggest challenges in participatory decision-making.
- The strengths and weaknesses of existing digital tools.
- The needs of local governments, NGOs, youth organisations, and professional bodies.
These findings are directly shaping our platform improvements, ensuring Citizen OS remains a powerful tool for inclusive democracy.
Citizen OS in Numbers
The Platform:
The past year has seen growth in participation on our platform:
- 4,904 discussions since our launch, with 420 new discussions added in 2024.
- 19,701 votes cast in decision-making processes, including 2,827 in 2024.
- 707 groups formed, including 64 new groups in 2024.
- 12,034 users engaging in decision-making, with 1,156 new users joining this year.
- The Citizen OS platform was used in 139 countries.
Projects:
Together with Citizen OS Indonesia, we expanded our reach and built networks to enhance open societies, better decision-making, and participation.
- Our projects brought together over 5,400 people.
- We engaged 399 volunteers.
- Citizen OS engaged with people from 18 different countries across our programmes and initiatives.
"During the festival, the deaf community voiced a need for sign language interpreters in parliamentary meetings. This recommendation was shared through our platform, and the parliament has since implemented it. Now, for every public parliamentary session, our partner Silang.ID provides interpretation—ensuring equal access for 7 million deaf people in Indonesia."
Projects Driving Change
Erasmus Mundus Master’s Programme: AI for Sustainable Societies
Citizen OS is a proud partner in the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s Programme, bringing together universities from Estonia, Finland, and Portugal. This programme explores the intersection of artificial intelligence, sustainability, and participatory democracy.
In 2024, 19 students from 13 countries joined the programme, with 18 students currently participating. The students come from Brazil, Costa Rica, Egypt, Germany, Iran, Italy, Kenya, the Netherlands, Pakistan, the Philippines, Tajikistan, Turkey, and Yemen. New admissions took place also in 2025.
“Tallinn University, School of Digital Technologies has collaborated for a long time with Citizen OS. We have done various things together—Winter Schools, Horizon projects, and workshops. Citizen OS has been a key contributor in the previous master programme, Open Society Technologies, now replaced by the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master called Artificial Intelligence for Sustainable Societies (AISS), funded by the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA),”commented Merja Bauters, Research Professor in Digital Transformation & Lifelong Learning at the School of Digital Technologies, Tallinn University.
“Citizen OS is an associate partner of the programme, providing internships, teaching a course on citizen activity, and supporting us in marketing of the new programme. Their contributions go beyond teaching; they foster discussions about democracy, novel digital tools, and future societal trajectories,” Bauters added.
The orientation week of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s Programme “Artificial Intelligence for Sustainable Societies”.
The Indonesian Opinion Festival 2024: A Milestone for Citizen Engagement
In December 2024, Citizen OS Indonesia co-organised the 4th Indonesia Opinion Festival (IOF), in collaboration with the Indonesian House of Representatives.This groundbreaking event engaged 5,354 people, making it our largest festival to date. Notably, it brought 1,562 participants together in person at the Indonesian Parliament building—an unprecedented achievement for civil society.
“Participating in the Indonesia Opinion Festival was a valuable and meaningful opportunity—a space to discuss problems, challenges, and opportunities, brainstorm, and share experiences on how Indigenous Peoples become key subjects in the vortex of cultural change anomalies. This forum connects diverse cultural strategies and enables aspirations to be openly communicated between civil society and stakeholders,” shared Henriana Hatrawijaya, Secretary of Kasepuhan Cisungsang Customary & Secretary General at SABAKI, reflecting on his experience.
Agustina Iskandar-Crombach, team lead of Citizen OS Indonesia, highlighted a key impact of the event: “During the festival, the deaf community voiced a need for sign language interpreters in parliamentary meetings. This recommendation was shared through our platform, and the parliament has since implemented it. Now, for every public parliamentary session, our partner Silang.ID provides interpretation—ensuring equal access for 7 million deaf people in Indonesia.”
Citizen OS Indonesia continues its work to encourage open and collective discussions aimed at leading to real, positive policy changes.
The event in numbers:
- 133 young people contributed to the process of collecting topic recommendations for the Indonesia Opinion Festival 2024.
- 385 young people participated in organising the Indonesia Opinion Festival, both online and offline.
- 1,562 participants attended in-person at the DPR RI Complex in Senayan, Jakarta.
- 1,419 participants joined the online event.
- 95 panelists and moderators from various fields of expertise led the discussion sessions.
- 47 partners collaborated in making the Indonesia Opinion Festival 2024 a success!
Citizen OS Indonesia organised the 4th Indonesia Opinion Festival, bringing together 1,562 participants in person to engage in discussions at the Indonesian Parliament building.
Erasmus+ “Democra-SI” Project
Democracy is facing global challenges, with many young people feeling disconnected from political processes. To address this, Citizen OS joined the Erasmus+ “Democra-SI” project alongside 22 partners from 12 different countries.
Launched in 2025 (preparations started in 2024), this project will provide youth workers with tools to counter misinformation, promote critical thinking, and encourage meaningful participation in democratic life. By strengthening networks and equipping young people with digital literacy skills, we aim to empower the next generation of civic leaders.
Connecting With Like-Minded Partners
Throughout 2024, Citizen OS engaged in numerous events and collaborations to advance democratic participation and inclusive decision-making.
We worked with partners in academia, civil society, and international networks, contributing to key initiatives and global forums.
Our team participated in major gatherings such as the People Powered Member Convening and the Inclusion and Diversity Forum, hosted groups from various study visits, and shared our work and mission through podcasts.
We exchanged best practices on democracy, media and information literacy, and online participation. In addition to our ongoing projects, we contributed to seven new initiatives and took part in online events connecting civil society activists worldwide.
We also discussed technology’s double-edged sword and the work of Citizen OS on the “Talk & Tools” podcast, as well as the “good and bad” of technology in the Council of Europe’s online magazine, “Coyote”. The Citizen OS platform was nominated for the Estonian Design Awards 2024 in the category of digital product and application design (DUX).
Our Funding in 2024
The Citizen OS Foundation is a non-profit organisation which is funded from civic society funds and donations. We are very grateful to have stable financial support from our philanthropist funder and other private donors.
We were given 360,000 EUR in private donations from the philanthropist funder to develop and improve the Citizen OS platform.
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Looking Ahead: Our Plans for 2025
These were just some of the highlights from the past year. The journey continues!
In the coming year, we will:
- Launch the second phase of our platform redesign, improving accessibility and functionality.
- Expand our user research initiatives, ensuring we remain responsive to community needs.
- Deepen our involvement in youth participation and education, through Erasmus+ and other initiatives.
Strengthen partnerships with civic organisations and governments worldwide to drive more inclusive decision-making processes.
In 2024, Citizen OS participated in various events and collaborations to promote democratic participation and inclusive decision-making.
Let’s Foster Democracy Together!
We are continually inspired by the impactful work of our users and partners and grateful for the dedication of our volunteers worldwide.
Whether you are a developer, translator, researcher, designer, hacktivist, journalist, or simply someone passionate about supporting democratic participation, we invite you to join us!
