“Brickstarter is a 21st century social service. It enables everyday people, using everyday technology and culture, to articulate and progress sustainable ideas about their community. Brickstarter is a platform to turn possibilities into proposals into projects.”
Communications between citizens and their institutions is often problematic, discouraging people from engaging. When ‘consultation’ is the only mode of communication, communities often experience negative experiences or end up flat out rejecting projects. Brickstarter wants to reverse this dynamic, “from complain to create, providing a platform for suggestions, developed and driven by participation of citizens, local business, and government. The project makes it easier for communities to voice a productive and collective “yes” to their best ideas.”
Using a web platform, they want to enable citizens to create projects for their communities, then smooth out the process of getting permits and working with local governments, which will result in better collaboration in executing those projects. It is a forum, a public storytelling platform, a community fundraising tool and a dashboard displaying the collective desires of a community.
“Brickstarter sits between bottom-up and top-down, connecting the needs and desires of the community with the resources and representation of institutions.”