Citizens Make Their Voices Heard Via Touch Screen Voting Stations
Many companies have used the crowdsourcing model to gauge public opinion on a range of issues, everything from the flavour of ice cream, to the name of product lines.
Now residents of Helsinki, Finland are being given the opportunity to voice their opinion on whether the government should allow the Guggenheim Museum to build a new gallery in the city. And they are using a unique voting system.
They are able to have their say via touch screen voting stations that have been set up in two locations near to where the museum plans to locate. All passersby have to do is touch a Facebook-style ‘Like’ icon or a thumbs-down ‘Dislike’ button depending on their view.
Controversy
The proposal for the $USD 184 million Helsinki branch of the Guggenheim has met with some controversy in the city, and that’s primarily to do with the cost of building it, and the projected annual running costs of $19 million.
The public’s vote will not actually be binding, but they may to help to bolster one side’s case over the other. According to a FastCompany report, on the first day of opening, the booths registered several thousand votes with the dislikes 35% higher than the likes, with about 4,500 dislikes registered.
“We actually send a trainee to do a field study about the people using the ad,” said Olli Paloheimo from HeyDey the advertising agency that set up the booths. “The weird thing that we noticed from the quick study was that very many elderly people were using the ad to cast their vote. Seems like older people are getting a grip of technology quite well.”
City officials have until the end of April to announce their final decision on the Guggenheim proposal.
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