Online participation platform · free for municipalities
Participation · Democracy · Digital civil society
More voices for democracy.
Digital and analogue civic participation, AI-supported participation platforms and more than 100 completed projects in municipalities, towns and communities.
Participation is one of the Integrata Foundation’s five goals. Operational implementation is provided by Human IT Service GmbH in Tübingen.
Consulting · moderation · process facilitation
HIT Civic Participation
Expertise and operational support for municipalities, towns and communities — on-site and digital. Visit ↗- 100+
- completed projects
- free
- Politaktiv for municipalities
- 3 formats
- Online · on-site · hybrid
- AI-supported
- Argument mining · hate speech
- BW, Germany & EU
- regional reach
Core conviction
Democracy needs participation. Participation needs technology.
Digital participation is not an end in itself. It should give more people a genuine voice in decisions that shape their lives — from urban development to climate policy.
Technology should not merely accelerate or rationalise, but genuinely enable more democracy.
Our experience from more than 100 projects shows that genuine participation is not achieved simply by providing a platform. It succeeds through methodological diversity, professional process facilitation — and the use of AI where it strengthens dialogue rather than replaces it.
In doing so, we combine three strengths: the Foundation’s ethical grounding, the technological development of the Politaktiv platform and the practical operational experience of HIT Civic Participation.
The evaluation of the contributions can only be made transparent and unbiased by people to a small extent (up to 100 contributions). Once more than a few hundred citizens participate, it can objectively only be made by AI. We use AI for this.
Reach more people
Online, on-site and hybrid formats reach more citizens than any single channel.
Create transparency
Digital platforms make arguments visible, document contributions and strengthen trust.
Use AI meaningfully
Argument mining and hate-speech detection support dialogue without replacing human moderation.
Create lasting impact
Support from conception to evaluation builds capabilities that remain within municipalities.
The platform
Politaktiv — civic participation that is digital, transparent and open to all
Politaktiv is the online participation platform jointly operated and developed by the Integrata Foundation and HIT. Municipalities can use it free of charge; HIT provides the accompanying services.
Polit@ktiv
Civic participation across multiple channels — digital and on-site, accessible and technologically up to date.
- Free for municipalities
- The platform is available to towns and municipalities free of charge.
- AI-supported argumentation
- Argument mining automatically structures contributions by lines of argument.
- Hate-speech detection
- AI identifies destructive contributions and supports human moderation.
- Continuous development
- Experience from real participation projects continuously improves the platform.
AI feature
Argument mining
Contributions are automatically structured into pro and contra arguments.AI feature
Hate speech detection
Destructive or inappropriate contributions are flagged early.Function
Online participation
Collect ideas, vote and comment — independent of location and on any device.Function
Process documentation
Contributions and results remain transparently and traceably documented.Methodological diversity
Three formats. One goal: genuine participation.
Good participation chooses the format according to the goal. We therefore combine three complementary approaches.
Online participation
Asynchronous, location-independent participation with ideas, voting, comments and maps.
Ideas · voting · comments · mapsOn-site participation
Future workshops, open space, world cafés and citizens’ assemblies — professionally designed and facilitated.
Future workshop · open space · world café · citizens’ assemblyHybrid participation
Online and offline methods are combined for maximum reach and depth of dialogue.
Live streaming · parallel channels · digital documentation · online follow-upUrban development
Neighbourhood development, land use, transport planning and housing
Municipal development
Local development concepts, intermunicipal projects and commercial areas
Climate protection & sustainability
Climate action plans, local energy transition and sustainability strategies
Organisations & associations
Strategy development, member participation and organisational development
Operational delivery
HIT Civic Participation — Expertise & process facilitation
HIT Civic Participation is the Human IT Service GmbH division for all operational services around digital and analogue civic participation.
As a subsidiary of the Integrata Foundation, HIT combines ethical grounding with operational practice and facilitates fact-based dialogue processes.
Methodological diversity, professional moderation and Politaktiv are combined with personal on-site presence.
Reference clients (selection)Bad Urach · Metzingen · Nürtingen · Singen · Heilbronn · Reutlingen · Blaues Band Württemberg · Schönborn · Schrobenhausen · Blaubeuren · Remseck · Stuttgart
Context
Participation in the context of the foundation’s goals
Civic participation is not an isolated project, but one of the Integrata Foundation’s central goals and closely connected with its other areas of impact.
Humane technology means more voices, not fewer.
Generative AI and algorithmic decision systems change who has influence in society. Digital participation uses technology for democratic empowerment rather than concentration of power.
Participation
Digital and analogue civic participation with Politaktiv and HIT
AI ethics & governance
Think tank, Participation SIG and the EU AI Act as a democratic lever
Education & training
AI skills for people participating in democratic processes
Health & sustainability
Participation in municipal climate and health planning
Values & technology
Technology strengthens democracy — it does not replace it