Questionnaires are written inquiries that can be used for fact collection of various kinds, like opinion polls, evaluations and knowledge tests, where the answers are not known.

The questionnaire could be a postal questionnaire, group questionnaire or a reply stub. Which method you choose depends on what the aim of the enquiry is and the resources available. An advantage of the questionnaire compared to the interview is that it can reach many simultaneously – conducting interviews with the same number of people would require significantly more time. In a questionnaire the respondents could be anonymous, which renders follow-ups impossible if an answer need elaboration or explanation. The interview has an obvious advantage there.

Citizens are invited to express their views or  proposals by putting a marker in a spot, mark a stretch of road or a whole area on the map.

With the aid of the GeoPanel you can e.g. ask the questions: “Where is it safe to walk?” or “Where should we build a playground?” The marking on the map can also be connected to a written comment on the motives for the marking. All the answers have a geographical connection, and can be analysed in a GIS (Geographic Information System) in your municipality or organisation. Do not ask too many or too complicated questions. Try the questionnaire on a test group before sending it out. The GeoPanel allows many to contribute views and proposals irrespective of time and space. The gathered information can be compiled without any additional input – if you use a GIS map as a basis, the answers can be matched against various layers of the GIS system. The maps used in a web enquiry could also be printed and used in physical meetings. Access to good maps is a necessity for using the GeoPanel fully. This method can be used for an unlimited number of participants, but it requires access to the Internet. It requires well-reasoned questions – answering should be so simple that it takes a maximum of 15 minutes. Costs may vary depending on which competences are available within the organisation and how much consult time has to be purchased. (SALAR)

In the citizen panel method, participants are selected at random and in that way the municipality may reach people who usually do not participate. The method includes informing the participants and opening for discussions and consultations” (Lindholm & Moritz, 2007).

Physical meetings are more and more beeing augmented with virtual panel meetings on the Internet, known as e-panel meetings. E-panels provide quicker answers and do not put equally high demands since participation takes place at home. The citizen panel could be designed as a workshop lasting for one day and containing various activities. An interesting alternative is to use audience response voting device, e.g. Mentometer, which gives quick and effective answers. A citizen panel often lends goodwill to the organisation. The panel members represent only themselves and cannot be asked too frequently, about 2-4 times in six months would be appropriate. It takes quite a lot of time to manage a citizen panel - from inviting participants to asking questions, receiving answers and administering the panel, and then the results should be fed back to the panel and published. 

A method that is applicable to large meetings is to use some kind of audience response equipment if you quickly want to get an idea of what a group of people think about one or several issues.

Make it very clear in the invitation what the idea of the meeting is. Be quick with feedback from the meeting and inform on the web or through other information channels. Be careful to formulate the questions so they can be easily answered, and maybe you can try the questions on a few people beforehand. The method gives an immediate response to the questions asked on a large screen, text messages also roll up as they are received. Everyone has the same chance of expressing their views – it is not possible for a few “smooth-spoken ones” to hijack the meeting. You can manage to ask many questions in a relatively short time, and the answers are anonymous. As a participant in the meeting you can quickly grasp if there are more people sharing your opinion, or if they express other opinions. Participants often perceive the method as positive, since you get a first-hand picture of what people think on various issues. Since you are going to rent equipment, you must dimension premises and estimate the number of participants to the best of your ability beforehand. Time is required for preparations, booking premises and equipment, invitations, formulating questions, etc. The actual performance will not take more time than an ordinary meeting. There are variations in how advanced the equipment is, which affects the cost. In a number of municipalities and regional boards the council halls are equipped with stationary voting equipment that can also be used for putting questions to citizens. If you consider investing in such equipment, a mobile set could be a good alternative. In that case, the audience response equipment could be used in many places. It could also be a good idea to coordinate any investments with one or two adjacent municipalities. If you buy compatible equipment, you can borrow it from each other in case of large meetings. 

An SMS panel is a citizen panel where communication is carried out by text messages on mobile telephones.

Citizen are invited to register on the homepage for partaking in a citizen panel. The method is useful if you want fast feedback from many people. Since the answers are to be given via text message, the questions must not be too complicated. They could be:

• Yes/No/Don’t know questions 
• Ranging questions 
• Questions of picking one proposal 
• There are also opportunities for short text messages. 

Be careful to formulate questions so they are easy to understand. Publish answers, summaries, etc. on the homepage as a feedback. Decide if the answers should be paid by the panel member or the recipient. Telephone traffic is a cost, check what is included in your telephony contracts. SMS panel is a fast and simple way of receiving points of view. Today, access to mobile telephones is high, and they are particularly popular with the young. An answering cost could be negatively regarded by some. If youth (minors) are participating, permission from legal guardians is required in most cases. The invitation could preferably be aimed at various defined groups, like the residents of a certain area, youth, visitors to a festival, etc. SALAR has produced a simple web-based tool for handling issues via SMS. Using the programme is free of charge – the only cost is for the SMS messages. (SALAR)

A practical toolkit to measure the quality of a public space before investing time and money in improving it. Spaceshaper captures the views of professionals who are running the space as well as those of the people that use the space.

Facilitated workshops discuss the results, design quality and how the space works for different people. Spaceshaper encourages people to demand more from their local spaces. [---] Young people are often overlooked in community engagement, but Spaceshaper 9-14 aims to get them involved in improving their local parks, streets, playgrounds and other spaces. [---] Since the tool was launched in February 2007, over 300 facilitators have been trained and 200 Spaceshaper workshops have taken place around the country. [---] Spaceshaper works by collecting the views of lots of different people through visiting a site and filling in a questionnaire. A half day workshop then gives everyone the chance to explain what they think about the space. This helps the people who use the space and those who manage it gain a better understanding of how it works for different people, and its strengths and weaknesses. This can help those who look after the space make changes to improve it. The CABE homepage (www.cabe.org.uk).