Involved is a micropolling software for local government that increases civic engagement by making communication direct, private, and instant. Here’s how it works:

1. You receive a question on your mobile phone from your government representative (mobile app, text message, or email)
2. You share your opinion with the press of a button
3. Your government representative is informed of your and your community’s opinions
4. They share the data and provide feedback

Currently, communicating with our representatives is not optimized by technology, and the conversation is usually only one-way. We believe that community decisions, at all levels of government, should be community driven. We all have a voice and it is time that we share it.

iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/involved/id1244814008?mt=8

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.involvedmobile

Involved is positioned to disrupt a $3 billion U.S. survey research industry and an $8 billion election cycle. The opportunity for this tool is ripe in today’s political and technological landscape. Americans are already positioned for it:

• 181 million American are registered voters
• 50 million Americans contacted their elected official in the last two years (2014)

A Princeton University study revealed that 90% of Americans have near-zero influence on the likelihood of a bill passing. Our online experiences are saturated with political opinion, unwrung and often unproductive. Involved makes opinion actionable.

• Social media is not a proper substitute for Involved:
• Many people are not comfortable publically sharing their political views
• Elected officials cannot verify constituents
• People often don’t know or follow their representatives online
• People may not want all the additional updates and campaign information associated with following an elected official

Other political applications are not direct competitors for Involved:

• They market to political activists through curating news and bills, or tracking campaigns
• Do not work directly with the towns and offices to provide a line of communication
• Many have partisan agendas

We aim to be the community engagement tool for the everyday citizen; knowing who your elected officials are and staying up-to-date on every issue is not required.

• Fall 2016: We began building Involved under the guidance of the Boston University BUzz Lab.
• April 2017: We worked with four key leaders in the State House to participate in an alpha test with ~100 constituents to help us improve our initial product. What we find is that the initial entrance of Involved is best suited for the state and smaller municipalities, because they often lack technological communication systems beyond sticky notes and spreadsheets.
• May 2017: The team graduates Boston University (hooray!).
• June 2017: We began working under the guidance of the Boston University Summer Accelerator. Our advisors and mentors are part of an extensive network of professors and alumni across the fields of entrepreneurship, political science and technology.
• July 2017: We connected with local elected officials in Massachusetts in preparation for our launch for Android and iOS in the coming weeks. Responses continue to flood in as we lined up nine cities and ten state elected officials to sign up, as well as connections with mayors, city councils, and the Massachusetts Department of Municipal Technology.
• August 2017: We launch the mobile application to gather the early adopters, particularly in the municipalities we are working closely with. In order to spread the word, we are partnering with government offices and agencies, as well as non-profits, community groups, and advocacy groups of all kinds to bring their members on the platform.
• September 2017: Three Massachusetts municipalities sign up to implement Involved in their communities and marketing strategies are prepared. The team completes development for text capability.
• October 2017: The first live poll is posted by State Representative Liz Malia to her Jamaica Plain district. Three more municipalities create accounts and prepare for implementation. The team also completes development for email capability for polls.

The long-term vision for Involved is to be a virtual office for elected officials in democratic societies around the world. Once in the application, any user can directly invite their elected officials to get involved. We will create this application with mobile, texting, web, and widget capability, implement Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology for direct messaging, and provide constituent relationship management (CRM) systems for elected officials to manage all of their interactions.

Involved is currently working under the guidance of Boston University through the BU Summer Accelerator. Our advisors and mentors are part of an extensive network of professors and alumni across the fields of entrepreneurship, political science and technology.

The strongest use cases for the micro-polling are at the local executive level and include asking people to prioritize issues, using the geographic data to gain a better understanding of patterns for issues (such as safety, traffic, construction), or posting questions to gather feedback on whatever the hot community issue is.

Our mobile application is just the first step in a larger vision for how democracy should operate in the 21st century. The long-term vision for Involved is to be a virtual office for elected officials in democratic societies around the world. We will create this application with mobile, texting, web, and widget capability, implement AI technology for direct messaging, and provide constituent relationship management (CRM) systems for elected officials to manage all of their interactions.