This week, we distill insights around Let's Move! Cities, Towns and Counties - a collaboration of government departments, local leaders, non profits and philanthropists to combat childhood obesity. 100+ thinkers and planners within MSLGROUP share and discuss inspiring projects on social data, crowdsourcing, storytelling and citizenship on the MSLGROUP Insights Network. Every week, we pick up one project and do a deep dive into conversations around it -- on the MSLGROUP Insights Network itself but also on the broader social web -- to distill insights and foresights. We share these insights and foresights with you on our People’s Insights blog and compile the best insights from the network and the blog in the iPad-friendly People’s Lab Quarterly Magazine, as a showcase of our capabilities. For more, see: http://peopleslab.mslgroup.com

1. crowdsourcing | storytelling | citizenship | social data
People’s Insights Volume 2, Issue 2
Let’s Move!
Cities, Towns and Counties

2. People’s Insights
100+ thinkers and planners within MSL- In 2013, we continue to track inspiring
GROUP share and discuss inspiring proj- projects at the intersection of social data,
ects on social data, crowdsourcing, story- crowdsourcing and storytelling, with a fo-
telling and citizenship on the MSLGROUP cus on projects that are shaping the Future
Insights Network. Every week, we pick up of Citizenship.
one project and curate the conversations
Do subscribe to receive our weekly insights
around it — on the MSLGROUP Insights
reports, quarterly magazines, and annual
Network itself but also on the broader
reports, and do share your tips and com-
social web — into a weekly insights report.
ments with us at @PeoplesLab on Twitter.
Every quarter, we compile these insights,
along with original research and insights
from the MSLGROUP global network, into
the People’s Insights Quarterly Magazine.
We have synthesized the insights from our
year-long endeavor throughout 2012 to
provide foresights for business leaders and
changemakers — in the ten-part People’s
Insights Annual Report titled Now & Next:
Ten Frontiers for the Future of Engage-
ment.
People’s Insights People’s Insights People’s Insights
weekly report quarterly magazines Annual Report
Volume 2, Issue 2, Future of Let’s Move! Cities,
January - March, 2013 Citizenship Towns and Counties

3. What is Let’s Move! Cities, Towns
and Counties?
Let’s Move! Cities, Towns and Counties is a part of local leaders. It was re-launched in July 2012 with
Michelle Obama’s national Let’s Move! initiative a new framework, specific goals, guidelines for
to combat obesity in children. LMCTC encourag- measuring progress, and the inclusion of Coun-
es collaboration among various U.S. government ties.
departments, elected officials, non-profits and
Leaders can sign up for the program online and
private foundations to bring about change at the
must commit to meeting five goals that promote
grassroots level.
healthy eating in and out of schools, and creation
To date, 205 local elected leaders have joined of play spaces.
the program.
Rachel White, a reader of the Chicago Sun-Times,
commented:
“I think what gives this program its great proten-
tial (sic) is that it take (sic) a holistic approach. In
other words, it just doesn’t focus on school lunches,
although school lunches are a huge problem.”
The National League of Cities spearheads the
initiative and offers local leaders resources such
as an LMCTC toolkit, monthly seminars and
access to technical partners and philanthropists
at national conferences. Innovation and problem
Source: healthycommunitieshealthyfuture.org
solving occurs at the local level.
As Michelle Obama said:
How does it work?
“What we know we need to do is give parents, com-
The program was initially launched in 2010 as
munities and families the tools and information
Let’s Move! Cities and Towns and focused on
they need to make choices that are right for them.
creating awareness and gathering support from
And there’s no one size fits all solution.”
Source: healthycommunitieshealthyfuture.org
3

4. Collaboration and Knowledge Incentivizing participation
sharing LMCTC uses elements of gamification, such
Elected officials collaborate with early care and as challenges, badges and leader boards, to
education providers, and schools to identify encourage a spirit of competition and to award
local problems and find relevant solutions. For successful leaders with recognition.
instance, Beaumont City in Texas is enlisting the Kelly Liyakasa, associate editor at CRM magazine,
help of athletes to encourage more students to points out the benefits of gamification strategies
participate in school breakfast and lunch pro- in organizations:
grams. As The Examiner’s Kevin King reports:
“Introducing game techniques into the enterprise
“One of the plans that the city is considering is can motivate employees to perform specific
starting a public service announcement program behaviors, but it can also improve morale and
using local athletes and through the medium of the excitement around tasks, projects, and even job
Lamar University communication department.” roles.”
Leaders are also encouraged to reach out to LMCTC’s five goals or challenges ensure that
other leaders in similar neighborhoods for leaders are focusing their efforts in meaningful
guidance, and to share their own learning among areas. Leaders share their progress on these
the LMCTC community. Leaders can use a com- goals regularly via an online survey. When they
parison tool on the Healthy Communities for a meet specified benchmarks, they are awarded
Healthy Future website to identify similar cities, bronze, silver or gold medals. These medals
towns and counties (based on population, race – and the absence thereof – are visible on the
breakup, age, land and income) and compare LMCTC website – Healthy Communities for a
performances. The National League of Cities also Healthy Future, along with details of the local
organizes blog posts, webinars and conferences leader. People can look up the progress of all
to showcase success stories. participating cities, towns and counties and also
Nidhi Makhija, member of the MSLGROUP see the overall medal standings.
Insights Network, commented that the initiative
could benefit from being more social in nature.
Source: healthycommunitieshealthyfuture.org
The medals also reflect well on the cities, as
the editorial team at online newspaper Record-
Source: peopleslab.mslgroup.com Journal, pointed out:
“As part of Let’s Move! rewards, Meriden now has
its own page on the National League of Cities
website. When young families consider moving into
the area and Google this city, they will come upon
this site which speaks well of the community. Thus,
recognitions by Let’s Move! and KaBOOM! could
appeal to potential homebuyers, who bring in new
business and neighborhood interaction.”
The National League of Cities has awarded 669
medals to date.
Volume 2, Issue 2, Future of Let’s Move! Cities,
January - March, 2013 Citizenship Towns and Counties

5. The grassroots factor
In addition to energizing stakeholders at the Paul Wohlleben, a columnist at FedTech Mag-
grassroots level, the LMCTC initiative also attracts azine, believes that “Big Data Is a Big Deal for
plenty of local coverage – especially when Government” and can help result in more effec-
medals are awarded to cities, towns and counties. tive governance:
“Government can use big data to gain the same
benefits as for-profit firms. Government would
be improved by better understanding the discrete
needs of its constituents, by improving the efficien-
cies of its processes, by understanding performance
and results, by preventing fraud, by preventing loss
— the possibilities are endless.”
Other collaboration models
The Let’s Move! Cities, Towns and Counties initia-
tive resembles an early-stage collaborative social
innovation ecosystem. More mature innovation
ecosystems, like the Ashoka Changemakers
Source: eyeonannapolis.net, downtownstpete.ilovetheburg.com, platform, facilitate online collaboration and idea
columbiamissourian.com
sharing, and direct access to funding. Others,
like Sygenta’s Thought For Food Challenge
Measuring success with data and Mahindra’s Spark the Rise use innovation
Another unique aspect of the LMCTC initiative challenges to attract and build a community of
is its use of data. The National League of Cities changemakers.
aggregates data provided by local leaders We are also seeing collaboration emerge in “de-
through online surveys to track progress sign-led innovation” in which people collaborate
over time and identify technical assistance on platforms like OpenIDEO, and governments
opportunities. set up innovation units like Denmark’s MindLab,
For instance, data shared by participating leaders or work with non-profits like Code for America, to
indicates they are unfamiliar with the USDA co-create new public solutions.
MyPlate nutrition guidelines – a requirement that
makes up Goal II. The distribution of medals too
indicates this is an area in which local leaders
could use more assistance from the National
League of Cities.
Source: healthycommunitieshealthyfuture.org
5

6. People’s Lab:
Crowdsourcing Innovation & Insights
People’s Lab is MSLGROUP’s proprietary comment on other people’s content and
crowdsourcing platform and approach that collaborate to find innovative solutions.
helps organizations tap into people’s insights for
innovation, storytelling and change. The People’s Lab crowdsourcing platform
and approach forms the core of our distinctive
The People’s Lab crowdsourcing platform insights and foresight approach, which consists
helps organizations build and nurture public of four elements: organic conversation analysis,
or private, web or mobile, hosted or white MSLGROUP’s own insight communities, client-
label communities around four pre-configured specific insights communities, and ethnographic
application areas: Expertise Request Network, deep dives into these communities. The People’s
Innovation Challenge Network, Research & Insights Quarterly Magazines showcase our
Insights Network and Contest & Activation capability in crowdsourcing and analyzing
Network. Our community and gaming features insights from conversations and communities.
encourage people to share rich content, vote/
Learn more about us at:
peopleslab.mslgroup.com | twitter.com/peopleslab

7. For People’s Lab solutions, contact
pascal.beucler@mslgroup.com