Does the mechanism for government participation and civic engagement matter? The data says yes. Mobile and online tools that enable participation in government are changing what gets said as well as who listens. MindMixer works with 900+ city and local governments on how to reach out to their citizens through online civic engagement software, and recently embarked on a project to measure exactly how different the online civic engagement process looks compared with the traditional town hall meeting. Working with Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Governance Lab and several partner cities in a first-of-its kind research study, these entities aim to review the promise and the caution of what online civic participation can mean for governments that seek to listen to and learn from their constituents. Ben Armstrong, lead researcher for MIT & Nick Bowden, CEO of MindMixer will present the findings of the study and the exposit on the results from two very different points of reference.