Manor Labs: Civic Innovation as Peace Innovation

A Case Study in Applying Persuasive Technology at the Municipal Level

Executive Summary

In 2009, Stanford’s Peace Innovation Lab and Persuasive Technology Lab partnered with the City of Manor, Texas to create Manor Labs. The project began as part of PeaceDot, Stanford’s initiative with Facebook and other companies to measure cross-boundary peace data online.

When Dustin Haisler, CIO of Manor, expressed interest in joining PeaceDot, it posed a unique challenge: how could a small municipality generate its own peace metrics? The answer was Manor Labs — a civic platform where citizen engagement itself became peace data.

Although short-lived and modest in resources, Manor Labs proved historic. It was one of the first municipal innovation labs in the United States, applying peace innovation operating principles at the local government level. It demonstrated how technology can act as a “third social actor,” how prosocial civic behaviors can be designed and measured, and how even a small town can serve as a global testbed for open collaboration.

Background: From PeaceDot to Manor Labs

The PeaceDot initiative (2009) invited organizations to create subdomains like peace.facebook.com and peace.couchsurfing.com to publicly showcase their peace impact. Facebook highlighted the number of new friendships across conflict boundaries (Israelis and Palestinians, Indians and Pakistanis). Couchsurfing measured nightly host–guest exchanges across cultural divides.

During this recruitment effort, Margarita Quihuis (PeaceDot team) received a call from Dustin Haisler, then Manor’s CIO. He wanted his city to join PeaceDot. But unlike global platforms, a small municipality didn’t have obvious cross-boundary friendship data.

This sparked the creation of Manor Labs: a local innovation platform where citizens could submit ideas, vote on priorities, and collaborate on problem-solving. Each idea, vote, and implementation became a form of peace data — measurable prosocial engagement between citizens and their government.

The 2009 Innovation Climate

Manor Labs must be understood in the zeitgeist of Silicon Valley in 2009:

The ethos was “try things, iterate forward.” It wasn’t systematic; it was experimental, pre-MVP, and often psychological — testing whether people would engage in a new behavior before building full systems.
Open collaboration platforms were emerging across the commercial space: Mechanical Turk, Galaxy Zoo, and citizen science projects where volunteers helped NASA classify asteroids.
Manor Labs was the first municipal translation of this trend, asking: If amateurs can help science, can citizens help their city?

Govtech as a field was barely nascent. Manor Labs stood out precisely because it was early, fragile, and experimental — a civic prototype in a landscape dominated by commercial platforms.

Approach: Applying Peace Innovation Principles

Manor Labs was designed around the operating principles of Peace Innovation:

1. Technology as a Third Social Actor

Platforms like SeeClickFix and city QR codes acted as intermediaries between citizens and government, shifting relationships from adversarial to collaborative.

2. Focus on Prosocial Behaviors

Targeted behaviors included idea submissions, voting, reporting public works issues, and sharing updates. Gamified rewards like “Mayor for a Day” reinforced positive civic habits.

3. Experimental and Measurable Design

Every intervention was treated as a test: Would QR codes increase transparency? Would gamification increase engagement?

In the first month alone, citizens generated 46 ideas, with 2 implemented almost immediately.
Over the life of the project, more than 800 residents participated, 80 ideas were evaluated, and 5 were fully implemented.

4. Scalability and Replication

The WordPress municipal theme, SeeClickFix integration, and crowdsourcing model were openly shared. Replication spread from small towns like De Leon, TX to major cities like New York, Chicago, Bogotá, and even the UK Cabinet Office.

5. Positive-Sum Outcomes

Citizens gained faster, more transparent services; government reduced costs and improved efficiency; businesses and universities partnered with the city, creating an ecosystem of shared innovation.

Results

Engagement: 800+ citizens participated; 80+ ideas submitted; 5 implemented.
Service Innovation: Auto-debit for utilities, online bill pay, online court citation system, and a WordPress-based municipal website.
Transparency: 24 fixed QR-code signs (15 with RFID) placed around the city, providing real-time information on projects.
Public Works: Integration of SeeClickFix with the city’s 311 system drastically reduced paperwork and response times.
Recognition: Featured in the Wall Street Journal (“Hotbed of Tech Innovation”), Fast Company, GovTech, and praised by the White House CIO.
Awards: Visionary Award from the Center for Digital Government.
Replication: QR codes adopted in NYC building permits and global transit systems; ideation platforms in Bogotá, NASA, Harford County (MD), and the UK Cabinet Office; SeeClickFix integrations in Chicago, Boston, New Haven, Houston, and Minneapolis.

Scale and Replication

The ideas and technologies tested within Manor were replicated by towns as small as De Leon, Texas to Chicago and New York City.

QR Codes

NYC Building Permits
Transit Systems Across The Globe
De Leon, Texas
Pratsville, Alabama
Smithsonian Institute (Exhibits)

Ideation Platform

New York City
Bogota, Colombia
NASA
Harford County, MD
Maricopa County, AZ
Enid, OK
DWP (UK)
Cabinet Office (UK)

SeeClickFix/Public Works Integration

City of Chicago
Boston, MA
New Haven, CT
Houston, TX
Minneapolis, MN
De Leon, TX
Impact and Legacy

Proof of Principle: Manor Labs showed that even without large datasets, civic prosocial behaviors could be designed, measured, and scaled.
Thought Leadership: Launched Dustin Haisler into national prominence, shaping civic innovation at NASA, New York City, and later as President of e.Republic.
Global Recognition: Cited in 30+ books and articles, including Newsom’s Citizenville, Noveck’s Wiki Government, and volumes like The Fourth Revolution, Digital Democracy, and Cyber Behavior.
Institutional Lessons: The project ended with a change in administration, highlighting the fragility of early municipal innovation efforts — and raising critical questions about sustainability and political will.