Gwanghwamoon 1st street had two unique characteristics: first, previous transition teams had a focus on setting the national agenda by mobilizing private sector experts and senior officials, Gwanghwamoon 1st Street sought to do so by collecting ideas from ordinary citizens.

President Moon installed a de facto Transition Office consisting of experts, under which he then established the People’s Transition Office (PTO). The PTO, later named “Gwanghwamoon 1st Street,” collected suggestions for the new government from the public through a variety of channels, including its website, temporary office at Seoul, its local branches, email, and even text messages. Then, the best ideas were introduced on its website and online debate and vote were followed. It was an unprecedented and ambitious online-offline combined citizen participation campaign.

Second, the governance of Gwanghwamoon 1st Street was not like the typical joint government-private sector organization, which usually features an executive board composed of senior officials and major figures of the private sector. On the contrary, Gwanghwamoon 1st Street had a small “planning team” composed of young mid-level managers from the government and several young and talented social innovators and social venture leaders. This planning team was virtually independent of its parent organizations—the Transition Office and MOIS—and most important decisions were made internally.

This model of governance was quite extraordinary, considering the heavy hierarchical structure of the Korean government. The planning team’s work style and flow was significantly different from those of other bureaucratic organizations as well. Unrestricted by scheduled meetings, the team members constantly discussed various issues and ideas through social media and mobile messenger. As a result, the team was able to respond to the constantly changing circumstances such as unexpected weather changes and staff fatigue. It was also possible to make frequent improvements to each program, much in the same way that smartphone applications are continuously upgraded.

Currently, the projects launched by and lessons learned through Gwanghwamoon 1st Street are being evaluated and disseminated. Gwanghwamoon 1st Street, which focused on providing a public sphere through which anyone could freely suggest ideas and discuss them with the government, was launched as an alternative to the quasi-authoritarian government headed by Park Geun-hye, the impeached former president.

New President Moon Jae-in promised the restoration of active government communication and cooperation with the public in his inauguration speech. He delegated the design of a special program for implementing his promise to Senior Secretary for Social Innovation Ha Seoung-chang, a founder of the famous civic movement group "Civic Movement with the Citizens". With the assistance of the Ministry of Interior and Security (MOIS), Senior Secretary Ha quickly developed the basic idea for the creation of a transition office where ordinary citizens could engage with the government. He then organized a planning team of young, talented civil activists and social innovators, to whom he gave the task of implementing the detailed plan for the People’s Transition Office. The budget and all other administrative tasks were delegated to the MOIS.

The planning team knew that if they adhered to the conventional way of setting up an organization, they would be unable to achieve their goals in only two weeks. So, they adopted a methodology based on social innovation: instead of building or renovating a government office, they assembled shipping containers to build a temporary office near Gwanghwamun Square, and rather than creating a fully functional website, they set up a simple website and made incremental improvements to it on a daily basis. Moreover, in lieu of time-consuming meetings, they worked over the phone and through mobile messenger. Thanks to these methods, Gwanghwamoon 1st Street was opened on May 25, after 10 days of preparation and 15 days after the inauguration.

From the very first day, it gained considerable attention due to its unique characteristics. In particular, the building made of shipping containers captivated people and the simply designed, easy-to-access website was in stark contrast to the typically formal and complicated government websites. As a result, people rushed to Gwanghwamoon 1st Street. The number of visitors to the website reached 20,000 a day, and 3,000 suggestions for the new government were submitted daily. The offline office was quite busy as well. Although the office was located in downtown Seoul, around 200 people a day came from every province of Korea. Some drove for up to five hours for visiting it. A total of 180,700 proposals were submitted to Gwanghwamun 1st Street over a period of 49 days. This number alone is quite remarkable. However, after considering that only 87,000 suggestions were submitted to the government throughout the entire year of 2016, it becomes clear how incredible this number really is.

After all the suggestions and opinions had been collected, the next step was to sort and screen them. The screening team, consisting of experts from private research institutions and government officials from various departments, carefully selected 2,220 of the best ideas and relevant ministries verified their feasibility and validity. Finally, 1,718 suggestions were applied to policies and 99 of them were reflected in national agendas for the next five years. The finale of Gwanghwamoon 1st Street was the “Special Briefing for the People,” which was a town hall meeting held on August 20 and broadcast live on almost every major channel. The briefing/meeting was attended by 250 of the citizens whose ideas had been selected.

During the briefing, these citizens asked the implementation plans for their suggestions to the ministers. At the end of the event, President Moon himself answered two of the most frequently asked questions: (1) How can we create more decent jobs and strengthen social welfare for the unemployed? (2) How can we resolve the issue of our birthrate, which is the lowest in the world?

Gwanghwamoon 1st Street was covered by hundreds of news media, including foreign ones, and highly praised as the first success of the new Moon Jae-in government. Consequently, many requests were submitted to bring it back as a permanent program representing the restoration of the country’s democracy. Currently, MOIS and the Presidential Office are planning to launch the upgraded “Gwanghwamoon 1st Street 2.0,” which is expected to enter operation by the end of 2017 or early 2018.

Gwanghwamoon 1st Street has established a new partnership between civil society and the government, which were hostile toward each other under Korea’s former authoritarian governments. Civil society, including non-profit organizations, social enterprises, and co-ops, were highly distrustful of the previous government. Likewise, the former neo-liberalist administration considered civil society as a potential threat rather than a partner.

On the contrary, Gwanghwamoon 1st Street served as a perfect example of how an open-minded government and civil society can work together. A flat organization composed of junior government officials and young social innovators, it managed to abolish the bureaucracy that had hindered prompt decision-making and rapid adaptation in the past. As a result, Gwanghwamoon 1st Street has become the first milestone of the Moon Jae-in administration in its effort to spread social innovation as a means of restoring the country’s democracy and communitarianism.

Gwanghwamoon 1st Street’s success was made possible by three major actors: the determined government for civic engagement, the talented civil society organizations, and the citizens who were hungered for participation. The government first reached out to civic groups, and they, in turn, lent their skills and talents to the cause voluntarily. Last but not least, citizens showed their passion for participation by coming up with and submitting 180,700 suggestions in only 49 days. Throughout this process, Gwanghwamoon 1st Street served as a place for citizens and members of the public and private sectors to come together and cooperate, implementing an innovative and unprecedented level of civic engagement in government policy.

The most notable achievements of Gwanghwamoon 1st Street are 1,718 policies that directly reflect the suggestions submitted by citizens and are scheduled to be implemented over the next five years. These numbers account for only a part of the organization’s achievements. Other more important, although intangible, results include giving citizens the rewarding experience of participating in government through programs such as People’s Suggestions for the New Government, Open Forum, People’s MIC, and The President’s Bookshelf. These programs have set new and valuable standards for communication between the people and the government and citizen participation in policy-making in the future. Another impact was the building of favorable public opinion on the government and the reduction of costs associated with implementing new policy agendas with which people are unfamiliar.

Designing and establishing a government organization in only 10 days is a major challenge. However, doing the same for an organization that is to be a symbolic channel of communication between a new president and 50 million Koreans is a challenge on a completely different level. Initially thought impossible, this task was completed based on a combination of non-bureaucratic management and social innovation methods. Instead of building or renovating an office, shipping containers were used, and even the most important decisions were delegated to the team. Rather than taking two months to launch a well-developed website, a basic website was set up in only two weeks and upgrades were made on a daily basis.

Gwanghwamoon 1st Street would not have been possible if the President himself had not held the belief that enlightened citizens would participate and submit brilliant ideas that neither the government nor experts could have come up with. He believed in the power of collective intelligence and the goodwill of the people.

The other key factor for the success of this kind of participatory program would be the elimination of bureaucratic obstacles that prevent people from participating. Efforts we had made toward this end included: the creation of a simple, accessible website; installation of an open, well-located reception desk open to the public, rapid responses to proposals facilitated by the removal of unnecessary decision-making hierarchy, and continuous improvement of the program by accepting and addressing complaints promptly.

Gwanghwamoon 1st Street has two defining characteristics. Its goal was to promote citizen participation through social innovation methods, and we believe both our goal and methods can be replicated in many other countries. Traditional governments believe they can handle social problems on their own. On the contrary, the neoliberal theory of governance of the 1990s and 2000s calls for governments to delegate such tasks to the private sector, especially efficient and competent companies.

However, as social issues have become more complex and difficult for governments or companies to solve, we suggest the mobilization of the active participation of the public using social innovation methods as the most effective means of coping with the most challenging problems today, such as natural disasters, widespread poverty, economic polarization, and low birth rates.

We learned so many lessons through Gwanghwamoon 1st Street that it is impossible to summarize them in only one or two sentences. Nevertheless, we can mention two of the most valuable lessons among them.

First, in many countries, the government often regards the participation of our collaboration with people as a customer satisfaction issue, to be dealt with only after policies are finalized by internal personnel and external experts. However, we have witnessed the incredible potential of citizen-centered policymaking based on collective intelligence.

Second, the Korean government has a very long history of heavy bureaucracy and a strong preference for a formal approach that prioritizes the rules over actual results. However, Gwanghwamoon 1st Street is the country’s first example of innovative management that promotes efficiency and cooperation by applying the methods and ideas of social innovation to abolish bureaucracy.