Cristobal Cobo, Ph.DResearch FellowOxford Internet InstituteUniversity of Oxford

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Networks for Citizen Consultation and Citizen Sourcing of Expertise: Exploring Innovations in the Public Sector

Electronic Government Cicles (adapted from Caldas, 2008) Yang and Zhiyong Lan (2010) 2

Continuous socio-technical process:

community engagement.

demand

Information supply

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la ofertaG2C

Can the new technology make a positive difference?

(+) Yang and Zhiyong Lan (2010): Internet has reduced the disparity in resources between policy experts and citizens. (+)Castells (2011): Internet facilitates changes in all aspects of life, society, the economy and culture (‘Arab spring’). (+) Brabham (2009): ICTs enable deeper levels of engagement between people and governments. Crowdsourcing : New methods for connecting collective intellect and creative solutions from networks of citizens.

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✔

(-) Alexander and Pal (1998): Information availability is different from information utilisation. (-) Van Dijk (2010): ICT does not cause more political and societal interest among citizens.(-) Yang and Zhiyong Lan (2010): Avoiding techno-reductionism. The Internet can improve democratic public policy making but those changes depend on education, institution building, culture and trust relationship formation. (-) Hardy, Lawrence and Grant (2005): Avoiding oversimplifications. Many collaborations fail to produce innovative solutions.

Photograph: Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jun/06/social-media-documentary-makers

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✗

+ peer production+ social production + co-production + co-creation + mass collaboration

OII and McKinsey Technology Initiative (MTI).Dutton, William H., Paul A. David, and Wolf Richter. (2008).

Source: http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/research/projects/?id=45

‘wisdom of crowds’ – the idea that ‘the many are smarter than the few’ (Surowiecki), where a large number of ordinary people can outperform a few experts by sharing information and solving problems.

(e.g. see Surowiecki 2004; Benkler 2006; Tapscott and Williams 2006).

atlas.chdeveloper.mozilla.org

innocentive.comsciencecommons.org

digg.com sermo.com

seriosity.comwikipedia.org

aswarmofangels.com

The Performance of Distributed Problem Solving Networks:

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Management depends on Type of CNO 1.0 Sharing 2.0 Contributing 3.0 Collaborating

Architecture One to many Many to many Many to one

Openness and Control

Open, Low Control

Managing access Tiering, management control structures

IPR Information shared

Platform Co-created product

Performance Viewers Quantity of Contributors

Engaging targeted experts, producers

William Dutton. Capturing the Value of Networked Individuals: Strategies for Citizen Sourcing. University of Oxford. Presentation to ‘NETworked Organizations’, organized by SINTEF, at Kanonhallen, Oslo, Norway, 10 November 2010

1.0 sharing documents, data, and other digital objects. Hypertextual/ 2.0 supporting contributions to (limited) collaboration. Hypertextual/ UGC3.0 supporting cooperative co creation. Hypertextual/ UGC /Cooperative Work

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Aims of this study :1. To explore relevant EU website from public sector to identify if they facilitate the creation of networks for citizen consultation. 2. Identify the level of participation (1º Sharing; 2.º

Contributing & 3.º Co-creating of knowledge).

• Governments strategies to foster online –’many-to-many’ communication.

• Online mechanisms to incorporate crowdsourcing and ‘distributed problem solving’.

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-> Architecture, Openness, Control, Modularization

Levels of collaboration

Architecture Value Openness Value Control Value Modularization Value TotalValue

“1.0. Sharing”: Here the information can be shared, sold, or advertised. (Hypertextual)

Focus on open sharing of documents (one to many)

1 Enables access to information through deep searching (open)

1 The control of individual's participation is low or limited (low)

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Contributors have limited level of intervention in contents (low)

1 3

“2.0. Contributing”: The Web to facilitate group communication, thereby reshaping who contributes information to the collective group (Hypertextual- User Generated)

Enables user-generated content (many-to-many).

2 It allows sharing insights, information and opinions. (networked)

2 The platform's management is based in the levels of participation (moderate, reputation).

2 Modularization keeps the task at a manageable level (moderate, simple task).

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“3.0. Co-creating”: It allows attracting and sustaining relevant contributors or co-creation to the creation of information products or services. (Hypertextual- User Generated – Cooperative Work)

Allows collaborative production of information products (many-to-many).

3 Creates a hierarchy of rights and privileges (managed).

3 Hierarchical levels of control over who and how participates (high).

3 Keeping tasks modular, precise and easy to complete (high).

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Matrix of Collaboration

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ww

w.epractice.eu/aw

ards

From 31 countries, 52 cases have been shortlisted as finalists.

eGovernment: • Supporting the single Market;

• Empowering citizens; • Empowering businesses;

• Enabling administrative efficiency & effectiveness.sample: the non-biased nature of this list gives us objective criteria for inclusion 10

The boom in social media networks

2011-2015 European Action Plan A more open (pro-active) model of design, produce and deliver online services that foster collaboration between citizens.

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Results

Social Media ToolNumber of Websites

that include“social media tools”

Average of the total websites of the study

Twitter 8 16.3

Facebook 6 12.2

Youtube 4 8.2Flickr 4 8.2Linkedin 1 2

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[e-Catalunya] # 12ecatalunya.gencat.net (Spain)

[PloneGov] # 12 plonegov.org (Belgium)

Participa Andalucía # 10 participaenandalucia.net (Spain)

[Participatory Budgeting –Cologne] # 9 buergerhaushalt.stadt-koeln.de

(Germany)

[Interoperability Infrastructure for Serv. Transf.] # 10 ermis.gov.gr (Greece)

+Thematic citizens dialogue. + Self organized communities.+ No external social media tools.+ Variety of participation tools.+ Self developed mechanism of transactions.

+Open Source Community.+Facilitate the transfer of citizen knowledge.+ Ecosystem of meta-collaboration

+ Citizens: propose, exchange and promote ideas.+ Direct interaction with local authorities.+ Linked to FB & T to disseminate citizen ideas.+ Crowdsourcing (vote for the ideas)

+ Citizens suggest & discuss ideas.+Anonymity or authentication.+ Promote the submission of ideas.

+ Participatory budget (environment & educ.)+ First 100 ideas > studied by local admin. ( Cologne City council).

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Classification + Ranking tinyurl.com/EUwebsites

Best Practices

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Source: http://15m.bifi.es/

581.749 messages from 87.569 users using

different social networks

Spain: 15 May demonstrations

la demandaC2G

14http://www.slideshare.net/oso/participatory-democracy-participatory-media

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This map is taken from the following publication: "Graham, M., Hale, S. A. and Stephens, M. (2011) Geographies of the World's Knowledge. London, Convoco! Edition."

16Orange dots = Flickr photos; blue = tweets; white dots = both

Picture: Eric Fischer

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/8638292/Amazing-maps-show-Twitter-and-Flickr-activity-around-the-world.html?image=18

demanda

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Apple pulls WikiLeaks app from the App Store

http://www.tuaw.com/2010/12/21/apple-pulls-wikileaks-app-from-the-app-store/ demanda

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http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/01/how-egypt-or-how-your-government-could-shut-down-the-internet.ars

http://thefifthwave.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/egyptwebshutdown.jpg

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Pow

er to

Peo

ple

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/print/2011/09/the-middle-eastern-nation-most-vulnerable-to-internet-shutdown/244507/

“We are making technology work for us, by capturing the images of

the perpetrators on CCTV – so even if they haven’t yet been

arrested, their faces are known and they will not escape the law”.

http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/pm-statement-on-disorder-in-england/

Prime Minister David Cameron

“Under social media, Mr Cameron includes Facebook, Twitter and specific technologies such

as text messaging”.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14493497

Between 6 and 10 August 2011

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London: The centre of the city. Twitter activity and photographies. Orange dots = Flickr photos; blue = tweets; white dots = both

Picture: Eric Fische

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/8638292/Amazing-maps-show-Twitter-and-Flickr-activity-around-the-world.html?image=18

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These images have been released as part of the Metropolitan Police Winter Withern Campaign. Police are seeking assistance in identifying the following individuals.

If anyone recognises an individual please contact the telephone number below the image or call Crimestoppers quoting the unique reference code.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/metropolitanpolice/sets/72157628402525369/?page=2

23http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/07/putin-hacked-emails-russian-nashi?newsfeed=true

“MPs and staff working in the House of Commons have been responsible for making nearly 10,000 changes to pages of the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia”.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/who-are-the-commons-moles-changing-wikipedia-entries-7545991.html

Trust?

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open datavisualization

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http://www.socrata.com/opendata/open-data-its-more-than-publishing-a-csv/

demand/supply

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93,6 M. CLP121m GBP

http://www.gobiernotransparentechile.cl/directorio/entidad/11/156/per_planta/A%C3%B1o%202012

open dataInstituto Federal de Acceso a la Información Pública y Protección de Datos (IFAI)

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http://reference.data.gov.uk/gov-structure/organogram/?dept=justice&post=1

146,9M CLP184m GBP

open data

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http://data.gov.uk/

Use the UK Police API to retrieve

information about neighborhood areas.

* View the crime stats

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/crime-spy-uk/id420241073?mt=8open data

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Open Data/visualization

http://www.gearthblog.com/images/images606/communicationsdensity.jpg

US Federal Communications Commission: US communications objects density (cellular tower density , TV digital towers by state).

31http://www.coolinfographics.com/blog/2011/8/18/the-power-of-data-visualization-iphone-tracking.html

http://spatialanalysis.co.uk/2011/12/2011/

32http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/stats-of-the-union/id432948008?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

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Compare presidents approval/disapproval ratings in their first 1000 days in office using Gallup Poll data.

http://visual.ly/us-presidents-job-approval-ratings?view=true

34http://www.slideshare.net/missrogue/citizen-superheroesand-other-tales-of-government-20

Appropriate conditions: The right social media tools; social capital; digital literacy & trust >conditions to supports public participation (crowdsourcing).

1. Rhetoric about participation is constantly present in the public policies (G2C).

2. EU public websites: limited channels of interaction/communication.

3. The C2G mechanisms of expression are dynamically organized (beyond government based tools).

4. Instead of referring to the so-called “participation”, is important to understand they vary according different levels (Architecture, Openness, Control, Modularization).

5. Social media tools by no mean are synonymous of citizen participation or transparency.

6. Further research are required to identify the causes of the low levels of participation (political interest, digitally savvy, lack of knowledge, etc.) and the direct benefits (awareness).

6 Conclusions

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Acknowledgments: This study was supported through the Knetworks project (Knowledge Dissemination Network for the Atlantic Area www.knetworks.gov.pt) and prepared in collaboration with the Socio-Economic Services for European Research Project (SESERV www.seserv.eu).

Cristobal Cobo, Ph.DResearch FellowOxford Internet InstituteUniversity of Oxford

@cristobalcobo

thanks!