is in a micro-scale democratic experiment as seen by its participants
TRANSCRIPT
An information system in a micro-scale
democratic experiment from the
perspectives of its participants
Jan Martinek, KISK @ FF MU BRNO, @endlife
CONTEXT:
INFORMATION SYSTEM IN A DEMOCRATIC EXPERIMENT
FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF ITS PARTICIPANTS
DEMOCRATIC EXPERIMENT DECISION-MAKING PROCESS
Faculty is subsidizing students’ side projects:
Who’s gonna get money?
INFORMATION SYSTEM IN A DEMOCRATIC EXPERIMENT
FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF ITS PARTICIPANTS
DEMOCRATIC EXPERIMENT DECISION-MAKING PROCESS
Faculty is subsidizing students’ side projects:
Who’s gonna get money?
Sounds easy? It’s not–if youwant all participants to besure that the procedure isfair and the results are basedon a good mutual understanding.
Methodologyethnography (rereading conversations, interviews) participant observation phenomenology
institutional design structures of expectations rules and relations
deliberative democracy critical theory habermas/joshua cohen
information system interaction design user experience
QUESTION:
A MACHINE?HOW DO YOU IMAGINE
1
There are various machines. For example this steam
machine doing some old-timey magical stuff.
Or this one,made by machines to kill people. Or save people.
(Unintended consequences, once again.)
Or… James Brown.
Information systemsare quite viable
even without a machine.
INFORMATION SYSTEM
Information systemsare quite viable
even without a machine.
INFORMATION SYSTEM
Though, includingthe machine in thesystem makes it
a quite different beast.Especially when the machine
is programmable.
INFORMATION SYSTEMThe question is:
What actually happenswhen the machine enters
our door?
INFORMATION SYSTEMThe question is:
What actually happenswhen the machine enters
our door?
IN A DEMOCRATIC EXPERIMENT
Or… the door of some democratic
institution?
POLITICS2
Let’s talk aboutpolitics for a minute
before we get to the point.
PUBLIC
GOVERNMENTPOLITICS
Politics these days is mostly viewed as something people
in government do for us, the people—or the public.
PUBLIC
GOVERNMENTPOLITICSREPRESENTATION
We even call it the representative democracy.
Politicians represent in some way what we want.
PUBLIC
GOVERNMENTREPRESENTATION
POLITICS overshadowing of the political oversimplification of the political issues
There are some annoyances though.
Some people think that everyday politics is not what it should be—important issues get lost in politicians’ squabbles and complex problems are reduced into something that can be described in two sentences.
PUBLIC
GOVERNMENTREPRESENTATION
POLITICS overshadowing of the political oversimplification of the political issues
There are some annoyances though.
Some people think that everyday politics is not what it should be—important issues get lost in politicians’ squabbles and complex problems are reduced into something that can be described in two sentences.
Is that the way to a fair and responsible
decision making?
Probably not.
Well, some people see the hope in the use of…
INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Well, some people see the hope in the use of…
PUBLIC
GOVERNMENTREPRESENTATION
POLITICS INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Information systems should bridge the gap between the
representatives and the public.
POLITICS open & public access to data procedure simplification a medium for the discussion
INFORMATION SYSTEMSoversimplification
of the political issues overshadowing of the political
Providing data anda way of discussing them.
POLITICS
INFORMATION SYSTEMS• Communication channel • Providing guidance
templates and examples for applicants, procedure keeping
• Data collection tool ratings, dates, changes anywhere
• Quick results calculation • Results archival process • Opening process to a wider audience
rules of the process, applications, ratings
• Enabling long-term evaluation
ROLESThere’s quite an arrayof possible uses of an
information system. This list represents the roles in the
case I am talking about.
Not bad, hm?
POLITICS
INFORMATION SYSTEMS• Communication channel • Providing guidance
templates and examples for applicants, procedure keeping
• Data collection tool ratings, dates, changes anywhere
• Quick results calculation • Results archival process • Opening process to a wider audience
rules of the process, applications, ratings
• Enabling long-term evaluation
ROLESThere’s quite an arrayof possible uses of an
information system. This list represents the roles in the
case I am talking about.
Not bad, hm?
And it’s just a simplewebsite. See for yourselfon stipendia.fss.muni.cz.
(Open source is on github.com/jan-martinek/deliberative-rating)
INFORMATION SYSTEM IN A DEMOCRATIC EXPERIMENT
FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF ITS PARTICIPANTS
3
INFORMATION SYSTEM IN A DEMOCRATIC EXPERIMENT
FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF ITS PARTICIPANTS
3
One last thing before I get to the point: I studied how the participants of a
democratic experiment perceive the process, their own role in it and the
role of the information system.
the public representatives
institutional context institutional designers
FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF ITS PARTICIPANTS
Every democratic process has a complex structure: there’s not onlythe public and representatives, but
there’s the context and many people who design the process (= have an
active role in what procedure is established => it’s many people).
THE RESULTS4
“The machine makes the decision.”
4/1
“The machine makes the decision.”
4/1
When discussing the outcome of the process, “mechanization of the ranking” was mentioned frequently by some of the jurors. Being accountable for decisions made with “electronic clicking” (and defending the results in front of the applicants) was deemed impossible by two of the jurors.
The rules are more evident and harderto change.
4/2
The rules are more evident and harderto change.
4/2
The presence of an IS accents the presence of predefined rules of evaluation, as the IS's publicly defined intrinsic algorithms are immutable, unless they're officially changed due to an openly articulated reason.
The tension between subjective judgment and the supposed objectivity of the decision is intensified.
4/3
The tension between subjective judgment and the supposed objectivity of the decision is intensified.
4/3
It is fairly usual that representative organs use voting or various rating methods—though in this case, the aggregative rating was considered by several jurors to be “making no use of the juror’s experience” and, as was mentioned above, these jurors considered themselves impossible to be held accountable for the results and to defend them in front of the public.
This is particularly striking in the context of an institutional design based on assumptions drawn from the theory of deliberative democracy.
Development and maintenance is a foggy territory for the institutionally superior stakeholders.
4/4
Development and maintenance is a foggy territory for the institutionally superior stakeholders.
4/4
Important detail is that superior institution considered itself to be resposible for the IS’s functioning, even though running the procedure was kept a responsibility of another actor.
WHY?5
Design does not originate from designer’s head, it emerges from the practice of interaction.
We’ve seen how the actors perceive the democratic procedure and the role of the system.
These results are not problems: these are how the situation works out. It’s not something we should solve, it’s something to be held in mind when working with information systems in (democratic) institutions.
And its not always the same: at the same time, I wanted to show that it’s important to work with all participants and try to know their view of the institution—it defines the institution, because people interact with what they see in a way meaningful for them.
What people see in the institutionis the institution.
What people see in the information systemis the role of the information system.
Design does not originate from designer’s head, it emerges from the practice of interaction.
Design does not originate from designer’s head, it emerges from the practice of interaction.
And that’s all, folks!
FINJan Martinek, @endlife