Session 2 - Crowdsourcing and Participation in social and political domains
Crowdsourcing and Participation in social and political domains
While Citizen Science ( e.g. Silvertown, 2009) and citizen social science (Purdam, 2014) represent some of the ways that academic researchers are using crowdsourcing methods to collect and process data, particularly in environmental science and humanities. Crowdsourcing is also being used in other areas of research. Public sector economists are using the crowdsourcing tools of business to collect data such as market prices in developing economies in order to better understand and model these economies (Hamadeh, 2012). More action research oriented are being taken – such as the Harassmap, used to collect data on sexual harassment from women in Cairo, as the basis for public and political campaigning.
The crowdsourcing and citizen science concepts is being applied as a way of designing online participatory engagement with citizens, in planning, budgeting, etc.(Aitamuro 2012; Koch 2011, Brabham 2012; Johnson and Sieber 2013). This can be seen as an extension of conventional consultation, to a perhaps more participative approach.
Finally, while much crowdsourcing is designed centrally, there are other movements that emerge from the ‘bottom up’. A case is the ‘Quantified self’ Movement (Swan 2013; Neff 2014), and a case of Comparative Poltics (Ken Benoit, LSE)
Suggested Readings
An easy introduction on crowdsourcing in government and policy: Aitamurto, T. (2012). Crowdsourcing for Democracy: A New Era in Policy-Making. Publication of the Committee for the Future.
A short video by Aitamuto about the Icelandic constitution. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uJOjh5QBgA
Koch, G., Füller, J., & Brunswicker, S. (2011). Online Crowdsourcing in the Public Sector: How to Design Open Government Platforms. In Online Communities and Social Computing: 4th International Conference, OCSC 2011, Held as Part of HCI International 2011, Orlando, FL, USA, July 9-14, 2011. Proceedings. Springer Berlin. Retrieved from http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-21796-8_22
Brabham, D. C. (2012). Motivations for Participation in a Crowdsourcing Application to Improve Public Engagement in Transit Planning Motivations for Participation in a Crowdsourcing Application to Improve Public Engagement in Transit Planning. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 40(3, January 2013), 307–328.
Johnson, P. A., & Sieber, R. E. (2013). Situating the Adoption of VGI by Government. In Crowdsourcing Geographic Knowledge: Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) in Theory and Practice (pp. 65–81). Retrieved from http://www.springerlink.com/index/10.1007/978-94-007-4587-2
A paper on the quantified self
Swan, M. (2012). Health 2050: The Realization of Personalized Medicine through Crowdsourcing, the Quantified Self, and the Participatory Biocitizen. Journal of Personalized Medicine, 2(3), 93–118. doi:10.3390/jpm2030093
Select one of the case studies listed here or on the reading list wiki, and write a short summary or reflection on the following topic:
What can we learn or borrow from crowdsourced work and innovation, and participatory or citizen science for data collection, analysis, visualisation and communication in policy fields?
In particular, what lessons can we learn about motivation in voluntary citizen science, and paid commercial crowdsourcing work that can be transferred to public policy domain?