Metodologias para o Desenvolvimento de Sistemas para Participação Eletrônica: Mapeamento Sistemático

Neste relatório, foi realizada uma pesquisa fundamentada em técnicas de mapeamento sistemático, com o objetivo de encontrar na literatura sobre participação eletrônica (e-participação) as metodologias que estão sendo propostas para guiar a construção de sistemas computacionais para iniciativas de e-participação, comumente chamadas de plataformas de participação social. Constituindo, também, o alvo desta investigação, analisar estudos científicos que podem contribuir para a proposição de metodologias para auxiliar a concepção, modelagem e implementação de ferramentas computacionais destinadas a propiciar a participação social

Studies of Digital Solutions Supporting Societal Participation of Youths

Democracy and societal participation are dynamic and transforming concepts and are affected by the ongoing technological transitions such as digitalization. Simultaneously, young people are required to operate in complex and rapidly changing environments and to navigate through realities that are distorted with misinformation and disinformation. One way to enhance societal participation for youths is to enable taking part in societal and democratic processes. This can be conducted through providing digital services that are safe, offer access to information, and by integration to governmental processes and recognition by the officials, enable having an actual effect on policies and decisions. Although various eParticipation services have been developed and studied, thorough investigations of young people's conceptualisations, and user needs and requirements for eParticipation are missing. Moreover, the specific mechanisms through which the successful eParticipation services support young people's societal participation are unexplored. The main scientific fields that this thesis contributes are computer science and social science. More specifically, in computer science, this thesis links to the research tradition of human-technology interaction (HTI), and in social science to the research of societal participation. This thesis applies quantitative and qualitative research approaches HTI, psychometrics and applied psychology, and studies on political behaviour. The studies included in this thesis were conducted in ALL-YOUTH research project (2018-2023) funded by the Strategic Research Council of Finland. Furthermore, an eParticipation platform prototype entitled Virtual Council (Digiraati in Finnish) was simultaneously developed in the project and used as an object of the research. This thesis is composed of five publications. Four publications are based on four separate empirical studies and one publication is theoretical. Altogether 467 young Finnish people participated in the studies that took place between 2018 and 2021. Surveys were conducted among 360 participants and 107 people took part in interviews. The first study aimed to provide an understanding of the young people’s conceptions of digital participation and obstacles for participation. The second study explored the user needs of young people in regard to eParticipation. In the third study, field tests of an eParticipation service prototype were conducted. Fourth study explores the significance of digital solutions in relation to societal participation during the COVID-19 pandemic. This thesis provides theoretical and practical contributions through answering the research questions: 1. What are the youths’ conceptions regarding digital societal participation? 2. What are youths’ user needs regarding digital societal Participation? 3. How can digital solutions support societal participation of youths? In theoretical perspective, this thesis elaborates on the conceptualisation of digital and societal participation and proposes a novel model entitled Citizen-centric socio-cognitive model for participation. On a more practical level, this thesis provides a set of young people’s user needs and requirements for eParticipation services: Safe discussion environments, interesting and relevant topics, enabling reciprocal interactions with officials, feedback loops, and high level of integration to governmental processes. Moreover, feature-level solutions such as easy-to-use search tools, customisable notifications and recommendations, informative dashboards and impact representations, and anonymity were considered as solutions that may enable responding to the user needs and requirements. Additionally, as a further practical contribution, this thesis presents the Virtual Council prototype. This thesis elaborates on how eParticipation services can enable and advance the societal participation of young people by lowering the threshold to participate through various activities, and by increasing the societal participation related self-efficacy of young people. Finally, this thesis explores how digitality has supported young people during COVID-19 related lockdowns by enabling working, studying, socialising, and societal participation, and how ICT skills have been a valuable factor in sustaining coping. The results enable design and development of more inclusive and enticing eParticipation services that provide for the sustainable development of societies. The model can be utilised as a framework for research of (e)Participation and applied in public and third-sector activities planning and impact assessment. Moreover, the results further advance the theoretical and empirical research in HTI, especially in the contexts of societal participation

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

An Empty Promise? Digital Democracy in the Smart City

The digital transformation affects every part of our societies and everyday lives, including the processes and structures of our democracies. On the one hand, information and communication technologies have the potential to lower the threshold for political communication and participation. On the other hand, they can be used for large-scale data collection and surveillance, posing a risk to the public sphere. This thesis investigates the impact of digitization on the legitimacy of democracy. It first develops a novel framework based on the theories of participatory and deliberative democracy, drawing on recent work on deliberative systems. On this basis, digital democracy is examined as a system, consisting of different engagement spaces and actors within the smart city. The smart city is a particularly fruitful testbed for digital democracy as it is based on the promise of applying a high density of digital technologies to facilitate civic participation as well as better service delivery and governance. Through an in-depth case study of the smart city of Amsterdam, this thesis not only reveals the legitimacy dilemmas of digital democracy in the smart city, but also illustrates the limits of applying participatorydeliberative systems theory on a digital democracy ecosystem. The analysis demonstrates design conflicts between different online engagement platforms within the digital democracy system, as well as conflicting objectives among the actors behind them. The findings do not support the claim that digitization negatively impacts democracy’s legitimacy in the smart city of Amsterdam through marketization, large-scale data collection, and surveillance, as some authors warn. However, a significant positive impact of digitization on democratic legitimacy, through higher levels of inclusiveness, empowerment, or civic influence, is also not confirmed. The findings show that digital technologies’ promise of facilitating large-scale citizen participation and deliberation in the smart city does not live up to the normative ideal. The results from Amsterdam are exposed to smart city and digital democracy experts across the globe to test their generalizability, demonstrating that, despite its shortcomings, Amsterdam’s extensive digital democracy system is far advanced in international comparison. What may appear a contradiction in fact illustrates that we are still in the early stages of development, with potential to enhance the legitimacy of digital democracy, both in the smart city of Amsterdam and beyond

Online Deliberation: Design, Research, and Practice

Can new technology enhance purpose-driven, democratic dialogue in groups, governments, and societies? Online Deliberation: Design, Research, and Practice is the first book that attempts to sample the full range of work on online deliberation, forging new connections between academic research, technology designers, and practitioners. Since some of the most exciting innovations have occurred outside of traditional institutions, and those involved have often worked in relative isolation from each other, work in this growing field has often failed to reflect the full set of perspectives on online deliberation. This volume is aimed at those working at the crossroads of information/communication technology and social science, and documents early findings in, and perspectives on, this new field by many of its pioneers. CONTENTS: Introduction: The Blossoming Field of Online Deliberation (Todd Davies, pp. 1-19) Part I - Prospects for Online Civic Engagement Chapter 1: Virtual Public Consultation: Prospects for Internet Deliberative Democracy (James S. Fishkin, pp. 23-35) Chapter 2: Citizens Deliberating Online: Theory and Some Evidence (Vincent Price, pp. 37-58) Chapter 3: Can Online Deliberation Improve Politics? Scientific Foundations for Success (Arthur Lupia, pp. 59-69) Chapter 4: Deliberative Democracy, Online Discussion, and Project PICOLA (Public Informed Citizen Online Assembly) (Robert Cavalier with Miso Kim and Zachary Sam Zaiss, pp. 71-79) Part II - Online Dialogue in the Wild Chapter 5: Friends, Foes, and Fringe: Norms and Structure in Political Discussion Networks (John Kelly, Danyel Fisher, and Marc Smith, pp. 83-93) Chapter 6: Searching the Net for Differences of Opinion (Warren Sack, John Kelly, and Michael Dale, pp. 95-104) Chapter 7: Happy Accidents: Deliberation and Online Exposure to Opposing Views (Azi Lev-On and Bernard Manin, pp. 105-122) Chapter 8: Rethinking Local Conversations on the Web (Sameer Ahuja, Manuel Pérez-Quiñones, and Andrea Kavanaugh, pp. 123-129) Part III - Online Public Consultation Chapter 9: Deliberation in E-Rulemaking? The Problem of Mass Participation (David Schlosberg, Steve Zavestoski, and Stuart Shulman, pp. 133-148) Chapter 10: Turning GOLD into EPG: Lessons from Low-Tech Democratic Experimentalism for Electronic Rulemaking and Other Ventures in Cyberdemocracy (Peter M. Shane, pp. 149-162) Chapter 11: Baudrillard and the Virtual Cow: Simulation Games and Citizen Participation (Hélène Michel and Dominique Kreziak, pp. 163-166) Chapter 12: Using Web-Based Group Support Systems to Enhance Procedural Fairness in Administrative Decision Making in South Africa (Hossana Twinomurinzi and Jackie Phahlamohlaka, pp. 167-169) Chapter 13: Citizen Participation Is Critical: An Example from Sweden (Tomas Ohlin, pp. 171-173) Part IV - Online Deliberation in Organizations Chapter 14: Online Deliberation in the Government of Canada: Organizing the Back Office (Elisabeth Richard, pp. 177-191) Chapter 15: Political Action and Organization Building: An Internet-Based Engagement Model (Mark Cooper, pp. 193-202) Chapter 16: Wiki Collaboration Within Political Parties: Benefits and Challenges (Kate Raynes-Goldie and David Fono, pp. 203-205) Chapter 17: Debian’s Democracy (Gunnar Ristroph, pp. 207-211) Chapter 18: Software Support for Face-to-Face Parliamentary Procedure (Dana Dahlstrom and Bayle Shanks, pp. 213-220) Part V - Online Facilitation Chapter 19: Deliberation on the Net: Lessons from a Field Experiment (June Woong Rhee and Eun-mee Kim, pp. 223-232) Chapter 20: The Role of the Moderator: Problems and Possibilities for Government-Run Online Discussion Forums (Scott Wright, pp. 233-242) Chapter 21: Silencing the Clatter: Removing Anonymity from a Corporate Online Community (Gilly Leshed, pp. 243-251) Chapter 22: Facilitation and Inclusive Deliberation (Matthias Trénel, pp. 253-257) Chapter 23: Rethinking the ‘Informed’ Participant: Precautions and Recommendations for the Design of Online Deliberation (Kevin S. Ramsey and Matthew W. Wilson, pp. 259-267) Chapter 24: PerlNomic: Rule Making and Enforcement in Digital Shared Spaces (Mark E. Phair and Adam Bliss, pp. 269-271) Part VI - Design of Deliberation Tools Chapter 25: An Online Environment for Democratic Deliberation: Motivations, Principles, and Design (Todd Davies, Brendan O’Connor, Alex Cochran, Jonathan J. Effrat, Andrew Parker, Benjamin Newman, and Aaron Tam, pp. 275-292) Chapter 26: Online Civic Deliberation with E-Liberate (Douglas Schuler, pp. 293-302) Chapter 27: Parliament: A Module for Parliamentary Procedure Software (Bayle Shanks and Dana Dahlstrom, pp. 303-307) Chapter 28: Decision Structure: A New Approach to Three Problems in Deliberation (Raymond J. Pingree, pp. 309-316) Chapter 29: Design Requirements of Argument Mapping Software for Teaching Deliberation (Matthew W. Easterday, Jordan S. Kanarek, and Maralee Harrell, pp. 317-323) Chapter 30: Email-Embedded Voting with eVote/Clerk (Marilyn Davis, pp. 325-327) Epilogue: Understanding Diversity in the Field of Online Deliberation (Seeta Peña Gangadharan, pp. 329-358). For individual chapter downloads, go to odbook.stanford.edu

E-Governance: Strategy for Mitigating Non-Inclusion of Citizens in Policy Making in Nigeria

The Nigerian federation that currently has 36 states structure adopted the Weberian Public Administrative system before now as an ideal way of running government, which was characterized with the traditional way of doing things without recourse to the deployment of Information Communication Technology (ICT). Today e-governance is seen as a paradigm shift from the previous way of governance. Research has shown that, the adoption and implementation of e-governance is more likely to bring about effective service delivery, mitigate corruption and ultimately enhance citizens’ participation in governmental affairs. However, it has been argued that infrastructure such as regular electricity power and access to the Internet, in addition to a society with high rate of literacy level are required to effectively implement and realize the potentials of e-governance for improved delivery of services. Due to the difficulties currently experienced, developing nations need to adequately prepare for the implementation of e-governance on the platform of Information Communication Technology (ICT). Hence, this study seeks to examine whether the adoption and implementation of e-governance in the context of Nigeria would mitigate the hitherto non-inclusion of citizens in the formulation and implementation of government policies aimed at enhanced development. To achieve the objective of the study, data were sourced and analyzed majorly by examining government websites of 20 states in the Nigerian federation to ascertain if there are venues for citizens to interact with government in the area of policy making and feedback on government actions, as a way of promoting participatory governance. The study revealed that the adoption and implementation of e-governance in the country is yet to fully take place. This is due to lack of infrastructure, low level of literacy rate and government inability to provide the necessary infrastructure for e-governance to materialize. The paper therefore, recommends among others the need for the Federal Government to involve a sound and clear policy on how to go about the adoption and implementation of egovernance through deliberate effort at increasing budgetary allocation towards infrastructural development and mass education of citizens

The Impact of e-Democracy in Political Stability of Nigeria

The history of the Nigerian electoral process has been hitherto characterized by violence stemming from disputes in election outcomes. For instance, violence erupted across some states in Northern Nigeria when results indicated that a candidate who was popular in that part of the country was losing the election leading to avoidable loss of lives. Beside, this dispute in election outcome lingers for a long time in litigation at the electoral tribunals which distracts effective governance. However, the increasing penetrating use of ICTs in Nigeria is evident in the electoral processes with consequent shift in the behavior of actors in the democratic processes, thus changing the ways Nigerians react to election outcomes. This paper examines the trend in the use ICT in the Nigerian political system and its impact on the stability of the polity. It assesses the role of ICT in recent electoral processes and compares its impact on the outcome of the process in lieu of previous experiences in the Nigeria. Furthermore, the paper also examines the challenges and risks of implementing e-Democracy in Nigeria and its relationship to the economy in the light of the socio-economic situation of the country. The paper adopted qualitative approach in data gathering and analysis. From the findings, the paper observed that e-democracy is largely dependent on the level of ICT adoption, which is still at its lowest ebb in the country. It recognizes the challenges in the provision of ICT infrastructure and argues that appropriate low-cost infrastructure applicable to the Nigerian condition can be made available to implement e-democracy and thus arouse the interest of the populace in governance, increase the number of voters, and enhance transparency, probity and accountability, and participation in governance as well as help stabilize the nascent democrac

Expanding design space(s) : design in communal endeavours

The present research inquires into the contemporary shapes and strategies of situated and participatory perspectives on design. It proposes a re-conception of the notion of design space to capture the wider interplay of possibilities, practices, and partly assembled technologies, as well as developing competencies and social arrangements that are the basis for ongoing design choices. In so doing, this work looks at the arrangements that evolved at the intersection of two design research engagements. The first engagement deals with the life project of an association of seniors developing an alternative housing arrangement with its related growing-old-together practices. In particular, the first case study draws on a mutual journey to design and develop what the community refers to as their everyday life management system or Miina, which helps them coordinate their daily joint practices. The second engagement looks at forms of active citizenship in the interactions of citizens both with each other and with officials in the city administration as these interactions are enacted through locative technologies. In this case, the research takes advantage of the collaborative design process for an online platform service, namely Urban Mediator, for sharing locative media content about the urban environment. The research highlights aspects that are relevant to the development of design approaches which do not only deal with designers and their design processes, but which can also deal with how both the things undergoing design and the design process itself are simultaneously embedded in existing everyday life arrangements. Drawing on work from different fields, especially Design Research and Science and Technology Studies, the design space framework introduced herein elaborates nuanced navigational aids for long term design engagement. The main purpose of this framework is to help recognize the inescapability of confronting collective design spaces and the relevance and potential that their explicit construction as collaborative endeavours can have in particular settings