How to Empower Users for Co-Creation - Conceptualizing an Engagement Platform for Benefits Realization

Organizations invest huge portions of their budget in IT with the goal to realize benefits as improving work practice and establishing new processes. To achieve this goal, users are engaged throughout projects by various methods and approaches. Nevertheless, after the completion of a project, users lack power and opportunities to further realize benefits and thus assuring the overall success of a project. To close this gap, we present the concept of an engagement platform that empowers users collectively to induce change initiatives that enhances the realization of benefits in the post-project phase. By doing so, benefits management practices undergo a paradigm shift from recent top-down management towards bottom-up realization of benefits. This change in perspective also incorporates a service systems perspective as it focusses on the dynamic configuration of actors and resources to enable value creation in a complex context

Engaging Users to Co-Create - Implications for Service Systems Design by Evaluating an Engagement Platform

Far-reaching digitalization affords significantly more opportunities for engaging actors and mobilizing resources in service systems. By leveraging these capabilities, digitally enabled service systems can facilitate user-generated services. Traditional service engineering approaches provide for such service systems. This paper presents and discusses the evaluation of a field-based design science research project for designing an engagement platform that facilitates the co-creation of user-generated services. This study reports contributions to the design knowledge of such an engagement platform and their consequences for engagement activities. Based on the evaluation, we propose design propositions for such an engagement platform from a sociotechnical perspective

Waking Up a Sleeping Giant: Lessons from Two Extended Pilots to Transform Public Organizations by Internal Crowdsourcing

Digital transformation is a main driver for change, evolution, and disruption in organizations. As digital transformation is not solely determined by technological advancements, public environments necessitate changes in organizational practice and culture alike. A mechanism that seeks to realize employee engagement to adopt innovative modes of problem-solving is internal crowdsourcing, which flips the mode of operation from top-down to bottom-up. This concept is thus disrupting public organizations, as it heavily builds on IT-enabled engagement platforms that overcome the barriers of functional expertise and routine processes. Within this paper, we reflect on two design science projects that were piloted for six months within public organizations. We derive insights on the sociotechnical effects of internal crowdsourcing on organizational culture, social control, individual resources, motivation, and empowerment. Furthermore, using social cognitive theory, we propose design propositions for internal crowdsourcing, that guide future research and practice-oriented approaches to enable innovation in public organizations

Multilevel Design for Smart Communities – The Case of Building a Local Online Neighborhood Social Community

Smart cities and communities aim for social well-being. Mobilizing and integrating various institutions, actors, and resources are crucial when building and instantiating smart community initiatives. The design of such an arrangement is a complex phenomenon, difficult to conduct systematically and to observe empirically. We address this challenge by applying a multilevel design framework for service systems to an ongoing design science research project. The research project pursues the goal of building a neighborhood community as an instantiation of smart communities by activating and leveraging local institutions, actors, and resources on an IT-enabled engagement platform. We demonstrate how this multilevel perspective informs the design process for building smart communities. Based on micro-level observations, the interdependence of engagement-stimulating mechanisms related to the platform’s design at the meso-level, and design implications for the institutional arrangement at the macro-level are emphasized as inseparable design activities for mobilizing and integrating actors and resources

Design Principles for Engagement Platforms – Design Knowledge on Fostering Value Co-Creation

As the importance of services increases, so does the need for suitable information technology (IT) to support the exchange of resources in interactive value creation processes (co-creation). Engagement platforms (EPs) have been identified as a suitable IT solution, as they enable and foster value co-creation of heterogeneous actors. However, few guidelines exist on how to design for value co-creation on EPs. To address this problem, we employed the Design Science Research approach. We first conducted a literature review and then interviewed 24 experts from successful EP companies. As a result, we derived four design principles and evaluated them for further iterations. This study elaborates our findings and implications for practitioners and scholars seeking knowledge on how to design EPs resulting from three completed design cycles

Review of blockchain-based distributed energy: Implications for institutional development

The future of energy is complex, with fluctuating renewable resources in increasingly distributed systems. It is suggested that blockchain technology is a timely innovation with potential to facilitate this future. Peer-to-peer (P2P) microgrids can support renewable energy as well as economically empower consumers and prosumers. However, the rapid development of blockchain and prospects for P2P energy networks is coupled with several grey areas in the institutional landscape. The purpose of this paper is to holistically explore potential challenges of blockchain-based P2P microgrids, and propose practical implications for institutional development as well as academia. An analytical framework for P2P microgrids is developed based on literature review as well as expert interviews. The framework incorporates 1) Technological, 2) Economic, 3) Social, 4) Environmental and 5) Institutional dimensions. Directions for future work in practical and academic contexts are identified. It is suggested that bridging the gap from technological to institutional readiness would require the incorporation of all dimensions as well as their inter-relatedness. Gradual institutional change leveraging community-building and regulatory sandbox approaches are proposed as potential pathways in incorporating this multi-dimensionality, reducing cross-sectoral silos, and facilitating interoperability between current and future systems. By offering insight through holistic conceptualization, this paper aims to contribute to expanding research in building the pillars of a more substantiated institutional arch for blockchain in the energy sector

Exploring Gender Effects on Peer Rating in Open Innovation and Crowdsourcing: A Case of Website Evaluation

Peer rating has be used by open innovation and crowdsourcing platforms to evaluate submissions and select winners because it not only represents a cheaper and more scalable way but also empowers and engages users. However, the literature on scholarly peer review suggests that peer rating may suffer from some biases. One of them is caused by gender. Therefore, this paper aims to examine gender effects on peer rating in open innovation and crowdsourcing. More specifically, we examine how judge gender and gender similarity between judge and designer affect peer rating score. This question has never been examined in the OI&C literature. Using a quasi-experimental design, we collect 1,585 evaluations and find that, overall, judge gender has no significant effect on peer rating score, but gender similarity has a negative effect. Further examinations reveal that rating mode (single-blind or double-blind) may moderate such gender effects: male judges are predicted to give a higher rating score than females when the designer’s information is disclosed while in double-blind peer rating gender similarity reduces the peer rating score. This study has practical implications to the use and design of a peer rating system in OI&C platforms

Open data hackathon as a tool for increased engagement of Generation Z: to hack or not to hack?

A hackathon is known as a form of civic innovation in which participants representing citizens can point out existing problems or social needs and propose a solution. Given the high social, technical, and economic potential of open government data, the concept of open data hackathons is becoming popular around the world. This concept has become popular in Latvia with the annual hackathons organized for a specific cluster of citizens called Generation Z. Contrary to the general opinion, the organizer suggests that the main goal of open data hackathons to raise an awareness of OGD has been achieved, and there has been a debate about the need to continue them. This study presents the latest findings on the role of open data hackathons and the benefits that they can bring to both the society, participants, and government

Utilizing the Human Rights Framework: Lessons Learned from the From Poverty to Opportunity Campaign: Realizing Human Rights in Illinois

In response to the growth and deepening of poverty in Illinois and the collateral human rights consequences, in December of 2006, Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights initiated the "From Poverty to Opportunity Campaign: Realizing Human Rights in Illinois". Working in collaboration with a coalition of community members, advocates, organizers, faith-based institutions, and policy leaders, the campaign advocated state-wide for an improved response to the growing problem of poverty in Illinois. This paper documents some of the lessons Heartland Alliance has learned while using the human rights framework to build and advance a campaign to eliminate extreme poverty in Illinois

The new role of citizens as co-creators of socio-digital innovations and urban development: A case-study of participation and co-creation in the smart city development of Barcelona.

Die vorliegende Masterarbeit untersucht aktuelle Trends in der Stadtplanung und Design, um zu analysieren, wie Bürger an der Mitgestaltung von Smart Cities beteiligt werden können. Ziel ist es, ein ganzheitliches Verständnis der neueren Konzepte und Methoden von Co-Design und Co-creation zu entwickeln und diese mit den etablierteren Forschungsfeldern der Bürgerbeteiligung und Koproduktion zu vergleichen. Koproduktion und Co-Creation können als verbesserte Partizipation oder Partnerschaft in Bezug auf die Partizipationsleiter verstanden werden, da beide Konzepte Beziehungen auf Augenhöhe zwischen Bürger und Stadtverwaltung voraussetzen. In ähnlicher Weise gesteht Co-Design, Designern und Usern die gleichen Rechte und Möglichkeiten im Gestaltungsprozess zu. Es wird eine ganzheitliche Definition des Co-Creation-Prozesses dargelegt, die Erkenntnisse aus Co-Design, Co-Produktion und Partizipation beinhaltet und Co-Creation als einen Prozess versteht, der aus Initiation, Design und Produktion besteht. Die Smart City als sich rasch entwickelndes Forschungsfeld, Definitionen und Charakteristika sowie populäre imaginäre und dominante Diskurse werden vorgestellt. Um die Rolle des Bürgers zur Smart City zu verstehen, werden die unterschiedlichen Verständnisse von Smart Governance erläutert und Aspekte von Open Data, Big Data und Big Data Analytics sowie die Rolle von Bürgern und Gefahren der Smart City diskutiert. In der Fallstudie zur Bürgerbeteiligung werden Methoden und Werkzeuge zur Förderung der Mitgestaltung einer Smart City anhand Partizipationsleiter von (Arnstein 1969) diskutiert und analysiert. Die Smart City Entwicklung in Barcelona wird vor dem Hintergrund der gemeinschaftlichen Entwicklung sozialer Innovationen in Smart Cities analysiert. Die Fallstudie verweist auf Mängel im Hinblick auf Bürgerbeteiligung an der Entscheidungsfindung und an der Verlagerung von Machtverhältnissen in der Entwicklung der Smart City Barcelona, die dafür aber mit neuen Werkzeugen und Technologien für partizipative Stadtentwicklung experimentiert und sich zu einem alternativen Smart City Modell entwickelt. Die wichtigsten Ergebnisse sind abschließend im Methodenkatalog zusammengefasst, der Methoden und Tools aus Theorie und Fallstudie aufgreift um zu dem Verständnis beizutragen, wie Smart Cities gemeinsam gestaltet werden können.This thesis studies current trends in planning and design studies to analyse how citizens can participate in the co-creation of smart cities. It aims at developing a holistic understanding of the new concepts and methods of co-creation, and co-design and compares those with the more established research fields of citizen participation and co-production. Co-production and co-creation can be understood as instances of enhanced participation or as a partnership in participation, as both concepts require equal relationships among citizens and the city administration. Similarly, co-design requires designers and users to share the same rights and possibilities in the design process. A holistic definition of the co-creation process is provided that incorporates insights from co-design, co-production and participation and defines co-creation as a process consisting of initiation, design and production. The smart city as emerging research field, definitions and characteristics, as well as popular imaginary and dominant discourses, are presented. To grasp the role of the citizen in the smart city, the different understandings of smart governance are explained and aspects of to open data, big data and big data analytics, as well as the role of citizens and perils of the smart city are discussed. In the case-study of citizen participation methods and tools fostering the co-creation of a smart city are discussed and analysed with the introduced participation framework, which is based on the ladder of participation (Arnstein 1969). The smart city development in Barcelona is analysed against the backdrop of co-creating social innovations in smart cities. There might be a lack of citizen participation in decision-making and shifting power relations in the city, which experiments nonetheless with new tools and technologies for the participatory environment experiments with new formats and technologies for economic and urban development and evolves to become an alternative model of the smart city. The main findings are included in the toolbox based on methods and tools from theory and the case-study contributing to the knowledge of how to co-create of smart cities