A public safety, participatory crowdsourcing smart city model for a developing country

Worldwide the population in cities is increasing. It is the responsibility of local government to provide public safety services in order to ensure the safety of their citizens and, yet, the local government often have inadequate resources to do this. ‘Smart Cities’ is a new and innovative concept that has emerged during the past few years and which involves using current infrastructure and resources more effectively and efficiently. One of the methods used to collect data in a smart city is participatory crowdsourcing but, in order to ensure effectiveness and efficiency, it is essential that a large amount of data be collected from the participants in such a project, who are generally citizens residing in the city. This study was conducted in the city of East London, which is part of the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality (BCMM). The study made use of a Design Science approach with a mixed method data collection method. The quantitative data collection comprised a questionnaire that was completed by 394 participants, while the qualitative data collection included a detailed literature review, conversational analysis and observations arising from the building of the crowdsourcing system prototype. The design artefact produced by this research is a model based on the literature, conversational analysis and the principles and concepts learnt from the prototype. Thus, this model represents what must be incorporated in the prototype to assist with the implementation of a public safety, participatory crowdsourcing smart city in a developing country. The model includes three areas ‒ the crowdsourcing system, the city (Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality) and the citizens of East London. The crowdsourcing system incorporates factors of information security, specifically the CIA triad, and the usability of the crowdsourcing system. Usability includes characteristics such as the quality of the system and interface, as well as the usefulness of the public safety, participatory crowdsourcing system which was used to measure the confidence of the East London citizens in the system. Three steps were identified in the literature as being necessary for the implementation of a smart city project by a city. These steps include the planning, development and delivery of the smart city project. Finally, the trustworthiness of the public safety participatory crowdsourcing system is determined by the ability, reliability and benevolence of the system. These three characteristics were included in the citizen factor of the model

A public safety, participatory crowdsourcing smart city model for a developing country

Worldwide the population in cities is increasing. It is the responsibility of local government to provide public safety services in order to ensure the safety of their citizens and, yet, the local government often have inadequate resources to do this. ‘Smart Cities’ is a new and innovative concept that has emerged during the past few years and which involves using current infrastructure and resources more effectively and efficiently. One of the methods used to collect data in a smart city is participatory crowdsourcing but, in order to ensure effectiveness and efficiency, it is essential that a large amount of data be collected from the participants in such a project, who are generally citizens residing in the city. This study was conducted in the city of East London, which is part of the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality (BCMM). The study made use of a Design Science approach with a mixed method data collection method. The quantitative data collection comprised a questionnaire that was completed by 394 participants, while the qualitative data collection included a detailed literature review, conversational analysis and observations arising from the building of the crowdsourcing system prototype. The design artefact produced by this research is a model based on the literature, conversational analysis and the principles and concepts learnt from the prototype. Thus, this model represents what must be incorporated in the prototype to assist with the implementation of a public safety, participatory crowdsourcing smart city in a developing country. The model includes three areas ‒ the crowdsourcing system, the city (Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality) and the citizens of East London. The crowdsourcing system incorporates factors of information security, specifically the CIA triad, and the usability of the crowdsourcing system. Usability includes characteristics such as the quality of the system and interface, as well as the usefulness of the public safety, participatory crowdsourcing system which was used to measure the confidence of the East London citizens in the system. Three steps were identified in the literature as being necessary for the implementation of a smart city project by a city. These steps include the planning, development and delivery of the smart city project. Finally, the trustworthiness of the public safety participatory crowdsourcing system is determined by the ability, reliability and benevolence of the system. These three characteristics were included in the citizen factor of the model

A crowdsourcing, smart city model for a developing country

With the growing number of people living in cities, the challenges faced by government to maintain service delivery to an acceptable standard are immense. ‘Smart cities’ is a new and innovative approach that allows the city to use current infrastructure and resources more efficiently. Not many smart city projects have been implemented in developing countries, where challenges that will affect the success of the project are very different from developed countries. These challenges include low literacy rates, high unemployment rates, high poverty levels and the limited availability of technology, all of which will impact on the implementation and success of a smart city. The purpose of the study was to investigate what variables need to be present in order to implement a smart city project making use of crowdsourcing in a developing country. The study found that there are three variables that will must be present to implement a smart city project in a developing country. These include the city management, the trust of the citizens in the smart city initiative, and the crowdsourcing system. The recommendation of this paper then is then that these variables must be considered by city management in order to successfully implement smart city projects in South Africa

Privacy in crowdsourcing:a systematic review

The advent of crowdsourcing has brought with it multiple privacy challenges. For example, essential monitoring activities, while necessary and unavoidable, also potentially compromise contributor privacy. We conducted an extensive literature review of the research related to the privacy aspects of crowdsourcing. Our investigation revealed interesting gender differences and also differences in terms of individual perceptions. We conclude by suggesting a number of future research directions.</p

Leveraging Crowdsourcing and Crowdsensing Data for HADR Operations in a Smart City Environment

The future of the world's population concentration lies within the bounds of urban cities. Citizens, or humans, are the most important tangible resources in a smart city environment, and they need to be served as well as protected. The concept of smart cities is trying to accomplish the idea of serving the citizens by leveraging the potential of information and communications technology assets. Citizens have access to smart technologies and applications, and thus they form an indispensable component to complement and supplement a smart city's operation. Especially in humanitarian assistance and disaster recovery (HADR) operations, where a smart city's core infrastructure might be compromised, the assets of citizens can be put to use. This article aims to describe the current state of affairs for safety in cities and humanitarian assistance in emergency situations, which require leveraging situational awareness data. We discuss and propose mechanisms for connecting to and utilizing crowdsourcing and crowdsensing data in a smart city environment, which can assist in efficient HADR operations

Ensuring high quality public safety data in participatory crowdsourcing used as a smart city initiative

The increase in urbanisation is making the management of city resources a difficult task. Data collected through observations of the city surroundings can be used to improve decision-making in terms of manage city resources. However, the data collected must be of quality in order to ensure that effective and efficient decisions are made. This study is focused on improving emergency and non-emergency services (city resources) by using Participatory Crowdsourcing as a data collection method (collect public safety data) utilising voice technology in the form of an advanced IVR system known as the Spoken Web. The study illustrates how Participatory Crowdsourcing can be used as a Smart City initiative by illustrating what is required to contribute to the Smart City, and developing a roadmap in the form of a model to assist decision-making when selecting the optimal Crowdsourcing initiative. A Public Safety Data Quality criteria was also developed to assess and identify the problems affecting Data Quality. This study is guided by the Design Science methodology and utilises two driving theories: the characteristics of a Smart City, and Wang and Strong’s (1996) Data Quality Framework. Five Critical Success Factors were developed to ensure high quality public safety data is collected through Participatory Crowdsourcing utilising voice technologies. These Critical Success Factors include: Relevant Public Safety Data, Public Safety Reporting Instructions, Public Safety Data Interpretation and Presentation Format, Public Safety Data Integrity and Security, and Simple Participatory Crowdsourcing System Setup

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

Mining a MOOC to examine international views of the “Smart City”

Increasing numbers of cities are focussed on using technology to become “Smart”. Many of these Smart City programmes are starting to go beyond a technological focus to also explore the value of a more inclusive approach that values the input of citizens. However, the insights gained from working with citizens are typically focused around a single town or city. In this paper we explore whether it is possible to understand people’s opinions and views on the Smart City topics of Open Data, privacy and leadership by examining comments left on a Smart City MOOC that has been delivered internationally. In doing so we start to explore whether MOOCs can provide a lens for examining views on different facets of the Smart City agenda from a global audience, albeit limited to the demographic of the typical MOOC user

Using crowdsourcing to support civic engagement in strategic urban development planning: A case study of Ostrava, Czech Republic

Recently, advances in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have provided opportunities for governments to deploy e-participation to actively engage citizens in public policy-making processes. As often noted, the development towards e-participation not only transforms the nature of government interactions with citizens but also affects the efficiency and effectiveness of public services and thus fosters competitiveness. Crowdsourcing is one mechanism of undertaking e-participation. It is a method for harnessing the collective intelligence of online communities to solve specific problems or produce goods, which has proved to be a successful supplemental public participation tool for city governance, as a way to engage citizens in the process of urban planning. This paper highlights how crowdsourcing can overcome the limitations in a traditional urban planning process. Using Ostrava, Czech Republic as a case study, this paper explores how city government engages citizens in creating the strategic urban development plan. The results show how crowdsourcing contributes to better civic engagement, improves citizens' perceptions of their city, and thus helps to find ways to encourage the competitiveness of the city of Ostrava, which is facing the problem of depopulation