Exploring the Motives of Citizen Reporting Engagement: Self-Concern and Other-Orientation

In smart city contexts, voluntary citizen reporting can be a particularly valuable source of information for local authorities. A key question in this regard is what motivates citizens to contribute their data. Drawing on motivation research in social psychology, the paper examines the question of whether self-concern or other-orientation is a stronger driver of citizen reporting engagement. To test their hypotheses, the authors rely on a sample of users from the mobile application “Zurich as good as new” in Switzerland, which enables citizens to report damages in and other issues with the city’s infrastructure. Data was collected from two different sources: motivation was assessed in an online user survey (n = 650), whereas citizen reporting engagement was measured by the number of reports per user from real platform-use data. The analysis was carried out using negative binomial regression. The findings suggest that both self-concern and other-orientation are significant drivers of citizen reporting engagement, although the effect of self-concern appears to be stronger in comparison. As such, this study contributes to a better understanding of what motivates citizens to participate in citizen reporting platforms, which are a cornerstone application in many smart cities

Digital Preservation through Digital Sustainability

The concept of digital sustainability introduces a holistic approach on how to maximize the benefits of digital resources for our society. The nine basic conditions for digital sustainability also provide a contribution to potential solutions to the challenges of digital preservation. Elaborateness, transparent structures, semantic data, distributed location, an open licensing regime, shared tacit knowledge, participatory culture, good governance, and diversified funding support the long-term availability of digital knowledge. Therefore, in this conceptual paper, we explain the links between digital sustainability and digital preservation in order to increase the impact of both. We conclude by presenting the political agenda of the Swiss parliamentary group for digital sustainability

Digital Preservation through Digital Sustainability: Paper - iPRES 2016 - Swiss National Library, Bern

The concept of digital sustainability introduces a holistic approach on how to maximize the benefits of digital resources for our society. The nine basic conditions for digital sustainability also provide a contribution to potential solutions to the challenges of digital preservation. Elaborateness, transparent structures, semantic data, distributed location, an open licensing regime, shared tacit knowledge, participatory culture, good governance, and diversified funding support the long-term availability of digital knowledge. Therefore, in this conceptual paper, we explain the links between digital sustainability and digital preservation in order to increase the impact of both. We conclude by presenting the political agenda of the Swiss parliamentary group for digital sustainability

„Züri wie neu “: Public Value von Online-Partizipation

Next to the common goals efficiency and effectiveness the notion of public value considers also social aspects relevant to society. However, only a few studies have measured how the population appreciates the value of services by the public sector. So far the potential use of such services has only been predicted in advance based on expert opinion. We close this research gap by an empirical study (n = 738) on the open government platform “Züri wie neu”, a Swiss adoption of the FixMyStreet initiative from UK. On this platform citizens of Zürich report damages and defects of infrastructure with a user-friendly web and mobile application. The results indicate that the participants appreciate time-savings (efficiency), comfort, and interaction with the public service (both effectiveness). In addition we observed above average trust-building with the government, personal knowledgeability and the feeling of participatory decision making (all three of them social values). This explains why efficiency and effectiveness are not the only benefits for the citizens by such platforms but social values are relevant for them, too.Der Public Value berücksichtigt neben den herkömmlichen Zielsetzungen Effizienz und Effektivität auch soziale Faktoren aus der Sicht der Bevölkerung. Bisher haben jedoch nur wenige Studien gemessen, wie die Bevölkerung den Wert von Dienstleistungen der öffentlichen Verwaltung wahrnimmt; in der Regel wird der potentielle Nutzen solcher Dienstleistungen nur im Voraus prognostiziert, da der Wert auf Grundlage von Expertenmeinungen bemessen wird. Diese Forschungslücke schließen wir, indem wir mittels Fragebögen (n = 738 Teilnehmer) exemplarisch den wahrgenommenen Nutzen der Open-Government-Initiative „Züri wie neu“ für die Bevölkerung evaluieren. Über diese Plattform können BürgerInnen der Stadt Zürich mit einer einfach zu bedienenden Web- bzw. mobilen Anwendung Schäden und Mängel bei der Infrastruktur melden. Wie die Auswertung zeigt, bewerten die Teilnehmenden bei der Interaktion mit dem Service besonders den Zeitgewinn (d. h. Effizienz), den Komfort und die Kommunikation (beides Effektivität) positiv. Überdurchschnittlich hohe Werte zeigen sich aber auch bei der Bildung von Vertrauen in die Verwaltung, der wahrgenommenen eigenen Informiertheit und dem Gefühl partizipativ in Entscheidungsfindungen (alles soziale Werte) beteiligt zu sein. Dies zeigt, dass Faktoren für Effizienz und Effektivität aus Sicht der Bevölkerung nicht das gesamte Wertespektrum von Dienstleistungen der öffentlichen Verwaltung abbilden können sondern auch soziale Vorteile relevant sind

The Relevance of the Knowledge Commons within Sustainable Development Goals

The paper analyzes, from the perspective of information systems research, whether or not Knowledge Commons contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals. This is of interest as Knowledge Commons have several advantages compared to other institutional arrangements: Most importantly, the unrestricted access to knowledge allows ease of use. Other advantages include its contextual relevance due to higher density of knowledge relevant for specific local areas and the complementarity of Knowledge Commons with each other, which further leverages the effects. We found that a huge proportion (around three quarters) supports the Sustainable Development Goals and therefore support the international public policy of the United Nations and its 193 member states. The study strengthens the argument of the importance of Knowledge Commons within public policy as an enabler to leverage positive impacts, from an organizational to a structural level

Digital sustainability: basic conditions for sustainable digital artifacts and their ecosystems

The modern age has heralded a shift from the industrial society, in which natural resources are crucial input factors for the economy, towards a knowledge society. To date, sustainability literature has treated knowledge—and in particular digital artifacts—mainly as a means to the end of achieving sustainable development. In this conceptual paper, we argue that digital artifacts themselves ought also to be considered as resources, which also need to be sustainable. While over-consumption is a problem facing natural resources, with sustainable digital artifacts, underproduction, and underuse are the biggest challenges. In our view, the sustainability of digital artifacts improves their potential impact on sustainable development. A theoretical foundation for digital artifacts and their ecosystem allows us to present the relevant research on digital information, knowledge management, digital goods, and innovation literature. Based on these insights, we propose ten basic conditions for sustainable digital artifacts and their ecosystem to ensure that they provide the greatest possible benefit for sustainable development. We then apply those characteristics to four exemplary cases: Linux kernel development, Bitcoin cryptocurrency, the Wikipedia project, and the Linking Open Drug Data repositories. The paper concludes with a research agenda identifying topics for sustainability scholars and information systems academics, as well as practitioners. A number of suggestions for future studies on digital sustainability are also put forward