The Role of Pseudonymity in Mobile e-Participation

In addition to lack of knowledge and trust in official authorities, privacy concerns are among the reasons for non-participation in public discourse. Mitigating these barriers is important when aiming to promote and ultimately increase public participation. Through the lens of a long-term field study with a mobile participation prototype, this research investigated citizens\u27 participation patterns in relation to their choice in username (real name vs. pseudonym). Our data suggests that while engagement served less socializing purposes, social appreciation was not affected by pseudonymity. Interestingly, those participating with their real-name lost trust in the local government. Overall, we found no evidence that pseudonymity impacts the level of participation, but participants indicated to favor using a pseudonym in the future

Experiences from a Living Lab trialling a mobile participation platform

The project b-Part adresses the currently low level of participation by introducing and evaluating a novel participation prototype utilizing contemporary mobile technology. As pervasive participation methods eliminate spatial and temporal barriers, it is anticipated that people are more inclined to engage in decision-making processes than with traditional forms (e.g. townhall meetings). Based on these considerations we developed a mobile participation platform that was evaluated in a real-world scenario over the duration of five months. This paper describes our methodology focusing on the conducted Living Lab and reports on experiences made during the runtime of the project. We hereby distinguish between experiences made by citizens and the authorites’ view on the whole participatory process. Our findings show that there is a high acceptance of mobile participation methods among citizens and they want to have it developed even further. On the other hand, although city administration is often enthusiastic about novel participation formats, there are still challenges to meet regarding the definition of suitable topics for participation, a match between needs of citizens and city officials, the mapping of organisational responsibilities and long-term commitment to active participation

Ad hoc communities on the road: Serendipitous social encounters to enhance tourist experiences

Driving can be a lonely activity. While there has been a lot of research and technical inventions concerning car-to-car communication and passenger entertainment, there is still little work concerning connecting drivers. Whereas tourism is very much a social activity, drive tourists and road trippers have few options to communicate with fellow travelers. Our study is placed at the intersection of tourism and driving. It aims to enhance the trip experience during driving through social interaction. This paper explores how a mobile application that allows instant messaging between travelers sharing similar context can establish a temporary, ad hoc community and enhance the road trip experience. A prototype was developed and evaluated in various user and field studies. The study’s outcomes are relevant for the design of future mobile tourist guides that benefit from community design, social encounters and recommendations

Triumphs and Travails: The Challenges of Institutional Collaborations

Based on short paper presented at the 43rd Rare Books and Manuscripts Section Preconference June 11-14, 2002 Atlanta, Georgia Association of College and Research Libraries American Library AssociationThis article describes a collaboration funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The grant, awarded to a Lawrence, Kansas Jr. High School, partnered a university research library, a group of Jr. High School teachers, a local community museum and a city newspaper. The object of the grant was to produce a local-history web site, developed by teachers, and used as an educational tool by secondary school students. The author details the history of the partnership and explains how an understanding of institutional cultures and a clarification of roles brought the project to fruition

Inclusive Gamified Participation: Who are we inviting and who becomes engaged?

Recent evaluations have shown that up until now, e-participation platforms have not been very effective in involving citizens in public decision-making. This is partly due to these novel forms of engagement not seeming to reach citizens beyond the usual suspects of public participation. A trending approach to make these platforms more attractive, especially for less involved social groups, is to incorporate game-like elements. This research investigates the influence of demographical variables on participation and motivation when using a mobile gamified participation application. Our results show that participation was affected by age. The data further suggests that youth is both interested in urban planning and welcomes mobile participation forms, whereas older individuals feel less invited by novel technologies and engage less. Yet, older individuals and those less enthusiastic about games were not entirely put off by the included game elements

Jumpstarting a Project Through Internal Collaboration: Improving Access to Library Collections

Presented at EDUCAUSE Southwest Regional 2007 Conference in Austin, TX.We share our experience with a successful internal collaboration between disparate departments at the University of Kansas. By assembling a team whose members effectively worked together, the Digital Initiatives program successfully completed a project, integrated it into the existing organizational structure, and helped create an ongoing program

BCR’s CDP Digital Imaging Best Practices, Version 2.0

This is the published version.These Best Practices — also referred to as the CDP Best Practices -- have been created through the collaboration of working groups pulled from library, museum and archive practitioners. Version 1 was created through funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services through a grant to the University of Denver and the Colorado Digitization Program in 2003. Version 2 of the guidelines were published by BCR in 2008 and represents a significant update of practices under the leadership of their CDP Digital Imaging Best Practices Working Group. The intent has been to help standardize and share protocols governing the implementation of digital projects. The result of these collaborations is a set of best practice documents that cover issues such as digital imaging, Dublin Core metadata and digital audio. These best practice documents are intended to help with the design and implementation of digitization projects. Because they were collaboratively designed by experts in the field, you can be certain they include the best possible information, in addition to having been field tested and proven in practice. These best practice documents are an ongoing collaborative project, and LYRASIS will add information and new documents as they are developed

Endocrine responses during CPAP withdrawal in obstructive sleep apnoea: data from two randomised controlled trials

The aim of this investigation was to elucidate the effect of CPAP withdrawal on neurometabolic and cardiometabolic markers in patients with obstructive sleep apnoea. We evaluated 70 patients (mean age 61 +/- 10 years, 82% men) treated with CPAP in two 2-week, parallel, randomised controlled trials. CPAP withdrawal resulted in elevated 3,4-dihydroxyphenylglycol, norepinephrine and cortisol after 2 weeks of CPAP withdrawal;however, no statistically significant changes of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) determinants were documented. In summary, CPAP withdrawal may be more prominently linked to short-term increases in sympathetic activation than hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis or RAAS activation. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02493673 and NCT02050425