scholarly journals An Agent that Facilitates Crowd Discussion

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takayuki Ito ◽  
Rafik Hadfi ◽  
Shota Suzuki
Keyword(s):  
User Satisfaction ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Online Discussion ◽  
Online Discussions ◽  
Social Good ◽  
Social Experiments ◽  
The Social

AbstractOnline discussion platforms are perceived as the next-generation method of citizen involvement. Such platforms can collect, integrate, and synthesize opinions to achieve social good. Crowd-scale platforms are being developed and deployed in social experiments that involve citizens and local governments. In such platforms, human facilitation is often used to preserve the quality of the discussions. Human facilitators often face difficulties when the discussions grow in size. In this paper, we present “D-agree,” a crowd-scale discussion support system based on an automated facilitation agent. The agent extracts discussion structures from online discussions, analyzes them, and posts facilitation messages. We conducted small- and large-scale social experiments in Japan to assess the social impact of the platform. The results showcase the success of our automated facilitation agents in gathering valuable opinions from citizens. In addition, our experiments highlight the effect of an automated facilitation agent on online discussions. In particular, we find that combining the agent facilitator with human facilitators leads to higher user satisfaction.

scholarly journals From “the Moon Is Rounder Abroad” to “Bravo, My Country”: How China Misperceives the World

2021 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haifeng Huang
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Chinese Society ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Foreign Countries ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Global Affairs ◽  
Chinese Public

AbstractFor a long time, since China’s opening to the outside world in the late 1970s, admiration for foreign socioeconomic prosperity and quality of life characterized much of the Chinese society, which contributed to dissatisfaction with the country’s development and government and a large-scale exodus of students and emigrants to foreign countries. More recently, however, overestimating China’s standing and popularity in the world has become a more conspicuous feature of Chinese public opinion and the social backdrop of the country’s overreach in global affairs in the last few years. This essay discusses the effects of these misperceptions about the world, their potential sources, and the outcomes of correcting misperceptions. It concludes that while the world should get China right and not misinterpret China’s intentions and actions, China should also get the world right and have a more balanced understanding of its relationship with the world.

scholarly journals Co-Design of Social Impact Domains with the Huntington’s Disease Community

Disabilities ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 116-131
Author(s):  
Natasha Layton ◽  
Natasha Brusco ◽  
Tammy Gardner ◽  
Libby Callaway
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Huntington's Disease ◽  
Huntington’S Disease ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
The Social

Background: For people living with or affected by Huntington’s Disease (HD) to experience a good quality of life, tailored support is required to meet physical, cognitive-behavioral, psychological, and social support needs. Substantial service and knowledge gaps regarding HD exist across support providers and service systems. Measuring unmet needs and what quality of life looks like is a fundamental step required to determine the social impact of service investment and provision. The objectives of this study were to validate and map a draft set of HD Social Impact Domains (HD-SID) against existing national and international outcome frameworks; and evaluate and finalize the HD-SID set using a co-design approach with people with lived experience of, and expertise in, HD. Methods: This research used a qualitative co-design process, with 39 participants across four stakeholder groups (people who were HD gene-positive, gene-negative family members, academics, peak organizations, and service providers) to: (i) map and verify the social life areas impacted by HD; (ii) undertake a rigorous three-phased, qualitative process to critically evaluate the draft HD-SID; and (iii) seek feedback on and endorsement of the HD-SID through this co-design process, with a final set of HD-SID identified. Results: Endorsed HD-SID comprised risks and safety (including housing stability, and economic sustainability) and social inclusion (including health and symptom management, physical wellbeing, emotional wellbeing, and building resilient relationships). Conclusions: Effective measurement of the impacts and outcomes for people with HD is informed by both extant measures and an understanding of the specific population needs. This qualitative co-design research demonstrates that HD-SID resonate with the HD community.

Towards a Universal Social Impact Metric for Engineered Products That Alleviate Poverty

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phillip D. Stevenson ◽  
Christopher A. Mattson ◽  
Kenneth M. Bryden ◽  
Nordica A. MacCarty
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Multidimensional Poverty ◽  
Social Impacts ◽  
Five Dimensions ◽  
Multidimensional Poverty Index ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Impact

More than ever before, engineers are creating products for developing countries. One of the purposes of these products is to improve the consumer’s quality of life. Currently, there is no established method of measuring the social impact of these types of products. As a result, engineers have used their own metrics to assess their product’s impact, if at all. Some of the common metrics used include products sold and revenue, which measure the financial success of a product without recognizing the social successes or failures it might have. In this paper we introduce a potential metric, the Product Impact Metric (PIM), which quantifies the impact a product has on impoverished individuals — especially those living in developing countries. It measures social impact broadly in five dimensions: health, education, standard of living, employment quality, and security. The PIM is inspired by the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) created by the United Nations Development Programme. The MPI measures how the depth of poverty within a nation changes year after year, and the PIM measures how an individual’s quality of life changes after being affected by an engineered product. The Product Impact Metric can be used to predict social impacts (using personas that represent real individuals) or measure social impacts (using specific data from products introduced into the market).

scholarly journals Real-Time Primitives for CoAP: Extending the Use of IoT for Time Constraint Applications for Social Good

Proceedings ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (19) ◽  
pp. 1257
Author(s):  
Gabriel Eggly ◽  
Mariano Finochietto ◽  
Emmanouil Dimogerontakis ◽  
Rodrigo Santos ◽  
Javier Orozco ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Internet Of Things ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Processing Speed ◽  
Wireless Sensors ◽  
Communication Protocols ◽  
Social Good ◽  
Vulnerable Communities ◽  
The Social

Internet of Things (IoT) have become a hot topic since the official introduction of IPv6. Research on Wireless Sensors Networks (WSN) move towards IoT as the communication platform and support provided by the TCP/UDP/IP stack provides a wide variety of services. The communication protocols need to be designed in such a way that even simple microcontrollers with small amount of memory and processing speed can be interconnected in a network. For this different protocols have been proposed. The most extended ones, MQTT and CoAP, represent two different paradigms. In this paper, we present a CoAP extension to support soft real-time communications among sensors, actuators and users. The extension facilitates the instrumentation of applications oriented to improve the quality of life of vulnerable communities contributing to the social good.

scholarly journals Disposal of Personal Protective Equipment during the COVID-19 Pandemic Is a Challenge for Waste Collection Companies and Society: A Case Study in Poland

Resources ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piotr Nowakowski ◽  
Sandra Kuśnierz ◽  
Patrycja Sosna ◽  
Jakub Mauer ◽  
Dawid Maj
Keyword(s):  
Personal Protective Equipment ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Protective Equipment ◽  
Waste Collection ◽  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Information Campaigns ◽  
The Social

One of the social measures applied during the COVID-19 pandemic has been the use of personal protective equipment (PPE)—face masks and gloves. As a result, this waste category has expanded enormously. This study investigates waste management issues from multiple perspectives, including local governments, waste collection companies, and individual citizens in Poland using a telephone survey for institutions and an online questionnaire for individuals. The results of this study show that approximately 80% of local governments in the Silesian region have applied special measures for handling and collection of waste PPE. Only 13% of waste collection companies have applied special collection schedules for the waste generated at quarantine collection points due to the high costs of changing collection schedules, providing additional vehicles, and paying for more labor. The information campaigns focusing on new methods of PPE waste collection have been difficult to introduce on a large scale, and citizens need better information regarding how to handle and dispose of waste PPE. Results indicated the most helpful method in supporting waste PPE collection would be automatic PPE dispensers with waste PPE collection options and waste bags of a designated color. The respondents identified waste PPE pollution of the environment as an issue and the necessity for proper recovery of this waste stream.

scholarly journals Quality Differences of Public, For-Profit and Nonprofit Providers in Scandinavian Welfare? User Satisfaction in Kindergartens

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-167
Author(s):  
Håkon Solbu Trætteberg ◽  
Audun Fladmoe
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
User Satisfaction ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Food Service ◽  
Service Area ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Quality Of Food ◽  
Large Scale Survey ◽  
The City

Abstract Research on differences between public, for-profit, and nonprofit providers of welfare services has provided mixed findings, depending on welfare state arrangement, regulation, and service area. This paper’s objective is to study the differences between public, nonprofit (cooperatives and other nonprofits), and for-profit welfare providers from the perspective of the users in the tightly regulated Scandinavian context. We ask how the users perceive the providers from different sectors differently and how this variation can be explained. The study relies on a large-scale survey carried out in 2015 in the city of Oslo, Norway. From the survey, we identify the two main results. First, despite limited differences, users of nonprofit kindergartens are generally more satisfied than users of for-profit and public kindergartens. Second, an important explanation for variations in user satisfaction among kindergartens is identified in a pocket of regulatory leniency: the quality of food service. This is the only expense that varies among kindergartens in Norway. These results indicate that more lenient regulations could potentially increase provider distinctiveness. Based on the existing literature, we discuss why nonprofit providers seem to fare better in the minds of users than public and for-profit providers.

Sport Delivery in a Highly Socialized Environment: A Case Study of Embeddedness

2009 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 574-590 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Cousens ◽  
Martha L. Barnes
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Sport Participation ◽  
Social Embeddedness ◽  
Sport Organizations ◽  
The Social ◽  
Economic Interaction ◽  
Corporate Sponsors

The social embeddedness of economic interaction has emerged at the forefront of economic sociology over the last 15 years. In the context of sport, however, little research has been undertaken to enhance our understanding of how the socialized context surrounding sport organizers, local governments, and corporate sponsors impact decisions affecting sport delivery. Therefore, the purpose of this case study is to explore the social embeddedness of decision makers in sport organizations and the local government that shape sport delivery in one community. An embedded perspective of economic interactions considers the continuity of relationships that generate particular behaviors, norms, and expectations. In-depth interviews with the leaders of this community’s sport organizations and the members of its local government were undertaken to gain insight into the nature of how decisions pertaining to sport delivery were shaped and constrained by the social context in which they were bounded. The results of this research suggest that the informal interaction among community leaders in sport and politics served to inhibit change in the way sport programs were delivered in this community. Further, taken for granted assumptions of city leaders about the type, number, and quality of sports delivered to the residents resulted in fewer opportunities for sport participation, despite an awareness of the limitations of the existing programs.

scholarly journals Serving a Forgotten Population

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Beth Riedner ◽  
Tysha Shay ◽  
Kayla Kuni
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Social Isolation ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Medical Information ◽  
Mission Statements ◽  
National Library ◽  
Communication Techniques ◽  
The Social

The stigma attached to a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease or a related dementia is enormous, and those living with dementia often speak of the negative, and almost immediate, social impact of the disease. According to Alzheimer’s Disease International, there were approximately 50 million people worldwide living with dementia in 2017 and this number could reach 131.5 million by 2050 (n.d.). The social isolation that affects many people living with dementia is best combatted by knowledge and understanding. There are many ways that libraries can put their mission statements into action with regard to this devastating disease. People living with dementia are coming into libraries every day. Library staff need training to recognize those who may be affected and to develop effective communication techniques to meet their special needs. In addition to purchasing books and other materials about the disease and how to cope with it, libraries can help those living with dementia and their caregivers find medical information available from underused sources such as Medline Plus from the National Library of Medicine. Libraries are uniquely suited to host educational events and community discussions. Outside organizations such as the Alzheimer’s Association can provide informational sessions held in the library. There are also several model projects developed by libraries across the country that demonstrate how libraries can provide direct programming and services to those living with dementia. Libraries can play a significant role in reducing social isolation among those living with dementia and improving the quality of their lives.

scholarly journals Indicadores de qualidade social da escola pública: avançando no campo avaliativo

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (66) ◽  
pp. 716
Author(s):  
Mara Regina Lemes De Sordi ◽  
Sara Badra de Oliveira ◽  
Margarida Montejano da Silva ◽  
Regiane Helena Bertagna ◽  
Adilson Dalben
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Assessment Model ◽  
Social Quality ◽  
Multidimensional Assessment ◽  
Palabras Clave ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Voice ◽  
Educational Indicators

<p>Um modelo de avaliação de larga escala multidimensional referenciado na qualidade social da escola pública é o recorte deste estudo desenvolvido junto ao Observatório de Educação. A voz de professores e gestores captada via grupo focal contrastada com o referencial teórico da formação humana gerou um instrumento contendo indicadores dispostos em uma escala tipo Likert respondida por 846 professores de uma rede municipal. Os dados tratados estatisticamente evidenciaram escolas que trabalham na perspectiva da qualidade social mantendo suas singularidades nas diferentes dimensões. A pesquisa pretende colaborar com os avanços no campo das medidas educacionais ao evitar o reducionismo dos índices uni/bidimensionais sem perder de vista a avaliação institucional participativa, necessária para que a escola interpele as práticas que produz e delibere sobre os novos desafios na luta pela qualidade social.</p><p><strong>Palavras-chave:</strong> Indicadores Educacionais; Qualidade Social; Avaliação de Larga Escala Multidimensional; Avaliação Institucional Participativa.</p><p> </p><p><strong><em>Indicadores de calidad social de la escuela pública: avances en el ámbito de la evaluación</em></strong></p><p><strong><em>Resumen:</em></strong></p><p><em>Un modelo de evaluación de amplia escala multidimensional basado en la calidad social de la escuela pública es el recorte de este estudio desarrollado junto al Observatorio de Educación. La voz de profesores y gestores captada vía grupo focal contrastada con el referente teórico de la formación humana generó un instrumento que contiene indicadores dispuestos en una escala tipo Likert respondido por 846 docentes de una red municipal. Los datos tratados estadísticamente pusieron de manifiesto escuelas que trabajan desde la perspectiva de la calidad social sin perder sus singularidades en las diferentes dimensiones. Esta investigación pretende colaborar con los avances en el ámbito de las medidas educacionales al evitar el reduccionismo de los índices uni/ bidimensionales sin prescindir de la evaluación institucional participativa, entendida como instancia estratégica para que la escuela interpele las prácticas que produce y delibere sobre los nuevos desafíos en la lucha por la calidad social.</em></p><p><strong><em>Palabras clave:</em></strong><em> Indicadores Educacionales; Calidad Social; Evaluación de Amplia Escala Multidimensional; Evaluación Institucional Participativa.</em></p><p> </p><p><strong><em>Social quality indicators of public schools: advancing in the assessment field</em></strong></p><p><strong><em>Abstract:</em></strong></p><p><em>A large-scale multidimensional assessment model based on the social quality of public schools is the focus of this study developed alongside the Observatório de Educação. The voice of teachers and managers captured via a focus group was contrasted with the theoretical framework of human training, generating an instrument containing indicators arranged in a Likert-type scale, which was answered by 846 municipal teachers. The statistically processed data showed schools that work towards social quality without losing their identity in the different dimensions. This study is intended to be used as a way to collaborate with the advances in the field of educational measures in order to prevent the reductionism of the uni/bidimensional indexes. Such advances do not disregard institutional participatory evaluation, which is seen as a strategic instance that enables the school to address its practices and deliberate about the new challenges in the fight for social quality.</em></p><p><strong><em>Keywords:</em></strong><em>  Educational Indicators; Social Quality; Large- Scale Multidimensional Assessment; Participatory Institutional Assessment.</em></p>

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