scholarly journals Opportunities and Principles of Using Digitalization in the Dialogue of Society and the Public Authorities in the UK on the Example of the Greater London Authority

2021 ◽  
pp. 109-113
Author(s):  
N. V. Eremina

The UK is one of the leaders in the use of digital tools in the interaction of government institutions and citizens. Now we are witnessing an active dialogue between various British institutions precisely in the digital dimension, as the transfer of data on vaccinations and hospitalizations from hospitals to other structures is carried out thanks to blockchain technologies. Of course, the explosion of interest in the use of digital events was provided by the coronavirus. However, it provided not only an increase in the importance of «numbers» in British society, but also greatly contributed to the disunity of citizens, especially in the context of access to the Internet infrastructure. To this day, this very task remains the main one in the respective strategies. At the same time, individual cities and regions of the country are more actively solving the task. London and the activities of the mayor’s office should be pointed out as the most illustrative example. For the services of the mayor’s office, it was necessary to ensure the transparency of the decisions made, to form and strengthen the trust of citizens. As part of the analysis, the author comes to the conclusion that for the most part, these tasks can be considered completed. The purpose of this article is basing on an analysis of specific digital tools and examples of the implementation of digital strategies for 2017 and 2021 to identify how a particular metropolis has formed permanent channels of communication and interaction between decision-making institutions and citizens.

Author(s):  
Leslie Stevens ◽  
Graeme Laurie

ABSTRACT ObjectivesThis talk unpacks the culture of caution surrounding the use and sharing of administrative data in the UK and suggests the adoption of the authors’ novel decision-making tool and organisational strategy based on the public interest, to achieve good governance. Administrative data, which implicate all public sector data, are in constant demand –to be shared for ‘joined-up’ services, used as evidence in Government inquiries and for research purposes. These demands are often made on the basis that they serve ‘the public interest’ but public authorities are without the decision-making tools to make proportionate decisions outwith narrow and risk-averse interpretations of legal requirements. Public authorities are operating within a ‘culture of caution’, fuelled by misperceptions of what the law does or does not require for data to be used/shared ‘in the public interest’; uncertainties regarding incentives for data sharing; perceived controversies if something ‘goes wrong’; and imbalanced assessment of risks without robust assessment of potential public interests to be served or the potential ‘harm’ from not sharing data. ApproachThis discussion is substantiated by reference to major contributions to this field (e.g. Law Commission Report on data sharing in 2014; Thomas and Walport’s data sharing review in 2008 etc.) and to the authors’ engagement with the administrative data community as part of the legal work package to the Administrative Data Research Centre Scotland. ResultsThe research reveals that public authorities exhibit extreme hesitance to undertake data sharing initiatives for reasons including: misperceptions of the law (due to legal complexity, lack of legal precedent and authoritative guidance on data sharing) lack of resources and expertise to manage increasing demands to use/share data  individuals fear reprisal if something ‘goes wrong’ with data handling  senior-management fear public backlash for new uses of data and organisational reputational damage  no understanding of the incentives to share data if there is no ‘direct’ benefit to the public authority in question. ConclusionWe conclude by focussing on how to overcome the culture of caution, to one of confidence. We suggest the adoption of our decision-making matrix to help data custodians distinguish between real versus perceived barriers to data sharing (i.e. dispelling legal myths and identifying areas where changes can be made). We also introduce strategic solutions in our public interest mandate which entails overt commitment to use public sector data when it is in the public interest to do so.


Author(s):  
Atzimba Baltazar Macías

The chapter aims at understanding a recent phenomenon in Mexican politics: the use of Internet and social media as a new and powerful resource for mobilization and social participation in the policy process. Based on a review of two recent movements in Mexico (#YoSoy132 and The Wirikuta Defense Front), the chapter argues that although the Internet is still restricted to the middle and upper classes, the use of social media and its impact transcends class boundaries, draws public attention, creates a valuable social capital for mobilization, and influences the decision-making process. The chapter does not intend to provide evidence to the theoretical discussion on why and how social media enhances political participation and mobilization; rather, it reflects the features shared by these two movements in order to draw some lines for further research. It finds that, if used appropriately, social media is actually an effective tool to facilitate mobilization and modify the public agenda.


Author(s):  
Cameron H. Malin

With the vast advances in computer, mobile, and online technologies, visibility into an offender’s thought processes and decision-making trajectory has been markedly enhanced. Digital behavioral artifacts, or digital evidence “breadcrumbs” of an offender’s behaviors, are now often left in publicly accessible locations on the Internet—such as social media platforms and social messaging applications—and in locations not privy to the public—such as the offender’s devices. Importantly, early seminal literature introduced and described examining an offender’s actions as series of steps along a path of threat escalation, or “pathway.” The totality of these emerging digital behavioral artifacts allows investigators to piece together an offender’s behavioral mosaic at a much more intimate and granular level, warranting a revised pathway—the cyber pathway to intended violence (CPIV)—that captures the thoughts and actions of an offender leading up to an act of deliberative, predatory violence. This chapter introduces the emerging discipline of Digital Behavioral Criminalistics and how this process can meaningfully be used by threat assessors to elucidate an offender’s steps on the CPIV.


2009 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 202-210
Author(s):  
Patricia Wright

Information overload results from having plenty of data but not enough time to organize it so that it assists decision making. This paper argues that although digital tools can help people make decisions, their development could benefit from an appreciation of how people’s behavior changes as the display features of the tools change. Therefore advantages could come from greater collaboration between designers and researchers who explore the psychological processes that enable decision making (processes such as search, understanding, inference and memory). Evidence is provided of individual differences in the way decision aids are used, and the value of multimodality information to accommodate diverse audience needs.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 550-575
Author(s):  
Daniela Borges De Oliveira ◽  
Belarmino Cesar Guimarães da Costa

This paper looks at how Estadão Infográficos use algorithms to examine news scripts and format content; its purpose being to use visuality both in the investigation process and for how the news is presented. We intend to demonstrate how web journalism appropriates the digital tools for innovation and differentiation. Thusly, the methodological procedure was conducted in three stages: interviewing the team members responsible for the menu, selecting those reports that use artificial intelligence techniques, and lastly, conducting a qualitative analysis upon specific concepts to explain cognitive effects that its news narratives create, which are: data visualization, image-synthesis and optical unconscious. Our investigation concluded that the use of algorithms to produce visualizations provides different perspectives of news scripts and builds communication with the public on the internet, despite the fact that this newspaper (O Estado de S. Paulo) does not make much use of this resource.O artigo observa como o Estadão Infográficos emprega algoritmo para prospecção de pautas e formatação do conteúdo, com o propósito do uso da visualidade tanto no processo de investigação quanto na apresentação das notícias. O objetivo é demonstrar como o webjornalismo está se apropriando das ferramentas do ambiente digital para inovação e diferenciação. Assim, o percurso metodológico consiste em três etapas: entrevista a componentes da equipe responsável pelo menu, seleção de reportagens da seção que utilizam técnicas de inteligência artificial e, por fim, análise qualitativa de investigação de conceitos que explicam os efeitos cognitivos provocados pela técnica nas narrativas jornalísticas, sendo: visualização de dados, imagem-síntese e inconsciente ótico. A investigação conclui que o uso de algoritmo na produção de visualizações permite percepção de novas pautas e potencializa a comunicação com o público na internet, mesmo que tal recurso ainda seja pouco explorado pelo jornal O Estado de S. Paulo.El artículo observa cómo Estadão Infográficos emplea algoritmo para prospectar pautas y formatear contenido, con propósito de usar visualidad en el proceso de investigación y en la presentación de noticias. El objetivo es demostrar cómo el periodismo web se apropia de las herramientas del entorno digital para innovación y diferenciación. Así, la trayectoria metodológica consta de tres etapas: entrevista con miembros del equipo responsable del menú, selección de informes de la sección que utilizan técnicas de inteligencia artificial y, finalmente, análisis cualitativo de la investigación de conceptos que explican efectos cognitivos provocados por la técnica en las narrativas de periodismo, siendo: visualización de datos, síntesis de imagen e inconsciente óptico. La investigación concluye que el uso del algoritmo em la producción de visualizaciones permite percepción de nuevas pautas y mejora la comunicación con el público en internet, aunque este recurso todavía es poco explorado por O Estado de S. Paulo.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Desloehal Djumrianti

Representation of a tourist destination on the media which able to reach around the world is very crucial in order to introduce and promote it to the large scope of the public. The internet, particularly website is one of the media to let people recognise and realise a destination as the place to visit. A study found most tourists visit and explore an official website and then to respond as if they were planning to travel to the destination (Jeon, et.al, 2017). This indicates that the official website still plays an important role in tourists’ decision making pre-visiting. Jakarta, for example, as one of a tourist destination, at once is also a capital city of Indonesia, central of business in Indonesia and a modern city. Therefore, the concepts of representation play an important role to depict Jakarta as a destination, for example, the use of themes to represent Jakarta as a holiday place on the website, such as focusing on the traditional and modern Jakarta (Djumrianti, 2016). Thus, the purpose of this paper is to analyse how the exoticism concept is used through twenty-five photos and fourteen sections of texts on the official websites which last update in 2014. The study found exoticism idea is one of the strategies used by the Jakarta government in the representation of the city on the Enjoy Jakarta website and the Portal Site of Jakarta Capital City. This concept influences on the commercialisation of Jakarta as a whole a tourist destination.


Author(s):  
Lamiece Hassan ◽  
Sheena Cruikshank ◽  
Markel Vigo ◽  
Caroline Jay ◽  
Indira McClean ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTObjectivesSeasonal allergies, hay fever and asthma affect approximately one in four people and the incidence is increasing. Whilst the causes are unknown, hypotheses propose associations with environmental changes, exposure to pollutants and decreased exposure to childhood infections. High resolution datasets on pollen count and pollution are available; however there is no equivalent for incidence of seasonal allergy symptoms. We planned a national citizen science project using smartphones to gather data from the general population on seasonal allergy symptoms, and where and when they occur. The resulting dataset will be linked with other publicly available data, enabling better understanding of allergy triggers. This is a joint project between the Royal Society of Biology, the British Society for Immunology, and The University of Manchester. ApproachIn spring 2015, two codesign workshops were held for members of the public with seasonal allergies and/or asthma (n=33). Guided by researchers, attendees used paper prototyping techniques to illustrate the functionalities of a mobile application. They also prioritised functions for inclusion within the app, discussed data sharing options and suggested material for the accompanying project website (www.britainbreathing.org). Following codesign workshops, designs and requirements were collated, refined and used to build the first version of the application in Android. ResultsWorkshop feedback indicated that potential users prioritised simple, personal tracking. They also valued the ability to access information about symptom frequencies among other users locally. Support for academic research was high, although most wanted some control over data sharing. People were comfortable with GPS data being collected, provided it did not impinge on privacy. We agreed to make data openly available via an interactive widget on the project website. The resulting first version of the application enables personal symptom tracking and will be released in March 2016 via the Google Play store (free of charge). A national media campaign will drive recruitment, alongside inclusion in the European City of Science 2016 programme in Manchester. Emerging data on the incidence of allergy symptoms by location will be presented. ConclusionCitizen science can be more than simply crowdsourcing data. We demonstrated that paper prototyping was a feasible and useful technique for codesigning an application with members of the public. Furthermore, workshop feedback indicated a high level of support for citizen science, provided users gained simple, personalised feedback. Further research is required to determine how codesign processes influence subsequent participant recruitment and engagement in citizen science projects.


Author(s):  
Arla Juntunen

The high level objectives of public authorities are to create value at minimal cost, and achieve ongoing support and commitment from its funding authority. Similar to the private sector, today’s government agencies face a rapidly changing operating environment and many challenges. Where public organizations differ is that they need to manage this environment while answering to demands for increased service, reduced costs, fewer resources and at the same time increased efficiency and accountability. Public organization must cope with changing expectations of multiple contact groups, emerging regulation, changes in politics, decentralization of organization, and centralization of certain functions providing similar services, and growing demand for better accountability. The aim of public management is to create public value. Public sector managers create value through their organization’s performance and demonstrated accomplishments. The public value is difficult to define: it is something that exists within each community. It is created and affected by the citizens, businesses and organizations of that community (cf. also Moore, 1995). This increased interest to questions of value is partly due to the adoption of values and value-related concepts taken from business, like value creation and added value. It is argued that the public sector adopts business-like techniques to increase efficiency (Khademian, 1995; cf. Turban et al. 2007; Chen et al. 2005). In addition, there is a growing concern to the non-tangible, political, and ethical aspects of the public sector governance and actions (See Berg, 2001) Decision making that turns the resources in to public value is a daily challenge in the government (Khademian, 1999; Flynn, 2007) and not only because of the social or political factors. Most of decision problems are no longer well-structured problems that are easy to be solved by experience. Even problems that used to be fairly simple to define and solve are now much more complex because of the globalization of the economy, and rapid pace of changes in the technology and political and social environment. Therefore, modern decision makers often need to integrate quickly and reliably knowledge from different areas of data sources to use it in their decision making process. Moreover, the tools and applications developed for knowledge representations in key application areas are extremely diversified, therefore knowledge and data modeling and integration is important (See also the decision support systems (DSS) modeling methods and paradigms: Ruan et al., 2001; Carlsson & Fuller, 2002; Fink, 2002; Makowski & Wierzbicki, 2003). The application s of real-world problems and the abundance of different software tools allow to integrate several methods, specifications and analysis and to apply them to new, arising, complex problems.


Antiquity ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 71 (274) ◽  
pp. 1049-1051 ◽  
Author(s):  
David L. Carlson

The barriers to communication between scholars and between scholars and the public have been falling as the Internet has grown. Although most of the publicity goes to the web, surveys show that the email is used by more people. Since it is based on characters rather than graphics, bandwidth and modem speed are less problematic than they are for web pages. In addition, while the web is the best way to disseminate information on the internet, electronic conferences and newsgroups are still the best way to interact on the internet. Electronic conferences for archaeologists began in 1986 when Sebastian Rahtz and Kris Lockyear created the ‘Archaeological Information Exchange.’ Four years later AIE begat ARCH-L and the number of archaeologists participating has grown steadily. Today ARCH-L has about 1800 subscribers in 44 different countries; most subscribers are in the US and the UK. ARCH-L now averages about 16 messages a day; just under 3000 messages were posted in the first 6 months of 1997. In addition to ARCH-L, there now are at least 40 other electronic conferences and newsgroups covering different aspects of archaeology.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 343-353
Author(s):  
Laura Vilone ◽  

The notion of “good governance” implies the special place given to the State. Such a model is defined by the effectiveness of certain guarantees such as the independence of the judiciary, the correct and fair management of expenditure but also administrative transparency. Indeed, the latter depends on the sincerity of those involved in public action, on the one hand, and the constant dialogue between the public authorities and the public, on the other hand. The purpose of this intervention is to demonstrate that the realisation of the model of “good governance” is based, above all, on the existence of an administration that fully understands the requirements of administrative transparency. The two pillars of “good governance” would thus be the foundations of the principle of transparency: communication with citizens and their participation in the process of the decision-making process.


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