Perspectives and Good Practices in Visualization of Knowledge About Public Entities

2018 ◽  
pp. 195-213
Author(s):  
Jan Fazlagić ◽  
Windham Loopesko ◽  
Leszek Matuszak ◽  
Rigby Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Information Overload ◽  
Multivariate Data ◽  
Human Face ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Good Practices ◽  
The Individual

Visualization of knowledge in public entities is becoming more and more popular due to the development of information technology tools, the demand for solutions allowing for reduction of information overload (IO), and new approaches to local government, including citizen participation. The chapter presents some case study examples of knowledge visualization in public entities with some conclusions and recommendations for policy makers. Additionally, it presents a complete map of certain Polish counties prepared by the authors. The authors applied, apart from the visualization in the form a map, the “Chernoff Faces” method (invented by Herman Chernoff in 1973). This method displays multivariate data on Polish counties in the shape of a human face. The individual parts, such as eyes, ears, mouth, and nose, represent values of the variables by their shape, size, placement, and orientation. The idea behind using faces is that humans easily recognize faces and notice small changes without difficulty. Chernoff Faces handle each variable differently.

scholarly journals Citizen Participation and Machine Learning for a Better Democracy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Procter ◽  
Miguel Arana-Catania ◽  
Felix-Anselm van Lier ◽  
Nataliya Tkachenko ◽  
Yulan He ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Information Overload ◽  
City Council ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Democratic Systems ◽  
The City

The development of democratic systems is a crucial task as confirmed by its selection as one of the Millennium Sustainable Development Goals by the United Nations. In this article, we report on the progress of a project that aims to address barriers, one of which is information overload, to achieving effective direct citizen participation in democratic decision-making processes. The main objectives are to explore if the application of Natural Language Processing (NLP) and machine learning can improve citizens? experience of digital citizen participation platforms. Taking as a case study the ?Decide Madrid? Consul platform, which enables citizens to post proposals for policies they would like to see adopted by the city council, we used NLP and machine learning to provide new ways to (a) suggest to citizens proposals they might wish to support; (b) group citizens by interests so that they can more easily interact with each other; (c) summarise comments posted in response to proposals; (d) assist citizens in aggregating and developing proposals. Evaluation of the results confirms that NLP and machine learning have a role to play in addressing some of the barriers users of platforms such as Consul currently experience.

scholarly journals Participatory Democracy in Local Government

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 246-268
Author(s):  
Ángel H. Iglesias Alonso ◽  
Roberto L. Barbeito Iglesias
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Local Politics ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
City Government ◽  
Administrative Participation

In 2015, the local government of the city of Madrid (Spain) introduced an electronic participation system. This initiative stemmed mainly from the social movements that had occupied the squares of many Spanish cities since 2011. As a result of the local elections in 2015, many of those same activists gained institutional power, took citizens’ participation very seriously, and decided to use the possibilities offered by the internet for political and administrative participation. In this article, we seek to assess the impacts of the Madrid city government with the e-democracy experiment – based mainly on establishing an online platform to facilitate citizen participation in political and administrative decision processes. Drawing on qualitative and documental data, our research indicates that whereas the overall aim of the project was to give citizens a say in local policy and decision making, our case study shows that participation was very low since most of the population does not feel concerned by these processes. Indeed, one of our findings showed that citizens’ involvement offline surpassed in some cases their online participation. To identify who is politically active online and offline is a great challenge, to which the promoters of the project did not pay much attention. Although e-participation was meagre in relation to the electoral turnout, the case study also shows that many proposals from the public were incorporated into the local policies, indicating that from a qualitative point of view, e-participation influences decision-making processes. Perhaps local governments should use a more strategic and integrated approach towards the use of electronic technologies to foster and motivate citizens’ involvement in local politics and administration. This more integrated approach should be less dependent on ideological incentives, more institutionalized, and must incorporate citizens’ perceptions and inputs before the introduction of new technologies.

scholarly journals Means, Motives and Opportunity: determinants of community health worker performance

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (5) ◽  
pp. e001790 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aparna John ◽  
Thomas Newton-Lewis ◽  
Shuchi Srinivasan
Keyword(s):  
Community Health ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Worker Performance ◽  
Performance Problem ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Job Role

The performance of community health workers (CHWs) typically depends on the interaction between their motivation (their intent to achieve personal and organisational goals) and the constraints that they face in doing so. These constraints can be both at the individual level, for example, whether the worker has the skills and knowledge required to deliver on their job role, and the organisational level, for example, whether the worker is provided with the resources required to perform. Designing interventions to improve the performance of CHWs requires identifying the constraints to performance in a particular context. Existing frameworks on CHW performance tend to be derived empirically, identifying a broad range of intervention design and contextual factors that have been shown to influence CHW performance. These may not always be able to guide policy makers to identify the precise cause of a specific performance problem in a particular context and develop an appropriate policy response. This article presents a framework to help practitioners and researchers diagnose the constraints to performance of CHWs and guide programmatic and policy responses. The Means, Motives and Opportunity (MMO) framework has been adapted from the SaniFOAM framework used to identify the determinants of sanitation behaviours. It is based on three interdependent and interacting domains: means (whether an individual is capable of performing), motives (whether an individual wants to perform) and opportunity (whether the individual has the chance to perform). A wide range of data sources are expected to be used when applying the MMO framework, especially qualitative research that captures the perspectives and lived realities of CHWs and their communities. In this article, we demonstrate how the MMO framework can be applied to identify the constraints to CHW performance using the case study of Anganwadi Workers (village nutrition workers) in Bihar, India.

Planning Processes for Reconstruction with Citizen Participation After Large-Scale Disasters: A Case Study of Reconstruction Study Meetings in Miyako City After the Great East Japan Earthquake

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 486-495 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michio Ubaura ◽  
◽  
Sei Akiyama ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Great East Japan Earthquake ◽  
Town Planning ◽  
Local Study ◽  
Planning Processes ◽  
Local Residents

Town planning for reconstruction after large-scale disasters that is led exclusively by the local government may be insufficient. However, it is also difficult to effectively incorporate citizen participation into planning because of insufficient government manpower and a lack of time among citizens. The present study surveys and analyzes a process of mutual coordination between a local government and citizens involved in town reconstruction planning after a large-scale disaster in order to understand how citizens’ participation in the early stages of the planning process for town reconstruction should be. A local study meeting in Miyako City is taken as a case example. As a method of incorporating citizen participation, it is found that the local study meeting was simple and effective method in obtaining consensus among local residents, but was not effective and may even have exacerbated disagreement regarding fundamental issues.

An Overview on Information and Communication Overload

2017 ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joao Carlos Lopes Batista ◽  
Rui Pedro Figueiredo Marques
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Bibliometric Analysis ◽  
Information Overload ◽  
Steady Increase ◽  
New Developments ◽  
Social Perspectives ◽  
The Social ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
The Individual

This chapter presents an overview on information and communication overload. The theme is contextualized and the main concepts are discussed based on the published literature. The individual, the organizational and the social perspectives are considered. To deepen this discussion, the authors developed a bibliometric analysis, which demonstrated the steady increase of interest in this topic, apparently enhanced by new developments in information technology. These technologies have presented solutions for some problems, but at the same time they have raised new issues of information overload. The bibliometric analysis also shows that many of these new issues are communication issues, contributing to justify our argument that, currently, the problems of information overload and communication overload are interrelated.

Documenting the UK “Black Fish Scandal” as a case study of criminal entrepreneurship

2015 ◽  
Vol 35 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 199-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Smith
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Government Policy ◽  
Economic Crime ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Media Reports ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Local Government Policy

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to consider the industrial exploitation of fishing quotas as a case of organized criminal entrepreneurship. Seldom is consideration given to the existence of informal and criminal entrepreneurship within the fishing industry. Consequentially, this case charts the “Black Fish Scandal” in the UK which saw the flouting of regulations and quotas on a commercial scale netting the protagonists £63 million through the illegal landing of undeclared fish. Design/methodology/approach – The case study underpinning this paper is constructed using documentary research techniques. Findings – Entrepreneurship can be destructive in a Baumolian sense as well as being productive. The moral of the story is that the entrepreneurs involved in the scandal are primarily small businessmen and not organized criminals; and that lessons can be learned from this case on how knowledge of entrepreneurship can be used to ensure that entrepreneurs and businessmen are not tempted to stray into the commission of economic crime. Research limitations/implications – A limitation of the study is that it was constructed solely from media reports of the scandal. The implications of this study are widespread for politicians, local government, policy makers and academic researchers alike and highlight the rise and fall of an industry and the impact of “laissez-faire” entrepreneurship on the industry suggesting to politicians, local government, policy makers that there needs to be a more planned approach to encouraging entrepreneurship within such coastal communities. Originality/value – This case based empirical study is of value because it is one of the first known UK studies of the Black Fish Scandal.

Developing a Multi-Agency E-Participation Strategy for Disadvantaged City Communities

2016 ◽  
pp. 358-376
Author(s):  
John N Walsh ◽  
Fergal McGrath
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Development Process ◽  
Strategy Development ◽  
Strategy Group ◽  
Information Strategy ◽  
Disadvantaged Communities ◽  
Shared Spaces ◽  
The City

The objective of this chapter is to present a case study of the development of a strategy to increase eParticipation among a number of disadvantaged communities in the city of Limerick in Ireland. The chapter's authors' acted as facilitators for the strategy development process. The strategy group consisted of multiple educational, developmental and community and local government representatives. Given the participants' differing perspectives and interpretations the strategy development attempted to be as inclusive and transparent as possible and information technology was used that provided shared spaces using a wiki and allowing the sharing of the information (strategy document) as it emerged through various iterations.

scholarly journals Citizen participation in urban local government: a case study of Kanaighat Paurashava in Bangladesh

2017 ◽  
pp. 119-134
Author(s):  
Mohammad Shahjahan Chowdhury ◽  
Md Aktaruzzaman
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Specific Factors ◽  
Urban Local Government ◽  
Elected Representatives

Scholars have identified many variables as determinants of citizen participation, but not all of these are relevant to citizen participation in specific cultural and political contexts. This paper seeks to identify the specific factors which work as drivers for citizen participation in Bangladesh through a case study of Kanaighat Paurashava (municipality), an urban local government. It identifies the following variables which strongly affect citizen participation: the role of elected representatives, notably their willingness and awareness; the provision of information to citizens; citizens’ capacity; and resources available. Findings also suggest that a holistic approach is needed to understand and change representatives’ attitudes towards citizens and ensure participation.

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