Socio-technical principles of web based participation, against systemic deviations

Paola Di MaioInstitute for Socio Technical SystemsEdinburgh - Bologna Digital Agenda 21/11/2011

Contents

• About me

• Web based technologies

• Participation/Emergence

• Difference between a Mob and a Crowd

• Problem: Systemic Deviation

• Solution: Operational Transparency

About me

• 1990-2000 London Based Science and Technology Correspondence

• 2001> System Scientist and Engineer

• Expert project evaluation for EC

• Lecturer, Researcher, Trainer, Inspector

• Member of W3C e-gov WG, EIIF

• 2004>>TSUNAMI HELP BLOG

• 2005>>Resercher

• SOCIO-TECHNICAL COMPLEX SYSTEMS!

SOCIO TECHNICAL SYSTEMS

People Processes

Technology

Environment

Incose

PARTICIPATION

• Make comment and suggestions

• but also

• Contribute opinions/data - Make information

• Contribute to decision making/decision flows

• Influence processes

• Be acknowledged

• Paticipate in the economy/get a slice of the pie

Technologies of participation

• WEB and WEB BASED PLATFORMS

• NETWORK/ SYSTEM CENTRISM

• NEW ORGANISATIONAL MODELS

• OPEN PLATFORMS

• SHARED/THREADED INFORMATION FLOWS

• INFORMATION AGGREGATION

• TAXONOMIES, ONTOLOGIES, CATEGORIZATION

Technologies of participation

• Openness

• Transparency

• Accountability

• =

• Participation,

• Inclusion

• Quality of Information

• (Democracy?)

Capturing Emergence

Room for contingency

Documented processes

Social-Economic Justice

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MOBS AND CROWDS

• MOB is ignorant/not informed about the principles, is based on large numbers of people who make noise, can be easily manipulated by a corrupt system, motivated and justified by gain and economic interest

• CROWD is informed, operates independently, exercises libero arbitrio, does not serve the corrupt system but operates to promote and guarantee principles of social justice, equality

EXAMPLE

• Barcamps: key rules are

• no fixed agenda, or flexible/open (capture emergence)

• open wiki pages for participants to sign themselves up and enter their topics

• the role of the organiser is to make sure that everyone gets a chance to present/talk and coordinate the timing of the sessions accordingly, make sure everyone has access to resources

SYSTEMIC DEVIATION

• Poor decision making

• Incompentent administration

• Waste of public funding because of poor decision making

• Consequences: decline, ineffective decisions, nobody is responsible for operational mistakes

• A *barcamp* (digital agenda campl,crisicamp, etc) is organised but there is no wiki page for participants to sign up

• Agenda is decided a priori, from the top/unknown hierarchy

• The agenda serves political and economic interests (access to EU funding, economic and business alliances with all the political /power implications)

• There is not documentation of the processes and outcomes

• People are paid/sponsored to attend by organisers

• Participants lists are not published!!

• Mobs are faux crowds (people hired to make number and to pretend they act as majorities)

EXAMPLE OF SYSTEMIC DEVIATION

Gatekeeper/technology

OPERATIONAL TRANSPARENCY

• Use Open technologies to document transparently decision flows using web based technologies and good practices

• Stick to the principles and good practices of openness!

CONCLUSION• New technologies and open processes remove the barriers to participation

• The adoption of new technologies and open processes must be documented and monitored, otherwise can be used to serve deviated purposes

• Corsi di formazione per operatori di settore

• paola.dimaio [gmail]