Marco Bani and Stefano De Paoli
dissemination of badges it could be possible to design a centralized civic reputational hub based on badges. While we consider this model only as a preliminary step leading to possible further developments, we hope our initial conceptualization will help us in gathering interest.
2. The rising of digital civics
In this paragraph we briefly present some relevant examples of Digital Civics showing the potential of these media in supporting democracy.
One of the first examples of successful digital civics is Seeclickfix 3, which was a pioneer in crowdsourcing reporting applications. These tools of civic engagement are interactive websites that enable users to report non‐emergency issues in their communities, such as broken street lights, needed crosswalks and potholes. They can be used either via a mobile app or a web platform. Communities and local governments responses are reported and tracked by users. These processes are also called crowdmapping: the capacity for everyone to report“ something” on maps. These applications are getting more and more popular in several fields, such as the fight against corruption( Ipayabride 4), for monitoring public elections, crisis, or natural disaster. Likely the most known crowdmapping tool is Ushaihidi 5.
Moreover, new online platforms for crowdfunding seem to increase the scope and potential of a fundraising |
mode: the collection of money and other financial resources for a joint project. In addition to general |
platforms like Kickstarter 6, civic crowdfunding platforms such as CitizenInvestor 7 |
and Brickstarter 8 |
have |
emerged. |
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New intriguing developments are also the platforms for co‐legislation, that aim to share, promote and foster legislative acts, either locally or nationally. Examples of this kind of platforms at the national level are We the people 9( USA) and ECI 10( Europe) that allow citizens to propose acts, petitions and documents that have reached a certain number of signatures to the relevant legislative assembly. The political debate between local citizens and political representatives could reach a new level with the capabilities offered by the new digital tools: from brainstorming( Ideastorm 11) to commenting sites( Writetoreply 12) till a proper discussion( Politix 13) there are many platforms to increase the debate in the public sphere, both offline and online. However these tools are fragmented and not yet mainstream. Mindmixer 14 is a platform that models itself after a town hall and rewards points to users who comment and participate in the generation of ideas for the community. These points can be then translated into achievements, perks, and prizes in ways that are similar to a video game. Another app that is gaining attention in USA is Textizen 15, designed and used as a way to improve resident feedback around specific projects like city planning initiatives. The app helps cities easily ask questions via public posters and quickly collect feedback via text.
Even the most used social media such as Facebook and Twitter can be considered as digital civics when used for civic action, with the advantage of having a massive user base unthinkable for any other platform entering now the civic landscape.
3. Trust and reputation
In order to promote digital civics a good level of trust among the political actors is required. We can define Trust as an attitude that allows social actors to reduce the complexity of action and take decisions in situations of risk with a lack of knowledge( Luhmann 1979). The use of Internet services and applications is often a situation that requires Trust since, in many cases, we are interacting with people only via the mediation of 3
See http:// seeclickfix. com / 4 See http:// www. ipaidabribe. com / 5 See http:// www. ushahidi. com / 6 See http:// www. kickstarter. com / 7 See http:// blog. citizinvestor. com / 8 See http:// brickstarter. org / 9 See https:// petitions. whitehouse. gov / 10 See http:// ec. europa. eu / citizens‐initiative / public / welcome 11
See http:// opengov. ideascale. com 12 See http:// writetoreply. org. uk 13 See http:// politix. topix. com / 14 See http:// www. mindmixer. com / 15 See http:// www. textizen. com /
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