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ICT and emerging functionalities: analysis of an e-deliberation experiment

ICT and emerging functionalities: analysis of an e-deliberation experiment

Presentation held at the fifth conference of the Italian Society on Science and Technology Studies.

The Platform:
http://deeba.se/

The Cesena Case study:
http://bit.ly/DeebaseLucchi

Abstract:
The relevance of participation in the design of artifacts has been widely recognized in innovation studies. In this respect, this paper proposes to consider innovation as an emerging property determined by the social interactions surrounding an artifact, rather than a designed (whether participated or not) feature of the artifact itself. According to this vision, inspired by the studies of Lane and Maxfield (2005), innovation can be considered as a complex process characterized by a high degree of uncertainty. This uncertainty could be ascribed to the fact that every agent within a community interacts with artifacts, and other agents as well, according to its attributions and values generating new functionalities and needs. Trying to predict every possible attribution, and so every potential functionality that a new artifact could have once in the hands of the final user, is impossible. This uncertainty is so pervasive and intrinsic in respect to the innovation process that it has been described as ontological, given that not just functionalities are unpredictable but even agents, artifacts and attributions that may play key roles in determining the consequences of the cascade of changes initiated during the process may emerge during the course of the process itself. As a result, regardless of the degree of participation to the design process, the set of functionalities that an artifact can come to embodies cannot be foreseen or even imagined a priori. This degree of uncertainty also applies to digital technologies; being artifacts embedded into complex spaces inhabited by agents and artifacts, ICTs are themselves interpreted by users by means of attributions. Governments, along with private companies, have been investing resources, and developing expectations, about digital technologies as a means through which to address one of the crises currently affecting our societies: lack of democratic participation. According to Participedia, a leading network for civic engagement initiatives, there are approximately 100 civic engagement tools available today, which have been tested in over 400 e-deliberation projects. But is it really reasonable to suppose that ICTs will actually provide effective a solution to the problem of lack of democratic participation? What could be perceived by someone as a platform for e-democracy, could be used by someone else by a political tool or as a simple communication channel between local governments and citizens. This paper is aimed at studying how attributions determine the functionality of a digital artifact by studying the outcomes of an e-deliberation experiment performed in Cesena, an Italian mid-sized city. During this one-month experiment, an online platform allowed citizens to contribute in writing the Mayor’s agenda for the years 2014-2019. Data gathered from on field research will show how citizens interacted with ICT, which attributions developed towards it and which functionalities eventually emerged. The final aim is to understand if a shared functionality(-es) emerged, if this functionality(-es) was different from the one imagined by designers and which role facilitators played, or could have played, in fostering attributions convergence.

Alberto Lusoli

June 13, 2014
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Transcript

  1. ICTs and emerging functionalities:
    analysis of an e-deliberation experiment
    5th STS Italia Conference - Milan, Italy, June 12-14, 2014

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  2. * What we’ll talk about
    Emerging functionalities
    How features in ICT emerge from users’ interactions with digital artifacts: how personal attributions
    towards digital artifacts determine their functionalities, and how much they differ from those initially
    envisaged by the designer.
    E-deliberation
    This presentation is aimed at illustrate how attributions and relationships determine the functionalities of
    ICTs by studying the outcomes of an e-deliberation experiment performed in February 2014 in Cesena,
    Italy.
    The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-
    2013) under grant agreement n°284625

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  3. agents
    artifacts
    attributions

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  4. * Emerging functionalities
    New artifact
    types are
    designed to
    achieve some
    particular
    attribution of
    functionality.
    Organizational
    transformations
    are constructed
    to proliferate the
    use of artifacts
    of the new type.
    Novel patterns
    of human
    interaction
    emerge around
    these artifacts
    in use.
    New attributions
    of functionality
    are generated by
    the participants
    in these
    interactions
    design proliferation
    New
    interaction
    patterns
    New
    attributions of
    functionality
    design
    New artifacts
    are designed to
    instantiate the
    new attributed
    functionality.
    prolifera

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  5. New
    interaction
    patterns
    New
    attributions of
    functionality
    design proliferation
    ation
    New
    interaction
    patterns
    New
    attributions o
    functionalit

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  6. of
    ty
    design proliferation
    New
    interaction
    patterns
    New
    attributions of
    functionality
    design

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  7. A character, previously shaped by evolutionary selection for a particular function, or whose origin cannot be ascribed to the direct
    action of evolutionary selection, is coopted for a new or current use.
    Gould, Vrba, Exaptation-a missing term in the science of form
    EXAPTIVE BOOTSTRAPPING
    Lane, D. and Maxfield, R. Ontological uncertainty and innovation

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  8. * The history of SMS
    (1987) The GSM
    protocol, a
    common cellular
    telephone system
    across Europe.
    GSM conceived
    the possibility of
    sending
    alphanumeric
    messages.
    Carriers
    Network
    operators
    Mobile phone
    brands
    (Nokia launched
    the first GSM
    phones in 1992)
    SMS are used
    for sending
    information
    about network
    status of for
    broadcasting
    information
    (stock prices)
    People start
    using SMS to
    communicate
    with people in
    the same
    network, for free
    design proliferation
    New
    interaction
    patterns
    New
    attributions of
    functionality
    design
    New artifacts
    are designed to
    instantiate the
    new attributed
    functionality:
    SMS optimized
    phones, T9
    (1995), billing
    systems

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  9. Emerging
    functionalities
    in digital
    artifacts

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  10. THE EXPERIMENT
    Cesena, an italian mid-sized city
    100.000 inhabitants
    The setting
    Ask citizens to collectively write
    the Mayor agenda for the
    second mandate (2014-2019)
    The aim
    a cloud platform for collective
    decision making.
    The platform

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  11. * e-deliberation experiment in Cesena
    John Gastil
    Defining deliberation
    Deliberation as the act of reflecting carefully on a matter and
    weighing the strengths and weaknesses of alternative
    solutions to a problem. The aims of a deliberative process is to
    arrive at a decision or judgment based not only on facts and
    data but also on values, emotions, and other less technical
    considerations.

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  12. * The design phase
    1 month, 7 debates
    In each debate users can: propose an idea, extend ideas inserted by other users or just cast their votes for already expressed ideas.
    A 2 level competition: one at level of ideas, one at level of motivations. The whole process was unmonitored (no moderators), by design.

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  13. * The design phase
    1 month, 7 debates
    In each debate users can: propose an idea, extend ideas inserted by other users or just cast their votes for already expressed ideas.
    A 2 level competition: one at level of ideas, one at level of motivations. The whole process was unmonitored (no moderators), by design.

    View Slide

  14. * The design phase
    1 month, 7 debates
    In each debate users can: propose an idea, extend ideas inserted by other users or just cast their votes for already expressed ideas.
    A 2 level competition: one at level of ideas, one at level of motivations. The whole process was unmonitored (no moderators), by design.

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  15. * Results
    150 38 1
    participants ideas final program

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  16. unanticipated
    use

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  17. * Was Fishkin right?
    Most people are not effectively motivated to get information, to form opinions,
    or to discuss issues with those who have different points of view.
    Each citizen has only one vote or voice in millions and most have other pressing
    demands on their time.
    The production of informed, considered opinions for politics and policy is a
    public good.
    And the logic of collective action for public goods dictates that motivating large
    numbers to produce a public good either requires selective incentives
    (incentives that apply just to those who produce them) or there will be a failure
    to provide them.
    Trade-off between deliberation and mass participation
    James S. Fishkin

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  18.  A shared functionality emerged: Interviews with key agents revealed how users
    perceived the platform, and how they used it in a manner that was not the way it was
    imagined by the designers
     This novel usage was a consequence of the degree of freedom experienced by users,
    given the absence of moderators driving the discussion
     These results open two new possibilities:
    1. design a new ICT that specifically address this innovative way to debate online
    2. enhance the deliberative scheme by introducing moderators
    * Yes, but…

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  19. * Next step
    Given our aims, we decided to go for the second one.
    We’ll run a second experiment. This time a team of moderators will
    dynamically monitor users’ interactions trying to understand their
    attributions towards the platform.
    Acting as moderators, they will try to provide incentives, and
    stimulate discussione, in order to combine mass participation with
    deliberation

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  20. Twitter.com/albertolusoli
    [email protected]
    Alberto Lusoli, ECLT
    * Thanks for your attention
    http://www.ecltech.org/ http://deeba.se/

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