Tutkimus.parvi.fi

Hakemus Suomen Akatemian MOTIVE-ohjelmaan 25.4.2008

Tälle sivulle kootaan lopullinen hakemusteksti. Suunnittelua ja keskustelua on erillisellä sivulla: SOMUS-suunnittelua.

Hakemus on jätetty Akatemiaan 25.4. - lopullinen hakemusversio on sivulla Somus-final.

SOMUS - Social Media for Citizens and Public Sector Collaboration

Sisällysluettelo 1 Abstract 2 Basic information 3 Background 3.1 Concepts and theories 3.2 Conceptualising socially embedded media use 3.3 Information, knowledge, action – and citizenship 3.4 Technology state-of-the-art 3.5 Previous studies by participants 4 Objectives 4.1 Vision 2015 4.2 Aims of the project 4.3 Research questions 4.4 Connections to MOTIVE Research Programme 4.5 Participatory media 4.6 Immigrant media 4.7 Instant media 5 Implementation 5.1 Research methods and data //ei ehkä oikea otsikko tähän// 5.2 Research approaches 5.3 Work packages 5.3.1 WP0: Management 5.3.2 WP1: Theoretical framework 5.3.3 WP2: Methodology 5.3.4 WP3: Technology development 5.3.5 WP4: Field studies 5.3.6 WP5: Dissemination 5.4 Schedule 5.5 Ethical issues 5.6 Finance 6 Research group 6.1 Members of the research groups 6.2 Research environment 6.3 National and international cooperation 7 Researcher education and carrier 8 Expected results and impacts 9 References

Abstract

//tämä aiehakemuksesta: pitää vielä muokata kokonaan vastaamaan nykyistä hakemusta//

The Somus project aims at utilizing new Web-based media technologies to improve citizens' opportunities to participate in a) public definition of common problems, b) collection and accumulation of knowledge and other competencies, c) development of socially grounded innovations – as well as d) actual decision-making. New forms of effective communication between different actors in the society and the emergence of citizen-driven and self-organizing media channels and networks will be studied, developed and evaluated through several demonstrations.

Social media, such as blogs, wikis, content sharing and online communities, have changed the way people communicate and participate on the Web. However, citizen-driven media has not been widely utilized in public administration and as a part of official decision-making. We want to provide easy tools for self-organizing media channels and networks that support the partnership between public sector, media and citizens. Also the research work will be done on the Web utilizing open tools for collaboration thus empowering not only researchers from different fields, but also citizens, governmental and municipal authorities, third sector, and the representatives of media.

The project will result in understanding the phenomenon of self-organizing ubiquitous media as well as theories, methods and demonstrations that will be evaluated in real-life context with users. It provides both basic knowledge and practical tools for public-citizen-media partnership in ubiquitous society.

Basic information

Applicant:

Caj Södergård, Research Professor, Research Co-ordinator

VTT, Technical Research Centre of Finland

P.O.Box 1000, FI-02044 VTT

Phone: +358 20 722 5963

Email: caj . sodergard at vtt . fi

Project name:

Social Media for Citizens and Public Sector Collaboration (SOMUS)

Research sites:

The research will be carried out in four Finnish research organizations:

//Leaders of partial projects//

• VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Media and Internet, Espoo
• Helsinki University of Technology (TKK), Department of Media Technology, Espoo
• University of Jyväskylä (JyU), Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, Jyväskylä
• University of Tampere (UTA), The Journalism Research and Development Centre, Tampere

Additionally, an open Internet-based collaboration Finnish network The Open Research Swarm (2008) (Tutkimusparvi) with over 30 research and other professional participants from different Finnish research institutions, non-profit organizations and companies is involved in the project.

// Parven esittely tulee lopussa instituutioiden ohessa, olisiko tätä hyvä tiivistää reippaasti tässä ??? - Kari//

Background

Much of what we know and assume about the interaction between public organisations, the media and the people is based on a vocabulary of the mass media age. The public sphere – its potentials and problems – have largely been theorized in terms of a relatively stable, modern, institutional division of labour. Many of the classics in this field (cf. Dewey1927/2005, Habermas 1962/ 2003) draw much their intellectual energy from the discrepancy between a belief in the potential of citizens as participants in the public domain and the criticism of the structural conditions in which this participation has to take place. This same tension has also defined the lively literature of criticism (cf. Calhoun 1992, Crossley & Roberts 2004, McKee 2005, Mouffe 1999).

The current changes in politics, culture and society in general and the media landscape in particular set new challenges to the mediated relationship between citizens and government. The conditions of public discussion, and the role of media in it – or to put it more radically, the very definition of media – is under constant change. Technological, economic, sociological and cultural trends partly redefine the roles played by people, politicians, experts and government officials and media professionals. (cf. Benkler 2006, Jenkins 2006, Deuze 2007). As the notions of life politics (Giddens) suggests, citizens are involved in the societal issues not only from the viewpoints of their role as citizens, or a member of a class, or other relatively stable reference group, but increasingly they enter the public life from diverse positions in which their complex and changing identities and interests play a crucial role. The roles in which people consume, shape and further distribute public information are increasingly determined by diverse patterns of everyday social relations, entertainment, and consumership. In addition to the social and cultural diversity, ubiquitous media technology has added the factor of situational diversity in to the matrix: uses and needs of information and knowledge are also contextually changing. The informational needs of a citizen depend on not only who he or she is but also where and when he/she is.

This changing landscape offers an exceptionally fruitful chance to further develop our theoretical and conceptual understanding of how people enter the public domain as citizens, and as users and co-producers of knowledge. It also opens and redefines the interfaces between public or official information resources, mainstream (mass) media and the everyday life of people.

SOMUS-project adopts a multi-stakeholder approach where also civil society, organizations, the media etc. are considered to play their role in the governance. By developing concrete case studies focused around particular themes and problems we will look at how some of the burning problems of today, combined with some of the newest technological innovations of today can provide us new knowledge about how modes of public participation – and the roles played by various stakeholders in this interaction –can vary. Equally importantly, SOMUS looks at how the contextual interests, knowledge and needs of these participants can be used as a resource in technological development

Concepts and theories

Mash-ups

A mashup is often referred a lightweight web application, which compounds (“mashing”) of two or more realtime information sources on the Internet combined to innovative and interactive interfaces, like geographical maps.

If official data were accessible through open interfaces, information could be made more understandable for different citizen groups by providing different services, views and visualizations to the data. Collective intelligence could be utilized in service development, as well. One example of citizen-driven services are mashups – light Internet applications combining several data sources, such as budgets, timetables, press releases, news, blog articles, and web discussions. Some known mashups are Chicagocrimes.org and Tilannehuone.fi, which display crimes and alerts almost in real-time on a map.

Internet technologies have rapidly created new possibilities and forms of collective intelligence, also referred to as the wisdom of crowds or crowdsourcing. Regardless of the term, the main observation is that a crowd creates in average better solutions than a single expert. One of the most famous examples is open encyclopaedia Wikipedia. Crowdsourcing and social networks create enormous potential in special situations where primary communication channels do not work. However, collective intelligence could be better utilized also in everyday and practical matters in the civil society.

With current Internet technologies, like mashups and realtime information flows (like RSS feeds), it is possible to conduct all these actors mentioned above, to interactive and distribued networks, which change information openly together very efficiently and more accurate than nowadays.

Citizenship

In terms of citizenship, the project will offer a contribution to our understanding of citizenship as a process in which information gains its relevance from the actually experienced (real) problems of everyday life and is transformed into knowledge that suggests action and concrete participation of these problems. The project will shed new light into the dynamics of citizen participation in different situations, on diverse platforms, and between various actors. It traces the process of civic participation, evolving in the new networked media environment from emergence of public connection (Couldry et al 2006) to the recognition of problems and community stakeholders (Friedland et al 2001) into looking at how people build and share competences in interactive environments. Thus, the project looks at citizenship as a fluctuating process and tries to understand it from bottom-up, recognizing the different roles people occupy when participating (as residents, users, media audience, customers, and consumers etc.). The project serves in mapping the possibilities for active citizenship in existing citizen networks, and social media as a resource: what kind of information gathering and producing, problem solving, networking, public discussion evolve in the everyday life context, and what is the role and the use of the information that (local) administration and media produce for citizens.

Social media solutions and innovations provide a concrete situation in which to study the dynamics of how citizenship emerges bottom up in a process where people become involved in a) public definition of common problems, b) collection and accumulation knowledge and other competencies, c) development of socially grounded innovations, as well as d) actual decision-making.

Public service

In terms of public (information) services, the project looks at the benefits and potentials of open information environments for government and other official information distributions. By tapping into the situational, contextual and interest driven needs of citizen information, the project aims at opening public information and data resources as resources of citizenship, problem solving and collective learning.

The Government of Finland has a strong intent to develop electronic services and open communication channels for public administration [2]. However, open interfaces for public sector information are still missing and therefore new service development has been sluggish. According to the UN e-Government Survey 2008, Finland has dropped to the 15th position in e-Government readiness and is thus far behind other Nordic countries [3]. Finland's position is even lower (45) when it comes to citizens' possibilities to participate decision-making online. E-Government services have thus far been understood quite narrowly as services that public sector provides citizens. New ways of thinking and new types of interaction between public, private, and social knowledge and competencies are needed in the future. When people can collect, re-use and distribute public sector information, citizen groups can organize around it in new ways, creating new enterprises and new communities aiming at solving old problems in a new and more efficient way [4]. At the moment real life demonstrations need to be developed and evaluated. In ubiquitous society the focus should be not only on the tools like Web or mobile, but rather on supporting participation in the best possible way.

Social/mass media

In terms of (mass) media, the project aims at challenging limits of the notion of the audience and consumer which has been structurally imposed on mediated citizenship mass media. By drawing on earlier work on how mass media can enhance citizen participation (Rosen 1999, Heikkilä 2001) the project develops, tests and evaluates new kinds of media concepts wich are situated at the borderline between the so called social media and the more traditional mass media. It is the interface of social, official and mass media which is the main concern here. All three are crucially needed.

We know that media is inevitably bound to the development of citizenship. And although contemporary media culture is often accused of only offering people the roles of passive consumer and audience, public debates of our societies still surround us in the media and invite us to step into the role of a citizen and to take a stand on a wide range of issues. These debates, in turn, are one of the main sites in which official information reaches its audiences. Media not only raise issues that have importance in people’s everyday life, but also are involved in forming the understanding of potential places and means for civic participation.

What will be studied is how new and existing issue networks (ranging from civil society to public administration and government), social networks (connecting people across issue groupings), media networks (old and new) can – in new social media solutions – be brought together in innovative ways around shared problems. It is the new combinations of old competencies and resources (as well as sometimes new resources) which make up the social potential of future mashup solutions.

Conceptualising socially embedded media use

Current changes in forms and styles of political activity and in the media landscape pose new questions concerning the relationship between the citizens and the government. In the recent debates about these changes, questions of public discussion and participation have come to the fore. It has become obvious that people become involved in social issues not only within the framework of officially constructed citizenship. Increasingly new forms of civic activity and their articulation through new media mean that people enter public domain from a diverse set of fluctuating roles and identities (ranging from consumer and life-style identities to situational roles defined by particular interests).

From the perspective of social sciences, the crucial theoretical questions of this project relate to conceptualizations the interfaces between the various kinds of media, and the relationship (or interaction) between information, knowledge, and (civic) action.

Media interfaces

In the traditional modern institutional division of labour, the information practices of the public sector, the mass media and life-world information flows are seen as distinct. For some time now, these boundaries have been moving, and there is ample amount of literature on the matter. The rhetoric of citizen participation tends to hide the power taking place in local planning and decision-making processes, the concrete difficulties in the dialogue between the government and the citizens, and the questions of expertise: how information becomes knowledge and what kind of knowledge is legitimate and appreciated in decision-making. Earlier research as well as the experiences of local decision-making processes have shown that there are problems in the interaction between these different actors. (Bäcklund 2007, Bäcklund ym. 2002, Harju 2002, Häikiö 2005, Leino 2006, Rättilä 2001, Staffans 2004.)

However, what makes the focus on mash-up concepts and demonstrations very fruitful and important is the fact they enable us to look how all these three sources of information merge and are actively merged by their users.

In order to make sense of the user perspectives related to such sites and services – and their different user interfaces – this project will adopt a multi-stakeholder approach. By studying how different institutional actors of the public sector and the mass media view these services, and how various civil society actors (both organisations and individual users) use and evaluate these services we will develop a sociologically embedded analysis of the usability of the mash-up concepts.

//Tähän ehkä mobiilisuudesta ym. lisää?//

Information, knowledge, action – and citizenship

Both in social sciences as well as in studies concerning technological development and design, a more detailed understanding is needed about how civic participation evolves in the new networked media environment. Our conceptual focus in this project is to empirically elaborate our understanding of how information, knowledge and participation are intertwined in a process which grows from the recognition of problems and stakeholders into building and sharing competences in interactive environments. By embedding the technological innovations and prototypes into real social environment we will study the dynamics of citizen participation in different situations, on diverse platforms, and between various actors.

In terms of understanding participation, two sets of conceptual distinctions may be useful. First we can think of dimension information-knowledge-action. Information in the research refers to the mutually shared flows between in various stakeholders and participators of a site. Knowledge, however refers to information that has been set into or seen within an interpretative framework which in turn relates to the practical needs of the people using the service. Thus, knowledge is something always linked to particular users and their needs, values and goals. Action – for instance participation in an urban planning project – is thus in one sense the ‘final’ interpretation of information, informed by the cultural and social structures of knowledge.

A second dimension needed in order to make sense of the dynamics of how citizenship emerges is to look at the bottom up process where people become involved process of public definition of common problems, which in turn informs collection and accumulation knowledge and other competencies, which in turn can lead to development of socially grounded innovations, which in turn can lead to participation in actual decision-making.

Social media solutions and innovations in general – and particularly new media applications embedded in a social media network – provide a concrete opportunities to link changing forms of citizenship, resources for civic participation and its connections to everyday life into a theoretical framework that both elaborates some traditional concepts of social sciences and media research (such as the formation of publics, participation, the boundary between the private and public etc) public but also challenges us to re-think some of the older categories and their usability (such as the notion of the audience, the idea of fairly stable target groups, etc). Understanding citizenship from the grassroots perspective and recognizing the different roles people occupy when participating (as residents, users, media audience, customers, and consumers etc.) is crucial. The project serves in mapping the possibilities for active citizenship in existing citizen networks, and social media as a resource: what kind of information gathering and producing, problem solving, networking, public discussion evolve in the everyday life context, and what is the role and the use of the information that (local) administration and media produce for citizens.

Technology state-of-the-art

//TKK + VTT//

Previous studies by participants

//Hankkeen liittyminen osahankkeiden johtajien ja heidän tutkimusryhmiensä muuhun tutkimukseen omaan kappaleeseen?//

Nämä sisällytetään taustaan ja teoriaan: viitteitä omiin tutkimuksiin. Eli tämä kappale katoaa. --Pirjo

Objectives

Vision 2015

We share the vision of efficient web democracy as stated in the Finnish Government’s National knowledge society strategy for 2007–2015 [2]. In 2015 citizens may participate in the society easily as a part of their everyday life. Public decision-making starts from grass-root level actions and it should be transparent for all citizen groups. Citizens challenge public administration and media companies to better achievements via self-organizing networks that support public-citizen partnership and make communication and operation efficient in diverse situations. Wisdom of crowds is utilized in public sector by delegating some issues for citizens to solve, which leads to better and more efficient solutions.

Realization of the vision requires collectively built competences and open sharing of basic knowledge.

Aims of the project

//Tarkennettava tätä kappaletta//

The project has three main objectives:

• To produce basic knowledge about dynamics of citizenship in ubiquitous media environment
• To develop new forms of ubiquitous self-organizing media processes and tools
• To demonstrate and evaluate new citizen-driven service concepts that are enabled through open interfaces for public and media sector data

These objectives will be achieved through the following case studies, during which several demonstrations of new media service concepts will be produced and evaluated:

1. Sustainable development in urban planning: Public services that support citizens' participation in local decision-making, mashups that combine and visualize public, commercial, and social media
   1. Immigration media: Personalized public information in accessible and understandable form for all citizen groups from their viewpoints
2. Crisis communication: Self-organizing networks in extraordinary situations combining information from public sector, media companies, third sector, and citizens.

(# Collaboration swarm: Open and self-organizing competence networks within public sector, research, business, and citizens, providing open production processes in ubiquitous society)

Exact topics for the cases will be defined later with the participating organizations and citizen groups. The different aspects will be studied as follows:

• Media channels, user-driven design of media services, user experience (VTT)
• Composition of mashups services, connecting information sources and propagation of event information (TKK)
• Self-organizing networks, impact on civil society, activation of citizens and third sector (JyU)
• Interaction between government, citizens and media, use of social media in civic networks connecting to mainstream media by using and modifying media content (UTA)

Research questions

//nimetäänkö erikseen?//

Connections to MOTIVE Research Programme

MOTIVE research program aims at generating new knowledge, principles and technical solutions to promote human-centred ubiquitous society. The changes in media field must be studied from the citizens' and users' point of view. With this research intention we will focus on civil society and the new possibilities ubiquitous media may provide citizens and among their self-organizing, spatial and ad-hoc networks. We will study both the new forms of communication between different actors: government officials, media companies, third sector, civil organizations and citizens, and the technical solutions that empower these channels via Internet, mobile and other devices.

We understand media broadly as a form of interaction, participation and influencing, providing both the information and the possibilities for citizens to take part in the society and decision-making. The media environment of citizens consists of channels and services provided by existing commercial and administrative institutions as well as by emerging new forms and solutions. When studying the impact of new media channels on democracy and publicity, developing new ways of opening up these interfaces is a crucial focal point. Issues like personalization of information, needs of different citizen groups, privacy and reliability of information need to be considered. Multidisciplinarity will be ensured by doing the research and sharing the results openly on the Web and stimulating there discussion between disciplines.

pirjo: TÄHÄN TARVITTAISIIN YLEMMÄN TASON VÄLIOTSIKKO: Case studies and sub-projects.

INSTANT MEDIAN jälkeen kannattaisi panna väliotsikko ja kirjoittaa lyhyt kuvaus siitä SUN omasta jaksosta/TEEMASTA

SOMUS-project consists of three problem- and community based case studies that study different user groups, their information needs and ways of building shared knowledge. The project will develop, build and test mash-up solutions in three particular cases. Solving the problems and challenges in different stages will provice material for the fourth sub-study: the usefulness of open environments in technological development in which the project will involve both members of the communities in which mash-ups are developed as well as draw from a more general open community of technological developers (collaboration swarm)

In each case, the project aims at conceptually tracing the process by which recoginition of problems leads to needs and gathering of information which in turn transforms to knowledge by shared action in and outside the Net. The information interests as well as the time frame of the processes vary a great deal depending on the issues, the actor groups involved. This provides important diversity for the analyzed user experiences. In each case the mash-up starts by combining (at minimum) official data sources (municipalities, ministeries), mass media (local, national, international) and ngo-actors. In each case, we expect this to be a skeleton which will be greatly enriched and diversified by the links and interests of the users.

Also, in each case, the research works through a similar model of investigation, starting from mapping the needs and imagination of the community (of interest)in question, followed by a experimental concept of the mash-up and a period of first trial, followed again by another round of iteration. The case studies of the research project are offering contexts where to study and evaluate the use of social media tools, both mobile and web based, in the use of different user groups who have their specific information interests, and in processes where the time frame and the pace of the information are different.

Participatory media

In the case study of participatory media the aim is to develop and evaluate web based tools that serve for citizens’ participation in local planning processes and decision-making. Two school classes in two cities (Espoo, Tampere) will be chosen as user groups. The case study is linked to the theme of sustainable development but the idea is to obtain a grassroots perspective by letting the pupils themselves define the issues and the questions of sustainable development in connection to their localities they are interested in.

Starting with the information interests of pupils themselves and developing the mash-ups according to their needs will result in showing how social media technology enables networking with other local groups that pupils will consider important in their chosen issues, and how gathering, modifying and sharing the information in mash-ups is used in striving towards possible solutions in the problems in question. The case study also serves in mapping the critical points where web based information sharing and knowledge building may turn to local action which aims to influence in the local decision-making.

By focusing on (high) school students, the project also searches for a link to the quickly emerging new media landscape of younger generations where communities of identity and interests are formed. The case study draws from a ongoing research at the Journalism Research Centre (UTA) on the changing media landscape of children and youth. VIITE!!!

Immigrant media

The case study of immigrant media focuses on developing social media tools for immigrant groups in Helsinki city area. The media environment and the information interests of immigrants often differ from the ones of other inhabitants in Finland. The case study aims to developing an information and knowledge platform for immigrant groups in accessible and understandable, form based on their everyday life needs and issues. To begin with the main goals are (as in the case of students) to enable their participation in the processes of knowledge building and public discussion, and establish open interfaces and interaction between immigrants, public sector and the mass media.

Just as in the case of students, but in a different way, this case study looks at a community of interes which is situated at ‘border’ of citizenship. This case study draws from earlier and ongoing research at the Journalism Research Centre (UTA) where the media uses and needs of immigrant groups are being studied.

Instant media

The participatory media as a whole is very appropriate to the longstanding processes, like communal planning, and for participatory democracy. But in unusual situations citizens and mass media need information instantly. This process is iterative, the facts and needed actions are sharpening gradually.

For instant media, it is vital to create a self-organizing networks of several communication channels and devices including citizens, administration and mass media. A single person might not follow television, internet or radio. On the other hand, people for example stuck mobile networks with their calls to family, relatives and friends. Thus no single media network is not enough.

The main solution to this is to create independent and open information sources and flows, like realtime RSS feeds and mashups on the Internet, where all the actors can reuse and remix information as equally as legally possible. One of the strengthennes of the Internet is, that allows to use several operating systems, devices, channels etc. This creates less vulnerable wholeness than single technologies like radio or television broadcasting.

Also, traditional mass media has a fundamental problem of realtime information bandwidth. Newspapers are published in daily basis and both radio and tv are linear stream media - they are not intended to communicate about realtime situations for hours or hours all the time, for example about administrative guidance or sharpening information, such as duration or scope. However, Internet-based mass media is very powerful with large audiences, almost unlimited information storage and capacity to create realtime and updated information simultaneously.

A typical citizen-observed and exceptional communication situation occurred in Jyväskylä 17.3.2008. The actual electricity blackout happened as usual: many security systems failed together. Citizen B got mobile message from citizen A, that university area is out of electricity. B was on the train and called to citizen C and there was another blackened area. Citizen B wrote to microchannel Jaiku, reporting two large blackouts in Jyväskylä and asked possible other areas. The communication has lasted only couple of minutes so far and there without no mass media report yet. But using Jaiku this time, the awareness of the blackouts started to spread on the Internet to blogs, www forums etc. rapidly, reaching iteratively broader audience and mass media.

This process of collective action is iterative. There are several messages to be broadcasted simultaneously, newer and older, truth and false, but the collective intelligence is very self-correcting and start soon repeat and broadcast the same, newest and true messages like an audience start to harmonizing its clapping with the same rhythm very soon after the end of a concert (Watts 2003).

This short example shows the possibilities of unformal citizen networks in extraordinary situations. Many people jammed with their cars at Jyväskylä, unreachable by text alert strips in television, but basically reachable via radio. On the other hand, some ten people stucked to elevators, unreachable both tv and radio etc. Thus we need open networks combined by traditional mass media, the Internet and mobile networks and several channels or platforms inside them for covering all the administration and citizens - including those abroad.

As digital technology is more and more adapted by societies and citizens, the need for interlocal communication is rising also. This means that the people at one physical place need information from another location and vice versa.

Implementation

Research methods and data //ei ehkä oikea otsikko tähän//

The possibilities and challenges regarding to open public-citizen partnership via different media channels and technical solutions can be best studied in real life context. Therefore the research will be carried out in the form of case studies from different fields and with different coalitions of citizens and citizen groups, public administration, and media sector.

The case studies consist of the following phases that will be carried out iteratively:

1. Definition: domain analysis, needs and requirements
2. Demonstrations: concept design, application development, evaluation with different actors
3. Reflection: analyzing the data, dissemination

Several mashups will be developed and tested with users. In addition to the mashups developed by the project team, an open competition will be arranged to get more services that can be used for the trials. User needs and user experience will be studied combining web and mobile tools for participatory design (e.g. Owela [5]). The used research methods include focus groups, web and mobile diaries, prototype testing, and field trials. Participants will be chosen among existing citizen groups that act and participate in concrete cases (e.g. land use questions, issues related to schools, ethnicity, and climate change).

The three case studies are tied together by the fact that they use, test and develop similar technological solutions and apply a similar structure of inquiry (see above). In addition, the results and interpretations they produce can be drawn together and synthesized through the conceptual apparatus presented above. Both participatory media and immigrant media cases focus on on communities of interest which are situated in the borderline of traditional, formal citizenship. Thus, their results are drawn together by discussions and theories of citizenship and public participation. Instant media, on the other hand articulates the changing relations of time, space and interests in a different manner, but broadens the scope of discussing the relationship between information, interests knowledge and action. The sub study on open environment technological development offers yet another articulation on the questions of interests, community and participation.

JOS PYSTYTTÄISIIN TÄHÄN TEKEMÄÄN MATRSIISI ALAOSIOSTA, NIIDEN KYSYMYKSISTÄ JA VASTUISTA, HAKEMUS TUKEVOITUISI MERKITTÄVÄSTI! (risto)

Research approaches

Open collaboration will be not only studied but also practiced within the project. One part of the research will be done in collaboration with The Open Research Swarm (ibid.) in Finland. In order to study and compare self-organizing collaboration processes, same research task and hypothesis will be given to solve to professional and academic The Open Research Swarm and other Internet communities, which members are more to common citizens and amount of tens of thousands members.

Collective intelligence or swarming is often referred to large voluntary group and its collaboration for example to produce software code (open source), information (Wikipedia) or problem solving (like foresight panels). In such a group the participation, the methods and the results are open, shared and accessible to all, including to those who are not participating. Like open source production model, the openness refers here to the possibility to everyone to utilize the results independent of the level of their personal or organizational contributions. In open development there is for example no academic or copyright-based single-person or -organizational ownership.

Some characteristics of collective intelligence are, that a) all the participants and their contributions are equal b) the formal structure is as bottom-up as possible meaning very light control of hierarcical structures c) the results and final outputs emerge after collective editing, corrections, discussions, possible voting and other group work methods. Thus the process is often self-organizing, iterative process and highly self-repairing and -correcting.

//Participatory design with citizens/users throughout the project//

Work packages

WP0: Management

//VTT//

WP1: Theoretical framework

//UTA (citizens,media,public sector etc) + JyU (swarm)//

//Tähän emme nyt vielä kirjoittaneet mitään - itseasiassa nämä asiat ovat kutakuinkin kohdassa Concepts and theories (Auli) //

Collective intelligence still lacks of definite or single term. For example Howard Rheingold (2002) coins this phenomenon as "Smart Mobs" and James Surowecki (2004) "The Wisdom of Crowds". Don Tapscott (2006) uses "wikinomics" and Jeff Howe (2008) "crowdsourcing" in economics. Pierre-Paul Grassé (1959) introduced "stigmergy" to refer collective behaviour of termites. Some call self-organizing autonomous intelligence of ants and bees as "hive mind" or "swarm" (Kelly 1994).

// Nämä lähteet ovat nyt References-lopussa, kun wiki-notaatiota ei käytetä vaan viitataan perinteisesti vuosiluvulla tekijään - //

Independent of the term, the main observation is, that a crowd creates averagely better solutions than a single expert. If put some theories of the field together, the collective intelligence needs diversity of opinions - and some of them could be also wrong - and the independence and local or personal exptertise of opinions of participants.

Beside the variety of opinions, collective intelligence needs a hub or central information source, which collects the opinions or suggestions for solutions, and suitable tools for collaboration, like internet-based platform with its applications. Without hub and tools the collective intelligence might no be very effective and actually this innovation and production model has got remarkably more popular via internet and its evolution.

WP2: Methodology

//UTA (qualitative studies) + TKK (technology development?) + VTT (participatory design)//

Qualitative methods such as interviews and group interviews are used in various phases of the research project:

- Recognizing and choosing the citizen groups for case studies (based on existing communities or issue/problem based approach?)

- Involving public sector and media organizations

- Creating encounters with different groups (citizens + administration + mass media)

- Qualitative interviews with all the actor groups involved: mapping the needs and interests.

- Using and developing the tools together with the participant groups

- Evaluations: qualitative interviews, discussions with all the participants (citizen groups, representatives of public sector and media organizations)

For harnessing collective intelligence, several open-ended and self-organised tasks are derived from theories of the research area and processed with selected social networks and communities of the Internet, described in the section Field studies.

WP3: Technology development

//TKK (mashup platform etc) + VTT (tilkut+somes+owela) //

Declarative user interfaces and REST based mashup.

-Development of declarative user interface language

-Mashup backplane based on XFormsDB [1]

-Digital signatures and indentity management

-Web based user interface development tools

-REST based information system integration

-Event based dynamic update of user interfaces

WP4: Field studies

//VTT (throughout the project + cases)//

//JyU: iteratiivisia kysymyksiä tutkimusparvelle sekä vertaileva kokeilu useammalla eri enemmän tai vähemmän tiiviillä www-foorumin muodostamalla yhteisöllä tai verkostolla, kuten Muro, Suomi24 ja Arvopaperi//

WP5: Dissemination

//JyU (open publishing, swarm) + all (publishing)//

// Kannattaisiko tämä kappale kirjoittaa kollektiivisesti suoraan, montako artikkelia, valmistuvaa väitöskirjaa etc. yhteensä ??? - entä olisiko hyvä järjestää lopuksi jonkinkokoinen kv-konferenssi tai suppeampi tulosten kommunikoimiseen ??? - Kari//

The research (WP4) of the collective intelligence and the collaboration of administration, citizens and media will both result one or more articles, which will be published in international scientific periodicals. The articles will also be partially article dissertation (???). Also, WP4 leads to recommendations of good practices of administration communication strategies in Finland.

Schedule

//tämä uusiksi, wp-kaaviokuva tähän//

The project is planned to take two years: 1.1.2009-31.12.2010.

• Background analysis (citizen, society and media viewpoints): 1.1.-31.3.2009
• User studies: needs and requirements: 1.2.-31.5.2009
• Technology development: 1.3.2009-31.5.2010
• Demonstrations: 1.6.2009-31.9.2010
• Evaluation (with different actors): 1.6.2009-30.11.2010
• Dissemination: 1.6.2009-31.12.2010

Ethical issues

There seem not to be remarkable ethical problems in this study. If such are met in the course of study, ethical principles will be carefully honoured.

Finance

// Taulukko: eriteltynä koko konsortion rahoituksen käyttösuunnitelma kululajeittain ja osahankkeittain eriteltynä //

Research group

Members of the research groups

// Osahankkeiden tutkimusryhmien jäsenet, ansiot ja tehtävät //

The consortium consists of four research groups from different organisations and The Open Research Swarm.

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland

Media and Internet knowledge centre lead by Res.Prof. Caj Södergård has long experience in studying and developing media services that combine Web, mobile, print and digital television. Research themes include e.g. social and semantic media and user-centred development of web and mobile services. PhD student Pirjo Näkki focuses in her research on participatory design of media services utilizing web-based research methods and tools like Owela Open Web Lab for participatory design and open innovation [5].

Helsinki University of Technology

The Department of Media Technology is a totally new unit, which combines research groups from digital media and communications. Within the department, the multimedia research group headed by prof. Petri Vuorimaa focuses on digital media services and, especially, web technologies. Recently, the multimedia research group has studied, for example, mobile web services, mobile television, home automation and entertainment networks, and optimization of virtual machines. D.Sc. (Tech.) students Mikko Pohja and Alessandro Cogliati will complete their doctoral theses within the project.

University of Jyväskylä

Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy at the University of Jyväskylä is the leading unit to research the Civil Society issues in Finland, including regional social networks, new social movements and social capital. It has Master's programme of the Expertise on Civil Society and national research portal of Civil Society, Kans (kans.jyu.fi). Professor Esa Konttinen is specialised to the research in Civil Society and Social Movements, including environmental movements. PhD student Kari A. Hintikka is making his dissertation about how common people self-organize and coordinate themselves via internet after extraordinary situations (like Asian tsunami or Katrina hurricane) and forms new political entities in Civil Society, like internet parties (2008).

University of Tampere

The Journalism Research and Development Centre is based at the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication. The Centre has rapidly gained a prominent place in the field of journalism, publicity and new media. The main concern in the projects of the Centre is with the relationship between newspapers and their readers, the challenges presented by new technology to journalism and the changing public sphere. The Centre draws on strong domestic and international academic expertise and know how combined with a practically-oriented approach to research problems. The research interests of Professor Risto Kunelius include civic participation in professional journalism, theories of citizenship and challenges of professionalism in media, and the formation of transnational public spaces and spheres. PhD student Auli Harju focuses in her research on case studies of local civic action: how active citizens understand, define and experience their civic action and its media representations.

The Open Research Swarm

The Open Research Swarm [ibid.] is a self-organizing collaboration network on the Internet. It aims at organizing open multidisciplinary research in a new way utilizing social media tools, such as wiki and Jaiku. Also this project intention has been formulated as a result of collaboration in the Research swarm and written in an open wiki by several authors. Collaboration will continue throughout the project. In 15.4.2008, it has over 30 researchers and other professional participants from different Finnish research institutions, non-profit organizations and companies is involved in the project, including prof. Vuorimaa (HUT) and PhD students Hintikka (JyU) and Näkki (VTT).

Research environment

// Tutkimusympäristöt, sis. käytetyt laitteet //

National and international cooperation

// konsortion kannalta keskeinen kansallinen ja kansainvälinen yhteistyö ja työnjako: yhteistyötahot, yhteistyömuoto, kuvaus siitä, miten hanke hyötyy yhteistyöstä //

National cooperation will be done between the four consortium partners, as well as inside the Research swarm. Participation in the case studies and providing data for mashups has thus far been discussed with the representatives of the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and City of Espoo.

International cooperation can be done through existing international networks, such as Civil Society and New Forms of Governance - the Making of New European Citizenship (CINEFOGO), as well as with following contacts:

• Prof. Lewis A. Friedland, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
• Prof. Mark Deuze, Department of Telecommunications, University of Indiana-Bloomington, USA & Journalism and New Media, Leiden University, The Netherlands
• Prof. Nils Enlund, Media Technology and Graphic Arts, Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
• Prof. Jean Vanderdonckt, Belgian Laboratory of Computer-Human Interaction (BCHI), Université catholique de Louvain (UCL), Belgium
• Dr. Jasminko Novak, Collaboration and Media Technologies Lab, University of Zurich, Switzerland
• D.Sc. Pablo Cesar, The National Research Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science (CWI), The Netherlands
• M.Sc. Petter Bae Brandtzæg, Cooperative and Trusted Systems, SINTEF ICT, Norway

// Mahdollisen ulkomailla tapahtuvan työskentelyn konkreettinen kuvaus, esim. miten vierailu liittyy tutkimussuunnitelmaan, vierailun tavoitteet, onko jo sovittu //

Researcher education and carrier

// Tutkijankoulutus sisältäen opetus- ja ohjausjärjestelyt //

// Konsortion tutkimusryhmissä suoritettavat jatko-opinnot //

// Tutkijan uran edistäminen ja suunniteltu tutkijoiden liikkuvuus //

// Tasa-arvon edistäminen tutkimushankkeessa //

Expected results and impacts

// Odotettu tieteellinen + yhteiskunnallinen vaikuttavuus. Mahdollisuus tieteellisiin läpimurtoihin ja tutkimuksen ja tieteen uusiutumiskyvyn lisäämiseen. Tutkimustulosten sovellettavuus ja hyödyntämismahdollisuudet. Tulosten julkaiseminen ja tunnetuksi tekeminen mahdollisille hyödyntäjille, tiedeyhteisölle ja yleisölle //

The project will result in understanding the phenomenon of social and participatory media as well as theories, models and demonstrations that will be evaluated in real-life context with users. It provides basic knowledge and practical tools for citizens and public sector collaboration in ubiquitous society.

Theories. The project offers a way to theoretically combine the expectations both the society and its citizens have for citizenship and participation, to explore in practice civic agency in today’s mediated society and understand the possibilities social media creates for social involvement. The project will create enhanced theoretical understanding of public spheres, publicity and public life in the era of social media. It will result in basic research and theoretisation about the interfaces between earlier institutionalised and at the moment rather well resourced networks and actors and their interface with the evolving and changing landscape of citizen-participation in various issues via the Web.

Models. The project creates models about how common people, associations and movements self-organize themselves using latest developments of internet communication technologies, and how informal social networks could be used more efficiently in critical communication situations.

Also a process model for user-driven service development will be developed. The model takes into account, how different roles of users and communities must be taken into account when developing new social media services.

Technology. The project will develop new technical solutions for mashup services. The mashup services will be based on the REpresentational State Transfer (REST) paradigm. New methods to link information sources and dynamically update user interfaces will be developed. The aim is build tools for citizens for creating new mashup services, while public authorities and media companies can publish their information using the defined mashup interfaces. The objective is to create a platform for mashup services that allows one to combine information from different sources as easily as copying and pasting data between office applications.

Impacts on society. The main beneficiaries are Finnish society and its citizens, to who better services can be offered. The research can have an impact on the strategical level on how the Finnish society works and collaborates with citizens. Additionally, opening the official information channels provides huge opportunities for both web service providers and traditional companies for new service concepts. Although the data would be free of charge, many commercial services can be built on them, as well.

The goal of the project is to open one central governmental or municipal web page with data that can be utilized in different services via mashups. Within the project we will build up a web portal with public mashup services, including 1) a breakthrough service that becomes widely used and improves citizens' opportunities to participate in decision-making and development of social innovations, and 2) several smaller demonstrations of mashup services that combine data from different public and private sources. Users may develop mashups also by themselves utilizing the platform developed in the project.

Impacts on research. Within the project a new way of doing research work openly on the Web will be tested and evaluated within the Research swarm.

References

1. Kansallinen tietoyhteiskuntastrategia 2007-2015 , Tietoyhteiskuntaohjelma, Valtioneuvoston kanslia, 2006
2. UN e-Government Survey 2008 - From e-Government to Connected Governance, United Nations, January 2008
3. Power of Information : An independent review by Ed Mayo and Tom Steinberg, June 2007
4. Owela Open Web Lab, http://owela.vtt.fi, VTT

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