LIC last publications
De Cindio, F., Schuler, D.
Beyond Community Networks: From Local to Global, from Participation to Deliberation
Liisa Horelli, Douglas Schuler (eds.), Special Issue: "Linking the Local with the Global within Community Informatics", The Journal of Community Informatics, Vol 8, No 3, 2012
Abstract
Both authors have been engaged in the community networking movement and its evolution for many years in an ongoing effort to help create online systems that meet human needs. Community networks are intended to help address shared "public affairs" in geographical areas. Although this goal is important and laudable, community networking communities are often unable to have their voice heard in these matters. To help address this question — and the broader problem of inadequate and marginalized citizen engagement society-wide — we have launched several research / action projects related to community networks and online deliberation. To inform that process we focus on three prominent protest communities in Italy. We find that they must move beyond the community network model and perspective in two profound ways. Firstly, the communities must necessarily work with and integrate local and non-local perspectives. Secondly, the need exists for more purposive modes of communication that we believe can be supported through informed development and use of technology. We take this approach as an useful step in an ongoing process, building on our experiences with community networks as conceptualized in the mid 1990's to help develop and define our requirements for useful online capabilities as they link local and non-local communities in a sustained way that manifests civic intelligence.
De Cindio F., Sonnante L., Trentini A.
Cittadinanza Digitale: un arcobaleno di diritti e opportunità
MONDO DIGITALE N. 42, giugno 2012 (in Italian)
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Abstract
Viviamo in una società costantemente plasmata dalle tecnologie dell'informazione e della comunicazione in un continuo intreccio tra ciò che avviene nel mondo fisico e quanto accade online. Ciò comporta inevitabilmente anche l'estensione del concetto di cittadinanza che diviene digitale se i diritti e i doveri che essa comporta vengono adeguatamente declinati a fronte delle maggiori opportunità offerte dalle tecnologie. Quest'ultime tuttavia propongono sfide e opportunità che "sollecitano" l'idea stessa di cittadinanza e l'esercizio dei diritti che ne sono alla base.
Con questo lavoro proponiamo un "framework" concettuale per i diversi ambiti che devono essere considerati per discutere di (diritti e doveri di) cittadinanza digitale.
De Cindio, F.
Guidelines for Designing Deliberative Digital Habitats: Learning from e-Participation for Open Data Initiatives
Tim Davies & Zainab Bawa (eds.), Special Issue: "Community Informatics and Open Government Data", The Journal of Community Informatics, Vol 8, No 2, 2012
Abstract
This paper discusses issues in designing deliberative digital habitats. It identifies three dimensions that define them: the gemeinschaft dimension, the gesellschaft dimension, and the technology dimension, the latter with four different spaces. While not a how-to manual, this conceptual framework, rooted in both existing literature and field experimentation, should prove helpful to digital democracy designers, either for public institutions or grassroots movements. As a contribution to the growing body of scholarship on online deliberation, it organizes critical issues so that they will not be overlooked. Examples from field cases illustrate such issues.
De Cindio, F., Krzatala-Jaworska, E., Sonnante, L.
Problems&Proposals, a tool for collecting citizens' intelligence
Presented at the CSCW2012 Workshop on Collective Intelligence as Community Discourse and Action, Seattle, WA, 11th February 2012.
Abstract
Internet speeds up the development of tools for collecting citizens' intelligence. More and more popular, social rating websites allow inhabitants to alert local government about problems in the city. However, these devices do not collect possible solutions. In this paper, we analyze Problems&Proposals, a section designed to fill this gap within the ComunaliMilano2011 website used during the municipal elections campaign in Milan. We study patterns of use of this online space addressing the question of the tool appropriation. What are the characteristics of online participation within this online space? What are the profiles of its users? These research questions are crucial for understanding how inhabitants can contribute to policy-making process in their city via eparticipation. Different methods like content analysis, website statistics and online questionnaire are used. We show that despite the participants' preference for less structured spaces like online forums, users were interested in the deliberative tool, which contributed to shape an online environment inclined to face with real local problems.
De Cindio, F.
Ambienti e tecnologie della partecipazione in rete
In, A. De ViVo e A. Papini (a cura di), "La comunicazione pubblica locale", Guerini e associati, Milano, 2012 (in Italian)
De Cindio, F., Peraboni, C.
Building digital participation hives: Toward a local public sphere
In M. Foth, L. Forlano, C. Satchell, & M. Gibbs (Eds.), "From social butterfly to engaged citizen: Urban informatics, social media, ubiquitous computing, and mobile technology to support citizen engagement." Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2011
De Cindio, F., Macintosh, A., Peraboni, C.
From e-Participation to Online Deliberation: Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Online Deliberation, OD2010, Leeds, UK, 30 June - 2 July, 2010.
Leeds : University of Leeds, 2010. ISBN 0966781864
Abstract
This volume comprises the refereed papers presented at OD2010, the fourth International Conference on Online Deliberation, held in Leeds in June 2010. This is the first time the conference has been held in Europe, after three conferences in the United States:
· the first one, “Developing and Using Online Tools for Deliberative Democracy”, organized at Carnegie Mellon University in 2003; (the conference web site is now linked at http://web.archive.org/web/20060314061609/http://caae.phil.cmu.edu/style/Seminar.h
tml)
· the second one on “Online Deliberation: Design, Research, and Practice” was in 2004 at Stanford University, organized by the Symbolic Systems Program, the Center for Deliberative Democracy, the Center for the Study of Language and Information, and the Center for Internet and Society, in association with the Public Sphere Project (a CPSR Initiative); (http://www.online-deliberation.net/conf2005/)
· the third one, “Tools for Participation, Collaboration, Deliberation and Decision Support”, hosted in 2008 by the School of Information of University of California at Berkeley, organized by the CPSR Public Sphere Project; (http://www.publicsphereproject.org/events/diac08/).
While much progress has been made in online deliberation many challenges remain. These challenges require collaboration and research from a number of academic disciplines. The papers in this volume address the challenges, representing further innovative developments in the field from both social and technological perspectives.
The volume is divided into two sections: full research papers describing completed research and exploratory research papers describing work-in-progress and ongoing research. All papers were peer reviewed. Fifteen research papers are published focusing on topics ranging from argument mapping and argumentation to deliberative governance. Eight exploratory research papers are included which consider issues such as a new agenda for online deliberation and ethnographic exploration of deliberation.
We would like to thank all those who contributed to the organisation of this year’s programme: Stephen Coleman, who co-chaired the conference with the two of us; Giles Moss, who cochaired the Organising Committee; and Todd Davies and Doug Schuler, previous Conference Chairs. We also acknowledge the valuable contribution of the Programme Committee who provided the authors with feedback on their papers.
De Cindio F., Peraboni C.
Internet as a platform for political engagement: from protests to proposals
In "Tales of the Unexpected: Vision and Reality in Community Informatics - CIRN-DIAC Conference: Prato, Italy 27-29 October 2010", L. Stillman and R. Gomez. (Eds.). University of Washington, 2010. - ISBN 978-0-9581058-8-0.
Abstract
The so called web 2.0 have enabled citizens’ committees world wide to organize several forms of civic activism. The paper focuses on the online presence of two Italian grassroots movements (the Popolo Viola and of the Cinque Stelle Movement) discussing the limits that they have shown in the design and use of the online tools and environments (especially in terms of the democratic rules for participation and deliberation), and the consequences that these limits are likely to have for their sustainability.
De Cindio F., Peraboni C.
Design Issues for Building Deliberative Digital Habitats
In "From e-Participation to Online Deliberation, Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Online Deliberation, OD2010. Leeds, UK, 30 June - 2 July, 2010", F. De Cindio, A. Macintosh and C. Peraboni (Eds.), ISBN 0-96678-186-4 - pp. 41-52
Abstract
This paper discusses some issues that it is worth considering in the design of deliberative digital habitats. It identifies four spaces characterizing these habitats and proposes three dimensions to be considered when designing them: the gemeinschaft dimension, the gesellschaft dimension and the technological dimension. The aim is to help public institutions as well as grassroots movements to pay the due attention to these critical issues which are often overlooked.
De Cindio F., Peraboni C.
Tecnologie e regole della partecipazione per la piena realizzazione della cittadinanza digitale
In L. De Pietro a cura di, L'evoluzione dei modelli e delle tecnologie per la partecipazione dei cittadini.
L'esperienza del Consiglio regionale del Veneto, Marsilio, 2010. ISBN 9788831706254 - pp. 84-117 (in Italian)
