The Participatory Cube: A Framework for Analysis of Online Participation Platforms

The main goal of this book chapter is to present a framework for analysis of online participation platforms. Recently, the whole range of various participation platforms emerged and there is a need for a model, which would enable to analyse their specific characteristics. The framework presented in this chapter, the participatory cube, is based on models proposed by Fung (2006) and Ferber et al. (2007). It consists of three axes: interactive communication, access to space of participation, and decision power. These categories play a major role in the analysis of the implemented study cases. The study cases were taken from Germany and Brazil. We concentrated on the selection of a variety of technologies that support civic engagement. The participatory cube served as the model for the comparison of the selected cases. We conclude the article with a discussion about the presented model and further research directions.

[1]  Archon Fung.  Varieties of Participation in Complex Governance , 2006 .

[2]  Bernd Resch,et al.  Live Geography -- Embedded Sensing for Standarised Urban Environmental Monitoring , 2009 .

[3]  Mirco Musolesi,et al.  The Rise of People-Centric Sensing , 2008, IEEE Internet Comput..

[4]  Erwin K. Welsch,et al.  New technologies , 1990 .

[5]  M. Goodchild.  Citizens as sensors: the world of volunteered geography , 2007 .

[6]  S. Arnstein,et al.  Ladder of Citizen Participation , 2020 .

[7]  Zizi Papacharissi.  The virtual sphere , 2002, New Media Soc..

[8]  W. Gomes.  Internet e participação polí­tica em sociedades democráticas , 2006 .

[9]  Michael F. Goodchild,et al.  Citizens as Voluntary Sensors: Spatial Data Infrastructure in the World of Web 2.0 , 2007, Int. J. Spatial Data Infrastructures Res..

[10]  Maria R. Lee,et al.  From Web 2.0 to Conversational Knowledge Management: Towards Collaborative Intelligence , 2007 .

[11]  Jurgita Matačinskaitė,et al.  The Internet as a “Public Sphere” , 2011 .

[12]  Jürgen Habermas,et al.  The Public Sphere: An Encyclopedia Article (1964) , 1974 .

[13]  Sally J. McMillan.  Exploring Models of Interactivity from Multiple Research Traditions: Users, Documents, and Systems , 2002 .

[14]  Miguel P. Amado,et al.  Public Participation in Sustainable Urban Planning , 2009 .

[15]  Stephen M. Wheeler,et al.  Planning for Sustainability : Creating Livable, Equitable and Ecological Communities , 2004 .

[16]  S. Lukes.  Power: A Radical View , 1974 .

[17]  Sally J. McMillan.  A four-part model of cyber-interactivity , 2002, New Media Soc..

[18]  R. Pugliese,et al.  Cyberdemocracy and Online Politics: A New Model of Interactivity , 2007 .

[19]  T. Beatley,et al.  The Sustainable Urban Development Reader , 2004 .

[20]  Jang-Sun Hwang,et al.  Measures of Perceived Interactivity: An Exploration of the Role of Direction of Communication, User Control, and Time in Shaping Perceptions of Interactivity , 2002 .

[21]  Carl Obermiller,et al.  Consumer Response to a Firm's Endorser (Dis) Association Decisions , 2002 .

[22]  M. Goodchild.  Citizens as sensors: web 2.0 and the volunteering of geographic information , 2007 .

[23]  David Coleman,et al.  Volunteered Geographic Information: the nature and motivation of produsers , 2009, Int. J. Spatial Data Infrastructures Res..

[24]  Emiliano Miluzzo,et al.  People-centric urban sensing , 2006, WICON '06.

[25]  Wilson Gomes,et al.  A democracia digital e o problema da participação civil na decisão política , 2005 .

[26]  J. Habermas.  The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere , 1962 .