Participatory sensing: enabling interactive local governance through citizen engagement

This paper explores participatory sensing and issues associated with governance in the light of new information gathering capabilities that directly engage citizens in collecting data and providing contextual insight that has the potential to greatly enhance Council operations. Executive summary Local government (such as the City of Melbourne) is accountable and responsible for establishment, execution and oversight of strategic objectives and resource management in the metropolis. Faced with a rising population, Council has in place a number of strategic plans to ensure it is able to deliver services that maintain (and ideally improve) the quality of life for its citizens (including residents, workers and visitors). This work explores participatory sensing (PS) and issues associated with governance in the light of new information gathering capabilities that directly engage citizens in collecting data and providing contextual insight that has the potential to greatly enhance Council operations in managing these environments. This white paper examines: Key hurdles affecting the viability and uptake of PS from different stakeholder perspectives The capacity of PS as a new and mutually beneficial communication link between citizens and government; the respective value propositions in participating, whilst simultaneously increasing engagement and enhancing City operations through co-production with citizens Technological elements of PS and associated privacy impacts through the application lens of noise monitoring Social impacts of emerging pervasive technologies, particularly the encroachment upon privacy, associated risks and implications, not only for the individual but also the impact in shared environments Responsibilities and avenues for mitigation assigned to respective stakeholders; including user awareness factors, policy frameworks and design level strategies The role of reputation and trust management between stakeholders in fostering productive links, along with the capacity for citizen empowerment The balance of perceived competing objectives of privacy and transparency, ethical strategies to address this challenge User perceptions of related issues taken from studies of internet and social media usage through computing and mobile platforms A development platform to measure user awareness of privacy risks, behavioural responses to a spectrum of engagement options effectively returning to the user a level of control over their participation Essential requirements for responsible implementation of PS platforms, considering ethical issues, responsibilities, privacy, transparency and accessibility