... and we meet a year later - 2nd stakeholder workshop

In September we held the iResponse 2nd stakeholder workshop with participants from our growing group of stakeholders.

by Line

The half-day workshop was structured around the progression of the iResponse case studies, with a good slot of time set aside for discussions around each of the cases, presentation of findings from the web survey about crowdsourcing, and finally a session on key aspects connected to responsible research and innovation related to crowdsourcing and urban environmental research and decision-making.

At the workshop there were participants from the Norwegian Data Protection Authority, the Norwegian Environment Agency, the Research Council of Norway, Oslo Municipality, Agency of Urban Environment, DOGA, UiO EngageLab, Norsk Varme Jøtul, Smarte Byer Norge, as well as the project partner participants.

Key takeaways from the case discussions

After the introductory plenary session each case study had demonstrations, interactions, discussions and feedback in 3 different rooms in which the participants could move freely between. Key aspects and takeaways:

  • How will the results from ongoing participatory GIS-surveys be used? Make that clear to the participants.
  • How will citizen's feedback to urban planning play into the political processes?
  • Important to get in contact with the right persons in the city when running such a survey together 
  • Will the results be representative?
  • How far can we motivate participants to participate?
  • Authorities are also data users 
  • Work on feedback and give feedback to users  
  • How to bring in the element of individual environmental responsibility? What kind of feedback
  • How to create motivation for inhabitants to engage in the topic of stormwater? A topic most people not have the full picture of.Information is needed in a way that resonates with the users
  • Look into motivation in individual level by seeing impacts on neighborhood scale.  
  • What is particular about this issue vs other "regular" urban planning tools? Bring in the specific stormwater /blue green infrastructure aspects. 
  • The totality of the results are important for iResponse findings
  • Give people the opportunity to give their consent  
  • Participation is also about "filtering" and not force all to give inputs on all topics etc. in the survey. People are different and may not want to give inputs on all parts. 
  • Combine other data sources with the inputs from citizens. E.g. Could potentially use Telecom data for some aspects.

Responsible Research and Innovation 

After lunch we had the last session related to the overall objectives of the iResponse-project on "social responsible crowdsourcing". Some of the keywords below:

Theme 1: Urban Environmental Research & Crowdsourcing: Does crowdsourced data represent the urban society? How do we interpret the data? 

  • Quantity vs quality 
  • Not generalization that's the goal, representativeness
  • Decision-making based on using data to confirm not same as using it for new insights
  • Incentivizing to participate, need to know that it has an impact   
  • Gaming the experience can be a way to increase participation 
  • The question asked can frame the answers, research(ears) are not" value free"

Theme 2: Decision-making: What’s the role of ICT-crowdsourcing in/for policy? (Policy based on research, policy based on citizen participation)

  • Decision-making is made based on, not directly derived from, the data/information 
  • What impact does the data have?
  • Crowdsourcing data kan have a supplement role
  • Trust in the results can be a challenge. Can be low among politicians 
  • How do you communicate with politicians? 
  • There are different phases in activities. Use what you got back in the first phase, build on previous results, involvement in all parts.

Theme 3: Innovation: How can we design a collaborative crowdsourcing process that enable society to bring new ideas?

  • Integration of all parties , often very sectorial approaches
  • Engage people to take part 
  • Play on people's needs in a positive way as point of departure
  • Use the innovative forces out there. Use this knowledge
  • Involve start-ups in innovation processes

See presentations from the workshop here: 1) Introduction; 2) Air case study;3) Stormwater case study; 4) Urban planning case;5) Crowdsourcing in society

The outcomes of the workshop will be used in the continued work of the iResponse project.

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Questions or something to add?  Want to be part of our stakeholder group or involved in other ways? We want to hear from you! Leave a comment below or contact us.

You also find us on twitter:@iresponse_rri.  #crowds4research