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Facilitating participatory decision-making in local communities through map-based online discussion
Abstract
GIS has been widely used for supporting decision-making in local communities. However, limited studies have been conducted to use maps directly as a communication tool to support community discussion. In this paper, we explore the potential of using geospatial annotations to facilitate map-based online discussion in local communities. We developed a prototype system, which explicitly links participants' discussion contributions with geographic references. The system is based on conceptual understanding of map-based discussion space, which guides the generation of system requirements. We demonstrate the utility of such systems by a hypothetical scenario of building a Smoke-Free campus in a university community.
... ...... 23 Table 3.6 Categorisation of participatory planning approaches from Wates (2000) ................ 35 Table 3.7 Requirement types and their definitions (extended from Yu & Cai (2009) Table 5 Table 5.24 A feature analysis template utilising the multi-stakeholder collaborative model . ...
... • computer supported argumentation systems Bird 2009 andYu &Cai 2009); ...
... • computer supported argumentation systems Bird 2009 andYu &Cai 2009); ...
The Localism Act 2011 in England, provides a legislative mechanism to support participation in the planning process. Additionally, public participation geographic information systems (PPGIS) provide one approach to support public participation in planning. However, their ad hoc and context specific development approaches have resulted in tools that do not easily adapt to the needs of different communities and their diverse stakeholders. Therefore the aim of this research is to design a framework for the systematic development of an information system (IS) that can adapt to the perspective of the stakeholder and the planning context. Through the literature of: participatory design (PD); computer supported cooperative work (CSCW); human computer interaction (HCI); and enterprise architecture (EA), the limitations of previous PPGIS development approaches are identified. Based on this, EA is identified as an appropriate approach. EA frameworks (EAFs) support the development of IS features, but they require a link to organisational processes, goals and a vision. This means that EAFs in their current form have no grounding in loosely coupled organisations such as communities that have no formal processes, goals and vision. Therefore this research proposes a theoretical contribution of an adapted EAF called a 'community architecture' framework (CAF) for the systematic development of tools for a community context. Here, design science (DS) provides a research paradigm in developing the CAF as a designed artefact. To test the framework a community architecture development methodology (CADM) is proposed as a practical contribution to develop a system to support community stakeholders to participate in planning sustainable communities. The developed tool is tested on community stakeholders in Essex, UK. It is found that by using a systematic approach, it is possible to develop a PPGIS that can apply to different contexts and stakeholders. However, the limited examples presented here mean that further testing is required.
... Much work has been done around the context of map-based community discussions and map-based citizen deliberation in general. An example of this is Yu and Cai [22], who provide a comprehensive literature study of map-based community decision-making. Through this study and their own design experiences they derive a set of requirements for systems supporting deliberative efforts regarding mapbased community decision-making (seeFig. ...
... Some things are best understood and acted upon at a distance, others require proximity. Furthermore, municipal planning as well as the communitybased decision-making processes referred to in [22] ought to be understood as inherently collaborative. The above quote regarding the space a building would be taking up in the landscape illustrated the comprehension of a surprising realization of what a municipality might actually be proposing. ...
... To an extent R7 addresses the above challenge. Specifically , it relates to the provision of a visual representation of the developments in a given discussion as a means to " help the user understand the problems, detect conflicts or potentials, and deliberate the solutions based on existing arguments " ([22], p. 218). While this is a sympathetic aim, the requirement says little about how users are to be aided in discerning what the actual challenge is and how it is linked to the actions and incentives of other individuals. ...
This paper reports on an exploratory participatory design process aimed at supporting citizen deliberation in municipal planning. It presents the main outcomes of this process in terms of selected prototypes and an approach to the use setting. We support and discuss different ways for citizens to act and reflect on proposed plans: in-situ, while physically close to the planning object, and ex-situ, when citizens are remote from this. The support of in-situ and ex-situ participation allows citizens to engage in continuous reflection-in and on-action as a collaborative activity with other citizens, hereby inspiring citizens to increase their democratic engagement.
... To provide insight into what is occurring in these systems, we briefly review and provide selected examples from the literature. Papers focused on the assembly form typically examine use of geolocation as a resource in city planning [130,155,188] or interfaces for political discussion in online environments [150,152]. Papers considering referendum-based systems center on novel voting interfaces that incorporate pervasive buttons [125,179], physical devices [165], public displays [184], and digital systems with input through physical actions such as raising a hand [183,187]. ...
... There has been extensive research into assembly-based participation, covering geolocation-based systems [188], public displays and ubiquitous computing [130,170], novel online fora [150,191] to support assembly-style decision-making, and many other mechanisms geared for everything from extremely local themes to matters of national interest. However, the focus is largely limited to the technologies for participation. ...
We present a review of 80 papers representing efforts to support participation in democratic decision-making mostly related to local or national governments. The papers were published in leading human–computer interaction (SIGCHI conferences) venues. Most of this literature represents attempts to support assembly- oriented participation, wherein decisions are made through discussion, although referendum-type participation, involving decision-making based on voting, has gained attention too. Primarily, those papers addressing agenda-setting have examined organization-led forms, in which the agenda is controlled by those issuing the call for participation. Accordingly, the authors call for more research into support for representative models and participant-driven agenda-setting. Furthermore, the literature review pinpoints areas wherein further interdisciplinary engagement may be expected to improve research quality: in political science, HCI-informed methods and new ways of using physical input in participation merit more research, while, from the HCI side, cultivating closer relationships with political science concepts such as democratic innovations and calculus of voting could encourage reconsideration of the research foci. These observations speak to the benefits of a new research agenda for human–computer interaction research, involving different forms of participation, most importantly to address lack of engagement under the representative model of participation. Furthermore, in light of these findings, the paper discusses what type of interdisciplinary research is viable in the HCI field today and how political science and HCI scholars could usefully collaborate.
... In spite of the collaborative nature of crisis management activities, few studies have treated the aspect of collaborative decision making (Yu and Cai, 2009;Kapucu and Garayev, 2011). This is may be related to the fact that crisis situations require rapid decisions. ...
... In fact, using map-based online discussion can increase both organizations and community awareness, and offer a flexible participatory decision making processes (Kapucu and Garayev, 2011). Furthermore, Geospatial Annotation Systems can provide an effective communication and analysis platform to enrich the dialogues among various stakeholders in spatial decision making processes, which explicitly links participants' discussion contributions with their geographic references in the map (Yu and Cai, 2009). ...
Managing crises is considered as one of the most complicated organizational and managerial task. Indeed, dealing with such situations calls for many groups from different institutions and organizations to interact and collaborate their efforts in a timely manner to reduce their effects. However, response organizations are challenged by several problems. The urgent need of a shared and mutual situational awareness, information and knowledge about the situation are distributed across time and space and owned by both organizations and people. Additionally, decisions and actions have to be achieved promptly, under stress and time pressure. The contribution outlined in this paper is suggesting a crowdsourcing-based approach for decision making in collaborative crisis management based on the literature requirements. The objective of the approach is to support situational awareness and enhance the decision making process by involving citizens in providing opinions and evaluations of potential response actions.
... Rather than emphasizing information only within a geospatial context, they include different kinds of information coming from meetings and social ties, financial transactions, and so on. An interesting relationship is also investigated in (Yu and Cai 2009), where the lack of communication and coordination is linked to problems raised by political, geographical, or organizational boundaries during disaster response. As for the information flow among different actors, in (Sagun et al. 2009), the authors recognize four channels of information flow during an emergency event that ICT solutions must support in order to facilitate the coordination during the whole process. ...
... Within this scenario, maps play a key role, both for their indisputable inner capability of representing data and phenomena related to a territory, and, above all in this case, for being a uniform and common language on which the cooperation can be based. In (Yu and Cai 2009), the authors argue that the collaboration mediated through maps is a promising means to allow emergency responders to access the same information, share and update it and interactively cooperate by analysing all individual inputs. ...
Recent natural disasters have led crisis management organizations to revise their protocols so as to rely on the contribution of a wider range of actors, including simple citizens as well as expert operators, to support decision making activities. Reliable and timely information sharing among members of distributed teams of disaster responders has become paramount for the success of the overall crisis management process. In this paper we propose a crisis management system based on spreadsheet-mediated collaboration among on-site responders and decision makers. To share data a common spreadsheet artifact has been developed by using a participatory design approach which is accessed through mobile user interfaces. The evaluation results showed that the use of the spreadsheet artifact has resulted in more effective decision making relating to set of earthquake management scenarios in high-risk areas located in Italy.
... Remote sensing technologies (RS) and geographic information system (GIS) have been applied for urban planning and community development processes (see Cuff et al., 2008;Elwood and Leitner, 1998;Netzband et al., 2007;Nuojua, 2010;Tanaka et al., 2009) for some time. Recently, the emerging integration of those urban sensing technologies with mobile phones, mapping tools, and Web 2.0 tools offers significant opportunities in improving urban planning by fostering cooperation between urban planners and multiple stakeholders (Cuff et al., 2008;Evans-Cowley, 2010;Hovorka and Auerbach, 2010;Yu and Cai, 2009). ...
... As communicative planners redefine planning as a collective, discursive process in which community members participate, planners are expected to connect or mediate government with residents using data analysis and factual information (Forester, 1989;Healey, 2003;Innes, 1998). Indeed, numerous community projects have used RS and GIS for participatory urban planning (see Elwood and Leitner, 1998;Hovorka and Auerbach, 2010;Nuojua, 2010;Yu and Cai, 2009). Therefore, CI researchers are encouraged to explore how ICTs can contribute to such communicative planning processes (Gretzel et al., 2009;Krouk et al., 2000). ...
The growing development of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has influenced the use of urban spaces. People tend to depreciate physical place, while they extend structures of associational life beyond geographic limitation and focus on a place-less, networked form of human relationship as community. On the other hand, urban spaces are strategically designed and developed with the help of technological innovation to boost local tourism, draw global investment, and effectively control the public. This study deals with this technology-driven, bifurcated, urban spatial transformation. First, we discuss what drives such change and how the use of ICTs affects the way people use urban spaces. Based on this assessment, we address a normative use of ICTs for community-based urban planning. For this, we provide the concept, Community Informatics-Supported New Urbanism (CI-NU), which basically suggests ways of collaboration between community informatics practitioners and new urbanists to accomplish their shared goals of integrated community development.
... With the capabilities it possesses, GIS can be applied in various fields. For example in the field of forestry [3], fisheries [24], decision making to specify non-smoking area on campus [11], estimation of land use conflicts in North Central Florida, USA [13], asset management at four agencies in Trinidad & Tobago [14], geomorphologic data and environmental management in Iran [21], geo-collaborative crisism management [22], control the traffic movement on religious activity [17], documenting a language [19], urban governance efficiency [18], and some others areas, i.e. climate change, energy and environmental security, gender security, health security, human security, irregular and illegal migration, political transition, poverty & economic insecurity, pollution, and transactional crime [12]. ...
... GIS can be built as a stand-alone system and installed on a single computer [13,14], or can also be made as web-based systems [11,17,18,19,24]. Even today, GIS is also proposed to be implemented on mobile devices [22]. ...
GIS has many facilities that can be useful in various fields, including in e-Government system. This study assesses the implementation of GIS in the e-Government system provided by ninety-one institutions in Indonesia. The assessment was conducted using several criterias. These criterias include GIS availability and accessibility in the first place, GIS facility establishment date, and GIS technology and interactivity. The assessment was also done to check whether or not there is integration between GIS facilities among the institution that has implemented GIS facility. The results of this study show that seventeen of the total assessed official website has implemented GIS facilities. Seven of those websites are only showing a static map, while others are in the form of dynamic GIS facility. It is also identified that there is no integration among the institutions that have implemented GIS facility.
... The use of geographic information systems (GIS) to engage people in collaborative practices and civic participation in the urban setting has been a topic of long-standing research in HCI. Initial work in this research included the creation of mobile applications that enable users to contribute to crowdsourcing practices for the collection of data about place [2], the use of public displays for the collection and dissemination of citizen generated data [3], [4], the design of interactive in-situ systems for decision-making [5], [6] and others. Such initial inquiries into the potential of technology for place-based civic participation have arguably followed a top-down model in which citizens are perceived as only data producers for a welldefined research agenda or consultation process. ...
... Research at the intersection of technology, policy, and democracy is growing in HCI. Scholars have developed platforms for civic engagement and public deliberation [39], tested systems to encourage involvement in citizen-science [7,36,56,58,66], and fostered participatory design and decision-making opportunities in local communities [52,53,69]. Observations of governmental service workers and service users have been used to explore relationships between bureaucratic organizations and citizens, and to develop frameworks for values and conflicts within e-government [12,13,26,64]. ...
In this paper, we use a materiality lens to explore how information and communication technologies condition interaction between citizens and policymakers of the U.S. Congress. We work with ethnographic data - six months of observation in Washington D.C. and 48 interviews with staff in the House of Representatives. Customer relation management systems (CRMs) used by Congress are one of numerous technologies expected to enhance responsive communication between citizens and representatives. We find, instead, that these technologies promote the datafication of citizen information that configures and constrains how policymakers engage citizens as legitimate actors within the policy-making process. CRMs not only mediate communication between citizens and policymakers, they shape the idea of what communication between citizens and policymakers can be and how citizens are viewed in the eyes of policymakers and their staff. Thus, we extend our understanding of the ways in which material configurations of communication technologies influence not only how communication acts unfolds, but also how each partner conceives of and engages with the other. This has dramatic implications for the possibilities of digital communication channels to enhance, or uphold, the ideals of a representative democracy.
... To provide insight into what is occurring in these systems, we briefly review and provide selected examples from the literature. Papers focused on the assembly form examine using geolocation as a resource in city planning [203,337,615] or interfaces for political discussion in online environments [321,323]. The papers focused on referendum-based systems center on novel voting interfaces, including pervasive buttons [132,554], physical devices [464], public displays [583], and digital One paper could be classified to belong more than one type of democracy or to support both citizen-driven or organization-lead activities, i.e., classes are not exlusive. ...
This is a manuscript I'm working to map the HCI work touching democratic decision making.
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Political events throughout the Western societies have created great concerns about the sustainability and stability of the society. How can the SIGCHI community address part of these concerns in the digital society? A systematic literature review on SIGCHI's work on democracy, politics and civic topics is conducted. After limiting the review to topics related to political decision making, a total of 46 papers were reviewed. Following findings can be summarized. The published papers focused more on developing new systems and practices and less on observations and case studies. Roughly equal number of papers advocated liberal-individualist and deliberative models of democracy. These findings demonstrate the need for further integration of political science knowledge, such as the work on democratic innovations, to the field of SIGCHI. At the same time, the political science community could apply the design-driven research to rethink the e-democracy systems developed.
... In group (1), Itou et al.(2005) [2], Tsuboi et al.(2008) [3], Nuojua et al.(2008) [4], Shimizu et al.(2008) [5] and Yu et al.(2009) [6] demonstrate the possibility of accumulating and sharing information using GIS for the purposes of regional stimulation and public participation. Umeda et al.(2006) [7], Hara et al.(2008) [8], Kitahara et al. (2009) [9] and Chow et al.(2010) [10] share information using SNS.In group (2), Kirimura et al.(2008) [11], Soga et al.(2008) [12], Nuojua(2010) [13], Hosoya et al.(2011aHosoya et al.( , 2011b [14,15]and Kubota et al.(2012) [16] demonstrate the necessity of system design which takes into account convenience, usefulness and operability, and the necessity of effective use ofWeb-GIS suited to their intended themes.Further, [17] aims at accumulating and sharing regional information, and Nakahara et al. (2012) [18] aims at supporting communication between users.In these studies, systems which integrateSNS,Web-GISand Wiki were designed and developed, the systems were actually operated in regional communities, and the operations were evaluated.In group (3), through acquisition and analysis of information contributed to Twitter, Fujisaka et al. (2010) [19]and Lee(2012) [20] estimate the extent of the influence of regional events, Fueda et al. (2012 [22]propose a website which assists in providing information about daily life.Further, [23], Lee et al.(2011) [24] and Hashimoto et al. (2012) [25]detect geotagged tweets, and Cheng et al. (2010) [26] and Hiruta et al.(2013) [27] detect "location-triggered" geo-tagged tweets. ...
This study aims to develop a social media GIS (Geographic Information Systems) specially tailored to information exchange between regions. The conclusions of this study are summarized in the following three points.(1) Social media GIS is a geographic information system which integratesWeb-GIS, SNS and Twitter into a single system. A social media GIS was conducted for the collection of regional information in the eastern part of Yamanashi Prefecture. The social media GIS uses a design which displays its usefulness in multi-directional information transmission and in easing the limitations of space, time and continuity, making it possible to redesign systems in accordance with target cases.(2) During the operation of the social media GIS for about two months, most of the users were in their20s. Users exchanged regional information using the comment and button functions.(3)The system was evaluated based on the results of a questionnaire to users and an access analysis oflog data during operationin order to identify measures for improvement of the system. Because of users’ high evaluations of its original functions, the overall operability of the system was highly evaluated. Most of the contributed information was only known to local residents, and it was evident that the system fulfilled its intended role.
... Several researchers worked on supporting geo collaboration using maps. Yu and Cai (2009) propose GeoAnnotator as a service-oriented system for map based public participation. They outline requirements of such a system to provide necessary features for annotation of geospatial objects as well as for encouraging people to provide their opinions. ...
Collaborative geovisualization provides effective means to communicate spatial information among a group of users. Annotations
as one key element of collaborative geovisualization systems enable comprehension of collaboration processes and support time-shifted
communication. By annotations we refer to user-generated information such as remarks, comments, findings and any other information related to the 3D environment.
They have to be efficiently modeled, stored and visualized while precisely retaining their spatial reference and creation
context. Existing models for annotations generally do not fully support spatial references and, therefore, do not fully take
advantage of the spatial relationships associated with annotations. This paper presents a GML-based data model for geospatial
annotations that explicitly incorporates spatial references and allows different types of annotations to be stored together
with their context of creation. With this approach annotations can be represented as firstclass spatial features. Consequently,
annotations can be seamlessly integrated into their 3D environment and the author's original intention and message can be
better expressed and understood. An OGC Web Feature Service is used as standardized interface for storage and retrieval of
annotations, which assures data interoperability with existing geodata infrastructures. We have identified three types of
annotation subjects, namely geographic features, geometry, and scene views, represented by their corresponding 2D/3D geometry. The model also
defines a point-based approximation for complex geometry, such that annotations can also be used by client application with
limited abilities regarding display size, band-width or geometry handling. Furthermore we extended our model by annotations
that can contain 3D geometry besides textual information. In this way the expressiveness of annotations can be further enhanced
for communicating spatial relationships such as distances or arrangements of geographic features.
... The system introduced by Rinner et al. [14] provides such a model for collaboration using georeferenced arguments in discussions, but relies on a direct database access, which makes it hard to reuse the data efficiently. Furthermore, many approaches are limited to 2D reference geometries -nevertheless sufficient for their purpose since they are based on maps as collaboration tools [15,16,17]. Our collaboration approach targets 3D ...
This paper presents an approach for combining spatially distributed synchronous and asynchronous collaboration within 3D city
models. Software applications use these models as additional communication medium to facilitate communication of georeferenced
and geospatial information. Collaboration tools should support both the communication with other collaborators and their awareness
of the current collaboration context. To support collaborative knowledge construction and gathering, we have designed a collaboration
system to facilitate (a) creation of annotations that have 3D references to the virtual D city model and (b) collection information
about the context in which these annotations are created. Our approach supports synchronous collaboration in connection with
the creation of non volatile, precisely georeferenced units of information allow for a comprehensible form of cooperation
in spatially distributed settings. Storage and retrieval of this information is provided through a Web Feature Service, which
eases integration of collaboration data into existing applications. We further introduce a visualization technique that integrates
annotations as complex structured data into the 3D visualization. This avoids media breaks and disruptions in working processes
and creates a spatial coherence between annotation and annotated feature or geometry.
Location information is a critical factor in prioritising development planning. However, the use of maps in the planning process within Indonesian local governments is limited. In development forums such as Musrenbang, a tiered participatory planning process that operates from the village to the national level, information is often presented in tabular form without visual support. This approach lacks the visualisation, aggregation, and synchronisation necessary for effective public deliberation. Therefore, it is necessary to design a spatial-based participatory planning system to enhance tiered participatory planning through improved visualisation. A Participatory GIS (PGIS) for Musrenbang was designed to facilitate community aspirations, enable collaborative discussions, and support tiered planning processes. The PGIS was developed based on inputs collected through interviews, observations, and surveys with Musrenbang participants in Karanganyar District, Central Java, Indonesia. Testing with 50 users indicated that integrating spatial data in Musrenbang increased location awareness, supported knowledge transfer, enhanced collaboration and accommodated the creation of aspiration maps. The PGIS developed in this study contributes a foundational system for participatory spatial planning, establishing a scalable platform suitable for tiered development planning. Implementing development planning forums in other jurisdictions, as well as at provincial and national levels, requires central government regulations. The more comprehensive the coverage of PGIS, the more complex the database design, visualisation methods, and interaction models will need to be, necessitating further study.
This dissertation asserts that crises in governance arise from a disproportionate influence of some social actors on the images of the future from which governing systems emerge. A review of numerous projects in participatory, alternative futures research and the multiple media and technics they deploy, exposes challenges and limitations of method. By digitally mediating the ʻexperiential scenarioʼ method, this dissertation proposes that mixed-reality systems be at the center of participatory, futures-oriented, socio-cybernetic, governing systems. By distributing the opportunity to interact with and configure elements of alternative futures, these systems address the junction of futures studies and political design.
Hyperlocal information systems cater to the needs of the people in a well-defined geographical area. Such information systems are ubiquitously accessible to the users in the developed world through their mobile phones. In developing countries hyperlocal information is valued, but often dispersed, constantly evolving, and poorly accessible. Additionally, most of the social information systems in developing countries are adopted from the developed world, and often fail to take into consideration local socio-geographical settings and cultural complexities. As a result, there is a strong reliance on word of mouth through known and unknown networks. In this paper, we present foundational insights on user needs, behaviors and motivations for the design of hyperlocal information systems in developing countries based on a multi-year, multi-method research study with around 5000 participants in three such countries - India, Indonesia and Nigeria. We also discuss how the complexity of real-world sociocultural phenomena and heterogeneity of neighborhoods impact hyperlocal information, which can further inform design of such systems in the future.
A social participation system is a combination of human, machines, resources, political structures, and environment that enable citizens, civic leaders, and government officials to come together in public spaces where they can engage in constructive, informed, and decisive dialogue about important public issues. This paper argues for the need to establish cyberinfrastructure enabled GeoDeliberative Social Participation Systems that will improve our ability to better engage people with diverse motivations and experiences to harness remarkable social benefits and to address national priorities. By expanding the scope of geospatial cyberinfrastructure to include social goals and social actions, new requirements are identified that make geospatial cyberinfrastructure more socially relevant. GeoDeliberation is used as a conceptual framework within which the progress of related geospatial information technologies and social computing methods are assessed and the opportunities for cyberinfrastructure design research are identified.
Families are becoming more culturally heterogeneous due to a rise in intermarriage, geographic mobility, and access to a greater diversity of cultural perspectives online. Investigating the challenges of cross-cultural parenting can help us support this growing demographic, as well as better understand how families integrate and negotiate advice from diverse online and offline sources in making parenting decisions. We interviewed parents from 18 families to understand the practices they adopt to meet the challenges of cross-cultural parenting. We investigated how these families respond to conflicts while integrating diverse cultural views, as well as how they utilize the wealth of parenting resources available online in navigating these tasks. We identify five themes focused on how these families find and evaluate advice, connect with social support, resolve intra-family tensions, incorporate multicultural practices, and seek out diverse views. Based on our findings, we contribute three implications for design and translations of these implications to concrete technology ideas that aim to help families better integrate multiple cultures into everyday life.
Besides a number of initiatives focussing on the implementation of spatial data infrastructures on the various governmental levels, significant efforts are being made in order to implement the INSPIRE Directive 2007/2/EC. However, SDI development cannot keep up with the pace other information infrastructures are developing. Conceptual advancements of the SDI approach as well as technical innovations are rarely found. While highlighting selected developments in mainstream-IT, this article tries to identify potential candidates for (technical) advancements, which reflect the changing role of a user community that is increasingly part of the social web. The emphasis lies on the use of spatial data infrastructures for collaborative processes, for providing near real-time information, and the adaption of mainstream information technology trends.
This article reports results from an empirical usability evaluation of Human-Animal Bond Research Initiative Central as part of the effort to develop an open access research repository and collaboration platform for human-animal bond researchers. By repurposing and altering key features of the original HUBzero system, Human-Animal Bond Research Initiative Central hosts previously published materials from related disciplines and an extensive bibliography, in addition to traditional hub materials such as tools and datasets. Seven graduate students in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Purdue University participated in the usability evaluation. Tasks included exploring the system, finding an article in the repository, submitting an article to the repository, adding bibliographic information of an article to the repository, and using interaction features such as user groups. Participants also answered open questions regarding their overall experience and rated Human-Animal Bond Research Initiative Central's usability using the System Usability Scale. Response measures included task successfulness, navigational steps, task time, participant comments, and behavior notes recorded by the researcher. Results of the evaluation showed that the overall user experience of Human-Animal Bond Research Initiative Central was satisfactory but also indicated a number of usability issues. Participants had difficulty inputting metadata such as resource type and author information when submitting an article to the repository. There were also interface design issues regarding layout and consistency. It is expected that findings from this study and the evaluation methodology can be extended to the development and evaluation of similar research repository systems.
Map-based interfaces have been developed to support collaborative control of unmanned vehicles (i.e., robots). Annotation on the map (or geospatial annotation) has been proposed as an effective way to support team collaboration; however, there is a lack of research focused on the design of geospatial annotation tools to promote usability and task performance. The utility of location reference in geospatial annotations for communication and information sharing is the focus of this article. Two annotation tool designs were developed. The annotation contents were directly anchored on the map in the first design, whereas in the second design annotations were summarized in a separate panel on the interface. Evaluation participants followed instructions from a simulated team leader and assigned unmanned vehicles to different tasks for two simulated scenarios that include searching for victims and collecting hazardous materials samples. The results demonstrate the potential of using geospatial annotations to enrich communication and support map-based unmanned vehicle control. Participants appreciated the direct location reference feature of the first design and had generally shorter response time, but felt that the second design provided better usability and lower task workload. These results suggest that the user experience depends on the manner of obtaining information from the annotation tools, and the integration of the tool with user's task flow and other interface components, such as the map display. The presented results can be used as a basis for designing geospatial annotation tools for team collaboration that better fit user needs and preferences.
The development of numerous information sharing platforms have led to the emergence of multimedia user-generated content. With the prevalence of networking mobile devices and Global Positioning System (GPS) functionality, these contents could also be tagged with their location (geo-tagged) and visualised on a map through a geospatial information system. This in turn raises new challenges to manage the information retrieval process due to the potentially large amounts of data presented on the map. In this paper, we present a spatial clustering approach to enhance the searching feature of MobiTOP, a geospatial annotation system. The technique, which is a modification of DBSCAN (Density based spatial clustering applications with noise) coupled with our ranking schemes, is compared against other techniques. The evaluation results suggest the viability of our approach, and implications are also discussed.
We introduce MobiTOP, a Web-based system for organizing and retrieving hierarchical location-based annotations. Each annotation
contains multimedia content (such as text, images, video) associated with a location, and users are able to annotate existing
annotations to an arbitrary depth, in effect creating a hierarchy. An evaluation was conducted on a group of potential users
to ascertain their perceptions of the usability of the application. The results were generally positive and the majority of
the participants saw MobiTOP as a useful platform to share location-based information. We conclude with implications of our
work and opportunities for future research.
While community-based organizations (CBOs) increasingly seek to utilize geographic information systems (GISs) for neighborhood planning and development, many have serious misconceptions about what GIS can and cannot do and what is needed to make effective use of it. This article describes the problems and opportunities in utilizing GIS as a tool for enhancing participatory planning in three neighborhoods in Chicago. It illustrates the process of creating a useful community GIS database and ways to augment GIS with other tools to foster public participation. Through 3 years of extensive experience in implement- ing a community GIS, a planning team at the University of Illinois at Chicago found that GIS has significant limitations that could be addressed by integrating other high-tech and traditional tools. Following Shiffer's work, the team incorporated innova- tive multimedia and three-dimensional modeling and, inspired by Hopkins' work, the team augmented GIS with electronic sketchboards. The Internet was also utilized to extend the reach of the community GIS. This combination of tools empowered residents to visualize, evaluate, and participate in revitalizing their neighborhoods. We hope that the experiences described in this paper will assist others who want to utilize GIS in community planning.
As this is being written, the Governor General of Australia, Dr. Peter Hollingworth, has not resigned. Yet over the previous weeks and months he must have been thinking about it long and hard. He has been under intense pressure from various quarters, based on allegations that in previous positions of leadership he had not handled some sexual abuse incidents appropriately. In pondering what he should do, he must have been considering the many and varied arguments on both sides of the case. He must, in short, have been deliberating about his future.
Collaboration on spatially related tasks like navigation and planning is typically based on the usage of maps. For example, planned transportation routes are pointed out from group members in a map. The specific information is marked in the map by map annotations or map modifications. If the group members are at the same place, they can use the same map and everything is fine. If they stay at different places, however, there are only two possibilities to communicate about web maps: 1) print the map or make a screenshot and annotate the hardcopy resp. screenshot and send it to the others; 2) use an internet map server that allows the annotation and modification of the stored geo data. Both approaches have big disadvantages: the first implies a media break, which means that the map is extracted from the system and cannot be used by the others in conjunction with the web map system again. If one of the others wants to edit annotations or modifications he cannot use the functionality of the web map system but has to work on the hardcopy resp. screenshot. The second approach makes user accounting on the server side necessary, since only group members should have specific rights to modify certain maps. This makes this approach unfeasible for public web maps like city plans and route planning systems, because no provider of public accessible information would deal with the costly overhead of a user management on his side. Above, user annotations would have to be checked regularly, because in most countries the service provider is liable for the server´s content. . Figure 1. Cooperative web map with user specific comments, pictures and a planned bike route. 1062 We propose a new concept for cooperative web maps, that stores and handles map augmentations and modifications on the client side rather than on the server. It employs smart clients that can be implemented using JavaScript or Java. The client fetches a map from a server and then modifies the map according to locally stored map annotations. The functional schema for making local map annotations persistent is discussed in detail. It is based on the encoding of annotations and map modifications into the URL. This way, modifications can be made persistent by simply bookmarking the current URL of the map. Collaboration is realized by sending the URL via email to discussion partners who simply have to click on the link to open the augmented map. The URL can also be used in a hyperlink on a web page. Although the length of the URL is limited in most web browsers, this schema already allows the storage of a sufficient number of map annotations to describe and annotate a travel route. The proposed concept offers the possibility to initiate spontaneous discussions of the spatial facts presented in web maps. Finally, the description of a prototype implementation within the existing web site "Ruhrtal a la Karte" is given, a multimedia interactive bicycle route planner.
The current UK Government have made a commitment to provide 100% of their services on-line by 2005 through ambitious plans to use Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) to deliver a whole range of services to citizens. In particular the UK Government have recently invested over £4m in a Planning Portal which will be a general planning advisory service linking the public, business and other users of the planning system to a wide range of advice, guidance and services on planning and related topics. This paper will present on-going research (Carver et al 2000, 2001, Kingston et al 2000 and Kingston 2002) investigating E -government practices and public participation in the planning process. The paper will focus on the use of ICTs to provide innovative means of access to, and participation in environmental planning problems. A key feature of this is the application of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) via the Internet to communicate spatial data, issues and problem to community groups and the wider public. This paper will show how web-based public participation GIS (PPGIS) can help to overcome some of the problems in participatory planning by providing access and information to data and planning problems which have previously remained within the domain of 'experts'. While there is a statutory requirement for the public to be involved in the planning process this is all too often limited to a fairly basic level of participation. This more often than not allows the public the right to know about what is happening and a right to object but there is often very little participation in the real decis ions. The paper will highlight the potential and drawbacks of current E -government practices in participatory planning based on case study research by the author and provide advice on best practice.
This paper critically reviews and analyses participatory GIS (PGIS) and participatory mapping applications within participatory spatial planning for community-based natural resource management in developing countries. There is an often implicit assumption that PGIS use is effective, in that it meets content needs, satisfies underlying local stakeholder interests and therefore is a tool for better governance. The analytical framework looks at participatory spatial planning performance with respect to key dimensions of governance, especially the intensity of community participation and empowerment, equity within communities and between 'governed' and 'governing', respect for indigenous knowledge, rights, ownership, legitimacy, and effectiveness. Specific development focus is given by a case study using participatory mapping and PGIS in community forest legitimization, planning and management in Tinto, Cameroon. 'Good governance' criteria are applied ex-post to the implementation procedures, the geo-information outputs, and the longer-term outcomes of the PGIS processes. Impacts of incorporating PGIS were examined in terms of the types and degrees of participation in the process; access to, and the uses made of, the geographic information; whether the information outputs met stakeholders' requirements; and the overall changes in equity and empowerment in the community. It was found that PGIS/participatory mapping processes contributed – positively, though not comprehensively – to good governance, by improving dialogue, redistributing resource access and control rights – though not always equitably – legitimizing and using local knowledge, exposing local stakeholders to geospatial analysis, and creating some actor empowerment through training. PGIS promoted empowerment by supporting community members' participation in decision-making and actions, and by enabling land use planning decisions beyond community forestry itself.
Increased citizen-to-citizen discussion and deliberation is an important potential of digital government initiatives. This
paper presents findings from a longitudinal study of such outcomes using household survey data, focus groups and one-on-one
interviews from a mature community network - the Blacksburg Electronic Village (BEV) in Blacksburg, Virginia, and surrounding
Montgomery County. It addresses the questions of who is using computer networking for civic participation, what impact the
Internet has on their involvement with other people and local community, and the design problems that citizens experience
with local e-government initiatives. A pattern of Internet use is emerging in which local formal and ad hoc groups of interested
citizens distribute information on issues of interest among themselves and use online tools to raise awareness and educate,
and under some circumstances to deliberate on public policy. Modified tools are suggested to facilitate deliberation and to
integrate citizen feedback more effectively into local government decision-making.
In this study an empirical analysis is presented comparing four cases of public participation in risk-related decision-making. The cases selected all involved conflicts over waste management in which the official decision-maker was willing to cooperate with public interest groups, but the degree and nature of public participation was different for each case. Conflict in connection with public participation arose in all four cases. In response to the inadequacy of a traditional problem-solving approach (Section 1), we developed a broader analytic framework for interpreting these conflicts (Sections 2 and 3). Conflict analysis takes into account the history of the adversaries' relationship(s), power distribution, attitudes toward conflict resolution, hidden agendas, various negotiating strategies, and commitment (or lack thereof) to the negotiated agreement. Though developed for the purpose of analysis, we feel this approach has specific relevance for the resolution of such conflicts as well. Section 4 explores the concept of conflict management as an approach to improving the quality of public participation. The principle features of conflict management are (1) empowerment of the public: (2) a “good” (fair) solution: and (3) active support of the final decision by all parties. Section 5 describes a specific procedure for implementing conflict management in public participation settings.
This paper addresses a key problem in the development of visual‐analytical collaborative tools, how to design map‐based displays to enable productive group work. We introduce a group communication theory, the Collective Information Sharing (CIS) bias, and discuss how it relates to communicative goals that need to be considered when designing collaborative, visually enabled, spatial‐decision‐support tools. The CIS bias framework suggests that key goals for developing such tools should be: (a) the harnessing of a group's collective knowledge emerging from collaborative discussions and (b) reducing the repeat of information that has already been shared within the group. We propose that web‐accessible, map annotation tools are ideally suited to advancing these goals and outline how the CIS bias framework informs how geospatial annotation tools can maximize the potential of collaborative efforts. We offer design recommendations for annotation tools that function to: (a) facilitate access to and recall of geographically referenced discussion contributions, (b) document ideas for private as well as public discussion spaces, and (c) elicit all group members to contribute information in a given collaborative effort.
We present a method for systematically identifying neighbourhoods that may face transportation di Yculties during an evacuation. A classi® cation of this nature o Vers a unique approach to assessing community vulnerability in regions subject to fast-moving hazards of uncertain spatial impact (e.g., urban ® restorms and toxic spills on highways). The approach is founded on an integer programming (IP) model called the critical cluster model (CCM). An heuristic algorithm is described which is capable of producing e Ycient, high-quality solu- tions to this model in a GIS context. The paper concludes with an application of the method to Santa Barbara, California.
Public Participation GIS (PPGIS) is a field of research that, among other things, focuses on the use of GIS by non-experts and occasional users. These users tend to have a diverse range of computer literacy, world views, cultural backgrounds and knowledge. These aspects require that the systems used within PPGIS are accessible and easy to use. Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and the related usability evaluation techniques focus on how to make computer systems more accessible, while focusing on user needs and requirements. Thus, the synergy between PPGIS and HCI seems natural. In this paper, we discuss the aspects of this synergy, building on our experience from three workshops. We demonstrate how usability evaluation can contribute to PPGIS research, and how PPGIS research can contribute to the HCI aspects of GIS in general. We conclude this paper with a call for a user-centred design approach to PPGIS projects.
SUMMARY Collaborative decision-making usually entails argumentation - the exchange of personal views on certain topics, in particular using logical reasoning. Argumentation is often structured into discussions with contributions by individual participants responding to each other. In spatial decision situations, most discussion contributions will contain geographic references. Argumentation Maps were developed to support geographically referenced discussions by cartographic visualization and query functionality. This concept makes geographic references in discussion contributions explicit and uses them for linking text messages to maps, and vice-versa. Based on an analysis of previous work on discussion and decision support in spatial planning, we propose a set of requirements and design guidelines for implementing Argumentation Maps. These guidelines are centred on two main issues: user friendliness and support of open standards. A prototype which implements interoperability specifications of the Open Geospatial Consortium demonstrates the usefulness and usability of Argumentation Maps for public participation in spatial planning.
Collaboration and decision-making of humans usually entails logical reasoning that is expressed through discussions and individual arguments. Where collaborative work uses geospatial information and where decision-making has a spatial connotation, argumentation will include geographical references. Argumentation maps have been developed to support geographically referenced discussions, and provide a visual access to debates in domains such as urban planning. The concept of argumentation maps provides for explicit links between arguments and the geographic objects they refer to. These geo-argumentative relations do not only allow for cartographic representation of arguments, but also support the querying of both space and discussion. Combinations of spatial queries and retrieval of linked arguments provide a powerful way of analyzing and summarizing the current state of a debate. In this chapter, we provide an overview of the original argumentation model, and we discuss related research and application development. We also link argumentation mapping to related concepts in geographic visualization, spatial decision support systems, and public participation GIS under the umbrella of collaborative GIS.
This paper describes and analyzes an application of a geographic information system (GIS) to create a profile of environmental hazards and resources in an older, inner-city neighborhood in Cleveland. The client, a community development organization, sought the profile as the basis of new organizing and community planning efforts concerning environmental quality and environmental health issues. The objective was to obtain and assemble spatially referenced environmental data existing in the public domain and map that data according to the service area of a neighborhood-based development organization. The study describes and analyzes the utility and data management capacity issues that would likely be experienced by community-based organizations using GIS in applications at the neighborhood level. This paper describes and analyzes the use of GIS to develop a profile of environmental conditions in an urban neighborhood. The project client was a community-based organization (CBO) seeking a baseline set of environmental information displayed spatially. This information would serve as a basis for community planning to develop strategies to address environmental quality concerns in the neighborhood. The author designed the project to result in a product useful for the client, to explore the issues raised in relevant literature, and to generate working hypotheses for a broader study of the use of GIS by CBOs to address environmental quality issues. The purpose of this paper is to examine the application of GIS at the neighborhood scale by and for a CBO. Through this examination one can understand better the obstacles and opportunities to make GIS a more relevant and effective technology for use by and for CBOs as GIS projects diffuse into broader society.
The heated controversy over “citizen participation,” “citizen control”, and “maximum feasible involvement of the poor,” has been waged largely in terms of exacerbated rhetoric and misleading euphemisms. To encourage a more enlightened dialogue, a typology of citizen participation is offered using examples from three federal social programs: urban renewal, anti-poverty, and Model Cities. The typology, which is designed to be provocative, is arranged in a ladder pattern with each rung corresponding to the extent of citizens' power in determining the plan and/or program.
Public participation geographic information systems (PPGIS) pertains to the use of geographic information systems (GIS) to broaden public involvement in policymaking as well as to the value of GIS to promote the goals of nongovernmental organizations, grassroots groups, and community-based organizations. The article first traces the social history of PPGIS. It then argues that PPGIS has been socially constructed by a broad set of actors in research across disciplines and in practice across sectors. This produced and reproduced concept is then explicated through four major themes found across the breadth of the PPGIS literature: place and people, technology and data, process, and outcome and evaluation. The themes constitute a framework for evaluating current PPGIS activities and a roadmap for future PPGIS research and practice.
This paper reports the development of a Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) that is currently in the early stages of implementation and testing. The project is a joint undertaking between the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and the NSW Department of Housing (DoH). It features a robust, non-proprietary data structure incorporating 3D spatial models, use of VRML/X3D for graphics modelling and incorporating XML based data and customised tools to support effective web-based user interaction. Although the broader project aims to develop an SDSS that supports all aspects of the management of public housing for a governmental authority, this paper focuses specifically on a module to support public participation through the capture of community feedback and other input. The paper begins with an outline of the immediate context of this work, both in terms of the local community being used as the test bed for this implementation as well as comparing this work to similar undertakings in other places. It goes on to describe the unique approach taken in this project toward the structuring of the geo-spatial data that lies at the heart of the system and the tools developed to support user interaction and community participation. The paper concludes with a discussion of on-going issues encountered during the development and implementation of this system, and proposals for future developments. This paper is an extension of the work presented at the 24th Urban Data Management Symposium, in Chioggia, October 2004.
Participatory spatial planning and decision making requires a combination of software tools for group decision support, individual decision support and geographic analysis and presentation. This article presents a respective approach that integrates two software tools which were originally developed independently. One tool, Dito, is a Java application for the World Wide Web designed to facilitate structured argumentation and discourses. The other tool, CommonGIS, provides Java-based web-enabled services for the interactive, explorative generation and analysis of thematic maps, and it also supports multi-criteria decision making. The evolution of the integrated system is reviewed from first experiments in 2001, the resulting requirements and a succession of prototypes up to the latest solution. The focus of the article lies in the design of this solution.
Annotation Technology is a systematized set of recommendations for design of successful advanced annotation software covering the architectural, functional and user-interface aspects. It is grounded in a careful examination of 17 existing systems accompanied by our own empirical study of annotation types, applications and desired functionality. To validate the recommendations of Annotation Technology, we have also developed Annotator, a system for making on-line annotations on arbitrary hypertext documents. Annotator offers some capabilities unavailable in existing systems. It has a proxy-based architecture for annotating documents over the web and sorting the comments in an annotation database.
Public participatory geographic information systems (PP GIS) aim at enlarging citizen’s involvement and participation in decision-making
processes. In this paper we review existing online PP GIS applications and present the framework of our analysis. We concentrate
on the aspects of interactivity of such applications and the GIS functionalities needed for their operation. First results
of ongoing research exhibit that a vast majority of applications only deliver information to the citizen in a one-way communication
process. Although the technology is available, only few applications fulfill criteria of our analysis to be classified as
two-way communication tools. We conclude the paper with directions for our further research.
Abstract Public participation is becoming an increasingly important issue when it concerns spatial planning. New spatial plans are expected to be available to citizens and open for discussion. The Internet has proved to be a very useful tool for sharing information with a large number of people, however a picture or map of an area will not be very useful for everyone trying to get a good idea about the future situation. It is quite difficult to get a good impression of the changes to an area by using a 2D image or map representation. Geo-visualisation is seen as a new way to present spatial issues to the public and improve the interaction and communication. Virtual environments are very useful to show the current and future situation on a very realistic level. The user can interact with the environment by navigating through the virtual world and see what impact the spatial plans have on the area. A three-dimensional representation of the plans will give a more realistic idea about the impact the changes will have on the present situation. But not only the internet is a new way of bringing information to the citizens. Display technology is also improving, like the development of the ICWall and the CAVEtm. The ICWall is a large screen capable of processing large data sets and on which therefore a 3D stereo projection can be achieved. Such a large display makes it possible to present the spatial plans in a large room to a large number of people at the same time without the loss of resolution. The visitors can view the spatial plans in 3D with the use of glasses and can respond to the plans at the same time to the responsible people like the project planners and landscape architects. These new techniques raises a lot of new research questions such as, do people respond differently when spatial plans are presented by using virtual reality? And do tools like the CAVEtm and the ICWall prove to be useful as a communication device?
Information technology plays a growing role in planning procedures. A procedure step which has not been supported by specific computer tools up to now, is asynchronous discussions. Such discussions can occur in public participation as well as between planners during plan design. In this paper I introduce argumentation models as a way of structuring debates, and review existing tools for recording argumentation. A limited number of tools support design-related or map-related discussions. Their short-comings for analyzing geographically referenced arguments are discussed. Finally, the concept of 'argumentation maps' is described, which combine the strengths of rigorous argumentation modeling and detailed geographic location to support map-based discussions in on-line planning.
As in other areas of planning practice, the use of GIS in neighborhood planning has assumed a technical top-down approach. Given the fact that GIS are essentially about providing and analyzing spatial data, it is difficult to envision how their use in local communities could be construed otherwise. In this paper I make a case for the need to channel intellectual energy into developing an approach and methodology for resident-generated GIS . Specifically I argue that there is a need to exploit GIS in the investigation of residents' perceptions of local neighborhood environments. I explore this approach in five sections. First, I present a definition of resident-generated GIS and position it within the larger debate on public participation GIS. Second, I offer a review of the current use of GIS in local neighborhood communities. This consists of an empirical assessment of neighborhood GIS as well as a critique of community GIS from the perspective of scholars in planning and geography. Third, I review the theoretical background that is integral to -- and must form the basis of -- a resident-generated GIS. Three theoretical traditions are relevant: environmental perception; indigenous information and its use in GIS; and neighborhood-level issues that could be enlightened through the use of GIS. Fourth, I propose a methodological framework for constructing and utilizing resident-generated GIS. Fifth, I discuss the political implications of a resident-generated GIS.
INTRODUCTION Geographic information systems (GIS) and geographic information technologies (GIT) are increasingly employed in research and development projects that incorporate community participation. For example, there are now applications involving indigenous natural resource mapping in arctic and tropical regions within the Americas (Marozas, 1993; Cultural Survival Quarterly, 1995; Bond, this volume). There is also a rapidly growing network of planning professionals interested in how GIS can merge with community participation in the context of neighborhood revitalization and urban planning (Aitkin and Michel, 1995; Craig and Elwood, 1998; Leitner et al., this volume; Sawicki and Peterman, this volume; Talen, 1999, 2000). Environmental groups are experimenting with community GIS applications to promote environmental equity and address environmental racism (Sieber, 2000; Kellog, 1999). Furthermore, NGOs, aid organizations, and governmental agencies are linking communities with geogr
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