Collaborative E-Governance: Contours of Epistemology

David C. Prosperi Henry D. Epstein Professor of Urban/Regional Planning Florida Atlantic University Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301 prosperi@fau.edu

I NPUT 2 010 PO TEN Z A , B A S I L I C A TA , I TA L Y

INTUITION PUMP: Conference Statement

Do profound changes in application of IT only help us to what we already do better?

or

Compared to weak thought, is more profound knowledge possible that would enable a more effective evaluation process, ensuring better quality of decision making and choices?

QUICK ANSWER =>

Paradigms
Scientific IT Professional

Deep Knowledge

Good Decisions

Deep Knowledge

Good Decisions

The Mindset of the Planning Theorist

Deep Knowledge

Network Power

Good Decisions

Conceptual Issues

Conference Statement

Evidence / Empirical Issues

Process Thinkers

EGovernance

Complexity

Space

INPUT

Trends & Numbers

Popular Writers

GIS NGOs

Power

Some Conclusions

1. The Conference Question

Do What We Do Better
GIS -> ArcGIS Social Networking -> Mobile Communications

Change the System

Better Linkages to Decision Makers -> DSS or PSS? Develop Network Power

Deep v. Doing Better

Deep
Academics, at least, value Deep Consistent with rationality,

The Better Qs
What the Planning Theory (process) People Tell Us E-Government

Knowledge and Deep Democracy

scientific method, the value of science to improve lives (medicine, food , and tools) Consistent with the notion of a class of individuals who have value in society as civic leaders (Plato, but also public intellectuals)
Is it still valid? (or am I a

More Complex Models

dinosaur?)

Understanding Power

2. Process Thinkers

Innes (and Booher)

Healey

Flyvbjerg

Salet

Hillier

Moulaert

Alternative Models of Planning

Architectural Basis
Best known physical planners were probably not democratic and probably regressive Hausmann

Engineering Basis Political Systems Basis

Megaprojects

See Flvybjerg criticism (but also see Wachs in the late 1980s)

Regime Theory

Citizen Participation (e-Citizen Participation)

Collaborative Planning Models

DONE BY AGENCIES FAR AWAY FROM DAILY LIFE OF CITIZENS

An Attempt to Summarize

a belief that collaborative planning processes supported by scientific research tends to be a powerful internal network that moves policy makers

Participation is not Collaboration

Collaborative Planning Emphasis on

From Alternative Dispute Resolution Focus on Process

Assessing the performance of collaborative planning Difference between outputs and outcomes

OUTPUTS are the plans, projects, and other tangible items produced directly by the effort

OUTCOMES are the effects of the process and its outputs on changing social and environmental conditions

Outcomes

And the Role of Science?

Social capital Institutional capacity Political capital

Institutional change

Intellectual capital

Innovation

Ozawa, among others, have demonstrated that in science-intensive deliberations when scientific information is produced collaboratively (e.g., joint-fact finding, expert panel) it can lead to such social outcomes as stakeholder learning and mutual understanding of complex problems.

Process: Networks and Networking Rules

A Plan is not a Concept in

ones head; rather, it is a dialogue that occurs within a social network structure in ones own head as a concept.

Corollary: projects must

Ostroms (Nobel Economic

Laureate, 2009) Institutional Analysis and Design methodology focuses on what difference it makes if things are done one way or another

have a purpose other than just in the mind of the developer. For example, to develop an ontology for oneself is useful for basic science, but is only useful to the scientist acting alone it has no immediate USE

Errata (on this topic)

The crucial role of Mega-Governments For example, the EU and its funding, resource (and policy) dependence The crucial role of NGOs Each have a specific planning methodology Lots of GIS work at this scale Other word phrases: horizontal planning,

participatory design, collaborative planning software (including all those models from the 1990s), project planning, etc.

3. Promise of E-Government
About how Internet would change the world

About how EGovernment would change the world

Best described as normative anticipatory statements or pronouncements

E-Government
E-Government Domains

Creates a comfortable, transparent, and cheap interaction between:

governance

information and communication technology (ICT)

government and citizens (G2C)

government and business enterprises (G2B)

relationship between governments (G2G)

business process reengineering (BPR)

e-citizen

Governance (+ E-Governance?)
Entire Entry on

Wikipedia:

Government

Profit

NonProfit

'eGovernance' is a network of organizations to include government, nonprofit, and private-sector entities; in eGovernance there are no distinct boundaries.

MESSY!!!! A theory of governance

[e or not-e]????

What is Going on at the Local Level?

Ho, 2002 + Franzel/Richardson 2003
Ho: Classified websites as

Prosperi, 2004,6
Used multiple criteria

informational, administrative and user for 55 large US cities; SES correlates -> poorer cities more informational Franzel/Richardson: 67 metro areas; regression -> structure+, time invested+, income+

grouped into PRESENCE, INTERACTION, TRANSACTION, and DEMOCRACY - to evaluate websites Some SES correlates -> poorer cities more government than governance

Practice: Local Charettes

Geddes v. Neuman

Can Regions Be Designed

G: regions cannot be designed;

N: of course they can, we are having a

charette and regional design emerged as operative framework for the planto-be

Practice: Research in a Lab

Playful Part Ici Pation

Krek Lanza

Form (Rules) of Games

Planning Systems

Public Participation

Best Practices

Concepts of Games

4. More Complex Models

Complexity Theory

Drivers and Stressors v. Place-Making or

Sustainability etc.

People v. Place

Complexity in the Everyday Environment

the environment as subject

to processes of continuous change, being either progressive or destructive, evolving non-linearly and alternating between stable and dynamic periods. if the environment that is subject to change is adaptive, self-organizing, robust and flexible in relation to this change, a process of evolution and co-evolution can be expected.
From the Ashgate Marketing Site

Complexity as a Planning Model

Thinking Differently for an

Age of Complexity How Can Theory Improve Practice? Stories From the Field The Praxis of Collaboration Knowledge into Action: The Role of Dialogue Using Local Knowledge for Justice and Resilience Beyond Collaboration: Democratic Governance for a Resilient Society

5. Power
Good Power v. Bad

Power
Social Capital as an

Alternative Form of Power

??? Does Social Media

Create Social Capital???

Good v. Bad Power

Communicative action theorists How science when integrated into the DM process can depoliticize communications and result in public learning, mutual understanding, empowerment of stakeholders and often consensus about policy options Habermas, Innes, Forester, Ozawa, etc.

Power expressed as coercion and subordination of one set of thoughts to another Power distorting the outcomes of science and/or representative democracy Power as domination over the decisionmaking process. Flyvbjerg

Power (after Allen)

Instrumental Power formal

Instrumental Power - informal

Power

Associational Power formal

Associational Power - informal

Power in Informal Associational Networks

Mandarano (under review, JPER)

Both types of Power are Necessary to Study an Issue.

How it is possible to provoke more democratic outcomes,

positive-sum solutions that address multiple interests. A Case Study to highlight how the relatively weak Habitat Workgroup having limited formal authority supporting its agenda effectively produced power in and through its informal and formal networks altering the decision-making process in the formal network. The paper demonstrates how disempowered groups generate associational power through mobilization of resources available in informal networks and how such power is transferrable to the formal decision-making process

The Key Idea Framework

(Creating Social Capital Digitally)

Social Capital
NonDigitally Digitally

Effective Decisions

The Tools We Have

Websites

Email
Web-Based Surveys

Social Networking
Video Sharing Virtual Meetings

Texting/SMS
Blogs/Micro Blogs (Twitter) RSS

www.twitter.com

Conceptual Issues

Conference Statement

Evidence / Empirical Issues

Process Thinkers

EGovernance

Complexity

Space

INPUT

Trends & Numbers

Popular Writers

GIS NGOs

Power

Some Conclusions

1. Space

Hidden spatial structures The scale of the analysis must match the

scale of the problem

The Image of the Region?

Mega-city regions are new large-scale urban phenomenon

being discussed from both an analytical-functional and a political-normative perspective elements and driving forces of mega-city regions are increasingly coming to light feeding the comprehension of the mega-city regions decisive role in economic, social and cultural development The relevant and responsible stakeholders and players are being challenged large-scale metropolitan governance is called for A problem of transmission arises seems to be little awareness to politicians, citizens, and administrators, mega-city regions remain invisible in many respects: They are rarely mapped, lack a name, image and attendant concept, and hardly offer any direct sensual perception in everyday life.
From the Preface, Thierstein and Forster, 2009

Context: Preparing a Strategic Plan for Milano Metropolitan Region

Locals Dont Know How The Milano Metropolitan Region Works

Ongoing Discussion about Metropolitan Regions as Product or Process

Making Milano Apparent: A Conversation with Alessandro Balducci

Making Apparent SoFlo

Theoretical Structures A Map

Traditional Economic Base / Ecology Cluster Theory

Polycentricity
Creative Class/City

Tourism and Branding

Growth of South Florida

The TOP Chart shows cumulative building space consumption

The BOTTOM Chart shows the distribution of growth in built space for each of the individual county units

1945, 1965, 1985

Built Environment, 2005

The State of Floridas

Department of Revenue Tax Collector Database Floridas Department of Revenue, Division of AdValorem Tax, Chapter 12D-8 specifies both the formal state mandate and the format of these records, described in (ftp://sdrftp03.dor.state.fl.us/). In 2008, there are 76 fields in the tax collector database (or more abstractly, each property is recorded as a 76-tuple).

Thus, the debate goes on; it might be out of both academic and political comfort zones.
New Conceptual Models Focus on Process Rather Than Pattern

Change Should Occur Within Processes Not Patterns

http://urbancomplexity.blogspot.com/2010/ 01/entrepreneurial-urbanregeneration-of.html

Space and Complexity

2. Levels of Participation
Theoretically, this should vary by stage in the

planning process. There are appropriate tools for different stages of the analysis.
Rationality (a desired state for linear-

thinking and object oriented planners).

But also irrational (Kartez) But also rational ignorance (Krek) But also predictably irrational (Howe)

Peng Table
Planning Process / GIS Function
General Information Web Browsing Static Map Images

Communication Channels for Discussion

Interactive Map Based Search, Query and Analysis

Scenario Building Online Editing

Plan Alternatives

Data

Analysis Tools

 Wikinomics: How

Mass Collaboration Changes Everything (2006) explores how some companies in the early 21st century have used mass collaboration (also called peer production) and opensource technology, such as wikis, to be successful. MacroWikinomics out soon (9/28/2010).

Some Wikinomics Terms

Principles/Basic Ideas

New Models of Mass Collaboration

Marketocracy

Openness Peering Sharing Acting Globally

Collaborating Investing Platforms Linking experts with unsolved R&D problems.

Ideagoras

Prosumers

Second Life as being Created by its customers

the internet as shared knowledge

New Alexandrians

 Crowdsourcing is

the act of outsourcing tasks, traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, to a large group of people or community or a crowd.

Examples of Crowdsourcing
Community-Based Design (or distributed participatory design):

The public may be invited to develop a new technology, carry out a design task Human-Based Computation: The public may be asked to carry out the steps of an algorithm Citizen Science: The public may be asked to capture, systematize or analyze large amounts of data (but could also refer to mere data collectors
Better if used with Web 2.0 technologies. http://www.ideo.com/work/item/human-centered-design-toolkit/

3. Trends and Some Numbers

2000
Alexa Google Trends

2009

The Story in 2000 (from Stanford)

E-mail is by far the most common Internet activity. A little over a third of all Internet users report using the web to engage in

entertainment such as computer games fractions of Internet users.

Consumer to Business transactional activity are engaged in by much smaller

The average Internet user reports engaging in 7.2 different types of activities.

Myth and Reality of the 'Digital Divide':

There are some demographic differences in Internet access. There are few demographic differences in Internet use.

The more time people spend on the internet The more they lose contact with their social environment The more they turn their back on the traditional media The more time they spend working at home; but not telecommuting The less they spend shopping in stores and commuting in traffic

Alexa, a ranking and analysis website

(http://www.alexa.com)

Facebook users are well-educated, younger, it is the #1 site in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Norway, #2 in US, Italy, and most of Europe (except Netherlands and Poland), but only 13th in Russia, 15th in Brazil, and 27th in Japan, and is overutilized from school. Globally: Google, Facebook, YouTube, Yahoo!, WindowsLive, Baidu, Wikipedia, Blogger, Twitter, MSN, QQ, Taobao, Amazon, Sina,WordPress, e-Bay, Microsoft, Bing, Yandex.ru, LinkedIn, 163, Myspace, Craigslist, FC2, Conduit, Mail.ru, Flickr, Vkontakte, IMBD, Sohu, APPLE, LiveJasmin, Soso, BBC, Go, AOL, RapidShare, Youku, PayPal, Double Click, ASK, Xvideos, CNN, PornHub, MediaFire

After Google, Yahoo and Social Networking, Porn Trumps News

Google Trends .
GIS (B), Climate Change (R), Sustainability (O), Urban Development (G)

Google Trends .
GIS (B), Facebook (R), YouTube (G), Twitter (O)

2009 Pew Study

Some 40% of adult internet users have obtained raw data

about government spending and activities.

look online to see how federal stimulus money is being spent (23% of internet users have done this); read or download the text of legislation (22%); visit a site such as data.gov that provides access to government data (16%); or look online to see who is contributing to the campaigns of their elected officials (14%).

Some 31% of online adults have used social tools such as blogs,

social networking sites, and online video as well as email and text alerts to keep informed about government activities.

Minority Americans, Latinos and African Americans are just as likely as whites to use these tools to keep up with government, and Minority Americans, Latinos, and African-Americans are much more likely to agree that government outreach using these channels makes government more accessible and helps people be more informed about what government agencies are doing.

4. Popular Writers

Nicholas Carr

Clay Shirky

Johathan Lehrer

Dan Ariely

Jeff Howe

Two Competing Metaphors

Major Points of The Shallows

New technology: dumbing down v. democratization of

culture. Every intellectual technology embodies a work ethic and every medium develops some cognitive skills at the expense of others. Brain is plastic -- parts can grow and/or contract but at the expense of other functions -- hippocampus Ecosystem of Interruptions or Distraction from Distraction by Distraction Retention loss of long-term memory (and working memory v. long-term memory) Shallow reading, shallow decisions?

Shallow
Interruptions Shared (Shallow) Impressions Little Retention

Deep
Democracy Self-Knowledge (personal)

Major Points of Cognitive Surplus

For decades, technology encouraged people to squander their time and

intellect as passive consumers. Suburbanization and education has yielded a surfeit of intellect, energy, and time the cognitive surplus. consumed the lion's share of it-and we consume TV passively, in isolation.

But this abundance had little impact on the common good because television New media that allow us to pool our efforts at vanishingly low cost. This

includes mind expanding-reference tools like Wikipedia-to lifesaving-such as Ushahidi.com, which allows Kenyans to sidestep government censorship and report on acts of violence in real time. exploit our goodwill and free time by returning our society to forms of collaboration that were natural through the early 20th century.

Society and our daily lives will be improved dramatically as we learn to

We are entering an era of lower creative quality on average but greater

innovation, an increase in transparency in all areas of society, and a dramatic rise in productivity that will transform our civilization.

Ushahidi
(means testimony in Swahili)

http://www.ushahidi.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ushahidi

Neuroscience Findings are Available

How unexpected discoveries of

neuroscience help us make the best decisions. decision-making process as either rational or emotional: we carefully deliberate or we go with our gut. Neuroscientists are discovering that decisions are a finely tuned blend of both feeling and reason and the precise mix depends on the situation. The key is how and when we use the different parts of the brain, and to do this, we need to think harder (and smarter) about how we think. decisions? And how can we make those decisions better?

Philosophers have described the

How does the human mind make

It is More Than Rational Ignorance

We (might by) Predictably Irrational

We consistently overpay,

underestimate, and procrastinate. This book refutes the assumption that we behave in rational ways.

Yet these behaviors are neither

random nor senseless. They're systematic and predictable making us predictably irrational.

Evidence Pro and Con

(there is NO correct answer)

SMARTER

DUMBER

SMARTER

DUMBER

5. Institutions
The Players INSPIRE (EU Scale Organization) + Its Subordinates JRC Plan4All EUROGI AM/FM types AGILE the academic laboratories Academic/Professional Conferences City Branders/Visions NEXTHAMBURG

They are too Far From the Public

Meta-Narratives

Bad Power?

Tomlinson et al. (3/2010)

Major Argument

Outline of Article in IJURR

Google Searches are Not

Random, but are Structured

Approach and Methodology Labels and Integrated Policy Packages

Ownership Labels and the Creation of Integrated Policy Packages Text Analysis and Page Rank Links in Practice City Development Strategy Slum Upgrading Municipal Services Municipal Capacity Building in Developing Countries Municipal Finance in Developing Countries Concluding Observation

Googling Urban Policy

Major Narratives are

Created and Maintained by Powerful Institutions and UN Habitat

The Labels

In this Case: World Bank

PPP and Alternative Perspectives on Water Delivery Conclusion

Conceptual Issues

Conference Statement

Evidence / Empirical Issues

Process Thinkers

EGovernance

Complexity

Space

INPUT

Trends & Numbers

Popular Writers

GIS NGOs

Power

Some Conclusions

An Epistemology of E-Governance?
Based on a Process Model For Different Levels of Government
Incorporating More Than Land Focused on People

Need for a Theory of Governance

Governance (and eGovernance) is Messy!!! Need to Better Explore Notions and Likelihood of Deep Democracy
The

Process Thinkers But also others [Ostrom (IDA), Pat Wilson (Deep Democracy)]

Case Studies are Nice, but

All set in the context of digital natives Digital analogies for e-governance theory

What Does Performance Mean?

Krugman Ostrom

Economic Efficiency
Income Distribution Productivity and Income Growth Employment

Equity Through Fiscal

Economic Well Being

Equivalence Re-Distributional Equity Accountability Conformance to General Morality Adaptability

It is the Question, Not the Rules

Spatial Polycentricity

Institutional Design

Complex Adaptive Systems

Polycentric Metropolitan Governance

Good Politics, Bad Economics

For Different Levels of Government

We need to pay more careful attention to what our

digital analogies are really trying to do

Much of the GIS Work is Done at the National Level,

Far Removed from the Day to Day Activities of Citizens

We need to articulate aspects of the digital milieu at scales that matter Problems occur at different scales Analysis should also occur at appropriate scales

More Than Land

Space may be a third order concern (after food, shelter, and

perhaps even happiness)

Economic Development, Health, Basic Infrastructure

What is the purpose of a method?

NEEDS TO BUILD ON KNOWLEDGE FROM EACH

CASE STUDY the need for a scientific method to understand e-governance

For People
Planning remains a place discipline or activity

Planning should focus on people Their motivations and aspirations Their role in self-determination Their role as citizens

REFERENCES

Academic

Refugee

Popular

Indicative of E-Publishing
(A Work in Progress)

Allen, J. 2003. Lost Geographies of Power. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. Alexa.Com, retrieved 09/08/2010. Ariely, D. 200x. Rationally Irrational. Place: Publisher. Carr, N. 2010. The Shallows (What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains). NY: W.W. Norton. De Roo, G. & E. Silva. 2010. A Planners Encounter with Complexity. Place: Ashgate. Flyvbjerg, B. 2002. Bringing Power to Planning Research. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 21: 353-366. Franzel, X. & X. Richardson, 2003. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. Proceedings, International Conference on Politics and Information Systems (PISTA), xxx-xxx. Healey, P. 1997. Collaborative Planning. London: Macmillan. Hillier, J. 200x. Title. Place: Publisher. Ho, A.T. 2002. Reinventing Local Governments and the E-Government Initiative. Public Administration Review, 62(4): 434-444. Howe, J. 2009. Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business. New York: Three Rivers Press. Krek, A. Lanza, V. & D. Prosperi. 2009. Collaborative E-Governance: Describing and Pre-Calibrating the Digital Milieux in Urban and Regional Planning. In A.Krek et al. Urban Data Management UDMS Annual 2009. Netherlands: AA Balkema . Lee, D. 1973. Requiem for Large Scale Models. JAPA, V(I): xxxxxx Lehrer, J. 2009. How We Decide. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Innes, J. & D. Booher. 200x. Planning with Complexity. Place: Publisher. Innes, J. Late 1990s. Social Indicators Stuff Mandarano, L. Date. Title. Journal of Planning Education and Research, V(I): xx-xx Moulaert, F. Neumann. M. Ostrom, E. Ozawa, C.P. 2005. Putting Science in Its Place. In J.T. Scholz & B. Stiftel (eds.) Adaptive Governance and Water Conflict. Washington DC: Resources for the Future. Peng, Y.-R. 200x. Pew Research Center (Internet and American Life Project), 2010. retrieved 09/06/2010. http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Future-of-Millennials.aspx Prosperi, D.C. 2008. Making Apparent the Multi-Scalar Economic Spatial Structure in South Florida. In V. Coors, M. Rumor, E.M. Fendel, & S. Zlatanova, eds., Urban and Regional Data Management. UDMS Annual 2007. Netherlands: A.A. Balkema (Taylor and Francis), 307-317. Prosperi, D. 2006. City E-Government: Who is Doing What in the US? UDMS Proceedings, Aalborg, Denmark. Salet, W. Shirky, C. 2010. Cognitive Surplus (Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Era). Place: Penguin Press. Stanford Study, retrieved 09/01/2010. http://www.stanford.edu/group/siqss/Press_Release/press_release.html Tapscott, D. & A.D. Williams. 2006. Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything. Place: Publisher. Thierstein, A. and X. Forster. 200x. The Image of A Region. Place: Publisher. Tomlinson, R. et al. 2010. The Influence of Google on Urban Policy in Developing Countries. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 34(1): 174-189. Various WebSites (INSPIRE, JRC, Plan4ALL,AGILE,EROGI,CORP,UDMS,INPUT) Voltaire. Nd. For Advice. Wulf, L., C. Kaylor & D. Prosperi. 2004. Local E-Government: Concept and Correlates. Proceedings, International Conference on Politics and Information Systems (PISTA), 200-206.

THANK YOU!

Less Deep

Closing the Gap

(Governmental GIS & The Life of Citizens) The Power of Informal Networks Need to Develop More Scalar Sensitive Digital Analogs (collaboratively?)