Lost in the translation.

Exploring the Contributions of Involving Ordinary Users in Ideation of Technology-Based Services

Knowledge sharing is an activity through which knowledge, namely, information, skills, or expertise, is exchanged between people, friends, families, communities or organizations. Online knowledge sharing activities are flourishing with the advent of social media and digital life. However, despite of the importance of the online knowledge sharing methods and mechanisms, there is not any comprehensive and systematic study about studying and analyzing its important techniques. Therefore, the main aim of this paper, the comprehensive, detailed, and systematic study, and survey of the state-of-the-art knowledge sharing mechanisms in an online environments is provided. Also, this paper presents a systematic literature review (SLR) on the online knowledge sharing literatures up to end of 2015. We identified 348 papers, which are reduced to 251 primary studies through our paper selection process. Also, the broad overview of the literature provides insights into potential areas for further research. By providing state-of-the-art information, this survey will directly support academics and practicing professionals in their understanding of developments in online knowledge sharing mechanisms and techniques.

/pdf/online-knowledge-sharing-mechanisms-a-systematic-review-of-wjgml934hb.pdf

Online knowledge sharing mechanisms: a systematic review of the state of the art literature and recommendations for future research

This book, by artful definition of novelties in thought, makes a case for more of the same. Lorimer wants to advocate ‘a radical case’, through which shimmering scepticism and endless semantic angu...

Wildlife in the Anthropocene: conservation after nature

Citizen science is growing as a field of research with contributions from diverse disciplines, promoting innovation in science, society, and policy. Inter- and transdisciplinary discussions and critical analyses are needed to use the current momentum to evaluate, demonstrate, and build on the advances that have been made in the past few years. This paper synthesizes results of discussions at the first international citizen science conference of the European Citizen Science Association (ECSA) in 2016 in Berlin, Germany, and distills major points of the discourse into key recommendations. To enhance innovation in science, citizen science needs to clearly demonstrate its scientific benefit, branch out across disciplines, and foster active networking and new formats of collaboration, including true co-design with participants. For fostering policy advances, it is important to embrace opportunities for policy-relevant monitoring and policy development and to work with science funders to find adequate avenues and evaluation tools to support citizen science. From a society angle it is crucial to engage with societal actors in various formats that suit participants and to evaluate two-way learning outcomes as well as to develop the transformative role of science communication. We hope that these key perspectives will promote citizen science progress at the science-society-policy interface.

/pdf/innovation-in-citizen-science-perspectives-on-science-policy-3mno1bybg4.pdf

Innovation in citizen science – perspectives on science-policy advances

The importance of user orientation in innovation activities is nowadays emphasized not only in business life but also in political and societal discussions. In today’s competed and changing market situations, one promising way to support market success are innovations originating from the needs of the customers. The traditional division to product-oriented and service-oriented business is blurring as traditional products are equipped with service elements that bring additional value to customers. Service orientation in business changes the connection to the customers: it is not enough to be able to sell the product to the customer once but the service customer has to be kept satisfied every day. Service providers need to know their customers better and to offer them better possibilities to be involved in service development. In this report we present a review of the current state of the art in user involvement in service innovations. The review is based on three different research viewpoints: marketing and business research, human-centred design and media research. In each of these research fields we can see a similar trend of changing the attitude towards users; from passive research object to an active design partner, potential resource and co-producer. The transition from product design to service design requires that design and usage should be more firmly connected – the design does not end when the service is launched but the design continues in use where the users are creating content for the service. The users shape usage practises in actual use and this may indicate needs to refine the service. That is why service providers should have good channels to monitor the users and to listen to their ideas and feedback. In addition to user involvement in the actual design process and during use, users should increasingly be involved also in early innovation phases, in ideating what kinds of services should be designed for them and with them. Different users can give different contributions to service innovation and their motivations and preferred ways to participate vary. Different roles in the innovation process should be available to user groups such as lead users, ordinary users, advanced users, critical users and non-users. User communities are increasingly important sources of innovations, either existing communities or new communities that are grown around the service. Customer interaction may shorten the development cycle and improve the quality of innovations. Successful user involvement, however, requires that the organisation has methods and processes to gather and analyse user data as well as to integrate user data in the design process. User involvement is especially useful in the early stages of service development processes due to their high uncertainty and low formalisation. Direct user-designer interaction helps in transferring user feedback and ideas to service innovations. Designers’ direct interaction with users is also beneficial as it seems to change designers’ mindset smoothly from technical features to user experience, thus boosting better designs. User experience of the service is improved when users themselves can contribute to developing the service.

User involvement in service innovations

Drawing on the wide social scientific literature on emotions and affects, we highlight the value and potential contribution of the affect theory for understanding public engagement in environmental policy and planning. We suggest that such theorization complements political ontologies that envision concerned publics to arise as citizens are attached to objects and other beings in their everyday life. Focus on emotions and affects enables in-depth exploration of the corporeality of these attachments, increasing understanding about how affected publics get driven for action and how new sensibilities and horizons for action are created. Based on the discussion of affect theory and case examples, we argue that emotions and affects should be treated as crucial carriers of knowledge about transformation of political subjects and their concerns. They also direct analytic gaze beyond public participation procedures and encourage the development of novel, more inclusive settings for public engagement.

Emergent publics and affects in environmental governance

Facilitating Knowledge Sharing in E-Governance: Online Spatial Displays as Translating Devices

Harnessing the unexpectedness in co-creation: How uncertainty shapes the practices of co-creation in participatory budgeting? Recently, co-creation has been promoted as a bottom-up approach for fostering democratic processes relating to the knowledge production in governance. Participatory budgeting, which enables citizens to work with professionals or other stakeholders to design and decide how common funds are allocated, is considered as a form of co-creation. Based on empirical data collected in the city of Tampere and in the municipality of Inari, the article scrutinizes participatory budgeting, specifically where the diversity of participants and working cultures of local administrations introduce uncertainty in co-creation. To facilitate co-creation, there is a need to distinguish different practices of co-creation and identify their enabling or restricting elements. The article distinguishes among six practices:1) organizational commitment, 2) identification of actors and initiation of collaborative partnerships, 3) resourcing, 4) leadership, 5) identification of expertise and knowledge,and 6) emotional work. 

”Voi tulla mitä vaan vastaan”: Epävarmuus ja yhteiskehittämistä muokkaavat käytännöt osallistuvassa budjetoinnissa

This article draws from two cases of participatory budgeting (PB) in Poland and Finland to explore PB as an inclusive practice of involving children and youth in local governance. Scrutinizing interpretations of facilitators involved in the creation of PB, we analyze the motivation for incorporating children and youth into governance and how their engagement was conducted from the view of ownership. We identify ownership as a central element of inclusion when children and young people are invited to participate in public matters. Our conceptualization distinguishes four analytical dimensions of ownership: ownership of (1) process, (2) issue, (3) action produced, and (4) decision-making. Additionally, we argue that from the view of PB facilitators, encouraging the ownership of children and young people to PB involves four functions: carrying out a legally mandated task, identifying topical issues, developing tools of support, and constructing a motivational link between school and society. We highlight that ownership can potentially contribute to the challenges of engagement experienced in PB initiatives. However, promoting ownership possesses a risk of disempowering the participants and raises concern about the relation between ownership and the level of genuine inclusion. 

Pauliina Lehtonen

Papers

User involvement in service innovations

Emergent publics and affects in environmental governance

Facilitating Knowledge Sharing in E-Governance: Online Spatial Displays as Translating Devices

”Voi tulla mitä vaan vastaan”: Epävarmuus ja yhteiskehittämistä muokkaavat käytännöt osallistuvassa budjetoinnissa

Inclusion as ownership in participatory budgeting: facilitators’ interpretations of public engagement of children and youth