Crowdsourcing As A Citizen Participation Tool

Crowdsourcing as a citizen participation tool

Introduction

The following essay presents the analysis of the main models of crowdsourcing platforms as tools that can contribute to citizen participation to carry out an open government, this type of platforms are also used in local public institutions for strengthening in the relationship with society.

In recent years, analyzing the current economic crisis as well as Latin America and around the world, it has been found that there is increasing distancing between political class and civil society, it can be generalized that there are several manifestations of society against political managers.

It is worth mentioning that to take to open government where countries, regions carry out democracy through their decisions taken, the electronic government where countries invest in this type of method for the realization of public efforts since it is necessary to unlock and hurry Public processes and procedures being the best progress that governments can implement to reduce the anti -corruption that is lived day by day.

There is an alliance for open government in Latin America is an initiative that seeks to ensure concrete commitments, empower citizens honest in their activity and take advantage of new technologies to strengthen governance.

The types of crowdsourcing platforms are highlighted, above all, the comparison of crowdsourcing aimed at citizen participation is made defining which is the most influence on the web and the governance environment.

It can also be, more than an alternative, a complement to favor the innovation process.

Based on Gladys Rodríguez (2004) the development of ICT opens new channels for the provision of service to society as an opportunity to access the information but also touches the points that society still does not adapt as it should, this point is mostly Seen in Latin American countries that is a challenge ahead, it is necessary since otherwise they will be marginalized from the international level and configures them as an opportunity.

Developing

Electronic government

The electronic government is characterized by having a relationship with the use of information and communication technologies also known as ICTs, so much that they maintain a relationship in their use, despite the fact that each one has a different objective the origin of the electronic government is It states in the creation of ICT while there are different conclusions about the evolution of this method that is applied in economic relations, commercial activities that serve to provide a guide to the public administration (Toreral, 2009).

In the electronic government there is the information society also known as the Knowledge Society or Postmodern Society is one in which the creation, distribution and manipulation of the data is transcendent in everyday life and covers with everything that has to do with the Social, cultural, political and economic spheres, generally this society has a bidirectional communication, omnipresence presents the public and private data found on the web.

An electronic government is a social development planning that is proposed to improve the life of society through a new relationship between administered and the State, offers information through the website as well as allows you to search for documents, forms that facilitate the proceedings that go the user.

Therefore it establishes transparency, equality, decreases costs and time to the associates in the common procedures to be carried out, and in turn potentiates the advertising of the manager.

Benefit

1.  Design and elaboration of portals that provide access to the needs of citizenship.
2.  Possibility of carrying out the 24 hours per day of 365 days a year
3.  Unifies the state database to avoid unnecessary duplications of them and a correction in the update
4. Advertising of all the information developed of the states as the activities carried out.

Open government

Today when we talk about open government given the above observations are based on principles such as: improving the levels of transparency and access to public information that would be accountability that allows you to exercise tranquility in social control. The reuse of public information allows improving innovations to be carried out and thus improve economic development at the national level.

With the end of Alujas (2014) an open government facilitates the participation of citizens more democratically and in turn gives citizens access this index about public policies implemented by political actors therefore increases confidence in the state They also return to governments and their efficient and effective administrators.

It is worth mentioning that Palamerica and the National Democratic Institute (2017) There is an alliance for countries that want to implement the open government of Latin America and the Caribbean as its acronym indicate it in English OGP is a unique model, it is a voluntary association that is based on The collaboration for the collection of ideas. Generally this association adapts to the local context and is designed to keep the governments and citizens of each country together so that they can define their own priorities of reforms and that create a culture of learning for the challenges that public policy needs. This open government implementation is handled through an international platform for local reformers committed to their associated governments, be more open and improve their capacity to respond to citizens, since 2011 the Alliance for the Open Government began its Initiative with 8 countries and then 75 were added.

Public management

It must be effective since it is essential for the strengthening of democracy because they are a fundamental component that must promote the transparency of government activities and have the responsibility to enforce social law.

Citizen participation

According to Gimilio (2014), citizen participation has been addressed in terms of participatory democracy in different countries of the region, and this type of citizen expression forms an equal collectivism taking into account the different institutional devices generated by each government and their way of play your role such as communal councils, forums, electoral advice, etc.

Also (Araque, 2016) as the case declares, citizens have law for being voice and vote agents in the city or country transformation project, this type of participation can be promoted through projects to small or medium scale that They are provided.

There are tools for citizen participation based on crowdsourcing below is referring to its classification.

• Participation tools (blogs, wikis, social networks, etc.)
• Event distribution tools.
• New collaboration tools.
• Electronic vote
• CRM and Ticketing Tools
• Participation portals

The crowdsourcing term appeared in 2006 was used by journalist Jeff Howe (2006) through Wired magazine “he defined it as an act of outsourcing by a company or institution, of a function normally carried out by an employee, to An indefinite group of different people through an open call ”by indicated externalization can be taken collectively or individually for a peer-product.

It should be noted that as of Howe’s opinion numerous interpretations have emerged that have evolved over time, on the other hand the different types of crowdsourcing emerged that today are known and defined.

As Daran Brabham (2009) “crowdsourcing is a strategic model to attract an interested and motivated multitude of individuals capable of providing higher solutions in quality and quantity those that can provide traditional business forms” the Brabham approach is directed that planners Urban have to work in a group with society particularly for the use of solutions to the problems generated creatively, it follows that crowdsourcing is a tool that allows the State to maintain a balanced relationship with society through the use of platforms where it collects any type of "opinions" information voluntarily.

The influence of ICTs demonstrates that it facilitates access to knowledge and potentiates the innovation capacities of countries, especially allows integration into a globalized world, where democracy and citizenship encourages. Web 2.0 Allows the user to use the web as a platform taking advantage of collective knowledge and intelligence, has multidispositive software and experiences that enrich the user.

Finally the existence of web 2.0 is an essential condition for collaborative production through the network (Goldman.B, 2014).

The agent participating in crowdsourcing are only two that would be public companies or institutions and on the other hand are the users who participate. These two agents receive one name each programmers receive the name CrowdSoucers and the users and participants are called Crowdworkers.

The crowdsourcing new classifications of initiatives as operation for users:

1.  Crowdsourcing initiatives promoted by public institutions.
2.  Crowdsourcing initiatives promoted by citizens.
3.  Initiatives promoted by companies.

Crowdsourcing types

It can be specified from the different existing definitions about crowdsourcing since there is a great variety, the types of crowdsourcing defined by Howe that are based on Estellés and González and are divided into four:

• Crowdcreation (collective creation)
•  Crowdving (collective vote)
•  Crowdwisdom (collective wisdom)
•  Crowdfunding (collective financing)

CrowdcRion "Collective Creation"

It is the outsourcing of tasks to collaborate or create knowledge between the organization or company, as its objective is the realization of promotional videos or the design of a product containers.

• Public
• Managed
• Platform objective
• Objective of the participant
• Crew
• Clients or potential customers
• Increase in benefits
• Satisfaction

Crowdving "collective vote"

It is considered to be a variant where it guides the opinion of other people of a subject through a collective vote, thus they establish what is necessary to innovate to potentiate development more competitively through the Internet.

Crowdwisdom "Collective Wisdom"

It is the process of taking into account collective opinion to answer a question or problem. This type of crowdsourcing is not new but it has become the main driver of information that serves to collect knowledge through human opinion such as Wikipedia, Yahoo! which are influences in a world of information.

According to the interpretation of Howe (2008) he defined three Crowdwisdom processes:

1. Competition "Crowdcasting" a problem is exposed and users compete to solve it in exchange for an award that was offered at the time of competing.
2. Online ideas storm "Crowdstorming" is the massive compilation of ideas through a brainstorm.
3. Market prediction The end of this is to offer individuals the financial values ​​that are forecast.

Crowdfunding "collective financing"

It is diagnosed with being a fundamental requirement for the provision of financial resources either by a donation or an initiative that was carried out by voting and exercises the right that must be.

Comparison of citizen participation platforms

The platforms in citizen participation can be said that they are coupled in the daily life of each person, in addition to being influential components in public policies since they are a participatory process. There is a wide variety of platforms directed to solve problems or encourage the creativity of the citizens of a country.

Most used platforms

CHANGE.Org: It is considered the largest petition platform in the world, where users enter easily allowing them to publish short headlines that focus on the change they want so that the community that makes up the Change platform support them. Opinions for solutions to written problems or campaigns can be generated apart from contributing with a petition firm.

CHANGE.Org is based on a sustainability model that has the mission of “empowering people, facilitating tools so that they can initiate a petition and achieve the change they intend without judging it” Vera (2014) is characterized and differentiated by this issue of Other platforms.

Repair: It is an application that allows us. Also known Open Data Cities its commitment is better cities, it makes an interaction with administrations making their information for citizens, entrepreneurs, companies, etc.

Decideim: It can be used in a public or private organization, where thousands of participants can be found, these would be a university, an association, NGO [Footnoteref: 2], union even by a group of people belonging to a neighborhood, and in turn You can configure participation spaces such as: assemblies, processes or consultations. Proposals can be created, handling votes by monitoring their results and commenting on them. [2: “Civil society associations and social initiatives (cultural and sports clubs, professional and scientific organizations, Masonic groups, philanthropic institutions, churches, unions, etc.) ”(Sorj, 2017)]

Consul: It is free software for citizen participation, it is based on the realization of important issues, participatory budgets are known where individuals propose and decide how the budgets of an institution should be spent taking into account the legislation collaborative that is part of this platform.

Adtriboo: known for being an opportunity to demonstrate the best collectivist ideas, thus being a platform without borders for its operation by working online mind. Projects are published, they receive proposals on the other hand is chosen to the best, this differs the quality by giving a payment as a prize.

Obstacles to establish crowdsourcing for the use of citizen participation

1.  Deficiency in technological and physical infrastructure for the establishment of an online government.
2.  Lack of coordination and communication between the different government agency
3.  Political instability
4.  Existence of technological illiterate citizens
5.  Absence of strategic plans to regulate modernization

conclusion

The exercise of transparency in government as much as open and electronic allows to foster ethics and in turn avoid undue behaviors that leads to each of the individuals as well as public managers or society itself.

With the passage of society to knowledge, it presents radical changes for the State and society, the electronic and open government marks a situation of promoting a great opportunity for the progress of the country and its reforms, it also highlights the modernization of the State that implements it.

This is a world model that makes public servants capable of accepting, understanding and managing this innovative vision of public administration, apart from integrating them into the globalized world.

Crowdsourcing demands certain necessary commitments for a better local development where the main objective is to establish a participatory democracy where thousands of people make their opinions known, they can give options on how to handle a necessary situation or ideas for the development of solutions for the problems that We face, today is to keep civil society with a dignified lifestyle.

Crowdsourcing as a tool for citizen participation is an alternative of innovation to traditional models, where ordinary people use their time to create content and complete tasks, it is also important to know the agents that apply or use this types of platforms that are three definitions that are Crowdsourcing is applied by how it will be used and in what field it is required.

In addition to knowing the influence and power granted by public agents to civil society, it is to know that the purchasing power that is given to a political agent not greater than the power of citizen participation in decision -making in the country or city development. Today there are so many websites where political actors announce their activities and progress through the Internet, there are also different models that generate knowledge for accountability, and also to know public opinion through comments.

The Government will continue to be a main actor in the new economy and on the Internet since it has a leadership role, new services sets the ease of clear and well -defined strategies to boost the highest levels of development, it is worth mentioning that Latin America is still is coupling the change and integration of ICT.

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