e-participation: social media and the public space gilberto corso pereira, maria célia furtado...
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Salvador, June 19 2012 ICCSA 2012 - Cities, Technologies and Planning
e-Participation: Social Media and the Public Space
Gilberto Corso Pereira1
Federal University of Bahia, Salvador, Brazil
Maria Célia Furtado Rocha
PRODEB, Salvador, Brazil
Alenka PoplinHafenCity University Hamburg, Germany
Internet allows connection for various networked local events occur in different parts of the world
In digital culture, the distance is measured differently
New geographies are formed exploding contextual limits and boundaries between localities and previous hierarchies of scale
NETWORK IS GLOBAL
Most of the urban politics are concrete, focused on the local issues and lead by the local people
Public space accommodates a wide range of political activities, many of them visible on the streets
Their visibility can be amplified by the digital media circulating in local and global networks
PLACE MATTERS?
Cultural/informational repository for ideas and projects that feed the public debate, where the interaction between citizens, civil society and the state happens (Castells, 2008)
Public space provides the expanse that allows the public sphere to convene, but it does not guarantee a healthy public sphere (Papacharissi, 2008)
PUBLIC SPHERE/SPACE
In the globalized world, a global civil society emerges
There is a shift of public spheres territorially limited to a public sphere formed by systems of media
Mass self-communication (web 2.0, 3G, 4G) Networks of communication that relate many-to-
many in a multimodal form of communication that bypasses mass media and often escapes government control (Castells, 2009)
GLOBAL PUBLIC SPHERE
Cellphones provide movements that are born and flow into physical encounters, spreading information and feelings exponentially, a kind of effect from “small worlds”
Networks of trust are formed instantly as the person who receives the message identifies its source and starts to distribute it based on its own address book
NETWORKED PUBLIC SPHERE
Social networks are now the space in which people connect, communicate, exhibit themselves, interact, and invite other to flock to the streets, squares, every public or almost-public spaces
The public sphere has become hybrid
it incorporates virtual and geographical spaces and traditional and social media
no separations between digital/virtual and physical/real as the citizens use these two social environments simultaneously
HYBRID PUBLIC SPHERE
Digital serious games can add new dimensions in the representation of the reality, and aim to educate and support learning about the environment and urban planning initiatives
Participants take on different roles, can be immersed in the system and suddenly part of the digital reality in a completely new way
SPACES FOR COLLABORATION/CITIZENSHIP
Digital representation of the world is now available on handheld devices that can be carried in the pocket and accessed (almost) anywhere providing
easy collaborative mapping and crowdsourcing,
use of geographical and social networking applications on mobile devices
applications of Augmented Reality
SPACES FOR COLLABORATION/CITIZENSHIP
https://www.fairelections.eu/
web
streets
Despite the lack of transparency and control over the code embedded in the commercial software, people are still populating the cyberspace and creating civic spaces online
spaces that support the user’s motivation to speak and collaborate with her community or with a wider public space with which he/she identifies him/herself
SOME COMMENTS
Even e-Participation platforms that are simple murals of complaints may turn into civic spaces
creative spaces of shared practices can become a place for the open knowledge construction and democratic improvement
Initiatives that consider the differences in the perception and interests among different groups may accommodate various subjective dimensions and establish a new public space/sphere multifaceted
SOME COMMENTS
Internet is not only a support element and technological mediation. It also works as an environment for information, communication and action within multiple and heterogeneous systems
Planners must recognize that now the citizens’urban experience is not only influenced by urban form but by different media and forms of communication with which they interact daily
SOME COMMENTS
Geographical space was not replaced by cyberspace. Dichotomy between the virtual/digital x real/physical are being surpassed by the overlap or convergence between physical and digital environments
Besides the use of technologies for communication and social interaction we face the emergence of what some authors call "urban computing" or "everyware" (Greenfield, 2006; Dodge & Kitchin, 2011)
SOME COMMENTS
Visual explorations of urban mobility
SENSEable City Lab - MIT
Yu Zheng, Urban Computing with Taxicabs, Beijing, 2011
VIRTUAL/REAL
Individual and collective, micro and macro actions became visible showing how the world behaves at a certain times
Local interactions can influence the overall network (Latour, 2011). Many people are able to choose ideas coming from different cultures and take what they find most appropriate for each situation
THE BORDER IS EVERYWHERE
Tweets after the earthquake in Virginia
Knowledge produced in a new way – pervasive, contextualized and unplanned – gives an opportunity to a higher level of public participation
In this way we might experience a citizenship model where local government and public administration represent just nodes in a decentralized network whose topology responds to demands for greater public participation and democracy
FINALLY...
e-Participation: Social Media and the Public Space
Gilberto Corso Pereira1
Maria Célia Furtado [email protected]
Alenka [email protected]
Salvador, June 19 2012 ICCSA 2012 - Cities, Technologies and Planning