Tag: practitioners

CAIS Working Group: AI in digital public participation

As participants in a workshop organised by the Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS) in Bochum, Julia Romberg and Tobias Escher presented results of the CIMT research on AI-supported evaluation of participation contributions and discussed further possibilities for using artificial intelligence to support public participation with experts from research as well as participation practice. It became clear that the practitioners see potential not only in the evaluation (output), but also in the activation of participants (input) and in the support of interactions (throughput) in participation processes. Nevertheless, these potentials face challenges and risks, including the adequate technical implementation and ensuring data protection and non-discrimination.

The workshop was organised by Dr Dennis Frieß and Anke Stoll and took place from 8 to 10 February 2023 in Bochum. Further information can be found on the website of the Düsseldorf Institute for Internet and Democracy.

3rd workshop for practitioners on first results from surveys in case study municipalities

On 30 November we invited representatives of the municipalities with whom we cooperate in order to discuss the first results of the extensive surveys conducted by our research group. The focus was on the question of how the respective participation procedures are assessed by those participating and which aspects motivate or discourage such participation.

Despite the diversity of the five projects we examined (and the still small number of participants), the assessments of the people participating in such processes show a relatively high degree of agreement. Overall, the evaluations of the participation processes are rather positive with regard to the course of discussion and transparency. At the same time, however, there are also comparable challenges in all processes. For example, the representation of one’s own interests is rated as relatively good, but gaps in the representation of other opinions are perceived. Also, a balance of interests is not always achieved. Furthermore, the participants are rather sceptical about the actual impact of the participation results on the political process, even though they still deem such an impact possible.

There is more information available in German.

2nd workshop for practitioners on automated text analysis for citizen contributions

Part of the efforts of the research group is to develop tools that support the evaluation of citizen contributions from participation processes. On 10 December 2021 the research group hosted a workshop with practitioners (including local planning officials, participation officers and planning experts) to discuss our recent developments, part of which have been published in the Proceedings of the 8th Workshop on Argument Mining.

More information on the insights from the workshop is available in German.

New working group on mobility, accessibility and social inclusion at the ARL – Academy for Territorial Development in the Leibniz Association

We are pleased that Laura Mark is part of the aforementioned working group and can discuss our research with colleagues. Practitioners and researchers meet regularly in the working group to discuss various topics related to mobility and social inclusion. The working group started in the middle of 2021 and the content-related work is now taking more and more shape: Areas of interface with our research include the question of procedural justice in planning processes for the mobility transition – who participates and whose voices are heard? How should planning and participation processes for a sustainable mobility transition be designed in the future in order to include everyone? Here we will report on the further work and publications and events that develop within the context of this working group!

Results of the first practical workshop of the junior research group CIMT

Our first practical workshop in summer 2020 focused on the question of how the evaluation of citizen contributions can be technically supported and what requirements practitioners have for a software solution designed to (partially) automate the evaluation.

More information can be found in the working paper (German version only!):

cimt_working_paper1Herunterladen