…In Slum Upgrade and Urban Regeneration, it is especially important that citizens have access to digital technology to be able to manage their own local issues.
__Problem-statement: Many urban problems are known only to the citizens who live there, and reporting is often cumbersome and ineffective.__
Discussion: A new generation of citizen data is being used to gather information about neighborhood-scale issues and to identify resources that can be brought to bear to address these issues. They include relatively small-scale problems like potholes, graffiti, vandalism, garbage and the like. Citizens armed with a new generation of digital reporting tools can notify agencies, who are able to take this information in an efficient and aggregated form, and develop a response that is locally calibrated to be effective.¹ For example, a community worker can respond to a series of individual reports in sequence, avoiding the need to respond to each report individually (or more often, to simply ignore the reports).
At the same time, we must be aware of worrying trends that create an imperative need for vigilance. Data is being gathered by private entities, to be used (and abused) in surveillance and in manipulating consumers. Since this collection of big data on such a large scale is unprecedented, it is not yet clear how we can prevent it from becoming a tool for manipulation and even oppression. The endless possibilities of using such data towards a positive goal need to be protected from an equally possible abuse.
__Therefore: Use the new digital reporting technologies to respond to neighborhood-scale challenges where they occur, without the need for individual time-consuming and expensive responses by staff.__
Work with a local Neighborhood Planning Center to make citizen data available at the grass roots. …
notes
¹ There are a number of groups developing citizen data initiatives, including the Citizen Data Lab at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, faculty of Digital Media and Creative Industries. See citizendatalab.org.
Image: Curtis MacNewton via Unsplash.
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