Public participation and value advocacy in information design and sharing: Laying the foundations in advance of wide-scale public deployment

Issue title: Government Information Sharing and Integration: Combining the Social and the Technical. Papers from the 9th International Conference on Digital Government Research (d.g.o.2008)

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Borning, Alan^{a; *} | Friedman, Batya^b | Davis, Janet L.^c | Gill, Brian T.^d | Kahn, Jr., Peter H.^e | Kriplean, Travis^a | Lin, Peyina^b

Affiliations: [a] Department of Computer Science & Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA | [b] The Information School, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA | [c] Department of Computer Science, Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa, USA | [d] Department of Mathematics, Seattle Pacific University, Seattle, Washington, USA | [e] Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 206 543 6678; Fax: +1 206 543 2969; E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: Supporting public participation is often a key goal in the design of digital government systems. However, years of work may be required before a complex system, such as the UrbanSim urban simulation system, is deployed and ready for such participation. In this paper, we investigate laying the foundations for public participation in information design and sharing in advance of wide-scale public deployment, with the goal of having interaction designs ready when the system is put into such use. Moreover, in a highly politicized domain such as this one, value advocacy as well as factual information plays a central role. Using the theory and methods of Value Sensitive Design, we address three design goals toward public participation and value advocacy, and provide evidence that each of them was achieved: (1) enabling indirect stakeholders to become direct stakeholders (i.e. enabling more people to interact directly with UrbanSim in useful ways); (2) developing a participatory process by which these stakeholders can help guide the development of the system itself; and (3) enabling participating organizations to engage in value advocacy while at the same time enhancing overall system legitimation.

Keywords: Human values, value advocacy, bias, democratization, legitimation, direct and indirect stakeholders, simulation, urban development, public participation, Participatory Design, Value Sensitive Design

DOI: 10.3233/IP-2009-0172

Journal: Information Polity, vol. 14, no. 1-2, pp. 61-74, 2009