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    <title>Information Structures for Citizen Participation - Janaagraha</title>
    <link>https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/information-structures-janaagraha</link>
    <description>
        &lt;b&gt;In our efforts to understand how change is conceptualized in the digital era, we find a growing emphasis on the role of effective information structures to empower the citizen and the government. We interview Joylita Saldanha from Janaagraha to answer questions around information, participation and e-governance. &lt;/b&gt;
        
&lt;pre&gt;&lt;strong&gt;CHANGE-MAKER:&lt;/strong&gt;Interview with Joylita Saldanha

&lt;strong&gt;ORGANIZATION&lt;/strong&gt;: Janaagraha - I change my city

&lt;strong&gt;METHOD OF CHANGE: &lt;/strong&gt;Online platforms to enable communication between the citizen and the government.

&lt;strong&gt;STRATEGY OF CHANGE:&lt;/strong&gt;Empower the government -create resources to help them do what the citizens expect them to do.&lt;/pre&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;10 posts into the project, we are identifying the most outstanding patterns between processes of change. One of the themes that comes up often is&lt;strong&gt;: information management.&lt;/strong&gt; How do we translate data to information, and information to knowledge? What is the best way to produce, consume and disseminate information? How does visible information lead to better mechanisms of participation in democracy? As the topic recurs in my conversations with change-makers, I have even reflected about the way that I display the research outputs of this project, and have adapted the format of these articles to make them as interactive and accessible as possible. Why? Because we believe this research is an entry point for a wider conversation around different ways to understand ‘making change’, and in order to produce this knowledge we need different actors to take part in the conversation. Hence, the format of our information must be (visually) persuasive enough to sway the readers into at least reading the article, and encourage their engagement, interaction and participation.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;This is also the rationale behind digital information platforms, including &lt;strong&gt;e-governance.&lt;/strong&gt; Governments, authorities and organizations are devising new ways of presenting their information and making their services more accessible and interactive for the public. According to the &lt;strong&gt;UNESCO’&lt;/strong&gt;s &lt;a href="http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=3038&amp;amp;URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&amp;amp;URL_SECTION=201.html"&gt;definition&lt;/a&gt;, e-governance is the public sector’s use of information and communication technology with the aim of:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt;Improving information and service delivery&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Encouraging citizen participation in decision-making processes&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Making governments accountable, transparent and effective&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/9lk9SDji2kk" frameborder="0" height="315" width="420"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align="center" style="text-align: center;"&gt;What is e-governance?&lt;br /&gt;By the IDRC and IdeaCorp&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;India has its own&amp;nbsp; &lt;strong&gt;National e-governance plan&lt;/strong&gt; in place. It’s ambitious in scope:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;h3 align="center"&gt;“a massive country-wide infrastructure reaching down to the remotest of villages is evolving, and large-scale&amp;nbsp;digitization of records is taking place to enable easy, reliable access over the internet. The ultimate objective is to bring public services closer home to citizens”.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;div align="center"&gt;&amp;nbsp;Read more on the plan &lt;a href="http://india.gov.in/e-governance/national-e-governance-plan"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;However most of the online services offered on this platform are focused on tax returns, citizenship/visa/PAN/TAN applications or train bookings. The communication direction remains uni-lateral, going strictly from &lt;strong&gt;government to citizen&lt;/strong&gt;. They also host a portal for citizen grievances (link below), in an effort to also tackle&lt;strong&gt; citizen to government &lt;/strong&gt;communication.  While the portal has some fancy tools like a 4 colour palette to customize the theme of the site; the interface seems outdated and the ‘Guidelines for Redress of Public Grievances’ has not been updated since 2010.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;table class="plain"&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Communication&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td align="center"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Government to Citizen&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td align="center"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Citizen to government&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td align="center"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Portal&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td align="center"&gt;Aadhar Kiosk&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td align="center"&gt;Portal for Public Grievances&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td align="center"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Link&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td align="center"&gt;http://resident.uidai.net.in/&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td align="center"&gt;http://pgportal.gov.in/&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td align="center"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Interface&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&lt;img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/AdhaarKiosk2.jpg/image_preview" alt="ak2" class="image-inline image-inline" title="ak2" /&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&lt;img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/PublicGrievances2.jpg/image_preview" alt="pg2" class="image-inline image-inline" title="pg2" /&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;At this point, I should probably add much needed disclaimers: my online search might not have been exhaustive enough. There might be other e-governance services (hosted by the government for citizens) I did not cover in my quick google run, or as a foreigner I might be unaware of the right places to look. Having said that, I have been trying to use my newbie experience throughout these posts, to explore the digital immigrant from a different angle. The digital immigrant is not only who was born before the 1990s, but also includes those of us who are technologically challenged and for whom the more complex sites are still wild, undiscovered territories. If these information structures are not accessible enough for someone who intentionally scouted for them for about an hour, it will not be for the user who does not have the time to spare and needs a more reliable and resilient bridge to connect with the government.&amp;nbsp;This problem is at the core of civic participation and as a result, change actors are devising new modes to interfere, facilitate and engage with government information.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"&gt;Information and Urban Governance&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: justify;" class="discreet" dir="ltr"&gt;(This section will be revised)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="center" style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"&gt;The question on information management is key in the analysis of citizen action in emerging information societies. This project acknowledged from its inception that the information flow of networks is changing and shaping the dynamics of state-citizen-market relationships (Shah, 2014). I will refer to Yochai 
Benkler’s The Wealth of Networks, to revisit the information economy, as it has been a recurrent reference in my analyses throughout the project, and it will be a useful benchmark to cross-reference findings in the future. On this opportunity, I would like to highlight his views on the role of information flow in democratic societies:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div align="center"&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;h3 align="center" style="text-align: center;"&gt;“The basic claim is that the diversity of ways of organizing information production and use, opens a range of possibilities for pursuing the core political values of liberal societies-individual freedom, a more genuinely participatory political system, a critical culture, and social
 justice” Benkler, 2006&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;p align="left"&gt;Enabling
 a smoother and more transparent information flow, according to his work,
 has the following effects on citizen’s participation:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. Autonomy:
 &lt;/strong&gt;Access to information enables citizens to perceive a wider range of 
possibilities and options against which they can gauge their choices. 
This is particularly important when the citizen participates in 
decision-making processes.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2. Democracy&lt;/strong&gt;: The
 emergence of an information economy, creates information structures 
that are not only an alternative to mass media, as Benkler states, but I 
would like to add are also alternative to government-run e-governance platforms that cannot fully cater to citizens' need
 for participation and debate. Creating an accessible and participatory 
information structure also creates a space 
that fosters public discussion, and hence, the expression of our 
political nature. (Visit &lt;a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/storytelling-performance-2"&gt;Storytelling as Performance Part 2&lt;/a&gt; for a larger exploration of the political in the public space)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3. Human justice&lt;/strong&gt;: The
 freedom to access basic resources and services, allows us to fulfil 
our capabilities in society, including producing our own information, as
 well as improving our well-being by accessing information about health,
 education, public infrastructure, etc.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"&gt;These three characteristics can be very well tied up with the three objectives of e-governance outlined above: wider information delivery, citizen participation and government accountability. Citizens aspire to access information that 
enables them to make good choices and participate in conversations that 
affect their livelihoods. For this reason, we find a 
common goal among the change actors (interviewed in the series), is 
devising new modes to engage with government-related information that complement or replace government-owned platforms.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"&gt;Civil Society' and E-governance&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p align="center" style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"&gt;One
 of the best known examples of these initiatives have been spearheaded by the Bangalore-based NGO:  &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.janaagraha.org/"&gt;Janaagraha&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. the Centre for 
Citizenship and Democracy.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/Logohorizontal.png/image_preview" alt="logo h" class="image-inline image-inline" title="logo h" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p align="center"&gt;Image courtesy of Duke University website&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"&gt;The organization works to improve the quality
 of life in Indian cities and towns, by improving the information around infrastructure and services; and citizenship. We 
interviewed Joylita Saldanha, who works for the NGO’s leadership team to
 learn more about Janaagraha’s views on the role of information for 
urban governance, based on the experience of platforms such as &lt;a href="http://ichangemycity.com/"&gt;I change my city&lt;/a&gt;.&amp;nbsp; Her perspective c
aught me off guard, as she framed the problem in urban governance from a
 somewhat unconventional angle:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote style="float: right;"&gt;
&lt;h3 align="center"&gt;&lt;img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/copy_of_Joylita.jpg/image_preview" style="float: right;" title="Joylita" height="170" width="138" alt="Joylita" class="image-center image-inline" /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Joylita Saldanha&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Janaagraha's Leadership Team&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;Experience conceptualizing and&lt;br /&gt; building Mobile and Web products in Los Angeles and Bangalore&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;Believes technology is a great lever and enabler.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Sees potential in technology to drive community action at the ground level&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;Whenever we talk about social change, participation and democracy, we root for the discourse that works to empower the citizen. Janaagraha finds this assumption incomplete. Saldanha suggests it is our role to find &lt;strong&gt;new ways to empower &lt;em&gt;the government &lt;/em&gt;and help &lt;em&gt;them &lt;/em&gt;do their job:&lt;em&gt; "&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;One citizen cannot be always an agent of change so we need communities coming together [...] We want to look at how to get citizens involved, because we can’t keep blaming the government if we don’t participate. We need to help them do what they do".&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;Read this short interview to get a glimpse of the information structures Janaagraha is building to empower the government.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 align="justify"&gt;Interview:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In order to gauge the extent to which Janaagraha is empowering and enabling the government to make information accessible for the public, we will look at how their &lt;em&gt;online&lt;/em&gt; platforms are improving e-governance, based on the three characteristics outlined in the &lt;strong&gt;UNESCO &lt;/strong&gt;definition and the three characteristics of effective information economies outlined by Benkler.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="center"&gt;&lt;img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/copy2_of_copy_of_egovernance2.jpg/image_preview" alt="e-gov" class="image-inline image-inline" title="e-gov" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span id="docs-internal-guid-f0a0d708-b685-3928-7ef6-460803e1d0da"&gt;Stage 1: Improving information delivery&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p class="callout"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How does I change my city tackle this information crisis?
&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;JS:&lt;/strong&gt; Janaagraha wants to improve the quality of life in two ways:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;
Improving the quality of infrastructure. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Improving the quality of citizenship and citizen engagement. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We look at I change my city as something that enables citizens and governments to be more transparent for each other. Janaagraha can’t be everywhere, but technology crosscuts all the programs to allow us to roll it out to other cities.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p class="callout"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;How does Janaagraha know what information people need?

&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;JS:&lt;/strong&gt;We have a&lt;strong&gt; Net Plus Roots&lt;/strong&gt; approach:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;table class="plain" align="center"&gt;
&lt;thead&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;th&gt;Stage&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th align="center"&gt;Roots: Information transactions at the grassroots level&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th align="center"&gt;Net: Information transactions through technology&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/thead&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Process&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
Reach out to communities and engage with them
&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;Community outreach and advocacy teams contacts the government&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Get the government and the citizen connected&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Send out citizen reports to government&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Follow up with the government to get responses&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Share responses with the citizens&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;We take all learnings from&amp;nbsp; the grassroots and apply them to technology.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;The design/product team in place does customer
 research.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Look at google keywords and try to understand what people are searching for &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Disseminate that content with citizens &lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&amp;nbsp;Example&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Crisis:&lt;/strong&gt; Low voting turn out.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Roots intervention:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;Look at where people go to enroll for voting and how&amp;nbsp; we can clean up the electoral role at the grassroots level.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Net intervention:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.jaagteraho.net/"&gt;Jaagte Raho&lt;/a&gt;: A portal&amp;nbsp; People can register online to vote.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Crisis: &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span id="docs-internal-guid-f0a0d708-b69c-4271-222a-07b477f84d1b"&gt;How
 to get a driving license in Bangalore.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Roots intervention: &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;People were not getting them 
because they don’t know the correct process or what to do. They don’t 
know the hows or the whys. &lt;br /&gt;N&lt;strong&gt;et intervention&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;We created a section called How To and put 
the process of&lt;br /&gt;a) How to get a driving license&lt;br /&gt;b) why do you go and get
 a driving license&lt;br /&gt;c) what are the documents you need to carry.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Right now we are 
playing the role of facilitator, but eventually we don’t want to be 
those facilitators. We want these platforms to be bridges between the 
citizen and the government.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p class="callout"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;My only problem with this is that an information structure based and reliant on digital technologies will only allow the interests of the middle class to permeate the system. How will information from other groups feed into the structure?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;JS:&lt;/strong&gt; We definitely want to enable access for everyone, but we don’t want a duplication of efforts. If the road is broken; even if one person complains and gets that pothole fixed then the road will be good for everyone to use. At the end of the day what we want people is to participate. From then we can take it to the next level and ask: ok what are we really missing in terms of planning? where are we missing participatory budgeting? where can we involve everybody: not only the urban but everybody. That’s what it takes it to the next level.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Stage 2: Encouraging citizen participation in decision-making processes&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p class="callout"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How does access to information improve urban governance?
&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;JS: &lt;/strong&gt;A very basic important aspect of where you live is to find which is your ward who is your electoral representative and what does he do. People don’t even know which ward they are living in, which is their assembly constituency, etc. Engaging with the electoral representative, then engaging with civic agencies. These are things you need to have in place before we start looking beyond this.
&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;p class="callout"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;And you are facilitating this information?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;JS: &lt;/strong&gt;Yes, we are trying to map out services in the neighborhood and give more information about this. We have Municipal Commissions in Bangalore, and most people don’t know where these agencies are located, so our survey team went out found the offices and mapped them.
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="center"&gt;&lt;img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/map2.jpg/image_preview" title="map 2" height="270" width="400" alt="map 2" class="image-inline image-inline" /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We use maps a lot because we make a lot of emphasis in spatial data. We want people to participate: tell us where their the park or playground is, locate it and then we take this information and find out: what is the budget allocated for this park, when was the last clean up, what is the future of this park, etc. At the same time, we want the citizen to tell us about its state and their wish-lists for this park.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p class="callout"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;You mention spatial data. What is the best way to use it? and who should manage it?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;One thing we see when we interact with civic agencies or electoral, is that most of them don’t have a grasp of the analytics to understand what is the ground level situation, and that is where we come in. We have an information structure in place and we make data accessible. This helps representatives understand what are the patterns: a) what are the trends, b) where are their successes, c) where are their failures. Data needs to play a major role in how we take our decisions. It cannot be intuitively thought out.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Stage 3: Making governments accountable and transparent&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p class="callout"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How can these resources make the government more accountable?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;We need more [information] systems in place to identify what is accessible in terms of services and infrastructures. First step is making things transparent; and making elected representatives, civic agencies, citizens -all these people accountable. We believe that accountability and participation goes hand in hand. You need to participate in order to make it accountable. The process of engagement is empowering for the citizen once they realize they can bring about change."&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;It takes time to get things done; change happens very slowly. And we can’t keep blaming the government if we don’t participate. We don’t lend them a hand, and let’s be honest, we probably don’t have the resources. So, how do we enable the government? How do we empower them? That’s something Janaagraha works for: helping the government do what they need to do.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;***********&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The next interview will feature Surabhi HR from &lt;a href="http://politicalquotient.in/"&gt;Political Quotient&lt;/a&gt;, an organization working to redefine how youth engage with politics in the digital era.&amp;nbsp; We will refer back to the characteristics about information economies and e-governance outlined on this post and use Janaagraha's experience as a backdrop, to explore the work PQ is doing: organizing spatial data, improving information structures for the government and bridging communication between citizens and their elected representatives.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sources:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Benkler, Yochai. &lt;em&gt;The wealth of networks: How social production transforms markets and freedom&lt;/em&gt;. Yale University Press, 2006.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span class="reference-text"&gt;&lt;span class="citation journal"&gt;Shah, Nishant “Whose Change is it Anyways?&amp;nbsp;Hivos Knowledge Program.&amp;nbsp;April 30, 2013.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

        &lt;p&gt;
        For more details visit &lt;a href='https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/information-structures-janaagraha'&gt;https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/information-structures-janaagraha&lt;/a&gt;
        &lt;/p&gt;
    </description>
    <dc:publisher>No publisher</dc:publisher>
    <dc:creator>denisse</dc:creator>
    <dc:rights></dc:rights>

    
        <dc:subject>Researchers at Work</dc:subject>
    
    
        <dc:subject>Net Cultures</dc:subject>
    
    
        <dc:subject>Making Change</dc:subject>
    
    
        <dc:subject>Research</dc:subject>
    

   <dc:date>2015-10-24T14:28:47Z</dc:date>
   <dc:type>Blog Entry</dc:type>
   </item>


    <item rdf:about="https://cis-india.org/Capturadepantalla20140414alas15.jpg">
    <title>Information Gaps</title>
    <link>https://cis-india.org/Capturadepantalla20140414alas15.jpg</link>
    <description>
        &lt;b&gt;&lt;/b&gt;
        
        &lt;p&gt;
        For more details visit &lt;a href='https://cis-india.org/Capturadepantalla20140414alas15.jpg'&gt;https://cis-india.org/Capturadepantalla20140414alas15.jpg&lt;/a&gt;
        &lt;/p&gt;
    </description>
    <dc:publisher>No publisher</dc:publisher>
    <dc:creator>denisse</dc:creator>
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   <dc:date>2014-04-14T10:13:14Z</dc:date>
   <dc:type>Image</dc:type>
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    <item rdf:about="https://cis-india.org/home-images/InfoInformation.jpg">
    <title>Information Gaps</title>
    <link>https://cis-india.org/home-images/InfoInformation.jpg</link>
    <description>
        &lt;b&gt;&lt;/b&gt;
        
        &lt;p&gt;
        For more details visit &lt;a href='https://cis-india.org/home-images/InfoInformation.jpg'&gt;https://cis-india.org/home-images/InfoInformation.jpg&lt;/a&gt;
        &lt;/p&gt;
    </description>
    <dc:publisher>No publisher</dc:publisher>
    <dc:creator>denisse</dc:creator>
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   <dc:date>2014-04-14T07:14:01Z</dc:date>
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    <item rdf:about="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/tactical-technology-design-activism-1">
    <title>Information Design - Visualizing Action (TTC)</title>
    <link>https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/tactical-technology-design-activism-1</link>
    <description>
        &lt;b&gt;This is the second part of the Making Change analysis on information activism. It explores the role of the presentation and design of information to translate information into action.&lt;/b&gt;
        
&lt;pre style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;CHANGE-MAKER:&lt;/strong&gt; Maya Ganesh
&lt;strong&gt;
PROJECT&lt;/strong&gt;: 
Visualizing Information for Advocacy
&lt;strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;
METHOD OF CHANGE&lt;/strong&gt;:
&lt;/strong&gt;Redesign the production, presentation and representation of data to stimulate citizen action.&lt;strong&gt;

STRATEGY OF CHANGE: &lt;/strong&gt;
- Demystify the technology, strategy and tactics behind information design
- Train people on how to use them for their projects.
- Empower people and increase political participation at the grassroots&lt;/pre&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Part 2: Information Design&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;Tactical Technology aims to demystify strategies that stimulate citizen participation through the production, presentation and representation of  data. Their 2010 program:&lt;a href="https://tacticaltech.org/visualising-information-advocacy"&gt; Visualizing Information for Advocacy&lt;/a&gt; focuses on finding "the right combination of information, design, technology and networks" (2010) to communicate issues and stimulate action. As explored in the last post, campaigns must not only inform citizens, but must persuade them into acting. The way information is presented: the symbols, shapes and sequences plays a big part in creating deeper connections between the consumer and information. Using more visual advocacy examples, I will list three elements that  underpin this connection: symbols, design and consumption culture.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;I. Symbols&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Marks or characters representing an object, function or abstract process&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Lance Bennett’s work on civic engagement (2008), identified two features in information that  motivate citizens to act:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"&gt;a) Familiar values and activities&lt;br /&gt; b) Action options that facilitate decision-making and the participation  process&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: justify;"&gt;By personalizing data and finding symbols that embody these values and action options, the citizen is more likely to engage  with the information. Throughout this post we will look at some examples, outside of Tactical Tech, that are applying these principles.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;pre style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"&gt;Example 1:&lt;br /&gt;Dislike Poverty Campaign-  Un Techo para mi Pais (TECHO) Latin America&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"&gt;First example is this is the &lt;a href="http://vimeo.com/15656801"&gt;campaign&lt;/a&gt; by the Chilean NGO&lt;a href="http://www.techo.org/en/"&gt; Un Techo para mi Pais&lt;/a&gt;. The organization’s main objectives are to a) to eradicate poverty and b) build a strong  body of volunteers that epitomize a new way of understanding citizenship in  the region. They are very popular among youth, in part due to their  communication strategies and their use of social media. Recently, the  ‘No Me Gusta’ (Dislike) campaign was featured in Spanish graphic design  activism blog:&lt;a href="http://www.grafous.com/no-me-gusta/"&gt; Grafous&lt;/a&gt;, and the non-profit marketing website&lt;a href="http://osocio.org/message/no_me_gusta_i_dislike_this/"&gt; Osocio&lt;/a&gt; for its creative use of 'slacktivism' to mirror the young citizen's attitude towards poverty.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: justify;" class="callout"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Slacktivism&lt;/strong&gt;: "actions performed via the Internet in support of a political or  social cause but regarded as requiring little time or involvement, e.g. liking or joining a campaign group on a social networking website"&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="center"&gt;&lt;img src="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/TECHO1.jpg/image_preview" alt="Techo 1" class="image-inline image-inline" title="Techo 1" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="center"&gt;&lt;img src="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/TECHO2.jpg/image_preview" alt="Techo 2" class="image-inline image-inline" title="Techo 2" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span id="docs-internal-guid-3c3e8713-307f-8c4d-a5bf-1b5269c5701e"&gt;No Me Gusta campaign, Un Techo para mi Pais. Photo courtesy of Grafous: &lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.grafous.com/no-me-gusta/"&gt;http://www.grafous.com/no-me-gusta/&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;The images juxtapose pictures of slums and an adaptation of the Facebook Like button - a familiar symbol of affirmation and approval among youth- into a Dislike button: enabling expression of discontent. This is coupled with the phrase: “&lt;em&gt;if you dislike this, you can help by logging onto (...)&lt;/em&gt;”, channeling this disapproval into a plan of action. The campaign shows a thorough  understanding of its target audience: including the visual culture of social media  users, their digital habits and their satisfaction driven behavior  (embodied by the like button). It ridicules the user by facing him with  two realities: the ineludible situation of poverty versus his redeemable slacktivist idleness. This strategy proved to be  effective and attracted the attention of potential volunteers; asserting the middle class, tech-savvy identity of the TECHO volunteer  throughout Latin America.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote style="float: left;"&gt;
&lt;p align="center"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nonviolent methods and &lt;br /&gt;Civic Participation&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Capture attention.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Increase visibility of activism.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Reduce the stake of participation &lt;br /&gt;for citizens&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Attracts 'risk-averse' citizens and&lt;br /&gt;creates 'safety in numbers'.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Success of campaign is more likely&lt;br /&gt;(if 3.5% of population participates)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;The use of familiar symbols is one of the &lt;a href="http://www.starhawk.org/activism/trainer-resources/198ways.html"&gt;198 strategies&lt;/a&gt; listed by Gene Sharp in Part Two of &lt;a href="http://www.aeinstein.org/books/the-politics-of-nonviolent-action-part-2/"&gt;The Politics of Nonviolent Action&lt;/a&gt; (explored in a&lt;a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/digitally-enhanced-civil-resistance"&gt; past post&lt;/a&gt;). In the same spirit, Tactical Technology’s project &lt;a href="https://archive.informationactivism.org/"&gt;10 tactics&lt;/a&gt; provides “original and artful” wide communication non-violent methods to capture attention and disseminate information. This includes slogans, caricatures, symbols, posters and media presence, which besides from grabbing attention also reduces the stake of participation for citizens. According to Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan, these methods increase the visibility of activist efforts, because they create a sense of ‘safety in numbers” and hence draw the “risk-averse” into the movements. Furthermore, their study shows that if a campaign manages to capture the active and sustained participation of only 3.5% of the total population, it is likely to succeed (2008).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;While this statistic shows that enhancing the visibility of social  change campaigns is an extremely resource-efficient strategy, on the  other hand, it confirms information is in the hands of a privileged minority. The information-poor activist is completely reliant on the values and symbols the middle class chooses to downstream, unless information is designed by grassroots organizations who can localize it -one of the main objectives of Tactical Technology.&amp;nbsp; The flow of&amp;nbsp; ideas and conversations among the middle class, though not inclusive, is already stimulating the spirit of information dissemination.&amp;nbsp; However, representations of data are not enough to trigger cognitive associations between the citizen and the issues. We must also consider the design and aesthetic features of these representations and how they inspire civic engagement.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;II. (Graphic) Design&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Communication, stylizing and problem-solving through the use of type, space and image. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p id="docs-internal-guid-3c3e8713-3345-6c35-9147-f1533da6a2fe" style="text-align: justify;" class="callout" dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MG&lt;/strong&gt;: Presentation continues to be a problem. We  have focused a lot on this, but it continues to be an issue when people  have and are using information. You can’t assume people will get it and  you need to think about what kind of information you have and what kind  of audiences you want to see it, etc.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Liz  Mcquiston, author of the 1995 and the 2004 editions of Graphic  Agitation explored how art and design brings political and social issues  to the fore. She argues that the increasing ubiquity of digital  technology since the 90s, plus a popular ‘do-it-yourself’ culture, is  creating a new environment of political protest that empowers  individuals to take ownership of the creation and consumption of  information. This is in line with Richard Wurman’s argument on the rise  of the &lt;strong&gt;prosumer: &lt;/strong&gt;digital users who are not only consuming but are also producing an unprecedented amount of information, which states that larger volumes of information, coupled with the expressive potential of  art and design, makes personalized relationships with data possible,  having it cater to our interests, needs and contexts (2001).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;pre style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"&gt;Example 2:&lt;br /&gt;Design for Protest by Hector Serrano (University Cardenal Herrera)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: justify;" class="pull quote" dir="ltr"&gt;Information design is  creating ready-made avenues for civic engagement by breaking data down and providing step by step  guides for implementation. For instance, students from the University Cardenal Herrera in Spain collaborated together in the project: “&lt;a href="http://designforprotest.wordpress.com/proyectos/"&gt;Design for Protest”&lt;/a&gt;, led by &lt;a href="http://www.hectorserrano.com/"&gt;Hector Serrano&lt;/a&gt;,  graphic designer and activist. The concept was to design “effective and  functional” tools of demonstration, rooted in the rising number of  protests around the world during the economic crisis. The students  created communication tools: from foldable banners to protest umbrellas  that allow protesters in Spain (and around the world) to convey their  messages in creative, quick and affordable ways. This is the perfect  conflation between consuming information proposals and producing new  information from the grassroots to intervene in the public space.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p align="center" style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src="http://designforprotest.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/10.jpg?w=920" alt="" height="450" width="665" align="middle" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="center"&gt;Paraguas (Umbrella). Photo courtesy and How-to: &lt;a href="http://designforprotest.wordpress.com/2012/03/30/paraguas/"&gt;Design For Protest: Paraguas&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="center"&gt;&lt;img src="http://designforprotest.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/4_01.jpg?w=920" alt="" height="450" width="665" align="middle" /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; Light Banner. Photo courtesy and How-to: &lt;a href="http://designforprotest.wordpress.com/2012/03/30/light-banner/"&gt;Design For Protest: Light Banner&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="center"&gt;&lt;a href="http://designforprotest.wordpress.com/2012/03/30/paraguas/"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;img src="http://designforprotest.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/2_05.jpg?w=920" alt="" height="558" width="397" align="middle" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p align="center" style="text-align: center;" dir="ltr"&gt;Pocket Protest. Photo courtesy and How-to: &lt;a href="http://designforprotest.wordpress.com/2012/03/30/protesta-de-bolsillo/"&gt;Design for Protest: Protesta de Bolsillo&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"&gt;The field of information design is  creating ready-made avenues for civic engagement. It is breaking down data and providing step-by-step  guides for implementation. Although  the Design for Protest project is not creating a permanent source of  information, it is providing feasible alternatives to display information both in short-lived protests as much as in  long-term campaigns, facilitating action-taking and abiding to the second feature of Bennett's hypothesis: providing action options to aid decision-making. Ganesh commented how these tool kits are also a mean Tactical Tech uses to secure sustainability  and continuity:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: justify;" class="callout"&gt;&lt;span id="docs-internal-guid-4b925b2a-3424-bea4-cc67-94b3cb5dc47a"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MG:&lt;/strong&gt; We  have many available resources: from tools and guides (mobile in a box,  security in a box, etc.), to the website. It is very focused on the  digital tools that support what you want to do with your campaigning.  You have a plethora of websites telling you what tools to use but not  how to use it or how to think about how you want to use them for  campaigning. As a result you have campaigns that are not well thought or  that don’t use the appropriate type of technology, or driven by the  technology first than what they want to do. This is one of the ways in  which it continues.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;III. (Culture) Design&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Localizing information design&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: justify;"&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;‘prosumer’ model &lt;/strong&gt;aligns with an active model of citizenship we describe in a &lt;a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/blank-noise-active-citizen-dissonance"&gt;previous post.&lt;/a&gt; It fits citizens who are active and willing to find resources, and create and disseminate information that resonates within  their context. Yochai Benkler’s work on information production&amp;nbsp; (2006) Also  touches on how cultural production enhances democratic practices in  network societies. He argues that creating cultural meaning of the world  has two important effects:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"&gt;a) Sustains values of individual freedom of  expression.&lt;br /&gt;b) Provides opportunities of participation and cultural  reassertion.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"&gt;Ganesh’s account of the experience of Tactical  Technology in the Middle East also highlights how cultural remix is a  form political and creative empowerment:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: justify;" class="callout" dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MG:&lt;/strong&gt; It  is interesting how the Arab version has evolved. We had support to  extend Ten Tactics in the Arabic region, but we didn’t want to do  translations and tell people what to do. We wanted to see how people are  thinking about information activism in their region, what kind of  products would be useful to them. We’ve already printed 2000 copies and  we are left only with 140. It is really popular because people really  want to do this. We’ve met with 5-7 groups in the Arab region we’ve  known for a long time. We said: here’s money (originally meant for  translations) take our resources, anything you’ve found that we’ve  published and: customize it, remix it, break it up and put it back  together again; turn it into a resource that you can feel you can use  with your communities. Partnering up, you must keep in mind their  mandates and their communities.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"&gt;Localizing design and aesthetics is essential to keep the  connections between data-citizen relevant. This is explored from the  perspective of post-colonial computing by Irani et. al; a project that  aims to understand how ‘good design’ must be consistent with cultural  identities and the transformative nature of cultural  formation between the context and the individual (2010).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;pre style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Example 3:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Proudly African and Transgender by Gabrielle Le Roux (In collaboration with Amnesty International and IGLHRC)&lt;/pre&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"&gt;An interesting  example of this is the work done by Gabrielle Le Roux, in collaboration  with African trans and intersex activists (&lt;a href="http://www.iglhrc.org"&gt;IGLHRC&lt;/a&gt;). A showcase of portraits and  uncovered narratives of transgendered Africans in East and Southern  Africa: that reasserts interesex  and transgender identity in a society were these issues remain taboo and hence under the radar.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;img style="float: left;" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/f1HV0NnuLqLOP-N36QGFbr-eXSILqtz0vFXA6OrSTqPuqiniOe89xiyxhJqnlD2wRLgcOtPQYZf3po7biJGQZ9gCAwROMbywL9xyjO6OkyzcK3jNzIqWwT8J4Q" alt="" height="427px;" width="303px;" /&gt; &lt;img style="float: right;" dir="ltr" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/vCK1YHfG-_rOjr8VS8dRv4GVGE7AmrsalUMhIgMNP4Io6Th8IVHg4h5syGa0-NRrEMKhRjtpFPB877ssMJwtncjtM_w8YTt-gCiDpEgh64kbZlAuunQ-hvwrvw" alt="" height="431" width="303" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="center" style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="center" style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="center" style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"&gt;These visuals were exhibited in Europe by Amnesty International, and showcased in the &lt;a href="http://www.blacklooks.org"&gt;Black Looks &lt;/a&gt;community (who participated in Tactical Tech’s 2009 &lt;a href="http://camp2013.tacticaltech.org"&gt;InfoCamp&lt;/a&gt;) as well as in the WITS Centre for Diversity Studies research on &lt;a href="http://incudisa.wordpress.com/"&gt;Politics of Engagement:&lt;/a&gt; an interactive collaboration on social change through art-activism and  research.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;pre&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Example 4:&lt;/strong&gt;
Camp Acra et Adoquin Delmas 33 - Haiti&lt;/pre&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;An example less inclined on aesthetics but focused on visual documentation is the &lt;a href="http://chanjemleson.wordpress.com/"&gt;Camp Acra et Adoquin Delmas 33&lt;/a&gt; blog, from Haiti. A site in which Camp Acra members are documenting their settlement and growth after the 2010 earthquake through essential information and images, fostering community building and communal identity reassertion.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="center"&gt;&lt;img id="docs-internal-guid-4b925b2a-33b7-4c5f-4371-534d21958e0f" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/JaZwKtfIODw6LQuJOdRlEofLtr9tEZox9mw9WMTDJJxLnlJaX6RCmxjGbNggtgF2pD0B706J1kShumAImBWJ7X0Po44ktKjs5SmMh402BmjjNB4whfLowh1ixw" alt="" height="377px;" width="486px;" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div align="right" class="pullquote"&gt;“visual representations of information gives context to numbers,  uncovers relationships and engages the viewers in ways that raw  information could never do”&lt;br /&gt; David McCandless&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;As &lt;a href="http://www.davidmccandless.com/"&gt;David McCandless&lt;/a&gt;,data journalist, information designer and author of &lt;a href="http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2009/the-visual-miscellaneum/"&gt;The Visual Miscellaneum&lt;/a&gt; points out: “visual representations of information gives context to numbers, uncovers relationships and engages the viewers in ways that raw information could never do” (2009). Having these representations mingle with culturally specific undertones provides opportunities to create solidarity ties between the citizen and its culture, as well as the add of “individual glosses” through action, critical reflection and participation (Benkler, 2006). However is this need for an aesthetic approach to information and culture representation a result of our consumer behaviour? Is it problematic that activism is catering to a model of promotion and presentation of information to incite participation? The next section will look shortly at the consumption culture  in information activism.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3 align="justify"&gt;IV. Consumption (Culture)&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Is information design catering to consumption habits instead of citizen needs?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As seen, information design is grounded on the premise that the representation of data must create deep connections with its audience in order to incite a reaction. However, is this the result of&amp;nbsp; a culture of consumption?&amp;nbsp; Let’s  not forget the citizens targeted by visual campaigns are also consumers in constant interaction with the  market. Kozinet’s study of virtual communities of consumption (1999), is in line with Wurman's description of the behavior of a prosumer:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3 align="center" style="text-align: center;" dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Behaviour of consumer vs. information prosumer&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;table class="plain" align="center"&gt;
&lt;thead&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;th&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kozinet - Virtual communities of consumption&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th align="center"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Wurman - The prosumer&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/thead&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Discerning consumer&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Displays curiosity in information&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Less accessible for one-to-one processes&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Suspicion over information gate-keepers&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Producers of large amounts of cultural information&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;“New-found hunger” to find information related to its interests&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Moreover,  the Kozinet suggests a few strategies of how to interact with the consumer that also fit the strategies presented by Bennett at the beginning of this analysis:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3 align="center"&gt;How to connect with the consumer vs. citizen&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;table class="plain"&gt;
&lt;thead&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;th&gt;Kozinet - Virtual communities of consumption&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th align="center"&gt;Bennett - Features of information for civic engagement&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/thead&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Segmentation of consumers&lt;br id="docs-internal-guid-4b925b2a-3456-5d05-0f33-04a2bd0b87b2" /&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Tailor information to values and activities familiar to the citizen&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;More interaction with consumer&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Suggest action options to facilitate decision-making and participation&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;Create loyal networks of consumption&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;p&gt;With this parallel in mind, we asked Ganesh the  extent to which info-activism resembles market consumption models:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: justify;" class="callout" dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MG:&lt;/strong&gt; You  need to think strategically about how it’s going to get picked up,  where you want to promote your information, how you want to publish,  present it; and push it. The problem with NGO, activists and independent  individuals is that they are not as empowered financially [...]. If you  look at the corporate section, journalism, etc; you have huge  institutions and a lot of more finances behind this stuff. NGOs have one  shot to make it work. That’s when people like us come in, to demystify,  give people training and create platforms.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"&gt;Comparing activists with ‘virtual consumption communities’  questions the extent to which corporate and social impact models are  feeding of each other to present information and succeed. A deeper analysis of this relationship falls out of the scope  of this post, but it is worth mentioning when exploring activism in  information network societies. As Ganesh clarified, info-activism is not  related to marketing, but visualizing information in attractive and interesting ways is crucial not only to persuade, but to make activism accessible and enticing. Today, ten years after it was founded, Tactical Tech maintains a critical  approach to their work. It is now moving on to a next stage,  beyond the mere representation of data and paying closer attention to the  type of information that enhances impact and influence of their tactics.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: justify;" class="callout" dir="ltr"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MG&lt;/strong&gt;: We  have definitely moved on thinking about interesting ways of looking at  this. Our questions are more critical and political right now. The  nature of platforms, the nature of information sharing, what is the true  face of social media? There is so much information and data right now.  Once information is out there how do you actually make it evidence for  evidence-based advocacy. We are trying to play with that idea a little  bit. It's not only about having impact but also influence.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Conclusion:&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"&gt;Part  1 and 2 of this analysis have explored the  process of transforming data&amp;nbsp; into civic action. In  part 1 we re-visited the question of information communities. We found that diversity in political opinion democratizes the debate in the public  space. Information strategies must focus on making information from the  grassroots visible and strengthening offline networks that facilitate information dissemination. In part 2, we explored  the strategies behind the presentation and representation of this information.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"&gt;Three  main findings came from this analysis:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"&gt;a) Non-violent visual advocacy  is more likely to reduce the stakes of participation for the common  citizen making political engagement more likely.&lt;br /&gt; b) The role of design  for short or long-term advocacy is to simplifythe process of civic action, facilitate decision-making and makethese projects self-sustainable. &lt;br /&gt;c) Our consumption habits in the market are shaping how we process and interact with information in the public space. The possibility of consumer behavior permeating modalities of activism reinforces the need to explore the most interesting strategies for information dissemination.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;From the perspective of the &lt;strong&gt;Making Change&lt;/strong&gt; project’ it is interesting to explore this method to social change as a breach from the ‘spectacle’ criticism outlined by Shah. He argues that in contemporary activism, only a limited production of images enter the network - images in many cases detached from the material realities and experiences that shape the change process in the first place. This tendency results in paraphernalia over the visual, disregarding the crises that led to the inception of protests. The findings from this analysis indicate that visual persuasion is essential to capture the attention of citizens, and hence, the need for a pinch of ‘spectacle’ in data presentation cannot be overlooked. &amp;nbsp;The challenge info-activism now faces is making data’s dissemination self-sustainable in offline communities through the strategy and design of its campaigns.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;Furthermore, the data, stories and narratives Tactical Tech is working to uncover can only be effectively transformed into action through a reconfiguration of  the data-citizen relationship. Information strategies, besides from focusing on how to make data enticing, must also focus on the recognition of a status quo of idleness around how we consume, produce, question or interact with information. Tactical Tech has gone a far way at spearheading this line of thought and spreading graphic resistance through civil society, however this is not sufficient unless this recalibration occurs at the individual citizen level.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2 align="justify"&gt;Sources:&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Bennett, W. Lance. "Changing citizenship in the digital age." Civic life  online: Learning how digital media can engage youth 1 (2008): 1-24.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="text-align: justify;"&gt;
&lt;div id="gs_cit2" class="gs_citr"&gt;Benkler, Yochai. &lt;em&gt;The wealth of networks: How social production transforms markets and freedom&lt;/em&gt;. Yale University Press, 2006.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="text-align: justify;"&gt;
&lt;div id="gs_cit2" class="gs_citr"&gt;Bimber,  Bruce, Andrew J. Flanagin, and Cynthia Stohl. "Reconceptualizing  collective action in the contemporary media environment." Communication Theory 15, no. 4 (2005): 365-388.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Brundidge,  J.S. &amp;amp; Rice, R.E. (2009). Political engagement online: Do the  information rich get richer and the like-minded more similar? In  Chadwick, A. and Howard, N.H. (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Internet  Politics (pp. 144-156). New York: Routledge &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Kozinets, Robert V. "E-tribalized marketing?: The strategic implications  of virtual communities of consumption." European Management Journal 17,  no. 3 (1999): 252-264. &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="text-align: justify;"&gt;McCandless, David. The Visual Miscellaneum: A Colorful Guide to the World's Most Consequential Trivia. Collins Design, 2009.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Shah, Nishant “Whose Change is it Anyways? Hivos Knowledge Program. April 30, 2013.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Wurman, Richard Saul, Loring Leifer,  David Sume, and Karen Whitehouse. Information anxiety 2. Vol. 6000.  Indianapolis, IN: Que, 2001.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;

        &lt;p&gt;
        For more details visit &lt;a href='https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/tactical-technology-design-activism-1'&gt;https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/tactical-technology-design-activism-1&lt;/a&gt;
        &lt;/p&gt;
    </description>
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        <dc:subject>Researchers at Work</dc:subject>
    
    
        <dc:subject>Web Politics</dc:subject>
    
    
        <dc:subject>Making Change</dc:subject>
    
    
        <dc:subject>Digital Natives</dc:subject>
    

   <dc:date>2015-04-17T10:34:22Z</dc:date>
   <dc:type>Blog Entry</dc:type>
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