Article by John M. Kamensky: “…A new report by the IBM Center for The Business of Government documents that 21st century citizens are performing a new role as they engage with their government at all levels – they are becoming innovators. The study’s authors, University of Wisconsin professors Satish and Priya Nambisan, say that a trifecta of austerity, complexity, and digital technology has created this new opportunity for everyday citizens to help “co-create” new solutions for solving civic problems in their communities.
The term “co-creation” refers to the development of new public services by citizens in partnership with government. The authors outline four roles that citizen co-creators often assume: explorer, ideator, designer, and diffuser. According to the authors:
“As explorer, citizens can identify, discover, and define emerging and existing problems in public services. For example, the New York-based Datakind initiative involves citizen volunteers using their data analysis skills to mine public data in health, education, environment, and more areas to identify important civic issues and problems.
“As ideator, citizens can conceptualize novel solutions to well-defined problems in public services. For example, initiatives such as federal government’s Challenge.gov and OpenIDEO employ online contests and competitions to solicit innovative ideas to solve important civic problems.
“As designer, citizens can design and/or develop implementable solutions to well-defined problems in public services. For example, as part of initiatives such as NYC Big Apps and Apps for Californians, citizens have designed mobile apps to address specific issues such as public parking availability, public transport delays, and more.
“As diffuser, citizens can directly support or facilitate the adoption and diffusion of public service innovations and solutions among well-defined target populations. For example, physicians interacting with peers in dedicated online communities have assisted government agencies in diffusing health technology innovations.”..(More)”
