Paper by Donia Nciri et al: “Traditionally, government and national mapping agencies have been a primary provider of authoritative geospatial information. Today, with the exponential proliferation of Information and Communication Technologies or ICTs (such as GPS, mobile mapping and geo-localized web applications, social media), any user becomes able to produce geospatial information. This participatory production of geographical data gives birth to the concept of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI). This phenomenon has greatly contributed to the production of huge amounts of heterogeneous data (structured data, textual documents, images, videos, etc.). It has emerged as a potential source of geographic information in many application areas. Despite the various advantages associated with it, this information lacks often quality assurance, since it is provided by diverse user profiles. To address this issue, numerous research studies have been proposed to assess VGI quality in order to help extract relevant content. This work attempts to provide an overall review of VGI quality assessment methods over the last decade. It also investigates varied quality assessment attributes adopted in recent works. Moreover, it presents a classification that forms a basis for future research. Finally, it discusses in detail the relevance and the main limitations of existing approaches and outlines some guidelines for future developments…(More)”.
Crowdfunding Education
Article by Victoria Goldiee: “Nigeria’s education system has declined due to inadequate funding and facilities, low admission rates, and a nationwide shortage of qualified teachers. Consequently, receiving a quality education has become a privilege only accessible to families with financial means. According to research by the Nigeria Education and Training Services Industry, 49 percent of Nigeria’s youth enter into trade apprenticeships or expatriate to pursue a better education. In fact, Nigeria has the highest percentage of its students overseas of any African nation.
In February 2016, social entrepreneur Bola Lawal turned to crowdfunding to make educational opportunities accessible to Nigerians. He founded ScholarX as the vehicle to realize this mission through taking advantage of the largely untapped market of unclaimed scholarships, educational grants, and philanthropic donations for African students. The X in ScholarX represents the missing value and recognition that Nigerian youth deserve for their dedication to academic achievement.
“The idea for ScholarX came from the conversation with my friends on our shared experiences,” Lawal recounts, “because I also had difficulty paying for school like millions of Nigerians.” He adds that he was “even suspended from school because” of his inability to pay the tuition fee.
Like Lawal, more than 100,000 Nigerian students overseas rely on scholarships, many of which are backed either by oil and gas companies that aim to recruit students into the industry or by federal government grants for local students. But in recent years, these scholarships have been scaled back or scrapped altogether because of the ongoing economic crisis and recession. The crash of the foreign exchange rate of Nigeria’s currency, the naira, has further threatened the prospects of Nigeria’s overseas students, leaving many unable to pay tuition…(More)”
Selected Readings: Exploring the Power of Questions For Society
By: Roshni Singh, Hannah Chafetz, and Stefaan G. Verhulst
The questions that society asks can transform public policy making, mobilize resources, and shape public discourse, yet decision makers around the world frequently focus on developing solutions rather than identifying the questions that need to be addressed to develop those solutions.
This blog provides a range of resources on the potential of questions for society. It includes readings on new approaches to formulating questions, how questions benefit public policy making and democracy, the importance of increasing the capacity for questioning at the individual level, and the role of questions in the age of AI and prompt engineering.
These readings underscore the need for a new science of questions – a new discipline solely focused on integrating participatory approaches for identifying, prioritizing, and addressing questions for society. This emerging discipline not only fosters creativity and critical thinking within societies but also empowers individuals and communities to engage actively in the questioning process, thereby promoting a more inclusive and equitable approach to addressing today’s societal challenges.
A few key takeaways from these readings:
- Incorporating participatory approaches in questioning processes: Several of the readings discuss the value of including participatory approaches in questioning as a means to incorporate diverse perspectives, identify where there knowledge gaps, and ensure the questions prioritized reflect current needs. In particular, the readings emphasize the role of open innovation and co-creation principles, workshops, surveys, as ways to make the questioning process more collaborative.
- Advancing individuals’ questioning capability: Teaching individuals to ask their own questions fosters agency and is essential for effective democratic participation. The readings recommend cultivating this skill from early education through adulthood to empower individuals to engage actively in decision-making processes.
- Improving questioning processes for responsible AI use: In the era of AI and prompt engineering, how questions are framed is key for deriving meaningful responses to AI queries. More focus on participatory question formulation in the context of AI can help foster more inclusive and responsible data governance.
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In “Crowdsourcing Research Questions in Science,” the authors examine how involving the general public in formulating research questions can enhance scientific inquiry. They analyze two crowdsourcing projects in the medical sciences and find that crowd-generated questions often restate problems but provide valuable cross-disciplinary insights. Although these questions typically rank lower in novelty and scientific impact compared to professional questions, they match the practical impact of professional research. The authors argue that crowdsourcing can improve research by offering diverse perspectives. They emphasize the importance of using effective selection methods to identify and prioritize the most valuable contributions from the crowd, ensuring that the highest quality questions are highlighted and addressed.
This journal article emphasizes the growing importance of openness and collaboration in scientific research. The authors identify the lack of a unified understanding of these practices due to differences in disciplinary approaches and propose an Open Innovation in Science (OIS) Research Framework (co-developed with 47 scholars) to bridge these knowledge gaps and synthesize information across fields. The authors argue that integrating Open Science and Open Innovation concepts can enhance researchers’ and practitioners’ understanding of how these practices influence the generation and dissemination of scientific insights and innovation. The article highlights the need for interdisciplinary collaboration to address the complexities of societal, technical, and environmental challenges and provides a foundation for future research, policy discussions, and practical guidance in promoting open and collaborative scientific practices.
In “The Surprising Power of Questions,” published in Harvard Business Review, Alison Wood Brooks and Leslie K. John highlight how asking questions drives learning, innovation, and relationship building within organizations. They argue that many executives focus on answers but underestimate how well-crafted questions can enhance communication, build trust, and uncover risks. Drawing from behavioral science, the authors show how the type, tone, and sequence of questions influence the effectiveness of conversations. By refining their questioning skills, individuals can boost emotional intelligence, foster deeper connections, and unlock valuable insights that benefit both themselves and their organizations.
Kellner, Paul. “Choosing Policy-Relevant Research Questions.” Good Questions Review, May 21, 2024.
In “Choosing Policy-Relevant Research Questions,” Paul Kellner explains how social scientists can craft research questions that better inform policy decisions. He highlights the ongoing issue of social sciences not significantly impacting policy, as noted by experts like William Julius Wilson and Christopher Whitty. The article suggests methods for engaging policymakers in the research question formulation process, such as user engagement, co creation, surveys, voting, and consensus-building workshops. Kellner provides examples where policymakers directly participated in the research, resulting in more practical and relevant outcomes. He concludes that improving coordination between researchers and policymakers can enhance the policy impact of social science research.
In this Op-Ed, Andrew P. Minigan emphasizes the critical role of curiosity and question formulation in education. He argues that alongside the “4 Cs” (creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration), there should be a fifth C: curiosity. Asking questions enables students to identify knowledge gaps, think critically and creatively, and engage with peers. Research links curiosity to improved memory, academic achievement, and creativity. Despite these benefits, traditional teaching models often overlook curiosity. Minigan suggests teaching students to formulate questions to boost their curiosity and support educational goals. He concludes that nurturing curiosity is essential for developing innovative thinkers who can explore new, complex questions.
Rothstein, Dan. “Questions, Agency and Democracy.” Medium (blog), February 25, 2017.
In this blog, Dan Rothstein highlights the importance of fostering “agency,” which is the ability of individuals to think and act independently, as a cornerstone of democracy. Rothstein and his colleague Luz Santana have spent over two decades at The Right Question Institute teaching people how to ask their own questions to enhance their participation in decision-making. They discovered that the inability to ask questions hinders involvement in decisions that impact individuals. Rothstein argues that learning to formulate questions is essential for developing agency and effective democratic participation. This skill should be taught from early education through adulthood. Despite its importance, many students do not learn this in college, so educators must focus on teaching question formulation at all levels. Rothstein concludes that empowering individuals to ask questions is vital for a strong democracy and should be a continuous effort across society.
In the chapter “From a Policy Problem to a Research Question: Getting It Right Together” from the Science for Policy Handbook, Marta Sienkiewicz emphasizes the importance of co-creation between researchers and policymakers to determine relevant research questions. She highlights the need for this approach due to the separation between research and policy cultures, and the differing natures of scientific (tame) and policy (wicked) problems. Sienkiewicz outlines a skills framework and provides examples from the Joint Research Centre (JRC), such as Knowledge Centres, staff exchanges, and collaboration facilitators, to foster interaction and collaboration. Engaging policymakers in the research question development process leads to more practical and relevant outcomes, builds trust, and strengthens relationships. This collaborative approach ensures that research is aligned with policy needs, increases the chances of evidence being used effectively in decision-making, and ultimately enhances the impact of scientific research on policy.
In “Methods for Collaboratively Identifying Research Priorities and Emerging Issues in Science and Policy,” the authors, William J. Sutherland et al., emphasize the importance of bridging the gap between scientific research and policy needs through collaborative approaches. They outline a structured, inclusive methodology that involves researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to jointly identify priority research questions. The approach includes gathering input from diverse stakeholders, iterative voting processes, and structured workshops to refine and prioritize questions, ensuring that the resulting research addresses critical societal and environmental challenges. These methods foster greater collaboration and ensure that scientific research is aligned with the practical needs of policymakers, thereby enhancing the relevance and impact of the research on policy decisions. This approach has been successfully applied in multiple fields, including conservation and agriculture, demonstrating its versatility in addressing both emerging issues and long-term policy priorities.
In this article co-authored with Anil Ananthaswamy, , Stefaan Verhulst emphasizes the crucial role of framing questions correctly, particularly in the era of AI and data. They highlight how ChatGPT’s success underscores the power of well-formulated questions and their impact on deriving meaningful answers. Verhulst and Ananthaswamy argue that society’s focus on answers has overshadowed the importance of questioning, which shapes scientific inquiry, public policy, and data utilization. They call for a new science of questions that integrates diverse fields and promotes critical thinking, data literacy, and inclusive questioning to address biases and improve decision-making. This interdisciplinary effort aims to shift the emphasis from merely seeking answers to understanding the context and purpose behind the questions.
In this chapter published in “Global Digital Data Governance: Polycentric Perspectives”, Stefaan Verhulst explores the crucial role of formulating questions in ensuring responsible data usage. Verhulst argues that, in our data-driven society, responsibly handling data is key to maximizing public good and minimizing risks. He proposes a polycentric approach where the right questions are co-defined to enhance the social impact of data science. Drawing from both conceptual and practical knowledge, including his experience with The 100 Questions Initiative, Verhulst emphasizes that a participatory methodology in question formulation can democratize data use, ensuring data minimization, proportionality, participation, and accountability. By shifting from a supply-driven to a demand-driven approach, Verhulst envisions a new “science of questions” that complements data science, fostering a more inclusive and responsible data governance framework.
Table 1 from Verhulst, Stefaan G. “Questions as a Device for Data Responsibility: Toward a New Science of Questions to Steer and Complement the Use of Data Science for the Public Good in a Polycentric Way,” outlines how questions serve as tools for data responsibility across three principles: minimization and proportionality, participation, and accountability. Questions help determine data collection purposes, develop retention policies, foster inclusive debates, secure social licenses for data re-use, identify stakeholders, create feedback loops, and enhance accountability by anticipating risks.
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As we navigate the complexities of our rapidly changing world, the importance of asking the right questions cannot be overstated. We invite researchers, educators, policymakers, and curious minds alike to delve deeper into new approaches for questioning. By fostering an environment that values and prioritizes well-crafted questions, we can drive innovation, enhance education, improve public policy, and harness the potential of AI and data science. In the coming months, The GovLab, with the support of the Henry Luce Foundation, will be exploring these topics further through a series of roundtable discussions. Are you working on participatory approaches to questioning and are interested in getting involved? Email Stefaan G. Verhulst, Co-Founder and Chief R&D at The GovLab, at sverhulst@thegovlab.org.
Multi-disciplinary Perspectives on Citizen Science—Synthesizing Five Paradigms of Citizen Involvement
Paper by Susanne Beck, Dilek Fraisl, Marion Poetz and Henry Sauermann: “Research on Open Innovation in Science (OIS) investigates how open and collaborative practices influence the scientific and societal impact of research. Since 2019, the OIS Research Conference has brought together scholars and practitioners from diverse backgrounds to discuss OIS research and case examples. In this meeting report, we describe four session formats that have allowed our multi-disciplinary community to have productive discussions around opportunities and challenges related to citizen involvement in research. However, these sessions also highlight the need for a better understanding of the underlying rationales of citizen involvement in an increasingly diverse project landscape. Building on the discussions at the 2023 and prior editions of the conference, we outline a conceptual framework of five crowd paradigms and present an associated tool that can aid in understanding how citizen involvement in particular projects can help advance science. We illustrate this tool using cases presented at the 2023 conference, and discuss how it can facilitate discussions at future conferences as well as guide future research and practice in citizen science…(More)”.
More Questions Than Flags: Reality Check on DSA’s Trusted Flaggers
Article by Ramsha Jahangir, Elodie Vialle and Dylan Moses: “It’s been 100 days since the Digital Services Act (DSA) came into effect, and many of us are still wondering how the Trusted Flagger mechanism is taking shape, particularly for civil society organizations (CSOs) that could be potential applicants.
With an emphasis on accountability and transparency, the DSA requires national coordinators to appoint Trusted Flaggers, who are designated entities whose requests to flag illegal content must be prioritized. “Notices submitted by Trusted Flaggers acting within their designated area of expertise . . . are given priority and are processed and decided upon without undue delay,” according to the DSA. Trusted flaggers can include non-governmental organizations, industry associations, private or semi-public bodies, and law enforcement agencies. For instance, a private company that focuses on finding CSAM or terrorist-type content, or tracking groups that traffic in that content, could be eligible for Trusted Flagger status under the DSA. To be appointed, entities need to meet certain criteria, including being independent, accurate, and objective.
Trusted escalation channels are a key mechanism for civil society organizations (CSOs) supporting vulnerable users, such as human rights defenders and journalists targeted by online attacks on social media, particularly in electoral contexts. However, existing channels could be much more efficient. The DSA is a unique opportunity to redesign these mechanisms for reporting illegal or harmful content at scale. They need to be rethought for CSOs that hope to become Trusted Flaggers. Platforms often require, for instance, content to be translated into English and context to be understood by English-speaking audiences (due mainly to the fact that the key decision-makers are based in the US), which creates an added burden for CSOs that are resource-strapped. The lack of transparency in the reporting process can be distressing for the victims for whom those CSOs advocate. The lack of timely response can lead to dramatic consequences for human rights defenders and information integrity. Several CSOs we spoke with were not even aware of these escalation channels – and platforms are not incentivized to promote mechanisms given the inability to vet, prioritize and resolve all potential issues sent to them….(More)”.
Participatory mapping as a social digital tool
Blog by María de los Ángeles Briones: “…we will use 14 different examples from different continents and contexts to explore the goals and methods used for participatory mapping as a social digital tool. Despite looking very different and coming from a range of cultural backgrounds, there are a number of similarities in these different case studies.
Although the examples have different goals, we have identified four main focus areas: activism, conviviality, networking and urban planning. More localised mapping projects often had a focus on activism. We also see from that maps are not isolated tools, they are complementary to work with other communication tools and platforms.
The internet has transformed communications and networks across the globe – allowing for interconnectivity and scalability of information among and between different groups of society. This allows voices, regardless of their location, to be amplified and listened to by many other voices achieving collective goals. This has great potential in a global world where it is evident that top-down initiatives are not enough to handle many of the social needs that local people experience. However, though the internet makes sharing and collaborating between people easier, offline maps are still valuable, as shown in some of our examples.
The similarity between the different maps that we explored is that they are social digital tools. They are social because they are related to projects that are seeking to solve social needs; and they are digital because they are based on digital platforms that permit them to be alive, spread, shared and used. These characteristics also refer to their function and design.
A tool can be defined as a device or implement, especially one held in the hand, used to carry out a particular function. So when we speak of a tool there are four things involved: an actor, an object, a function and a purpose. Just as a hammer is a tool that a carpenter (actor) use to hammer nails (function) and thus build something (purpose) we understand that social tools are used by one or more people for taking actions where the final objective is to meet a social need…(More)”.
Crowded Out: The True Costs of Crowdfunding Healthcare
Book by Nora Kenworthy: “Over the past decade, charitable crowdfunding has exploded in popularity across the globe. Sites such as GoFundMe, which now boasts a “global community of over 100 million” users, have transformed the ways we seek and offer help. When faced with crises—especially medical ones—Americans are turning to online platforms that promise to connect them to the charity of the crowd. What does this new phenomenon reveal about the changing ways we seek and provide healthcare? In Crowded Out, Nora Kenworthy examines how charitable crowdfunding so quickly overtook public life, where it is taking us, and who gets left behind by this new platformed economy.
Although crowdfunding has become ubiquitous in our lives, it is often misunderstood: rather than a friendly free market “powered by the kindness” of strangers, crowdfunding is powerfully reinforcing inequalities and changing the way Americans think about and access healthcare. Drawing on extensive research and rich storytelling, Crowded Out demonstrates how crowdfunding for health is fueled by—and further reinforces—financial and moral “toxicities” in market-based healthcare systems. It offers a unique and distressing look beneath the surface of some of the most popular charitable platforms and helps to foster thoughtful discussions of how we can better respond to healthcare crises both small and large…(More)”.
Disfactory Project: How to Detect Illegal Factories by Open Source Technology and Crowdsourcing
Article by Peii Lai: “…building illegal factories on farmlands is still a profitable business, because the factory owners thus obtain the means of production at a lower price and can easily get away with penalties by simply ignoring their legal responsibility. Such conduct simply shifts the cost of production onto the environment in an irresponsible way. As we can imagine, such violations has been increasing year by year. On average, Taiwan loses 1,500 hectares of farmland each year due to illegal use, which demonstrates that illegal factories are an ongoing and escalating problem that people cannot ignore.
It’s clearly that the problem of illegal factories are caused by dysfunction of the previous land management regulations. In response to that, Citizens of Earth Taiwan (CET) started seeking solutions to tackle the illegal factories. CET soon realized that the biggest obstacle they faced was that no one saw the violations as a big deal. Local governments avoided standing on the opposite side of the illegal factories. For local governments, imposing penalties is an arduous and thankless task…
Through the collaboration of CET and g0v-zero, the Disfactory project combines the knowledge they have accumulated through advocacy and the diverse techniques brought by the passionate civic contributors. In 2020, the Disfactory project team delivered its first product: disfactory.tw. They built a website with geographic information that whistle blowers can operate on the ground by themselves. Through a few simple steps: identifying the location of the target illegal factory, taking a picture of it, uploading the photos, any citizen can easily register the information on Disfactory’s website….(More)”
Crowdsourcing for collaborative crisis communication: a systematic review
Paper by Maria Clara Pestana, Ailton Ribeiro and Vaninha Vieira: “Efficient crisis response and support during emergency scenarios rely on collaborative communication channels. Effective communication between operational centers, civilian responders, and public institutions is vital. Crowdsourcing fosters communication and collaboration among a diverse public. The primary objective is to explore the state-of-the-art in crowdsourcing for collaborative crisis communication guided by a systematic literature review. The study selected 20 relevant papers published in the last decade. The findings highlight solutions to facilitate rapid emergency responses, promote seamless coordination between stakeholders and the general public, and ensure data credibility through a rigorous validation process…(More)”.
Millions of gamers advance biomedical research
Article by McGill: “…4.5 million gamers around the world have advanced medical science by helping to reconstruct microbial evolutionary histories using a minigame included inside the critically and commercially successful video game, Borderlands 3. Their playing has led to a significantly refined estimate of the relationships of microbes in the human gut. The results of this collaboration will both substantially advance our knowledge of the microbiome and improve on the AI programs that will be used to carry out this work in future.
By playing Borderlands Science, a mini-game within the looter-shooter video game Borderlands 3, these players have helped trace the evolutionary relationships of more than a million different kinds of bacteria that live in the human gut, some of which play a crucial role in our health. This information represents an exponential increase in what we have discovered about the microbiome up till now. By aligning rows of tiles which represent the genetic building blocks of different microbes, humans have been able to take on tasks that even the best existing computer algorithms have been unable to solve yet…(More) (and More)”.