{UAH} Citizens as Civic Innovators

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.

“These four citizen roles imply different types of contributions in civic problem solving, different types of government-citizen interactions and thereby the need for different types of mechanisms and support infrastructure,” the authors observe.

The report also explores a wide range of mechanisms for citizen co-creation, such as the use of new technologies such as mobile apps, contests, serious gaming, and data mashups.  Taken together, these mechanisms offer less expensive problem-solving techniques than were ever available in the past.

Link:http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/fixgov/posts/2014/01/16-citizen-civic-innovation-kamensky

--
Rehema
Patriot in Kampala,East Africa:UMBS is a registered organization devoted to matters of interest to Muslims in Uganda.Muslims from other countries are welcome to join us too. Follow us on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/#!/UMBSFORUM. To donate to UMBS activities, click on: http://um-bs.com/donate/ or just deposit money on UMBS Bank A/C at Bank of Africa:07074320002 .