The impact of information and communication technologies on the costs of democracy

Recent developments in information and communication technologies (ICTs) can change the way strategic organizational decisions are negotiated and voted upon. We propose an analytical framework that investigates the effect of such technologies on the costs of the decision-making process in organizations by incorporating a technology variable in an already well-known model of public decision-making. The framework is applicable to any large group decision setting where collective decisions are made by voting, such as shareholders’ meetings, local and federal government meetings. We apply the framework to derive policies that will help to decrease the costs related to the democratic process. The first policy requires that governments should invest more in technologies that support multi-lateral communication and negotiation among citizens, and the second requires that citizens should use better voting mechanisms than simple majority voting to make decisions.     

PETRA: participatory evaluation through redesign and analysis

Compared with single user-computer interactions, evaluating multi-user-computer interactions is much more complex. We argue for multiplicity — of theory, method and perspective — in the evaluation of computer-supported collaborative work (CSCW). This allows us to address both theoretical concerns and practical design issues, and to incorporate the expertise and experiences of both researchers and participants. We propose the PETRA framework, incorporating a theoretically-driven evaluators' perspective to investigate the collaborative activity, and a design-based, user-focused participants' perspective to evaluate the supporting tool. Our study investigated collaborative writing, both in a face-to-face context, and supported by a computer-based group editor. In our instantiation of the PETRA framework, we used distributed cognition and a form of breakdown analysis to investigate the development of shared understanding in the two different mediating settings; and devised a rapid prototyping session (inspired by participatory design) to elicit participant reactions to and redesigns of the tool interface. Our findings show that computer-supported shared understanding develops technologically, using social coordination as a repair mechanism; and that the collaborative tool must be particularly sensitive to issues of awareness, communication, focus and ownership.     

Positional Voting Rules Generated by Aggregation Functions and the Role of Duplication

In this paper, we consider a typical voting situation where a group of agents show their preferences over a set of alternatives. Under our approach, such preferences are codified into individual positional values, which can be aggregated in several ways through particular functions, yielding positional voting rules and providing a social result in each case. We show that scoring rules belong to such class of positional voting rules. But if we focus our interest on OWA (ordered weighted averaging) operators as aggregation functions, other well‐known voting systems naturally appear. In particular, we determine those ones verifying duplication (i.e., clone irrelevance) and present a proposal of an overall social result provided by them.     

Electronic word-of-mouth and online reviews in tourism services: the use of twitter by tourists

Lately, the online social media have revolutionized communications and consequently the marketing of tourism destinations and businesses. The area is rapidly evolving and the challenges and opportunities arising from it for tourism industry are already apparent. Electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) and online reviews/recommendations are increasingly used regarding tourism services that are high involvement services. The purpose of the present study is to develop a conceptual framework for understanding the foundations of digital communication and empirically investigate its validity by examining the factors influencing the tourism consumer behavior. This study adopts a conceptual model of e-WOM and explores the use of Twitter by the tourists. Findings revealed the factors affecting tourists’ decision-making and indicated that this social medium is not a panacea; it is another marketing channel to be wisely used in integrated communications marketing of tourism services.     

Computer-mediated communication,de-individuation and group decision-making

This paper discusses social psychological processes in computer-mediated communication (CMC) and group decision-making, in relation to findings that groups communicating via computer produce more polarized decisions than face-to-face groups. A wide range of possible explanations for such differences have been advanced, in which a lack of social cues, disinhibition, “de-individuation” and a consequent tendency to antinormative behaviour are central themes. In these explanations, both disinhibition and greater equality of participation are thought to facilitate the exchange of extreme persuasive arguments, resulting in polarization. These accounts are briefly reviewed and attention is drawn to various problematic issues. We provide an alternative model and explanation based on social identity (SI) theory and a re-conceptualization of de-individuation, which takes into account the social and normative factors associated with group polarization. Predictions from both sets of explanations are explored empirically by means of an experiment manipulating the salience of the discussion group, and de-individuation operationalized as the isolation and anonymity of the participants. In this experiment we were able to partial out the effects of the CMC technology which have confounded comparisons with face-to-face interaction in previous research. The results challenge the explanations based on persuasive arguments, while being consistent with our SI model. We discuss our approach in relation to other very recent research in group computer-mediated communication and offer a reinterpretation of previous findings.     

Participation in job redesign: An evaluation of the use of a sociotechnical tool and its impact

In this article we describe the use of a sociotechnical tool within a company manufacturing photographic products. The tool was used by shop‐floor operators and managers to redesign a group of jobs and tasks prior to the introduction of new technology. The tool involved two stages: (a) generating alternative scenarios of ways to reconfigure existing and new jobs and tasks within the plant; and (b) using a set of decision criteria (e.g., control, skill variety, and opportunity for social contact) to evaluate these scenarios, drawing on established sociotechnical and job design principles. The tool proved to be successful in generating new job designs, reinforcing the value of such design techniques, and highlighting the value of shop‐floor involvement in the design process. However, participation in the design process was not without its problems. We discuss these further in terms of the critical role of the workshop facilitator and the important role played by factors such as selection of participants and their background knowledge. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The influence of the shared-display configuration on group decision making

Large shared displays are increasingly being used to support co-located group decision-making tasks. The expectation is that they can provide a shared visual reference and facilitate interaction between decision makers. This study examined the impact of shared-display configurations on group decision-making processes and outcomes. Three design factors were examined: submission control, display control, and presenting predictions on shared displays. Sixty-four participants performed an optimization task in groups of four members that were supported by different shared-display systems. The results show that submission control has a positive impact on the level of participation, the satisfaction with the group process, and the commitment to the decisions made, but it negatively influences the decision quality; presenting predictive information on the shared display, which is separated from the current information on the personal displays, has a negative impact on the group process and decision quality. In addition, the participants tend to always display all of the information that is available on the screen, in spite of the provision of the display control option.Relevance to industryHow group members can control the content on the shared displays and on their personal displays would influence the group behavior. Gained knowledge from this study is useful for designing and configuring shared-display systems for better group decision-making support.     

Designing convivial digital cities: a social intelligence design approach

Conviviality has been identified as a key concept necessary to web communities, such as digital cities, and while it has been simultaneously defined in literature as individual freedom realized in personal interdependence, rational and cooperative behavior and normative instrument, no model for conviviality has yet been proposed for computer science. In this article, we raised the question whether social intelligence design could be used to designing convivial digital cities. We first looked at digital cities and identified, from a social intelligence design point of view, two main categories of digital cities: public websites and commercial websites; we also noted the experimental qualities of digital cities. Second, we analyzed the concept of conviviality for social science, multi-agent systems and intelligent interface; we showed the distinction among various kinds of use of conviviality, the positive outcomes such as social cohesion, trust and participation but also the negative aspects that emerged when conviviality became an instrument of power relations. Fourth, we looked at the normative aspect of conviviality as described in the literature and found that social norms for conviviality paralleled legal and institutional norms for digital cities. Finally, as a first step toward obtaining measures for conviviality, we presented a case study describing agents and user’s interactions using dependence graphs. We also presented an analysis of conviviality requirements and described our plan and methodology for designing convivial digital cities.     

Gamifying collective human behavior with gameful digital rhetoric

This paper presents a design framework called Gameful Digital Rhetoric that offers a set of design frames for designing meaningful digital rhetoric that guides collective human behavior in ubiquitous social digital services, such as crowdsourcing. The framework is extracted from our experiences with building and developing crowdsourcing case studies. From a video game perspective, the paper has categorized our experiences into seven design frames to encourage collective human activity. This approach is different from traditional gamification, as it focuses more on the semiotic aspect of virtuality in the video games, not game mechanics; it helps to enhance the current meaning of the real world for changing human attitude and behavior through various socio-cultural and psychological techniques. Therefore, it is possible to discuss respective design frames for enhancing crowdsourcing by incrementally adding new digital rhetoric. The paper also presents how Gameful Digital Rhetoric allows us to guide collective human behavior in Collectivist Crowdsourcing; the design is explained through a scenario-based and experiment-based analyses. The paper then discusses how to design collective human behavior with Gameful Digital Rhetoric and how to identify the design’s potential pitfalls. Our approach offers useful insights into the design of future social digital services that influence collective human behavior     

基于联盟区块链的董事会电子投票系统

董事会投票是特定范围的小集体为某一问题进行匿名表决的场景,对参与者的身份要求严格。设计了一种基于联盟链的董事会电子投票协议,用智能合约取代了传统的可信第三方,降低了系统信任成本;采用基于数字证书的身份准入机制,保证了参与投票者的身份合法性;基于椭圆曲线盲签名技术设计了电子投票协议,实现了投票的匿名性。安全分析表明,所提协议能够满足电子投票协议的安全性要求,使用方便灵活,提高了系统易用性。     

投票理论研究现状及其展望

社会选择理论是研究如何表达和聚合个体选择的一门学问.而社会选择理论与计算机科学的融合产生了称为计算社会选择的交叉学科,该学科成为社会计算的重要研究内容之一,在人工智能、经济和计算性理论领域引起了轰动.其一方面引入了复杂性分析和算法设计等计算机学科中常用的技术来对社会选择机制进行研究;另一方面也通过引入社会选择理论中的概念来推动计算机技术的发展,特别是在多智能体系统研究中有着成功的应用.投票理论是计算社会选择中最重要的研究主题之一.首先介绍常见的投票方法以及投票理论的形式化框架;再对投票理论中所关心的操纵问题做分析;然后介绍在组合域上的投票;最后对其他相关问题作简要介绍,并对该领域未来的发展与应用做出展望.     

A Web services-based framework for building componentized digital libraries

We present a new Web services-based framework for building componentized digital libraries (DLs). We particularly demonstrate how traditional RDBMS technology can be easily deployed to support several common digital library services. Configuration and customization of the framework to build specialized systems is supported by a wizard-like tool which is based on a generic metamodel for DLs. Such a tool implements a workflow process that segments the DL design tasks into well-defined steps and drives the designer along these steps. Both the framework and the configuration tool are evaluated in terms of several performance and usability criteria. Our experimental evaluation demonstrates the feasibility and superior performance of our framework, as well as the effectiveness of the wizard tool for setting up DLs.     

Analytical expression of the expected values of capital at voting in the stochastic environment

In the simplest variant of the model of collective decision making in the stochastic environment, the participants were segregated into egoists and a group of collectivists. “Proposal of the environment” is the stochastically generated vector of algebraic increments of capitals. The social dynamics was defined by the sequence of proposals accepted by threshold-majority voting. Analytical expressions of the expected values of the capitals of participants, collectivists and egoists were obtained. Distinctions of some principles of group voting were discussed.     

Automatic detection of accommodation steps as an indicator of knowledge maturing

Jointly working on shared digital artifacts - such as wikis - is a well-tried method of developing knowledge collectively within a group or organization. Our assumption is that such knowledge maturing is an accommodation process that can be measured by taking the writing process itself into account. This paper describes the development of a tool that detects accommodation automatically with the help of machine learning algorithms. We applied a software framework for task detection to the automatic identification of accommodation processes within a wiki. To set up the learning algorithms and test its performance, we conducted an empirical study, in which participants had to contribute to a wiki and, at the same time, identify their own tasks. Two domain experts evaluated the participants’ micro-tasks with regard to accommodation. We then applied an ontology-based task detection approach that identified accommodation with a rate of 79.12%. The potential use of our tool for measuring knowledge maturing online is discussed.     

An evaluation of web-based voting usability and accessibility

Several countries are considering web-based voting as an alternative to, or a replacement of, traditional voting methods. It is argued that electronic voting could increase voter participation and help strengthen democracy, as e-voting would increase accessibility for large sections of the population, particularly with regard to groups that previously have experienced difficulties with the traditional voting setup. With a focus on usability and accessibility, this paper reports on a study evaluating several electronic voting prototypes in Norway, involving technical aspects as well as expert evaluation and user testing in the field, with users from a wide range of disabled user groups participating in the study. Technical testing regarding accessibility standard compliance, testing with the personas method and user testing revealed that many rather basic universal design principles were either not fully understood or not prioritized for implementation by the solution providers. However, despite various accessibility difficulties, the participants generally showed a positive attitude towards web-based elections. Through the findings of this study, the authors highlight factors that are important to consider in the development and testing of web-based voting systems.     

Controlling the order of moves in voting by veto. II. Algorithms for constructing an optimal order of moves

The study of issues concerning collective decision-making in complex systems using voting by veto is continued. A dedicated player is assumed to exist in the collective that forms the order of voting (order of moves) for the other participants. The problem of searching for the control strategy for the order of moves that ensures the win of alternative 1 that is preferable for the dedicated player is studied for the previously unstudied cases when such an order of moves exists. In particular, an algorithm for constructing such an order is proposed for the case when there is another participant for which alternative 1 is higher than the fourth from the end and when there is a group of participants that are relatively well-disposed to alternative 1 (more precisely, this alternative is higher than the third from the end for them). It is shown that the preference order of the alternatives that are better than alternative 1 is of no importance for the problem under consideration. It is proved that the conditions for the participants’ preferences that are sufficient for the existence of the desired order of moves (they were obtained in the first part of this paper) are unimprovable.     

Participatory heritage innovation: designing dialogic sites of engagement

Abstract

Innovations in digital cultural communication for museums challenge us to develop appropriate methods for participation in curatorial processes and to rethink the role of audiences inside exhibitions. The article explores the potentials of scaffolding sites of dialogue and creative engagement through the design process and final exhibition. It draws upon experiences from an interactive exhibition project, Digital Natives, in which we combined principles from Participatory Design with issues of contemporary digital culture to explore possibilities for creating heritage innovation. We suggest three critical stages of the dialogic design process in which engagement between stakeholders, researchers, and audiences can be central to shaping and transforming future conceptions of digital cultural heritage, through process and final exhibition. In this way, we argue that a participatory design anthropological approach to digital culture can expand opportunities for heritage innovation through technological means of engagement in museums.     

New receipt-free voting scheme using double-trapdoor commitment

It is considered to be the most suitable solution for large scale elections to design an electronic voting scheme using blind signatures and anonymous channels. Based on this framework, Okamoto first proposed a receipt-free voting scheme [30] for large scale elections. However, in the following paper, Okamoto [31] proved that the scheme [30] was not receipt-free and presented two improved schemes. One scheme requires the help of the parameter registration committee and the other needs a stronger physical assumption of the voting booth. In this paper, we utilize the double-trapdoor commitment to propose a new receipt-free voting scheme based on blind signatures for large scale elections. Neither the parameter registration committee nor the voting booth is required in our scheme. We also present a more efficient zero-knowledge proof for secret permutation. Therefore, our scheme is much more efficient than Okamoto’s schemes [30] and [31] with the weaker physical assumptions. Moreover, we prove that our scheme can achieve the desired security properties.