Citizen sensors or extreme publics? Transparency and accountability interventions on the mobile geoweb

Figures & data

Figure 1. Types of state-citizen transparency policies and T&A interventions.

Table 1. Drivers and characteristics for transparency policies (access to general information).

	Freedom of Information (FoI)	Open Government Data (OGD)
Drivers	Political activism by civil society	Advocacy by information technology champions
Characteristics	Mandatory release	Discretionary release
	Freedom of press	Crowd-sourcing, mashing and hacking
	Accountability via legal rights	Accountability via IT and communications

Table 2. Pragmatic propositions for transparency policies (access to general information).

	Limitations	Propositions
Demand-side for transparency	Divided public	Mobile communications as technologies of choice
	Only organized and technology-savvy public demands transparency	Mobilization of ‘info-mediaries’ (activists, journalists, civic hackers)
Interface between supply and demand	The state can be unresponsive to the demands for transparency	OGD initiatives in dialog with civil society for specific data releases
	The data released often have little to do with accountability	Incremental openness based on value propositions
Supply-side of transparency	The state is complex and partly privatized	Targeted transparency (section 4.1)

Table 3. Supply-demand dynamics of Targeted Transparency (TT) policies.

	Supply-demand dynamics (according to TT theory)
Supply-side (state)	Crisis leads to a law for transparency of risk and active release of risk maps
Interface between supply and demand	Risk maps
	Cost-benefit calculus of citizens
	Cost-benefit calculus of originators of risk (companies)
Demand-side (public)	Public outcry triggers the policy
	Citizens duly informed, after policy is implemented; risk management improves

Table 4. Elements for the design of Transparency & Accountability (T&A) interventions.

	Elements for the design of T&A interventions
Demand-side	Citizen sensors; mobile geoweb as technology of choice for data collection and visualization.
	Mobilization strategies of ‘info-mediaries’ (activists, journalists, civic hackers)
Interface between supply and demand	Accountability-relevant data & dramatic deviation
	Extreme publics (alliances of NGOs, citizen sensors, professional users, local media, and increasingly, regulators)
Supply-side	Level of democratization (FoI and/or OGD as proxies) and free mainstream media (press and local radio)