Knowledge Of Citizens Research Articles

Challenges as Game Changers for Collaborative Knowledge Incubation in the Public Sector

Harnessing the knowledge citizens and government employees are willing to share on social media applications in the public sector is one of the most difficult things to do in the era of Government 2.0. Every day thousands of citizens are commenting on government Facebook posts and blog entries or reshare information published on Twitter. Rarely has government the opportunity to harvest innovative ideas and knowledge that is published through these channels. The main reason for many agencies to set up an organizational account is still “to be where the people are.” Recently Open Innovation platforms have started to address this disconnect and are providing an easy access to participate in making government cool again.

Olomouc - Possibilities of Geovisualization of the Historical City

Olomouc, nowadays a city with 100,000 inhabitants, has always been considered as one of the most prominent Czech cities. It is a social and economical centre, which history started just about the 11th century. The present appearance of the city has its roots in the 18th century, when the city was almost razed to the ground after the Thirty years’ war and a great fire in 1709. After that, the city was rebuilt to a baroque military fortress against Prussia army. At the beginning of the 20th century the majority of the fortress was demolished. Character of the town is dominated by the large number of churches, burgher’s houses and other architecturally significant buildings, like a Holy Trinity Column, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Aim of this project was to state the most suitable methods of visualization of spatial-temporal change in historical build-up area from the tourist’s point of view, and to design and evaluate possibilities of spatial data acquisition. There are many methods of 2D and 3D visualization which are suitable for depiction of historical and contemporary situation. In the article four approaches are discussed comparison of historical and recent pictures or photos, overlaying historical maps over the orthophoto, enhanced visualization of historical map in large scale using the third dimension and photorealistic 3D models of the same area in different ages. All mentioned methods were geolocalizated using the Google Earth environment and multimedia features were added to enhance the impression of perception. Possibilities of visualization, which were outlined above, were realized on a case study of the Olomouc city. As a source of historical data were used rapport plans of the bastion fortress from the 17th century. The accuracy of historical maps was confirmed by cartometric methods with use of the MapAnalyst software. Registration of the spatial-temporal changes information has a great potential in urban planning or realization of reconstruction and particularly in the propagation of the region and increasing the knowledge of citizens about the history of Olomouc.

"Spin Zones" in American Presidential Elections

"Spin Zones" in American Presidential Elections

“New Style” Campaigning, Citizen Knowledge, and Sources of Legitimacy for State Courts: A Case Study in Texas

In this study, we explore whether perceptions of the Texas Supreme Court's legitimacy are influenced by “new style” judicial campaigns and levels of political sophistication. Using a statewide survey of Texas registered voters, we find that knowledge about the Texas judiciary and politics more generally is associated with higher levels of support for the state's supreme court. However, an embedded experiment manipulating a judicial candidate's party and issue positions does not alter individuals' perceptions of the Texas court. These results suggest that concerns over the effect of increasingly politicized judicial elections on judicial legitimacy, at least in Texas, may be exaggerated.En este estudio, exploramos si las percepciones sobre la legitimidad de la Suprema Corte de Justicia de Texas son influenciadas por el “nuevo estilo” de las campañas judiciales y los niveles de sofisticación política. Usando una encuesta estatal de votantes registrados en Texas, encontramos que un mayor conocimiento político y judicial en Texas es generalmente asociado con mayores niveles de apoyo a la Suprema Corte del Estado. Sin embargo, un experimento en el que se manipuló el partido al que el candidato judicial está afiliado y postura respecto a un asunto no alteró las percepciones individuales acerca de la Corte de Texas. Estos resultados sugieren que las preocupaciones sobre los efectos de elecciones judiciales cada vez más politizadas en la legitimidad judicial, por lo menos en Texas, pueden ser exageradas.

Investigating knowledge and perceptions of citizens of the National Park of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, Greece

The designation and management of protected areas (PAs) is a challenging task significantly influenced by numerous parameters, both economic and social. In this paper, these issues are explored by means of an empirical survey in a PA of international importance in Greece: the National Park of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace (NPEMT). In particular, the survey explored the knowledge and perceptions of different interest groups concerning environmental issues in general, awareness of the restrictions imposed by the current management framework, benefits connected with the designation of the PA and willingness of individuals to pay for protection of the NPEMT. These interest groups were created depending on their level and type of involvement with PA issues. The results revealed a low level of awareness, indicating that further efforts should be conducted, both by the state and non-governmental organisations, to inform the local community and visitors about the existence of the PA and also the social and economic benefits resulting from its creation. Furthermore, the level of knowledge and perceptions of individuals about the NPEMT varies according to the social groups examined. Finally, individuals are willing to pay €94.08 annually for protection of the park, although there was a high percentage of protest responses.

The language of the press in Soviet and post-Soviet Russia: Creation of the citizen role through newspaper discourse

The Russian media system was during most of the 20th century part of the state institutions. During glasnost and perestroika, the media became gradually more independent of the state. However, the subsequent apex of journalistic freedom in the late 1980s and the early 1990s was followed by stagnation and a pronounced democratic setback following Putin’s accession to power. Despite this, the findings based on qualitative text analysis of articles in the daily press strongly indicate that after 1991 readers of the press are being increasingly addressed as active and knowledgeable citizens, a tendency which is strengthened during the entire period of study. Methods for text examination are speech act and modality analysis, exploring how readers are discursively positioned in the sample text material, which covers the democratically critical time span 1978–2003. The findings imply that although post-Soviet journalism itself faces considerable difficulties, a firm cultural ground for citizen participation in society has been laid through changes in press language.

Design and Implementation of a Research-Informed Water Conservation Education Program

Informed by the results of a baseline research study of regional citizen knowledge and understanding concerning watershed issues, a team of university faculty and classroom teachers designed and implemented a water conservation education program to address lacking areas of watershed knowledge. The authors developed age-appropriate, hands-on lessons, aligned with local and national educational standards, for an audience of school-aged children (5–10 years), which was representative of the surveyed population. The authors present the results of the baseline watershed survey, a description of the implemented educational program, and how the program was received. Responses to the water conservation education program (as ascertained by teacher participant evaluations and student participant commitments) suggest involvement in the educational program may positively effect current and future water conservation behaviors.

Social Studies Preservice Teachers' Citizenship Knowledge and Perceptions of the U.S. Naturalization Test

Teacher educators from six states invited their social studies methodology students to complete an abbreviated version of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Naturalization Test. The preservice teachers were also asked to share their conceptions of citizenship and evaluate the naturalization test. The findings from this study indicate that although this sample of preservice teachers had limited conceptions of citizenship, most were able to get a satisfactory score on the test. The authors discuss the implications of these results and suggest ways to broaden citizenship education in teacher preparation programs.

Who interprets the world? Interpretive Social science and mark bevir’s democratic governance

I explore Bevir’s approach to interpretive social science and its implications for his study of governance. I make two arguments: one methodological and one substantive. First, I argue that we should think of the philosophy of interpretive social science as necessarily tied to some chosen method of recovering knowledge, be it local or expert knowledge. Without such a recovery of knowledge, interpretive analysis of local reasoning is impossible. Second, I argue that the recovery of not only expert knowledge - Bevir's primary focus - but also the local knowledge of citizens who are affected by these reforms, ought to play a central role in our understanding of governance.

The Russian public sphere, 1978–2003: the construction of the citizen role through newspaper discourse. Agency and the political process

The Soviet press and media system were part of the state institutions. In the mid-1990s, a significant degree of journalistic freedom that had developed in the late 1980s and the early 1990s was followed by a pronounced democratic setback, which was a result of the general political development in Russia. Despite this, the findings based on qualitative text analysis of articles in the daily press strongly indicate that, from the dissolution of the Soviet state, readers of the press are being increasingly addressed and positioned as active and knowledgeable citizens. The method for text examination is analysis of semantic roles exploring how agency is represented in the sample text material, which covers the democratically critical time span 1978–2003. The findings imply that, although post-Soviet journalism itself faces considerable difficulties, a firm cultural ground for citizen participation in society has been laid through changes in press language.

Mass media health information: Quantitative and qualitative analysis of daily press coverage and its relation with public perceptions

Objective This paper describes the methods followed by the Pisa University OCS for collecting, storing and analyzing all health-related articles and database contents. Moreover, an example population survey on the topic of food safety based on such analysis is shown. Methods Articles published each day since 1999 in Italy's three most popular newspapers are collected and stored in a Data Base Text; on these articles quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted. On the basis of these results as well as of epidemiological data, a questionnaire survey was carried out about sources of information, knowledge and risk perception of citizens regarding food safety. Results On a total of 24,434 articles on all health topics, 18% regarded food related hazards: their evolution over time showed peaks on BSE, avian flu and dioxin. A large proportion of the people surveyed declared having changed their food habits, at least temporarily, as a consequence of media information. Most get their information on food safety mainly from television. Most respondents remembered having previously heard news on BSE, avian flu and dioxin, but did not recall having heard of listeriosis, brucellosis or typhoid fever. Conclusions Newspapers articles facing food related hazards tend to be alarming thus affecting the citizens risk perception. On the other hand people often ignore how to manage their own food safety in a practical way. Practice implications Analysis of media messages can help to evaluate and correct the negative effects that may result in wrong information.

Foreword of Special Issue on “E-Service and Applications”

Foreword of Special Issue on “E-Service and Applications”

A Study on Healthcare Support e-Service Design for Senior Citizens

The urgent needs of healthcare assistant for elderly senior citizens increase rapidly. This paper presents an e-service design on stroke-precaution for senior citizens, followed by its implementation and evaluation. The healthcare support e-service design focuses on the aging problems including the degeneracy of memory and vision as well as the recession of attention. These physiological problems become the barriers for senior citizens to learn healthcare knowledge effectively. In order to help senior citizens to obtain appropriate knowledge for stroke-precaution, this study provides a healthcare support e-service and its interface design that specifically addresses the physiological issues for elderly. In order to increase the accessibility of the healthcare support e-service, we utilize multimedia streaming technology and video clips to present stroke–precaution knowledge for elderly senior citizens. Different from traditional e-learning system provide massive information for user, this study provide a personalized e-service design which only provide related healthcare information according to user’s health condition. The healthcare support e-service is designed for senior citizens that provide appropriate user interface addressing their situations. Analysis of learnability, perceived system performance, memoraility and satisfactions are based on different ages and gender. Analytical result indicates our service design could help elderly to leap over the physiological problems they encountered. With the healthcare support e-service, life quality for elderly senior citizens and their families could be significantly improved.

The Impact of Module Based Curriculum and Extra-Curriculum Activities’ in Developing Environmental Skills among Saudi's Secondary Students

Curriculum and Extra-Curriculum activities are one of the basic elements in school education. These activities are designed to mold students to become a rationale, pragmatic and knowledgeable citizens in an increasingly diverse and changing world. Unfortunately, in Saudi, studies which measure the extent of curriculum and Extra-Curriculum activities’ in developing environmental skills and values among Saudi's secondary students was rare. Therefore the present study was planned to investigate the effectiveness of the curriculum and Extra-Curriculum activities in developing environmental skills and values among the Saudis’ secondary students. This study aimed at examining the effectiveness of the module, based on the curriculum and Extra-Curriculum activities focusing in developing environmental skills and values among the Saudis’ secondary Biology students. A Random sampling of the study consisted of (100) students of each gender “males and females” at Al-Jouf Educational District in Saudi Arabia. Analyses of the findings reveal that students who were exposed to the curriculum and Extra-Curriculum environmental intervention module significantly improved their environmental skills compared to their counterparts in the control group. In addition, when gender effect was measured, it was found that significant improvement occurred within both female and male groups. The findings will then lead to several suggestions on how to improve the existing teaching of environmental issues within the context of Saudi's Biology classes.

Reflections on reincarnation, coincidences, Organisational Karma, Soul Groups and its implication for business organisational success

The concept of reincarnation and rebirth is in the realms of the mystic world much beyond the world of science, reasoning and logic. But some modern age thinkers whom we can call as the knowledgeable citizens and seers of the Spiritual and Metaphysical World are proposing that reincarnation and rebirth are reality of not this life but life and living in general. Some of them have advocated about the existence of the Spiritual World beyond the Physical World. Some thinkers have also proposed the concept of Soul Groups which thus brings rich and very novel insights regarding organisational context. Since ancient times, both the oriental and accidental religious teachings had talked about the Law of Karma for individuals; this paper discusses the case of Organisational Karma. Furthermore, this paper talks about the concept of the happening of meaningful coincidences in parallel or in series which shapes the destiny of individuals. This paper reviews this from an organisational perspective. Given this concept...

Attitudes to voting rules and electoral system preferences: Evidence from the 1999 and 2003 Scottish Parliament elections

Researchers have paid little attention to the way citizens evaluate different electoral systems. This reflects the limited knowledge citizens are presumed to have about alternative electoral arrangements. However, the establishment of a legislature under new electoral rules creates conditions in which citizens can make more informed judgements. Such a situation occurred with the establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, elected under the Additional Member system. Using data collected in 1999 and 2003, we consider Scottish voters’ reactions to the new electoral rules. We examine how voters evaluated various features and outcomes of the rules, the structure of voters’ attitudes, and which features and outcomes of the rules were decisive in shaping overall support for plurality and proportional voting systems.

Children and Politics: An Empirical Reassessment of Early Political Socialization

Demands for the inclusion of children, the youngest citizens, in democratic decision making are increasing. Although there is an abundance of empirical research on the political orientations of adolescents, there is a paucity of research on younger children's orientations. Our panel study of more than 700 children in their first year of primary school shows that these young children already exhibit consistent, structured political orientations. We examine the distribution and development of political knowledge, issue orientations, and notions of good citizenship. We find achievement differences between subgroups at the beginning of the school year, and these differences do not disappear. Children from ethnic minorities and lower socioeconomic residence areas show relatively less developed political orientations, and they do not improve as much over the school year as other children. Furthermore, normative political orientations and cognitive orientations differ in their development.

Enhancing the credibility of complainants in child sexual assault trials: The effect of expert evidence and judicial directions

This study investigated the knowledge and misconceptions of jury-eligible citizens about children's reliability as witnesses and responses to child sexual assault (CSA), and examined the influence of expert evidence and judicial directions in challenging common misconceptions. Community volunteers (N = 130) read one of five versions of a simulated jury trial, and completed a pre- and post-trial questionnaire to provide measures of their knowledge of children's responses to sexual abuse, perceptions of victim credibility, and verdict. Results revealed that endorsement of CSA misconceptions negatively impacted ratings of complainant credibility and verdicts. Judicial directions provided before the child complainant testified enhanced complainant credibility, which in turn predicted guilty verdicts. Comparisons of the effectiveness of two procedural legal mechanisms to manage juror misconceptions and improve knowledge about CSA provide guidance for future researchers investigating ways to increase fairness in cases of CSA.

Threats to Democratic Rationality

This article examines trends that are impacting democratic rationality. It is found that the trends are almost uniformly negative. Viewed from within the legislative branch, trends are negatively impacting legislators’ time, complexifying problems, constraining options, and limiting the evaluation of options. Trends external to the legislative branch are reducing citizen participation and knowledge about public affairs, skewing the balance of power among the branches and states, and decreasing accountability of public officials. In combination, democratic rationality, the process of making good, efficient, and timely decisions to promote higher quality of life and the public good, is seriously threatened. Recommendations include public financing of campaigns, more structured legislative decision-making processes, simplification tests for all new legislation and regulations, and a major new initiative to foster public involvement in public decision making.

Deliberate word access: an intuition, a roadmap and some preliminary empirical results

No doubt, words play a major role in language production, hence finding them is of vital importance, be it for writing or for speaking (spontaneous discourse production, simultaneous translation). Words are stored in a dictionary, and the general belief holds, the more entries the better. Yet, to be truly useful the resource should contain not only many entries and a lot of information concerning each one of them, but also adequate navigational means to reveal the stored information. Information access depends crucially on the organization of the data (words) and the access keys (meaning/form), two factors largely overlooked. We will present here some ideas of how an existing electronic dictionary could be enhanced to support a speaker/writer to find the word s/he is looking for. To this end we suggest to add to an existing electronic dictionary an index based on the notion of association, i.e. words co-occurring in a well balanced corpus, the latter being supposed to represent the average citizen's knowledge of the world. Before describing our approach, we will briefly take a critical look at the work being done by colleagues working on automatic, spontaneous or deliberate language production,--that is, computer-generated language, simulation of the mental lexicon, or WordNet (WN),--to see how adequate they are with regard to our goal.