Digital Public Space Research Articles

Spotlight on Music Collections: Capital City Records: Edmonton Local Music

In the inaugural Spotlight on Music Collections column, Carolyn Doi interviews Raquel Mann, Digital Public Spaces Librarian at the Edmonton Public Library. In this interview, Mann speaks about the EPL's “Capital City Records: Edmonton Local Music” digital public space, as well as “Voices of Amiskwaciy”, a space for sharing and celebrating local Indigenous content, “Edmonton Stories: A Canada 150 Digital Storytelling Project” and “Open Data at EPL”.

When Digital Public Spaces Matter. Role of Neighbourhood Platforms in Times of COVID-19

Research on community resilience has highlighted the critical role of analogue public spaces for social interaction and community support. However, neighbourhoods are increasingly “hybrid spaces” where face-to-face and virtual interaction blend. Based on the case of Germany, this paper argues that hyperlocal social networks such as digital neighbourhood platforms have taken on a prominent role during the COVID-19 pandemic, as they fulfil functions traditionally associated with analogue public space and provide a useful crisis management tool. They allow communities to share information, establish social contacts, and organize flexible help, which increases their capacity to cope with and adapt to the effects of the pandemic. Yet, not everybody has equal access to these digital public spaces and they bear the risk of reinforcing existing social inequalities. In the future, they need to be planned, designed, and managed just as carefully as their physical counterparts to be socially inclusive and serve the common good.

Ujaran kebencian pada ruang – ruang digital

Today, advances in information and communication technology are rapidly showing that technology can make sustainable change for society and create diversity in the media. This is evidenced by changes in the availability of media that are historically scarce and limited access to the availability of outlets or media that are abundant. New media options are offered to audiences to channel their emotions. Citizen journalism, which is never as difficult as in the digital era, has become more diverse in terms of expression from citizens, such as the presence of hate speech. This term is being channeled through social media into the digital public space by people. So, enliven the digital public space before the information is inevitably disrupted. The current situation is changing from public satisfaction to group or individual satisfaction from joint hearings. Researchers see this empirical phenomenon as very important to study. Its purpose is to reveal how hatred is expressed in the digital age. The aim of this research is to express hatred in social media. This research shows that social media, a global public space, has been used by people to communicate their thoughts in several attempts. There is a community journalism philosophy, and there are common reasons for voicing hatred.Keywords: hoax; public sphere; digital; social media

PERAN PERPUSTAKAAN DIGITAL DALAM MENCIPTAKAN RUANG PUBLIK (STUDI KASUS PERPUSTAKAAN DIGITAL UNIVERSITAS LAMPUNG)

The purpose of this study is to find out how the information age community understands digital public space and how the role of the University of Lampung's digital library in creating virtual public spaces. This research uses descriptive qualitative research methods. This research builds on the critical theory of public space proposed by Jurgen Habermas and Henry Lefebvre. Data collection through literature study and interviews. Data analysis includes three stages namely data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion or verification. Based on the results of the study, it was found that the public space in the information society is interpreted as a space where there is an infinite process of interaction. The role of the University of Lampung's digital library in creating public spaces includes (1) Providing freedom of access to systems and content, (2) giving freedom of expression to users through communication facilities between users and managers (3) Providing equality for anyone to access and utilize digital library applications The University of Lampung (4) has a legal umbrella in managing digital libraries (5) has a shared commitment to turn the University of Lampung's digital library into an ideal public space. Keywords: Digital Library, Public Spaces, Information Society.

From Expression to Expulsion: Digital Public Spaces as Theatres of Operations in Nepal

On 2 May 2016, Robert Penner, Canadian national residing in Nepal with a working visa, was arrested and then deported to Canada and his visa being cancelled. Based upon an analysis of the documentation related to his arrest and expulsion, this article analyses the articulation of different operations of control. A chain of public interventions and governmental actions makes the substance of the management of digital expression in Nepal and this has to be analysed with tools from media studies and science and technology studies. We present different operative regimes: Twitter accounts and discussions, police action and arrests, and court petitions. We analyse how operational levels are connected and how their interconnections lead to the criminalisation of one individual, most notably through the reformulations of the accusations by different groups of people via different devices. This in turn shows how specific technical interventions determine the control of the public space. These analyses then add to the debate upon the ‘digital public sphere’ by offering a critique of its spatial metaphor from a view focused on its performative stakes—public spaces not as sites of discussion, but as theatres of operations.

EFFECT OF DIGITAL COMMUNITY TOWARDS DEMOCRACY PROCESS: DIGITAL PARTISIPATION ANALYSIS IN INDONESIA

The world is entering a new phase of the digital era, including Indonesia. The unification of the real world and cyberspace is a sign, where the conditions of both can influence each other (Hyung Jun, 2018). The patterns of behavior and public relations in the virtual universe gave rise to new social interactions called the Digital Society. One part of Global Megatrends has also influenced public policy in Indonesia in recent years. Critical mass previously carried out conventionally is now a virtual movement. War of hashtags, petitions, and digital community comments are new tools and strategies for influencing policy. This paper attempts to analyze the extent of digital society's influence on public policy in Indonesia. As well as what public policy models are needed. Methodology used in this analysis is qualitative descriptive. Data collection through literature studies by critical mass digital recognition in Indonesia and trying to find a relationship between political participation through social media and democracy. By processing the pro and contra views regarding the selection of social media as a level of participation, this paper finds that there are overlapping interests that have the potential to distort the articulation of freedom of opinion and participation. - which is characteristic of a democratic state. The result is the rapid development of digital society which greatly influences the public policy process. Digital society imagines being able to participate formally in influencing policy in Indonesia. The democracy that developed in the digital society is cyberdemocracy. Public space in the digital world must be guaranteed security and its impact on the policies that will be determined. The recommendation given to the government is that a cyber data analyst is needed to oversee the issues that are developing in the digital world. Regulations related to the security of digital public spaces must be maximized. The government maximizes cooperation with related stakeholders.Keywords: Digital Society; Democracy; Public policy; Political Participation

How to Be Visible in Student Politics: Performativity and the Digital Public Space in Bangladesh

In Bangladeshi student politics, political performances in public spaces play an essential role in establishing patronage relationships and determining local authority structures. As Thomas Blom Hansen has famously argued, “visibility means everything” in such a context. With the emergence of social networking sites like Facebook, new digital public spaces have appeared. Focusing on ruling-party student activists at Rajshahi University, this article examines how student politicians in Bangladesh utilize Facebook to become visible in their everyday politicking. It shows how longstanding performative repertoires in the nondigital public space have gained a new salience through performances in the digital public space. It is those digital spaces that allow the performer to rearticulate even mundane everyday events as political performances. As these new digital public spaces impact the politics of visibility, it is crucial to integrate them in our efforts to understand local politics in South Asia and beyond.

El nuevo concepto de privacidad: la transformación estructural de la visibilidad

The concept of privacy has been gaining prominence in public and academic debates as voices proclaiming its disappearance have increased due to the effects of information technologies. Unlike other boundary concepts —such as intimacy or private life—, this new concept of privacy features an emerging visibility regime that affects the configuration of Digital Public Space (DPS). Through the historical study of how this new concept has been formed, I uncover four dimensions of the context of experience that it gathers together: 1) the impossibility of secrecy in cyberspace, 2) the development of an economy of surveillance which has led to the hyperfragmentation of DPS and to the 3) transformation of visibility in this public sphere, and 4) the essentially reactive nature of the new concept of privacy.

“But is it Journalism?” Reflections on Online Informational Roles and Content Creation Practices of a Sample of South African Lawyers

ABSTRACTIn the era of social media, journalism is no longer the preserve of journalists. In specialised fields, such as law, the public in general and lawyers and legal academics specifically are able to “push in” and report and comment publicly on legal matters including trials, commissions, acts of law passed in parliament and other legal processes. These contributions, as this paper explores, are reshaping the contours and content of public discussions of legal matters and of legal journalism in South Africa. This paper suggests that recent theorising of journalism role theory can help understand not just the motivations of these legal interlopers in the journalism space but also how they are shaping a new informational ecosystem in which legal issues, including human rights, administrative and criminal law, and other topics, are brought into the public domain. The paper explores what some South African lawyers understand about the roles they are playing in digital public spaces and how they perceive their contributions and their relationship to the journalism profession and to journalists within that profession. The paper suggests that these lawyers’ practices challenge our understanding about how digital media informational ecosystems work and explores how this is impacting journalism in South Africa.

Social Media, Cyber Hate, and Racism

In the era of information technology, the power of social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other products of digital technology have led to dramatic changes to the social life of people in a pluralistic Indonesia. The establishment of a digital public space that can accommodate all entities, classes, or social communities to communicate freely, without limit and open up greater opportunities for the achievement of goals in accordance with the interests, both on the basis of political goals, economic, cultural, trust and ethnic , also helped to increase the potential for social conflicts with more complex backgrounds. One of them is the widespread of racism in social media against ethnic of minorities as it occurred during the 2017 Jakarta governor election involving Basuki Tjahaya Purnama, a candidate of the ethnic of Chinese-Indonesian. This paper seeks to explore the contribution of social media as a medium for spreading the hate of speech and racism and the factors that cause it. This article finds that; firstly, the development of information technology and freedom gained by every user in managing social media member space for racism group in Indonesia utilizes the progress of information technology as medium in spreading hatred and racism in Cyber space. Secondly, the existence of hate speech and racism in social media cannot be separated from socio-political situation in society.

U.S. Teachers as Policy Protagonists in Digital Public Spaces?

Teachers engage with policies far beyond the confines of their classroom and seemingly unrelated to their classroom practice, stretching the parameters of theories such as street-level bureaucracy (Lipsky, 2010; Weatherly & Lipsky, 1977) and doing policy in schools (Ball, Maguire, & Braun, 2012). This was observed in ethnographic studies and analyses, suggesting a “policy protagonism” in which teachers engaged in public arenas with the state and with the public outside of school to address problems they faced within school walls (Robert & McEntarfer, 2014). Four attributes of policy protagonism are defining policy “problems,” seeking power and resources to address those policy-worthy problems, “using” social categories and symbolic identities such as perceptions of teachers as mothers and caregivers, and, finally, demanding multiple seats at the decision-making table. Using discourse analysis, I examine Massachusetts' teachers' publications in local and national online newspapers between 2012–2014 that identify Teach Plus Teaching Policy Fellows, teachers who presumably wish to engage with public policy and are taught how to do so. The sample only demonstrated application of the first attribute, defining policy problems. Changes in policy and policymaking will only come from systematic and sustained engagement of teachers in policy protagonism in both real and virtual public spaces. Although teaching policy fellows were trained to do just that, the analysis suggests that more effort is needed to support teachers' policy work in public spaces. There is no silver bullet to the educational challenge of strengthening teachers' policy work and gaining a seat at the policy table.

Dijital kamusal alanda grup iletişimi: WeChat örneği

Technological differences in human life and new communication methods have changed the way of living the concept of social life. The WeChat application, which has been widely used in social media recently, is a free, is carrying digital public space by providing communication and interaction as well as the emergence of differentiated societies according to personal characteristics. Purpose of the study examines the communication platform in terms of the importance and use of group communication in the context of public space and to reveal its social effect, the social networking site WeChat, which is used extensively in China. In the study, with literature research on group communication and digital public space, in-depth interviews conducted with the members of the WeChat group actively and the obtained data were evaluated.

Black Feminist Hip-Hop Rhetorics and the Digital Public Sphere

Digital public discourse spaces like Twitter and blogs like The Crunk Feminist Collective allow for Black voices not only to be inserted in the mainstream media, but to transform those media to focus on their needs from their perspective. These digital counterdiscourses challenge the traditional boundaries between the academy and the community, and invite students and scholars to consider the real-world uses of writing and technology and its ability to change the world.

Engaging students in school participatory practice through Facebook: The story of a failure

AbstractIn recent years, there has been increasing emphasis on the benefits of social media and social network sites to foster young people's participation in digital public spaces and their civic engagement. Using the principles of the Student Voice approach, this study investigated the use of a Facebook group to support secondary school students’ voices and viewpoints on school quality and policy (N = 98). The results showed that students were reluctant to be active in the group for several reasons, such as mistrust of school policies and resistance to combining Facebook use with school‐related issues. The low participation provided clues to reflect on the design of Student Voice projects to support civic engagement at school and to evaluate the use of digital sites to support Student Voice. Some considerations on the reasons for project failure and how to successfully reach student participation in a technology‐enhanced environment at school that addresses power relations, authenticity and inclusion are provided.

A co-regulatory approach to stay safe online: reporting inappropriate content with the MediaKids mobile app

ABSTRACTThe convergence of mobile technologies, media, and the Internet is transforming the way that digital content is produced, distributed, and consumed among children and young adults. In Europe as in many other areas, minors are exposed to an ever-growing amount of digital content on multiple screens. Increasing exposure at an early age brings both new opportunities and risks. This paper reviews the current discussion about strategies that deal with inappropriate, harmful, and illegal content online and proposes a co-regulatory, technology-driven approach that involves children, their families, and the education system. The MediaKids project aims to test this co-regulatory approach by developing a mobile application – the MediaKids app – within the broader context of an educational programme to raise awareness about online safety. The project seeks to involve children and young adults in defining the notion of ‘harmful content’ and, ultimately, in the elaboration of the policies for the emergent digital public space.

SUSTAINABILITY OF DIGITAL PUBLIC SPACES

Purpose: Modern digital public spaces are evolving from being mostly the provider of ICT and internet connection to institutions that provide complex range of services and support for the community. With this shift in their focus new challenges are emerging, among others their sustainability. Methodology/Approach: We build on and extend the methodology of Digital Cooperatives project. Within this project, survey on 59 digital public spaces from 12 EU countries was conducted. These digital public spaces were examined in 21 areas, some of them relating to their sustainability. We further analyse the sustainability issue of these digital public spaces. Findings: We identified three main issues affecting sustainability of digital public spaces – budgeting, services and community. Digital public spaces mostly rely on public funding and have limited diversification of their funds, which increases a risk when one source of funding drops out. They also have to build a strong community of users, supporters, which will make use of their capacities and helps co-create new services and thus strengthen and improve the community itself. Originality/Value of paper: Research in this paper is based on the collection of best practices from various EU countries in the field of digital public spaces. Recommendations based on these practices could help the creation of new, and in current digital public spaces.

The Real-time Lives of Cities: Digital Public Spaces as a New Space for Public Art in the Information Era

The Real-time Lives of Cities: Digital Public Spaces as a New Space for Public Art in the Information Era

Media, database, and narrative: navigating digital public space

This paper discusses the nature of computational narrative, and suggests ways of structuring navigation experiences conducive to the production of social meaning. The difference between traditional means of information structure and digital database ordering is also examined. Some theorists establish an opposition between database and narrative claiming: “new media objects do not tell stories; they don’t have beginning or end…they are collections of individual items” (Manovich, 2002). These items are brought forth (performed) by the interface in a series of operations. The interface (symbolising the system) acts on the database (in the form of a sequential list) in a series of steps carried out by the user. The database structure contains an algorithm, a set of instructions, that translates interface actions into output, (e.g., clicking the search button). This is seen as a simulation of narrative since there is no actor or narrator, and there are no implicitly connected events.

Towards digitally integrated urban places

PurposeDigital media has been firmly established in contemporary society and now is a time of unprecedented growth and innovation in the world of digital technologies. Conversely, before and during this period, physical public space has diminished in quantity and quality. The purpose of this paper is to suggest that creating and intensifying connections between digital space and physical public space might open up new possibilities to reactivate urban places.Design/methodology/approachHistorically, art has provided a territory in which new ideas could be introduced and tested. For example, the great landscape gardens of Versailles provided a model for the later development of the urban structure of Paris. Many artists in the last few decades have experimented with how digital/virtual environments might be related to real physical space. It is reasonable to assume that these experiments will be applied in broader contexts and will most likely have impact at the scale of the city. This essay contextualizes current interactive installations within an overview of selected forward‐looking precedents.FindingsThe analysis of early experiments in collapsing the realms of virtual and physical environments demonstrates that the implications of a fuller integration have not reached its potential in contemporary applications.Originality/valueWalter Benjamin's speculation that media could contribute to urban space of heightened interaction is a promise still waiting realization. Art installations that promote interactive relations between the spectator and physical space are used as instigations for speculations at an urban scale. In particular, attention is given to the development of improved interfaces.