FlashPoll: A Context-aware Polling Ecosystem for Mobile Participation

The rise of smart mobile devices created new opportunities for electronic and mobile participation. These devices provide means to sense the current environment citizens are situated in, which can be then used to carry out targeted opinion polls. The context-aware polling system FlashPoll takes advantage of this notion and enables the conduct of short and fast context-specific polls which are matched against the citizens’ individual situation. Thus, the target groups are more focused, which increases the relevance of polls and results to the citizens and the executing authorities. This work presents a complete overview of the FlashPoll ecosystem, which comprises poll management tools for public authorities and mobile applications for participants. It has been tested in several field trials to prove the applicability of the approach.