This paper argues that self-reporting schemes whereby citizens report their noncompliance with regulation can prevent corruption in administrations. In our model, entrepreneurs must comply with regulation before undertaking a risky activity. O cials verify compliance before granting permits, and may engage in either bribery or extortion. Without a self-reporting scheme, the government tolerates...

Citizen inquiry is an innovative way for non-professionals to engage in practical scientific activities, in which they take the role of self-regulated scientists in informal learning contexts. This type of activity has similarities to inquiry-based learning and to citizen science, but also important differences. To understand the challenges of supporting citizen inquiry, a prototype system and ...

The use of social media in a crisis has been applauded, and is witnessing an increase in uptake among those involved in crisis management activities, including citizens. Whilst some challenges have been discussed elsewhere, somewhat lacking is a discussion on the impact of sharing information on the security of those that may have been recorded. Accordingly, this working paper aims to provide p...

Efficient delivery and precision provision of urban public services concern quality of urban life and urban sustainability. Amid much debate regarding citizen assessments as a policy tool of public services, this study examines the validity of citizen assessments through user assessments of urban green spaces (UGSs) in Guangzhou, China. Users can distinguish the qualities of UGS across the dime...

This study investigates the discourses of citizen journalism by critically evaluating the notion of Web 2.0. The utopian concept referring to the second generation of the Web nicely captures the new era when more information is generated by average people than by professionals. An uncritical application of the framework, however, has caused a serious misunderstanding of citizen journalism as ‘‘...

Citizen engagement at the international level has experienced a dramatic growth rate in the last decade. This article will explore some of the roots of that development – whether social, technological, or political – but focus primarily on how a highly diffuse process of growth has, in fact, developed feedback mechanisms among citizens and institutions to accelerate the growth in effectiveness ...

Over the last decade, the disaster response landscape is increasingly complemented by voluntary citizen initiatives on digital platforms. These developments have opened up opportunities for response agencies and NGOs to organize local community involvement. In this paper we focus on the question how citizen involvement can be proactively organized toward disaster relief and what kind of dilemma...

Citizen science involves a partnership between inexperienced volunteers and trained scientists engaging in research. In addition to its obvious benefit of accelerating data collection, citizen science has an unexplored role in the classroom, from K-12 schools to higher education. With recent studies showing a weakening in scientific competency of American students, incorporating citizen science...

Citizen science has become a popular tool for preliminary data processing tasks, such as identifying and counting Lunar impact craters in modern high-resolution imagery. However, use of such data requires that citizen science products are understandable and reliable. Contamination and missing data can reduce the usefulness of datasets so it is important that such effects are quantified. This pa...

The Patients Participate! project explored the feasibility of a citizen science approach to writing lay summaries for research articles. It involved a range stakeholders: funders of research (medical charities), service providers (the British Library), researchers and patients. Informed by practices within medical charities and the experiences of other citizen science projects, different method...