Opening of Barcelona Lab "Creativitat internacional a l’esdeveniment BCNLab"

1. Active citizens and journalists using open data
to innovate the information system.
Case histories from Italy
Barcelona 20th February 2014
BarcelonaLAB
Marco Polo Research Grant
Hosting Institute: IN3 - UOC
Valentina Bazzarin
@vbazzarin
valentina.bazzarin@unibo.it

2. Monopoly
A new platform called street television emerged,
allowing Italians to creatively resist corporate
media. Telestreet uses empty frequencies to
transmit a signal to regular televisions. Although
the practice is not legal, users have evaded
penalty by
evoking the Italian constitution, which “prohibits
censorship,” as it permits citizens “freedom of
expression with any means of communication” (p.
174). Ardizzoni emphasizes that street television
became a democratic alternative to mainstream
media, helping circulate civic, environmental,
religious, local, and international issues.
(Rice, 2010, IJOC)

3. Transparency and accountability
On 15th February 2013 the Italian Cabinet announced the approval of a Legislative Decree for the
Review of the rules concerning the obligations of disclosure, transparency and
dissemination of information by public administrations (the so-called “Transparency Decree”).
The Decree states an (excessively?) ambitious principle of “total accessibility of information about the
organization and the activities of public administrations”, in order to encourage distributed forms of
control “on the pursuit of the institutional functions and the use of public resources”.
The Decree collates and strengthens several existing obligations concerning the proactive publication
of pieces of information which are useful to monitor the activities of public administrations, increase
their efficiency and fight corruption. The Decree also defines a right of “civic access”. In fact, this
provision enables any citizen to require the publication of pieces of information which should already
be public. This is admittedly something different from the right of access under FOIA-like laws (in the
Italian case, the existing “FOIA” is law 241/1990 with its demanding requirements and limited scope).
See more at: http://nexa.polito.it/lunch-10#sthash.Pj5tDIN5.dpuf

4. Open ricostruzione
Values:
dialogue (resolutions) between citizens and
institutions and transparency
Mission
-creation of new arena for civic literacy where
citizens have the opportunity to improve skills and
to use tools to monitor as well as to support public
bodies.
Problems
- cognitive cost of participation
- digital divide (adults)
- digital divide in schools (teachers)
Perspectives
- new teaching models
- link among the 3 main activities of this project
- process replicable and scalable

5. Hacks and Hackers

6. Journalism as a community
Journalism is Community (sharing)
Community building is a field of practices directed toward the creation or
enhancement of community among individuals within a regional area (such as a
neighborhood) or with a common interest. It is sometimes encompassed under the field
of community development.
A wide variety of practices can be utilized for community building, ranging from simple
events like potlucks and small book clubs, to larger–scale efforts such as mass festivals
and building construction projects that involve local participants rather than outside
contractors.
Activists engaged in community building efforts in industrialized nations see the
apparent loss of community in these societies as a key cause of social disintegration
and the emergence of many harmful behaviors. They may see building community as a
means to increase social justice, individual well-being and reduce negative impacts of
otherwise disconnected individuals.
(source: wikipedia)

7. Age of disruption
Notes on graph
1) Each quadrant is given a label - thinkers
(high strategic play, low levels of openness
used as a mean to compete), players (high
strategic, high open), believers (low strategic,
high open) and chancers (low strategic, low
open)
2) I've marked two groups in grey, the top
group shows high market cap growth and the
bottom group shows low levels of market cap
growth.
3) Size of bubbles equals volume of
companies
Source: http://blog.gardeviance.org/

8. DataNinja
Values: skills sharing / aware use of data and
open data / technological skills literacy
Mission: change the persperspective of
journalism, learning how to work in a team, in
international networks and improving together
(both in terms of knowledge and business)
Problems: traditional editor are not able to
experiment and they do not incubate new
experiences but they hope to buy the final
product (content).
Perspectives: AMAZING!: Dataninja is already
sustainable and we are improving.

9. Datajournalism.it
Mission and values:
Data-journalism in not a new form of journalism but is empowering
traditional journalism that is based on skills and will to tell histories
starting from facts and data.
Any storytelling includes:
- observation
- contextualization
- interlocking
- lining up facts
Moreover data-journalism aims to be a platform, a laboratory, for
education and training of journalists and the viz part is less relevant
than the storytelling.
Problems:
- Sustainability and remuneration of collaborators;
- being an open community but with a selection mechanism of high
quality content
Perspectives:
- datajournalism.it could become the platform in which the outputs of
hacks/hackers could reach visibility

10. Not only data but storytelling

11. Not a single journalist but a
community of watchdogs and
storytellers
“Bowling Alone: America's
Declining Social Capital"
Journal of Democracy, January
1995, pp. 65-78.
For a variety of reasons, life is easier in a community
blessed with a substantial stock of social capital. In the first
place, networks of civic engagement foster sturdy norms of
generalized reciprocity and encourage the emergence of
social trust. Such networks facilitate coordination and
communication, amplify reputations, and thus allow
dilemmas of collective action to be I resolved. When
economic and political negotiation is embedded in dense
networks of social interaction, incentives for opportunism
are reduced. At the same time, networks of civic
engagement embody past success at collaboration, which
can serve as a cultural template for future collaboration.

12. Conclusions
In Italy data-journalism and data for civic hacking are a way to overcome the
problem of the monopoly in the information system, but here, in Spain as well or
wherever you are, you can take the chance to use data and digital skills to
empower professionals and citizens to promote and discuss the social problems
in the public arena
Thanks.
Twitter: @vbazzarin or mailto: valentina.bazzarin@unibo.it