User:Classikhgirl/sandbox

SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND SOCIAL MEDIA: SPRING 2019

Article Evaluation: Jaggi Singh

The reason why I chose this article to evaluate was because I am interested in the social movement(s) that erupted online after the arrest of Jaggi Singh in Punjab, India (#FreeJaggiNow and #Referendum2020 movements). Starting off reading the very first line of this article, the article *seems* very biased and uses strong language that paints a certain picture in the person's head that is reading this. It opens and says "Jaggi Singh is one of Canada's most high profile anti-globalization and social justice activists. He is an anarchist". The language in this very first sentence already gives a negative connotation to a man that already is controversial and deemed a "terrorist" (which, in itself, is controversial so I don't feel like the article should start off with negative connotations like this). Going further into the article, it discusses into great detail his arrest history. In the talk page, some contributors said it sounds more like a "rap sheet" and I agree, it seems biased in the events that they chose to highlight in his life. I checked the citation in regards to saying he is a "high profile anti-globalization" and it is an old daily globe newspaper clipping where he talks about being against corporate globalization. I believe the language in this could've been better, the words have very negative connotations and there is an implicit bias in the writing. Also, there is absolutely no talk about his arrest in Punjab, India, which is what led him to being in the media so much in the first place. Knowing how controversial of a figure he is, I believe this article needs a lot more structure and less of a bias in the writing.

Possible articles to work on

Social Media and the Arab Spring- my favorite article/ the one I am most interested in. This is a start class article with very minimal details in it, so there is a lot of history and information that I could contribute to it. The citations are all working, but there is an obvious bias in the tone of the article (there is a flag at the top as well, highlighting that the tone of the article isn't a reflection necessarily of wikipedia.

21 Savage has recently came into a lot of fire because of his deportation, and many users on twitter were trending versions of hashtags of "Fuck ICE" referring to the U.S. Immigration and Customs enforcement. In this 21 savage article, there is a small section referring to the what happened in the media when people heard of the news of his deportation, but it could be interesting and maybe worthwhile to add more to the section regarding the social media movement that broke out after his deportation. The article is rated a "c" class and the section regarding his immigration issues is under reported.

Immigration detention in the United States is a great article to work on because it is a start class article. Although the history and citations in the article are pretty decent, the references in the article seem quite outdated and could use updating, especially because of how relevant the issue of immigration detention is now.

CIVIC TECHNOLOGY: SPRING 2018

Article Evaluation: Civic Technology

First thing right off the bat that I noticed was there was no definitive section that clearly talked about how this term came about to being used the way it is, and what is considered the birthplace of "civic technology" in literature. It talks about how it's been coined over the last few decades, but as we've seen through examples in class, civic technology dates back further than we realize. The addition of a timeline/ chronological order might be a better way to organize data. I like how there are specific sections about countries but a lot of them aren't quite fully developed, with only a sentence or two in each country. If there isn't enough data to support civic technology in that specific country then the section should be removed. Most of the article is written in a quite neutral standpoint, without any bias. However, there is clearly much more information about American Civic Technology than any other country involved. In the talk page, the discussion is mainly positive, with some students discussing the language of the article and how transitions could be smoother. The citations are okay, most of them are credible but one in particular that stood out to me was a link to a New York Times blog post. Although the New York Times and their authors hold a lot of integrity, using it as a citation might not be the best idea.

Finalize Topic/ Find sources

So the topic I've ultimately chosen is the Civic Technology article, and I am hoping to add edits to one of the countries listed within the sub categories of countries listed in civic technology, whichever country I can find the most information about (outside of the United States). The article currently has a header listed at the top of it, saying that the article is relying too heavily on primary sources and not enough secondary sources, and it also has another header (as of March 2018) saying that the article is too much about "American" Civic Technology and not enough about the other countries. My goal will be to find secondary sources to add to the article, and find a country whose section I could well develop within the article.

Sources: *note to self: ask professor harris what format bibliography should be in*

https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2017/09/19/what-is-civic-technology/#de7b73a3ecc1

https://www.citizenlab.co/blog/civic-tech/whats-difference-civic-tech-govtech/

https://www.google.com/amp/www.govtech.com/civic/What-is-Civic-Tech.html%3fAMP

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.brookings.edu/blog/techtank/2015/04/20/the-future-of-civic-technology/amp/

https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/27947

http://blogs.worldbank.org/governance/book-about-role-civic-technology-public-good

http://www.smartchicagocollaborative.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/experimental-modes.pdf

Drafting an Article

EDIT March 23rd 2018: repasting my original draft because it's not showing in here for some reason:

Information to add into the article? random research:

CIVIC TECH IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH: ASSESSING TECHNOLOGY FOR THE PUBLIC GOOD (Book)

1. U- Report in Uganda: mobile platform that runs weekly large- scale polls with young Ugandans on a number of issues, ranging from safety to access to education to inflation to early marriage.
   1. The program was launched in May 2011*(according to the website it launched in 2011, according to this book it was created in 2007)* with the support of UNICEF, it now has over 240,000 active U-reporters, and is growing through partnership with the Government, NGOs, youth organizations, faith-based organizations, and private companies.( https://www.unicef.org/uganda/voy.html) Users register for free by texting “join” to 8500 on their mobile phone to become a "U-reporter".  Each week, U-reporters answer a free SMS poll or question on issues dealing with health, child protection, school, safe water, and more. Poll results are published in newspapers, reflected on radio, etc. All SMSs are free. UNICEF provides Members of Parliament (MPs) with a weekly digest of results and access to the platform in order to reach out to their audiences. The majority of U-reporters (42 percent) are between twenty and twenty-four years old, well above the proportion of this age group in the general population (14 percent). But, U-Reporters are substantively more likely to be male and from privileged backgrounds in terms of education and professional occupation. (need to site this, found it in the book but can't find the stats on it)
2. Maji Voice in Kenya- an initiative that allows Kenyan citizens to report, through multiple channels, complaints with regard to water services.
3. Rio Grande de Sol's participatory budgeting- the world's largest participatory budgeting system - which allows citizens to participate either online or offline in defining the state's early yearly spending priorities.
4. Fix my street- map based civic tech platform. United Kingdom
5. Check my school- Philippines
6. Vecino Inteligente- Chile
7. I change my city- India
8. Huduma- Kenya
9. My Voice- Nigeria
10. Next drop- india
11. Human sensor web- Tanzania

FIGURE OUT A WAY TO REDO THE ORGANIZATION OF THE ARTICLE because it is super atrocious right now.

Stuff Actually Going into the Main Space:

Civic Technology Initiatives by country

Country	Initiatives	Government-led initiative	citizen-led initiative
Argentina
Canada
Denmark
Estonia
Iceland
Italy
Spain
Sweden
Taiwan
United Kingdom
United States

I'm not going to put the table into the main space yet, I need a better way to organize it

Mexico

Arena Electoral was an online platform created by Fundación Ethos during the Mexican electoral process of 2012 to promote responsible voting. An online simulation was created by taking the four presidential candidates in that election cycle and each were given policy issues based on the Mexican national agenda, and each were given a task to come up with solutions to the policy issues. Once each candidate gave their solutions, the platform published it on their website and left it to the Mexican citizens to vote for the best policy.

Uganda

U- Report, a mobile platform introduced by UNICEF Uganda in 2011, is an initiative that runs large scale polls with Ugandan youth on a wide range of issues, ranging from safety to access to education to inflation to early marriage. The goal of the initiative was to have Ugandan youth play a role in civic engagement within the context of local issues. U-Report is still active (as of April 2018), with over 240,000 users across Uganda. Support for the initiative primarily came from the aid of the government, NGO's, youth organizations, faith based organizations, and private companies. Users sign up for the program for free by sending a text on their phone, then every week "U-Reporters" answer a question regarding a public issue. Poll results are published in public media outlets such as newspapers, radio, etc. UNICEF takes these responses and provides members of parliament (MP's) a weekly review of these results, acting as a bridge between government and Ugandan youth.

Kenya

Launched in Kenya in 2014, "MajiVoice" is an initiative by the Water Services Regulatory Board (WASREB), the Water Sector Regulator in Kenya and the World Bank's Water and Sanitation Program. As opposed to walk-in complaint centers, the initiative enables Kenyan citizens to report complaints with regards to water services via technology. The platform allows for communication between citizens and water service providers with the intention to improve service delivery in impoverished areas. Users are given four options to report their water complaints via this initiative. They can dial a number and report a complaint, send a text message (SMS) through their phone, or login to an online portal through a web browser on their phone or their laptop. One evaluation highlights the citizen engagement achieved after its implementation, from 400 complaints a month to 4000 complaints, and resolution rates from 46 percent to 94 percent.

United Kingdom

FixmyStreet is a website and app developed by mySociety, a UK based civic technology company. FixmyStreet allows citizens in the United Kingdom to report public infrastructure issues (such as potholes, broken streetlights, etc) to the proper local authority. FixmyStreet became inspiration to many countries around the world that followed suit to use civic technology to better public infrastructure. The website was funded by the Department for Constitutional Affairs Innovation fund and created by mySociety. Along with the platform itself, mySociety released FixmyStreet, a free and open-source software framework that allows users to create their own website to report street problems.