Understanding Impact: mySociety's year in research

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This document summarizes mySociety's research into the impacts of civic technology from 2016. It discusses framing the research around examining impacts before, during, and after using civic tech tools, on users, civic technologists, and the world. The research included surveys on demographics and attitudes in multiple countries, experiments on how people engage with civic sites, and case studies on government responses to civic tech. Key findings included that presenting information and messages in certain ways can encourage engagement, and ensuring user processes are clear and logical. The research aims to continue building partnerships to better understand civic tech's impacts and how to maximize positive effects.

Tecnología

Understanding Impact:
mySociety’s year in research
Dr Rebecca Rumbul, Head of Research

Hello again!
Rebecca Rumbul - The Impacts of Civic Technology Conference 2016

Investigate the value of civic tech and real world
effects
Taking a measured & rational approach enables
us to compare and validate our activities
Rebecca Rumbul - The Impacts of Civic Technology Conference 2016
Examine whether its worth doing civic tech at all!
Why do research in this field?

Framing our approach
We divide the problem into two dimensions
1 - Time - Before, During and After using a tool
2 - Actors - Users, Civic Technologists, The World
- Why divide the world up in these dimensions?
Rebecca Rumbul - The Impacts of Civic Technology Conference 2016

Rebecca Rumbul - The Impacts of Civic Technology Conference 2016
Phase Citizens need . . . (A) Civic technology must . .
. (B)
Environmental pressures
will . . . (C)
Before
anyone
visits a
website . . .
(1)
What do individuals need
to use civic technology?
What does civic tech need
to do to be prepared for
citizens and institutions to
interact with it?
What socio-political
environment will nurture
civic tech? What might
create cultural barriers?
When
citizens
are using the
site . . . (2)
How are citizens using the
site? Are there barriers?
Can we ‘nudge’ people to
feel more comfortable to
engage?
What technical details will
threaten the transaction?
How will socio-cultural
conventions, bureaucracy
and legal parameters
affect how transactions
occur?
After people
have clicked
away . . . (3)
What do citizens do after
the transaction? Do they
feel empowered?
How can civic technology
automatically nurture that
engagement?
How do institutions react to
the transactions through
civic tech?

So what’s new?
Rebecca Rumbul - The Impacts of Civic Technology Conference 2016

We’ve done some research
Rebecca Rumbul - The Impacts of Civic Technology Conference 2016
● Demographics and Public Attitudes surveys in Kenya, South Africa,
UK and USA
● Experiment into PMO sites (UK, USA) into what people do after
gathering information
● Experiment into the responsiveness of official bodies in Czech
Republic to FOI requests received via private email vs. via
InfoProVsechny
● Research into digital engagement amongst under-represented
groups in New Zealand and Australia
● Research into government behaviours in response to civic tech in
Chile, Argentina & Mexico
● Case study research into municipal-level government led civic tech in
the USA
Plus more in progress!

And so have our partners!
Rebecca Rumbul - The Impacts of Civic Technology Conference 2016
Research with MIT on Mzalendo (Kenya): Demonstrates framing
political messages as opportunities (rather than neutral or threats)
encourages civic engagement
Research with UCL on WriteToThem (UK): Indicates displaying
information on how many other people have written to their MP’s
encourages citizens to write themselves
Research with World Bank on FixMyStreet(UK): Indicates local
authorities may be more responsive to requests made by men
Plus a few in the pipeline!

Rebecca Rumbul - The Impacts of Civic Technology Conference 2015
Citizens Civic Tech Environmental
pressures
Before Digital literacy - NZ &
Oz research
Presenting information
in the right way - UCL &
MIT research, UCD
research with Uganda
and South Africa
Institutional support and
provision of digital
resources - NZ & Oz
research
During Presenting information
in the right way - UCL
& MIT research
Ensuring the user-
process is as
clean/logical as
possible - UCD
research & A/B testing
After Enhanced individual
citizen efficacy - Public
attitudes research
Changes in bureaucratic
practice within
governments - Latin
America Research

Looking ahead
Rebecca Rumbul - The Impacts of Civic Technology Conference 2016
3-4 research activities planned for 2016
Building more partnerships for research all the time
We still have a long way to go . . . but if you would like to work with us,
whether as a practitioner or as an academic, please get in touch!

#TICTeC
Rebecca@mysociety.org
@rebeccarumbul

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