Innovation, citizens and government policies
Knowledge interaction for legitimate system actions Sylvie Occelli IRES - Istituto di Ricerche Economico Sociali del Piemonte, Turin, IT occelli@ires.piemonte.it Biographical Details: Head of research unit for methodological innovation in the public sector at the Socio-Economic Research Institute (IRES) of Piedmont. IRES is a regional research centre on socioeconomic systems, supporting regional departments, and public agencies with study projects and consultancy. IRES is a partner of the Piedmont ICT Observatory (PICTO). Structured Abstract Purpose & Scope In 2012, PICTO (Piedmont ICT Observatory) was involved in an experimental project in which a local government used crowd-sourcing to understand people’s needs in terms of Internet access and usages. Notwithstanding the positive outcome as for the implementation efforts, the project results were not fully satisfactory due to very low participation. Design/methodology/approach The paper analyses the reasons for this failure as these reflect the difficulties encountered by a number of public programmes in ICT. Discussion focuses on the need to improve knowledge interaction among different social agents, and to favour cross-disciplinary knowledge. The analysis is done based on insights from research of methodological innovation carried out at IRES also as a part of PICTO activities. Results/findings A claim is made that within any community cross-disciplinary knowledge is a necessary pre-requisite not only for a shared understanding of social benefits but also for enhancing the legitimacy of collective actions. Conclusions ICTs are essential factors for both enhancing knowledge interaction and anchoring it in the community practices. Raising awareness about these topics has a positive impact on the development of social benefits.
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