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Geospatial Data in a Changing World pp 105–121Cite as

Presenting Citizen Engagement Opportunities Online: The Relevancy of Spatial Visualization

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography ((LNGC))

Abstract

Public administrations and cities increasingly use modern information and communication technologies to enhance their processes and services. As the fabric of cities becomes more complex, and collaboration and participation are emphasized, citizens thus need to be empowered to find available engagement opportunities and citizens need to identify those that they want to engage with. We report on the use of an online information platform that offered citizen engagement opportunities in a traditional textual form and via an interactive geo-visualization. The platform was deployed in a real-world study and integral component in a campaign to raise volunteer engagement in a medium-sized German city. We first introduce our approach to letting citizens explore engagement opportunities and follow up with an analysis of how people used the platform. Subsequently, evidence is presented and discussed that spatial visualization and interaction is relevant for informing citizens online. Since we released the information platform as open source, others can easily benefit from our insights.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    https://github.com/ubergesundheit/dialogmap.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Stiftung Bürger für Münster, all participating NGOs and other partners that helped in the project 1000 Stunden für Münster. We give thanks to Gerald Pape, as the implementation of the information portal was based on his M.Sc. Thesis. The research reported here was partly funded by con terra GmbH.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Geoinformatics, WWU Münster, Heisenbergstraße 2, 48149, Münster, Germany

    Thore Fechner & Christian Kray

Authors
  1. Thore Fechner
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  2. Christian Kray
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Thore Fechner .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. NLS, Finnish Geospatial Research Institute, Masala, Finland

    Tapani Sarjakoski

  2. Department of Information Systems, Universidade do Minho, Guimaraes, Portugal

    Maribel Yasmina Santos

  3. Finnish Geospatial Research Institute, National Land Survey of Finland, Helsinki, Finland

    L. Tiina Sarjakoski

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Fechner, T., Kray, C. (2016). Presenting Citizen Engagement Opportunities Online: The Relevancy of Spatial Visualization. In: Sarjakoski, T., Santos, M., Sarjakoski, L. (eds) Geospatial Data in a Changing World. Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33783-8_7

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