Description

Rafael Angarita, Nikolaos Georgantas, Valerie Issarny. Social Middleware for Civic Engagement. The 39th IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems (ICDCS 2019), Vision Track, Jul 2019, Dallas, United States. ffhal-02162736f

Abstract—Civic engagement refers to any collective action towards the identification and solving of public issues. Current civic technologies are traditional Web- or mobile-based platforms that make difficult, or just impossible, the participation of citizens via different communication technologies. Moreover, connected objects sensing physical-world data can nourish participatory processes by providing physical evidence to citizens; however, leveraging these data is not direct and still a time-consuming process for civic technologies developers. This paper introduces the concept of social middleware for civic engagement. Social middleware allows citizens to engage in participatory processes - supported by civic technologies- via their favorite communication tools, and to interact not only with other citizens but also with relevant connected objects and software platforms. The mission of social middleware goes beyond the connection of all these heterogeneous entities. It aims at easing the implementation of distributed applications oriented toward civic engagement by featuring dedicated built-in services.

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