We organized a workshop on the topic of digital public encounters as part of the pre-conference workshop program of the ECSCW in Trondheim. The conference attracted participants from Norway and abroad. Several cases were presented by the participants, and a brainstorming session concluded the workshop.
Some of the topics discussed during the workshop:
- Who is the designer of the digital public encounter (DPE)? Do IT people know enough about DPE? Are user involved?
- How can DPE increase user participation and democracy?
- What is the new role of the public official in DPE compared to face-to-face encounters?
- How can use of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) affect DPE? How does ML-based DPE affect human rights and justice?
- Does DPE create a self-service culture where important issues about citizen’s life can get trivialized?
- What does DPE mean? Most encounters start long before you are asked to fill in an online form, and continue long after your have filled in the online form. DPEs combine digital and physical, are longitudinal, and involve others than only the citizen and the individual pubic official.
To learn more about the topic of the workshop and the list of organizers see the workshop’s webpage.