FixMyStreet (FMS) is a web-based civic participation platform that allows inhabitants to report environmental defects like potholes and damaged pavements to the government. In this paper, we examine the use of FMS in Brussels, the capital city of Belgium. Analyzing a total of 30,041 reports since its inception in 2013, we demonstrate how civic participation on FMS varies between the ethnically diverse districts in Brussels. We compare FMS use to a range of sociodemographic indicators derived from official city statistics as well as geotagged social media data from Twitter. Our statistical analysis revealed several significant differences between the districts that suggested that crowdsourced civic participation platforms tend to marginalize low-income and ethnically diverse communities. In this respect, our findings provide timely evidence to inform the design of more inclusive crowdsourced, civic participation platforms in the future.
This article presents the design and functionalities of interactive software for multimodal analysis currently being developed in the Multimodal Analysis Lab, Interactive Digital Media Institute (IDMI) at the National University of Singapore. The software is being used for the annotation, analysis, search and retrieval of semantic patterns in unified but complex semiotic actsfor example, the interaction of gesture, gaze, intonation, camera angle, and music in a film. In addition to providing a digital platform for multimodal analysis, the software provides the site for further development of multimodal theory as the analytical techniques and tools produce insights into the nature of the multimodal phenomena. The approach is located within the digital humanities paradigm that promotes the use of computer techniques and technologies for humanities, arts, and social science research.
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