Facilitating civic engagement for road safety with mobile crowdsensing

Abstract

Researchers recognize the importance of the role of information technologies in civic engagement---that is, individual or collective citizen action to identify and address local issues. Mobile technology has enabled novel forms of civic engagement with crowdsourced sensing by allowing citizens to collaboratively share about local issues, including safety concerns, with mobile sensing technologies such as GPS data and camera. This thesis explores opportunities, challenges, and considerations for the HCI community in designing a crowdsensing-based civic engagement system for road safety with pervasive mobile technology. The results demonstrate that mobile sensing technology can be used effectively to facilitate collaborative civic engagement for road safety and order by analyzing user behavior, such as users' participation motivations and barriers. The technology can also enhance understanding in building mobile tools that can achieve better civic engagement system design. I first explore what kinds of road videos people share and how they deal with privacy concerns in an online community. I also identify the key motives and concerns in one-to-one dashcam video sharing. Second, I explore how mobile crowdsensing (for example, mobile video recording) with smartphones enables civic engagement on the road. Finally, I design a community-sourced patrolling system, enabling community members to easily schedule their task---patrolling local safety and public order issues. I identify factors affecting people's engagement in task performance. Based on the findings, this thesis proposes ways to encourage people to participate, answering the concerns about participating in civic engagement systems. This study contributes to the successful development of collaborative civic engagement in addressing local issues and needs with pervasive mobile technology.