timvanachte
A partial archive of https://score.community/ as of Monday March 04, 2024.
QR-Toolkit Progress - Ghent - Partner Meetings April 2020 & Sept 2020
kimsovso
Hi guys!
Great concept and work so far.
In Aarhus we’ve been discussing the need for transparancy on tech in the urban landscape and was thinking about using/developing a set of labels/icons for this purpose (along the lines of this https://www.sidewalklabs.com/blog/how-can-we-bring-transparency-to-urban-tech-these-icons-are-a-first-step/).
Do you see that this could be combined with the QR toolkit in some way to provide citizens with in-place information on the tech that they encounter in the city?
I know that this kind of information could be accessed by scanning the QR code but I think it would be a strong feature to see the QR code in the context of a set of general transparency stickers telling the what-who-why-where-how of tech in the city.
Regards,
Kim
timvanachte
Yes, the use of self explainable visual language is a very interesting idea to enrich QR codes. From first testing we have captured the feedback QR codes all look alike so for citizens it will allways need additional accompagnying info:
- for citizens to trust the QR enough to use it
- a way for citizens to know/verify -preferably before they “use” a QR code- that it is legit
- shortened URL to same functionality that serves as a fallback
Perhaps we should see visual language (that categorises and explains different use cases more clearly to the public) playing a part in this enriching. So that it is more just an “anonymous” looking QR code in the public domain.
srudinac
An interesting concept indeed! Would you be using this in addition to “conventional” citizen reporting and classification of issues in the public spaces based on e.g. text and visual content?
Mikkel
Hi Tim and Jef,
very interesting project!
This could possibly be useful as a “second way in” to a commercial system that we are implementing in the Public Works department at the moment (Sweco Driftweb). There is both an app and a website entrance for citizens’ reports (about garbage, needed repairs, invasive plants, etc.), but QR codes could be put on selected equipment for guidance for citizens who might not know they have these options of communicating with the municipality.
Cheers,
Mikkel
timvanachte
Yes, for reporting the idea is to see where this can mean a win (in efficiency, workload, more data, etc.) in terms of your current main trends of citizen reports through your classic channels. Apart from the city services interested at this point we are also checking phone call center logs to see if there are potential use cases to be found there. Linked to the business case there should already be a large volume of reports to be sure that it is worth the effort of providing it digitally. (What we have been talking about as well is that you can link a reporting act directly to its city object/property, you can also image a “soft link”: you could for instance use a bus stop as a proxy for the surrounding area, where a citizen can for instance use a bus stop QR to report or rate feelings of unsafety) Such cross domain use cases are going to be especially interesting because they strengthen links in between departments through collaboration. The idea we are exploring (also from an architecture point of view) is that the QR is pretty dynamic in nature, so different departments can test run and upscale “their” functionalities and it even allows temporary usages. All through the one QR-code per object.
timvanachte
That would be nice. We have user validation to do in terms of our assumption of it being actually the low barrier to use for citizens that we think it is. We have seen a lot of reporting forms on sites and even apps that have fields that a citizen fills in that the machine could actually know by itself. Theoretically, QR codes could for example be perfect to help a citizen prefill almost all of such fields (things like location, address, time, category, …) in an existing reporting form before the submitting, saving a lot of clicks and fields to be filled out.
Mikkel
Hi again,
that’s true. This might not be workable for the developer of the commercial software, but then they could be challenged to come up with something new 
Cheers,
Mikkel