For this assignment I’m going to take Action Path as the example, the creation of a geofence and an APP to get into this fence and participate in issues that are happening or going to happen could help to improve the number of people that participate in certain issues, this kind of technology makes ubiquitous the citizen participation, enabling the citizens to participate at any hour and with little time and effort.

In societies where the citizen participation isn’t rooted and where the citizens voice isn’t generally listen, the use of new technologies could help to change this, for example getting a web with all the responses that Action Path received could help to gain attention to certain issues and put some pressure in the political or project leaders.

The use of this kind of apps also helps to change the mindset about participation in public issues, now it’s possible to participate via an app sitting in a local cafe or while waiting for the bus, instead of attend a public meeting or writing a letter to a government official, this shift in the participation process abilities new entry points into the system.

One of the critiques that could come with this technologies is the oversimplification of civic participation, the amount of attention that a person could put into a mobile device to engage with a project could be limited, also the participation could be reduced to answer surveys or tu up-vote or down-vote projects instead of generate a dialogue between the government and the citizens and within the citizens. But on the other hand this technology also helps to get attention that other wise could have gone unaware, and I think this is where one of the main assets of Action Path stands.

The facility to gain attention in some issues that otherwise could go unattended could help to get the people interested in that issues, and not only while they wait for the bus are at a cafe, it could help them to go around and discover the community, walk around and get more notifications and engage with other topics or projects.

I think that most of the technologies that are designed to the monitorial citizens could help the other types to engage with local communities, informing the public about what’s going on in a community and getting them a easy way to participate makes a shift in the citizens models, I don’t think that would be instantaneous but little by little more people could engage in more public issues.