Fraunhofer Center for Assistive Information and Communication Solutions – AICOS
Crowd Assisted Services
Developing inclusive tools focused on citizen empowerment, participatory monitoring, urban service delivery, and social equity.
Motivation:
In social interactions, citizenship, political awareness or public services, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) solutions to facilitate communication and spread of information may play an important role in the development of a given community. Gathering people around one topic or gathering the necessary information about a city, it being a community problem, market prices, health or other public services, may strongly contribute to human development. Still, access to ICT is not available for all citizens, with the problem being further aggravated in developing countries.
Solution:
Community includes:
> An inclusive platform to directly serve both citizens’ and institutions’ needs, in order to simplify administrative acts. This community tool aims at simplifying the interaction between citizens and institutions by enhancing overall communication, service delivery and effectiveness;
> A platform easy to use that provides a set of tools that allows every citizen to be informed and accomplish their duties and rights as a member of the community. This community tool will allow users to keep connected with the city official administration, as well as with other community members.
Benefit:
Community aims to promote social and digital inclusion of these citizens located in underserved communities. The proposed tools are expected to combine the use of new technologies and digital education, bringing the interactivity, innovation, and inclusivity for disadvantaged and vulnerable groups, which are still put aside due to the digital divide.