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Professor Ann Macintosh
Emeritus Professor of Digital Governance
Clothworkers' Building North, 2.22
BSc (St Andrews), Hon PhD (Örebro University, Sweden)
Biography
Ann Macintosh is Emeritus Professor of Digital Governance at the University of Leeds. Ann joined the University in 2007 to establish and co-direct the Centre for Digital Citizenship in the Institute of Communications Studies at the University. Her internationally funded research is focused on the use of digital technologies to facilitate political communication and support the democratic process.
In 1999, Ann founded the International Teledemocracy Centre (ITC) at Edinburgh Napier University, where she was Professor of Electronic Governance until 2007. Her work, at both Leeds and Edinburgh Napier, has influenced research and policy-making in the UK, Europe and elsewhere. She has been an advisor to a number of national and regional governments, including the German Bundestag, the Canadian government, the state legislature of Queensland and the Scottish Government. She has also acted as a specialist advisor for the OECD, the Council for Europe and the Commonwealth Secretariat.
From 1980 to 1999, Ann held various posts at the University of Edinburgh and was, finally, Knowledge Systems Director at the Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute (AIAI). While at the university Ann was an active committee member of the BCS Special Interest Group on Knowledge-Based Systems and Applied Artificial Intelligence for which she was awarded honorary life membership in 2006.
Ann is a Fellow of the British Computer Society and a Chartered Engineer. In 2009, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Örebro University in Sweden for recognition of her work in eParticipation, in particular the interplay between humans, technology and governance.
Research Interests
Ann’s research in digital governance is both applied and conceptual; the aim is not simply to develop applications using ICT, but to understand their role in the complex structures that represent both global and local level governance.
Her research falls into two main areas. The first concerns the societal effect of technology on governance processes and the development of an evaluation framework for eParticipation. This area of her research has provided high-level insights into the mechanisms that need to be built into future online participation systems to appreciate how, where and why people use them.
The second concerns online deliberation and argument visualisation with the aim to support citizen engagement in policy making and facilitate the understanding of complex policy-related information. Her current research on argumentation visualization provides an orderly representation of the consultation debate and documentation that supports government policy-making. The European Commission project, IMPACT: “Integrated Method for Policy making using Argument modelling and Computer assisted Text analysis” is underpinning this work.
Publications
Books
(2007) Digital Government: eGovernment Research, Case Studies, and Implementation. Springer.
Journal Articles
(2011) “A three-layered framework for evaluating e-participation”, International Journal of Electronic Governance. 4.4: 304-321.
This paper presents a framework for evaluating e-participation, distinguishing between internal project components and external moderators and between front and back regions of e-participation from a governance perspective. It uses a three-layered impact assessment framework comprising outputs, outcomes and impacts and employs the notion of an intervention logic specifying types of actions necessary to initiate and manage participation processes. Its multi-layered and bounded character prompts evaluators to consider links to high-level policy goals, cultural factors and the chain of transformations which condition long-term impacts. We show how we populated the framework for the purposes of a study of European e-participation.
(2009) “Providing Argument Support for EParticipation”, Journal of Information Technology & Politics. 6.1: 43-59.
As governments seek to consult their citizens over matters of policy, it becomes increasingly important for citizens to receive relevant information in a medium that they can use, and will want to use, in forming their opinion upon consultative issues. In e-participation, there is a clear requirement to understand how technology can support informed debate on issues, but there are two main obstacles in achieving this. The first is that the deliberation is often on complex issues, and therefore typically there are many arguments and counter arguments to consider, which, when presented in linear text, can be confusing for the public at large. Second, it is not obvious that many people actually have the necessary critical thinking skills to deliberate on issues. Argumentation systems have been used successfully in the domains of law and education, where they have been developed in response to a need for innovative and effective ways of teaching critical thinking, presenting and defending a point of view, and providing complex information in an organized and easily accessible fashion. Their use in the political domain is only just emerging. The purpose of this article is to make clear how e-participation can gain from the use of argumentation systems.
(2008) “A Framework for the Analysis of Procedural Security of the e-Electoral Process”, International Journal of Public Administration. 31.8: 1-15. [Accepted]
(2008) “Towards an Evaluation Framework for eParticipation”, Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy. : 1-10. [Accepted]
(2007) “Computer-Supported Argument Maps as a Policy Memory”, The Information Society. 23.2: 125-133.
(2007) “A model Building Tool to support Group Deliberation (eDelib)”, International Journal of Cases on Electronic Commerce. 3.3: 33-44.
(2007) “A Methodology for the redesign of the electoral process to an e-electoral process”, International Journal of Electronic Governance.. 1.1: 4-16.
(2003) “Representational politics in virtual urban places”, Environment and Planning A. 35.9: 1607-1627.
(2003) “Electronic Democracy and Young People”, Social Science Computer Review. 21.1: 43-54.
(2003) “Analysis and Evaluation of e-consultations”, e-Service Journal. 2.1: 10-18.
(2002) “Designing e-democracy for Scotland”, Communications: The European Journal of Communications. 27: 261-278.
(2002) “Towards an Ontology for Electronic Transaction Services”, International Journal of Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance & Management. 11: 173-181.
(2001) “Transparency and Teledemocracy: Issues from an 'E-Consultation'”, Journal of Information Science. 27.4: 187-198.
Chapters
(2007) “eParticipation and eDemocracy Research in Europe”, Digital Government: eGovernment Research, Case Studies, and Implementation, Chen; H; Brandt; L; Gregg; V; Traünmuller R; Dawes; S; Hovy; E; Macintosh; A; Larson; C A (eds.). USA: Springer.
(2007) “ePetitioning in the Scottish Parliament”, Digital Government: eGovernment Research, Case Studies, and Implementation, Chen; H; Brandt; L; Gregg; V; Traünmuller R; Dawes; S; Hovy; E; Macintosh; A; Larson; C A (eds.). USA: Springer.
(2003) “Using information and communication technologies to enhance citizen engagement in the policy proces”, Promises and Problems of E-Democracy: Challenges of online citizen engagement, Caddy J; Vergez C (eds.). Paris, France: OECD.
This report considers how, and to what extent, ICTs are being used to facilitate the provision of information and to support consultation and active participation of citizens to enable better policy-making. Numerous case studies from OECD member countries present specific government applications. These describe not only successes but also, importantly, the issues and constraints. Increasing engagement should, on the one hand, enable better policy but, on the other hand, it will increase the resources and time needed to construct policy. The report highlights 5 main challenges for e-engagement, those of: scale; building capacity and active citizenship; ensuring coherence; evaluating e-engagement; and ensuring commitment. Given the expanding knowledge base of e-engagement practice and the emergence of government policy, there is every indication that the use of ICTs to engage citizens will increase. This report makes an important start in developing a methodological framework that addresses how ICT can be designed and used to effectively and efficiently support information provision, consultation and participation in policymaking.
(2003) “Bridging the Digital Divide: Supporting e-democracy”, eTransformation in Governance – new directions in Government and Politics, Malkia M; Anttiroiko A; Savolainen R (eds.). Idea Group.
(2002) “Digital Democracy through Electronic Petitioning”, Advances in Digital Government: Technology, Human Factors, and Policy, McIver W; Elmagarmid AK (eds.). Kluwer Academic Publishers.
(2002) “Technology to Support Participatory Democracy”, Electronic Government: Design, Applications, and Management, Grönlund Å (eds.). Idea Group Publishing.
Conferences
(2011) Argument Visualization for eParticipation: Towards a Research Agenda and Prototype Tool. Third IFIP WG 8.5 International Conference, ePart 2011 Germany: Springer-Verlag. LNCS 6847: 60-73.
This paper describes research that aims to develop an argument visualization tool and associated method for supporting eParticipation and online deliberation. Based on the state-of-the-art in the field of computer-supported argument visualization, the tool will support the work of relevant eParticipation actors by enabling them to navigate through arguments contained in relevant consultation and policy documents. This tool will form the core of our investigation into the mediating role that large, Web-based argument maps can play in eParticipation scenarios. In particular, we intend to investigate the method and practice of how various eParticipation actors use the tool in the policy-making process. To this end, this paper sets out a clear research agenda for research at the intersection of eParticipation and computer-supported argument visualization.
(2011) Argument Visualization for eParticipation: Towards a Research Agenda and Prototype Tool. Third IFIP WG 8.5 International Conference, ePart 2011 Germany: Springer-Verlag. LNCS 6847: 60-73.
This paper describes research that aims to develop an argument visualization tool and associated method for supporting eParticipation and online deliberation. Based on the state-of-the-art in the field of computer-supported argument visualization, the tool will support the work of relevant eParticipation actors by enabling them to navigate through arguments contained in relevant consultation and policy documents. This tool will form the core of our investigation into the mediating role that large, Web-based argument maps can play in eParticipation scenarios. In particular, we intend to investigate the method and practice of how various eParticipation actors use the tool in the policy-making process. To this end, this paper sets out a clear research agenda for research at the intersection of eParticipation and computer-supported argument visualization.
(2007) Mobile Services for Parliamentarians: Drivers & Expectations. Sixth International EGOV Conference : 3-6.
Research Projects & Grants
Funded Research Projects since 2007:
- 2010-2012 “IMPACT: Integrated Method for Policy making using Argument modelling and Computer assisted Text analysis” European Commission(FP7 247228). The The other partners are: Fraunhofer (lead partner), University of Amsterdam, University of Liverpool, and two companies specialising in user interface design (User Interface Design GMBH) and online consultations (Zebralog GmbH & Co KG).
- 2008-2009 “Study and supply of services on the development of eParticipation in the EU” (Contract number 30-CE-0132840/00-38). The core consortium consisted of three partners, on equal standing, the Danish Technological Institute as project co-ordinator, the University of Macedonia (Greece) and Leeds.
- 2006-2008 “DEMO-Net – Network of Excellence on eParticipation”: European Commission (FP6-2004-027219).
Research Centres & Groups
Ann co-Directs (with Professor Stephen Coleman) the Centre for Digital Citizenship, an interdisciplinary research centre which conducts research into the changing nature of citizenship and governance in a networked society.