Some tools provide both computational and visualization features. For instance, CommunityPulse provides a scaffolding for multifaceted public input analysis using visualizations [JHSM21], and MultiConVis enables multilevel exploration and analysis of threaded conversations [HC16b].

Researchers in HCI and digital civics have begun to explore methods to improve the analysis capabilities of visual analytics tools [JHSM21; MJS20b]. Although the broader community of visualization researchers acknowledges the importance of designing for varied levels of expertise [Mun14; GTS10; SNHS13], existing work on text analytics in general, as well as civic text visualizations in particular, focuses research efforts towards designing for analysts. Less effort has been put on designing and developing text visualization for non-experts—people who are not trained in or have had limited exposure to visualization and analytics.

Improving the public input process has become an important goal in the field of digital civics [MNC*19; VCL*16; OW15]. To that end, researchers and practitioners have developed a variety of systems for, e.g., sharing public opinions [FBRG10], building consensus [KMF*12a; ZNB15], summarizing public input [19], or identifying people's priorities, reflections, and hidden insights [JHSM21].

Previous work has introduced several online engagement platforms to enable the public to asynchronously provide their comments, ideas, and feedback around civic issues [19; 20b; MJN*18]. These engagement tools have used micro-tasks [MJN*18], visualizations [19], and forum-like discussions [20b] to engage disconnected and disenfranchised populations [MNC*19]. Others have proposed technologies to promote in-person engagement of reticent participants during town halls [JKW*21] and public meetings [LLS] using clicker-like devices.

Despite their central importance in the civic engagement process, members of the general public are not necessarily involved in the analysis process. Hence, they are often left out of the loop when designing civic text visualizations—their requirements, aptitudes, knowledge, etc. are not given central consideration. Integrating participatory approaches in civic text visualization could pave the way not only for more inclusive analysis but also for leveraging the general public's knowledge to gather richer insights.

social dynamics, such as shyness and tendency to avoid confrontation with dominant personalities can also hinder opinion sharing in town halls by favoring privileged individuals who are comfortable or trained to take part in contentious public discussions [27, 127].

town halls inadvertently cater to a small number of privileged individuals, and silent participants often become disengaged despite physically attending the meetings [61]. Due to the lack of inclusivity, the outcome of such meetings often tends to feel unjust and opaque for the general public [39, 54].

designing communitysourcing technologies to include marginalized opinions and amplify participation alone may not be enough to solve inequality of sharing opinions in the civic domain [26, 126]. Despite the success of previous works [25, 53, 90], technology is rarely integrated with existing manual practices and follow-ups of engagements between government officials and community members are seldom propagated to the community.

Marginalization can be broadly defined as the exclusion of a population from mainstream social, economic, cultural, or political life [58], which still stands as a barrier to inclusive participation in the civic domain [48, 94]. Researchers in HCI and CSCW have explored various communitysourcing approaches to include marginalized populations in community activities, proceedings, and designs [48, 53, 81, 93, 132].

To increase broader civic participation, researchers in HCI have proposed both online [4, 5, 7, 81, 93] and face-to-face [21, 80, 91, 125] technological interventions that use the communitysourcing approach.

Prior investigations by Bryan [29] and Gastil [56] showed a steady decline in civic participation in town halls due to the growing disconnect between local government and community members and the decline in social capital [43, 111, 113]. Despite the introduction of online methods to increase public engagement in the last decade [4, 5, 7, 37, 81, 93], government officials continue to prefer face-to-face meetings to engage the community in the decision-making process [32, 52, 94].

To reengage disconnected, reticent, or disenfranchised community members, researchers in HCI and digital civics have offered novel strategies and technological interventions to increase engagement [60, 62, 94, 107, 130].

Bryan [29] and Gastil [56] investigated the state of town halls and demonstrated a steady decline in civic participation due to the growing disconnect between local government and the community.

Traditional community consultation methods, such as town halls, public forums, and workshops are the modus operandi for public engagement [52, 94]. For fair and impartial civic decision-making, the inclusivity of community members' feedback is paramount [60, 94, 126]. However, traditional methods rarely provide opportunities for inclusive public participation [30, 87, 95].

Murphy used such systems to promote democracy and community partnerships [103]. Similarly, Boulianne et al. deployed clicker devices in contentious public discussions about climate change to gauge public opinions [25]. Bergstrom et al. used a single button device where the attendees anonymously voted (agree/disagree) on issues during the meeting. They showed that back-channel voting helped underrepresented users get more involved in the meeting [22].

Web3 promises rewards — maybe even a kind of justice — for “users”, but Ethereum doesn’t know anything about users, only wallets. One user can control many wallets; one bot can con­trol many wallets; Ethereum can’t tell the difference, doesn’t par­tic­u­larly care. Therefore, Web3’s gov­er­nance tools are appro­pri­ate for decision-making processes that approx­i­mate those of an LLC, but not for anything truly democratic, which is to say, any­thing that respects the uniform, unearned — unearned!—value of per­son­hood.

This means that everyone in Germany with a landline or cell phone had the same chance of being selected to participate.

pushing them to create their own knowledge and contribute thoughtfully to ongoing academic and civic conversations

Successive waves of activists saw the Internet as a tool for transparency. The framing of openness shifted in meaning from information to data, weakening of mechanisms for accountability even as it opened up new forms of political participation. Drawing on a year of interviews and participant observation, I suggest civic data hacking can be framed as a form of data activism and advocacy: requesting, digesting, contributing to, modeling, and contesting data