MindTrek2010
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- Name of the App: Opasnet
- Category: Implementation (agency)
- Micro summary (max 140 chs): Opasnet is a wiki-based generic decision-making environment for everybody
- Problem (max 1500 chs): Opasnet website collects, synthetisises, and distributes people's values and scientific information relevant for a general decision making process. The attitude taken in the Opasnet environment is such that all wise decision-making is based on expressing our values about what the important things are, and understanding how the decision actually affects those things. This is why both values and science need to be considered. Opasnet welcomes anyone who wants to promote science-based societal decision-making in any field. Originally, the developers of the Opasnet workspace came from the environmental health, i.e. a research field that studies the impacts of environment on human health. Therefore, you can find assessments of health impacts of air pollution, climate change and persistent pollutants in food among others. In particular, for the Apps4Finland 2010 a new assessment dealing with the Finland's future energy policy has been opened and everybody is invited to participate.
- Users: Potential users that will benefit from the Energy Policy Assessment are (1) ordinary citizens who can teach themselves more about a complex problem by following the open decision making process online (2) researchers who can collaborate better across disciplinary boundaries (3) decision makers who want to see what boundaries does science set and what opportunities does it open up for value-based political debate. Possible users and user groups include: Government laboratories and institutes (e.g. Technical Research Center of Finland, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Ministry of Health, university researchers, civil servants)
- Use case: The ways to participate in the assessment are many. Domain experts in some of the various fields of science needed in the policy assessment can provide numerical models or links to open data, or they can moderate debates. Citizens can contribute e.g. by collecting best arguments for or against a given view, and by filling out a survey collecting the perceived pros and cons of different options. This process will determine the values that will be combined with the scientific facts for policy recommendation. As for our particular example, the Energy Policy Assessment, researchers in energy sector can combine their domain specific knowledge with that of the risk analysts and health experts. It is natural that there will remain gray areas in the analysis which will affect the final decision making. In the end of the process it will be clear what is scientifically known and what is uncertain. This will determine the frame for the political value-based end-game of the decision making process, which in this case tries to answer questions like 'how much in better/worse health would you be if X% of Finland's energy is produced with method Y'. Ordinary citizens can affect the outcome of the analysis because they have to decide what choices are acceptable for them and at which price.
- Data sources: WHO database (address? Machine readable?) and World Bank database (machine readable). Others? It is important to notice that in addition of being a wiki, Opasnet is also a database which allows for co- and re-use of data items stored in the system.
- User instructions and demo: Interested parties are invited to go to http://fi.opasnet.org/ for the main page and to http://fi.opasnet.org/fi/Ydinvoima for the nuclear energy and energy policy assessment which serves as an example of work in progress. To contribute to the the surveys for value determination, no registration is needed. To contribute to the analysis, debates one can register by following the links at the top of the page. After registration, users can use the functionalities of the wiki-menu on the left hand side of the page. In addition to providing textual content, models, pictures, data etc. can be uploaded into the Opasnet system. At the current state of its evolution the modeling software is proprietary but work is in progress to make it open source in the near future.
- Additional information: Pdf-document (Opasnet-flyer)