Grants:Project/Data Science for social good: promoting de use of big data to strengthen election integrity in Argentina
Project idea[edit]
What is the problem you're trying to solve?[edit]
What problem are you trying to solve by doing this project? This problem should be small enough that you expect it to be completely or mostly resolved by the end of this project. Remember to review the tutorial for tips on how to answer this question.
Argentina has celebrated democratic elections uninterruptedly since 1983. Nevertheless, every electoral process brings about public discussion about electoral integrity, and recent studies show that citizen trust in elections is very low (CIPPEC 2013 , 2015 and 2018). In the absence of systematic and reliable evidence on how well elections work, citizens and parties continue to suspect and electoral authorities cannot provide precise information to address these claims and anxieties. The discussion has escalated to the point that incumbent and opposition legislators have publicly raised doubts about election integrity when discussing a reform to the voting system. In turn, uninformed public discussion is back feeding mistrust without advancing any policy solution.
What is your solution?[edit]
For the problem you identified in the previous section, briefly describe your how you would like to address this problem. We recognize that there are many ways to solve a problem. We’d like to understand why you chose this particular solution, and why you think it is worth pursuing. Remember to review the tutorial for tips on how to answer this question.
We propose to improve the quality of political, technical and public discussion regarding election integrity in Argentina by using and promoting the adoption of election forensics analysis both to administrate and watch over elections. In order to do so we propose to: i) expose key players in electoral processes to existing election forensics tools, the kind of evidence they produce and the potential they have for improving the functioning of elections and ii) discuss with them a series of case studies assessing the functioning and integrity of elections in Argentina.
Project goals[edit]
What are your goals for this project? Your goals should describe the top two or three benefits that will come out of your project. These should be benefits to the Wikimedia projects or Wikimedia communities. They should not be benefits to you individually. Remember to review the tutorial for tips on how to answer this question.
- Improve the quality of political, technical and public discussion regarding election integrity in Argentina by using and promoting the adoption of big data tools both to administrate and watch over elections.
- Enrich English and Spanish Wikipedia by adding a complete entry for election forensics and related content pages.
- Encourage the use of Wikipedia as a reference source among journalists, NGO´s, political activists and government officers.
Project impact[edit]
How will you know if you have met your goals?[edit]
For each of your goals, we’d like you to answer the following questions:
- During your project, what will you do to achieve this goal? (These are your outputs.)
- Once your project is over, how will it continue to positively impact the Wikimedia community or projects? (These are your outcomes.)
For each of your answers, think about how you will capture this information. Will you capture it with a survey? With a story? Will you measure it with a number? Remember, if you plan to measure a number, you will need to set a numeric target in your proposal (e.g. 45 people, 10 articles, 100 scanned documents). Remember to review the tutorial for tips on how to answer this question.
- Improve the quality of political, technical and public discussion regarding election integrity in Argentina by using and promoting the adoption of big data tools both to administrate and watch over elections. 25 key players assisst to workshops. At least 5 articles published on national and local media.
- Enrich wikipedia content by proposing a content page of electoral forensics and complementary content pages on related topics. At least five new or enriched content pages accross wikimedia projects.
- Encourage the use of Wikipedia as a reference source among journalists, NGO´s, political activists and government officers. At least 50 new registered users.
Do you have any goals around participation or content?[edit]
Are any of your goals related to increasing participation within the Wikimedia movement, or increasing/improving the content on Wikimedia projects? If so, we ask that you look through these three metrics, and include any that are relevant to your project. Please set a numeric target against the metrics, if applicable. Remember to review the tutorial for tips on how to answer this question.
Number of content pages created accross wikimedia projects (At least one content page on election forenscis and other 4 pages on specific election forensics tools will be created by the projetc team)
Number of participants attending the offline outreach events. At least 5 representatives of national parties, 5 specialized Sr journalists, 5 representatives of NGOs that work in election monitoring, 5 electoral officers of the national and subnational level and 3 electoral justices
Project plan[edit]
Activities[edit]
Tell us how you'll carry out your project. What will you and other organizers spend your time doing? What will you have done at the end of your project? How will you follow-up with people that are involved with your project?
1. Conducting desktop research on election forensics. Literature review on study field, techniques, applications, relevant case studies.
2. Producing a case study assessing Argentina´s 2015 elections by using election forensics tools and producing a short document presenting main findings and policy implications. Find here [1] a case study on the province of Buenos Aires.
3. Writing and submitting a Wikipedia entry on election forensics and related content pages.
4. Producing a dissemination video explaining what election forensics are and what are their uses and limitations.
5. Compiling reference materials such as relevant studies, presentations, graphs, videos.
6. Organizing a workshop with electoral authorities and judges and party representatives to present the Wikipedia entry on election forensics and discuss the results of forensic analysis of 2015 national election.
7. Organizing a workshop for journalists and NGOs to present the Wikipedia entry on election forensics and discuss the results of the forensic analysis of 2015 national election.
8. Designing and implementing a dissemination strategy to reach out to our broader policy community and journalists in the provinces. The dissemination campaign will focus on: i) publicizing the election forensics content page and ii) encouraging the use of Wikipedia and the registration of new users. To potentiate the dissemination strategy we will build on our network of local researchers research network. The campaign will include op eds in national and local media, blog posts on CIPPEC´s Electoral Observatory, and dissemination through CIPPEC´s social network accounts (TW, FB, YouTube)
Budget[edit]
How you will use the funds you are requesting? List bullet points for each expense. (You can create a table later if needed.) Don’t forget to include a total amount, and update this amount in the Probox at the top of your page too!
- Project Director: USD 600 x 8 months = USD 4800
- Project Manager: USD 500 x 8 months = USD 4000
- Sr Researcher: USD 1100 x 8 months = USD 8800
- Methodologist: USD 600 x 8 months= USD 4800
- Analyst: USD 360 x 8 months= 2880
- Assisstant: USD 240 x 8 months= 1920
- IT support: USD 360 x 8 months=2880
- Communication team: USD 600 x 8 months = 4800
- Prints: USD 1800
- Catering: USD 3600
- Peer review: USD 2400
Community engagement[edit]
Community input and participation helps make projects successful. How will you let others in your community know about your project? Why are you targeting a specific audience? How will you engage the community you’re aiming to serve during your project?
CIPPEC's Electoral Observatory (OEAR) has become a reference site for the electoral policy community in Argentina. We will build on our network to design and implement a dissemination strategy through the media and social networks. Also, we will contact personally and follow up on each of the targeted key players in our policy community to maximize assisstance to the workshops and dissemination of the content pages and materials.
In order to asses engagement and collect feedback on the project materials and activities we will conduct an online survey.
Get involved[edit]
Participants[edit]
Please use this section to tell us more about who is working on this project. For each member of the team, please describe any project-related skills, experience, or other background you have that might help contribute to making this idea a success.
- Marcelo Leiras (Principal Researcher, Political Institutions Program) Director of Undergraduate Studies in Political Science and International Relations at the Universidad de San Andrés (Argentina), and Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Sciences of the same university, Marcelo is a sociologist holding a PhD in Political Science from the University of Notre Dame. Also, he is an Associate Researcher at the National Council of Scientific Research (CONICET). Marcelo was a Postdoctoral Associate in the Program on Democracy at the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies, Yale University. He has worked as a consultant for several international organizations such as the United Nations Development Program, UNICEF, International Labour Organization and the Ford Foundation. His research interests include democratic institutions, theories of democracy and democratization, constitutional politics, political parties and electoral behaviour, federalism and multilevel governance, and Latin American politics. His recent publications include the book “Todos los caballos del rey: los partidos politicos y el gobierno democrático de la Argentina, 1995-2003” (Buenos Aires: Prometeo. 2007) and several journal articles.
- María Page (Sr Researcher, Political Institutions Program) B.A. in Political Science (University of Buenos Aires). Applied data Science postgraduate student (ITBA). Formerly, she was program coordinator for 8 years and a member of the Electoral Observatory since its foundation. Her reseach interest include elections and democratic governance. She has worked at the National Interior Ministry and in National Congress.
- Lara Goyburu. BA and MA in political science. Her field of study is political coalitions and federalism. She has worked as consultant for international organisms and national governments. She has also took part and published social network studies.
- Iván Seira. BA in political science and MA Candidate in Electoral Studies. His research interest are electoral processes and instiutions.
- Lautaro Cella, BA in political science at Universidad Torcuato di Tella and analyst at the political institutions program at CIPPEC, he has been researched about parties, elections and gender. Teaching assistant at Universidad Torcuato di Tella.
- Pedro Antenucci. Project methodologist. BA in Political Science and MA candidate in Electoral Studies.
- The project team will hace the constant support of CIPPEC's Communication and IT teams throughout the project. Upon confirmation our monitoring and evaluation team will hire a Sr specialist to conduct peer review of contents and materials.
Community notification[edit]
Please paste links below to where relevant communities have been notified of your proposal, and to any other relevant community discussions. You are responsible for notifying relevant communities of your proposal, so that they can help you! Depending on your project, notification may be most appropriate on a Village Pump, talk page, mailing list, etc. Need notification tips?
Endorsements[edit]
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