Collaborative data collection mediated by a digital platform

Abstract

This article presents a citizen-driven initiative of data collection mediated by a digital platform, aiming to discuss its potential and possible developments in the context of a new technological culture due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Assuming that digital technologies could be a powerful tool in data collection for the formulation of urban public policies – including citizens as collaborative co-creators –, we present the project Rumbora se Amostrar, a bottom-up initiative about bicycle use in the city of São Luís and Grande Ilha, in the state of Maranhão, Brazil. The study intends to contribute to the current debate about the presence of digital platforms in different areas of our lives. It focuses as well the platforms' role in urban planning and city management through the report of an experience and the descriptive analysis of the results. Furthermore, it demonstrates how the analysis of geolocalized data can reveal important aspects of the human dimension, highlighting women's behavior on the use of bicycles. It also discusses the relevance of these methodologies and their application possibilities for the development of intervention proposals and actions for increasing active mobility.