Contributory practices, participatory production, citizen crowdsourcing, the intervention of the "multitude" in the production of information and knowledge, the discussion of all sorts of things (bills, the benefit and cost of a product or service, the side effects of drugs) are probably one of the major transformations produced by digital technology.
"To solve the world's most salient problems, we must put the power of the Internet to work - its technologies, its business models, and perhaps most importantly, its philosophy of openness, collective intelligence, and transparency," proclaimed Tim O'Reilly and John Battelle in 2009.As Serge Proulx observes, " this digital universe is highly paradoxical insofar as one cannot simply oppose, on the one hand, the contributory practices of small ordinary users and, on the other, the accumulation practices of the GAFAs.
In fact, all these practices are intertwined. "These contributory practices are at the same time a source of pleasure and satisfaction for the users. Among the most frequently mentioned motivations for contributing are: the desire to acquire new skills and expertise; the pleasure associated with the collective creation of a common good; the pleasure linked to the quality of interactions between participants (...) the self-creation of social capital and 'reputation capital' and, ultimately, the search for recognition by one's peers".
Beyond the "digital cathedrals" that are Wikipedia or OpenStreetMap, there is a great diversity of projects, platforms and applications that rely on the contribution of people: participatory science, public consultations on the Internet, spam reporting, collaborative indexing in the world of libraries and archives, reporting problems on the public highway ....
To what extent are the French involved in participatory production practices?
Major surveys such as the Digital Barometer or Capacity give a fairly rough measure of these contributory practices, through questions such as "are you more of a reader, on discussion forums, social networks, chats, blogs, a contributor or both? " Thus, according to the Capacity survey, 2.5% of Internet users described themselves in 2016 as " contributors on discussion forums, social networks, chats, blogs" , 44% as "readers of what others say or write" and 19% as " both ".
In order to draw a first picture of the French people's contribution practices, we have undertaken to compile the studies and indicators that report on these practices. This compilation is far from being exhaustive.
In 2015, 26% of French people gave a rating, an evaluation or a comment on a product on the internet
According to the 2015 Digital Barometer, filing testimonials about products and services purchased is more prevalent among Men (28%) than Women (23%).This practice is related to age: 35% of 18-24 year olds and 39% of 25-39 year olds, compared to 28% of 40-59 year olds and 17% of 60-69 year olds.
This practice increases with the level of diploma (23% for people with a BEPC level, 32% for those with a Bac level, 37% for those with a higher education diploma), as well as with the standard of living (22% in the lower middle class, 27% in the upper middle class and 33% among high income earners).
In 2017, more than 100,000 citizens contributed or participated in online public consultations
The organization of online public consultations by ministries, regulatory authorities, prefectures and local governments is now widely commonplace. Estimating the number of contributors (and participants in the case of platforms that allow voting) is risky because the data is so scattered and heterogeneous. With its 21,330 contributors, 8,500 comments and 148,000 votes, the public consultation on the Digital Republic bill is often cited as an example. In fact, the high level of participation achieved by the Digital Republic consultation is far from an isolated case. In 2017, for example, several consultations generated thousands of contributions, some of them over 10,000.Despite these measurement difficulties, however, it can be estimated that more than 100,000 people took part in one or another of the 300 public consultations organized in 2017: as contributors or as participants (voters). This rough approximation is partially corroborated by the indicators published by some public debate platforms.
See related: In 2017, more than 100,000 citizens contributed or participated in online public consultationsWikipedia: 1.9 million registered users based in France
In June 2017, the French-language Wikipedia encyclopedia counted, more than 2.8 million registered users, including about 1.9 million based in France. The number of contributors is around 16,000 each month, including nearly 5,000 active contributors: a contributor is classified as " active " when he or she makes at least five changes per month. Since its creation, nearly 700,000 people have contributed at least once to the French edition. The French are at the origin of 82% of the writing operations ("edits") on the French edition while contributing to the other editions. According to Weeklypedia, in a single week at the end of May/beginning of June, 15,815 contributors made 122,827 edits on 54,686 different articles on the French edition. Only 34% of them had an account.See on this subject: What we know about wikipedia usage in France40,000 contributors to OpenStreetMap
Since 2004, the OpenStreetMap project aims to create an extremely accurate map of the world based on collective intelligence and inviting people to map their street, their neighborhood or their town themselves. In France, thousands of contributors have mapped in detail entire sections of our territory. According to Jennings Anderson, in 2016 France had nearly 40,000 contributors (3,000 per month) which ranked it third, behind Germany (84,382 contributors) and the United States (69,423).See on this subject: The French, fourth largest contributors to OpenStreetMap66,000 French people involved in participatory science operations related to biodiversity
In 2016, several tens of thousands of people participated in a participatory science program in France, including more than 66,000 who took part in participatory science operations related to biodiversity, an increase of 22% compared to 2015 and 185% since 2011. The estimate of the number of people involved in a participatory science program related to biodiversity is based on an annual survey conducted by the National Observatory of Biodiversity (ONB), co-supervised by the Nicolas Hulot Foundation for Nature and Mankind (FNH) and the National Union of Permanent Centers of Initiatives for the Environment (UNCPIE).See on this subject: 66 000 French people involved in participatory science operations related to biodiversityCrowdfunding: 700,000 "participatory funders" and over 11,000 projects funded in Q2 2017
Participatory financing is meeting with a growing response from the public. According to theCrowdfunding Observatory, in the first half of 2017 alone, 741,000 people would have funded a project via one of the 54 crowdfunding platforms that report their figures to this Observatory. 11,652 projects raised €153 million in the first half of 2017. During the same period in 2016, 10,889 projects had raised €104 million.See in this regard: Crowdfunding: 700,000 "participatory funders" and over 11,000 projects funded in Q2 2017Over 400,000 people involved in spam reporting
Spam is an endemic and massive phenomenon. In France, the association Signal Spam allows Internet users to report any message they consider to be spam. The reports made to Signal Spam concern this fraction of spam that reaches Internet users (about 10%), which makes them all the more important for the analysis of the phenomenon and the collective protection.The association Signal Spam publishes every quarter a spam barometer, based on the reports of Internet users. The association shows 467,633 people registered (including 13,825 new users). According to the July/August/September 2017 Spam Barometer , users reported 2,801,936 spam messages over the past three months.
