Date | May 2019 | Marks available | 6 | Reference code | 19M.2.HL.TZ0.13 |
Level | HL | Paper | 2 | Time zone | no time zone |
Command term | To what extent | Question number | 13 | Adapted from | N/A |
Question
Many city authorities have realised the opportunities that social media and collective intelligence can provide.
Narayan City is considering using data gathered from citizens using traffic apps on their GPS-enabled mobile devices to help plan future changes to the layout of the road network in and around the city.
Outline one advantage for Narayan City of using collective intelligence to solve complex problems such as changing the layout of roads.
Many social networking sites allow users to classify their posts and responses, for example by adding one or more “hashtags”.
To what extent does the increasing number of social networking sites and the creation of folksonomies contribute to web users modifying their online behaviour?
Markscheme
Award [2 max].
Enables Narayan City to gather data from many more sources than would be possible through the use of traditional data-gathering methods;
This will enable far more information to be gathered far more quickly than using traditional methods;
Data is generated proactively by citizens' actions;
Therefore, data more likely to reflect what citizens actually do rather than what they might claim they do;
Improves the accuracy of the data;
Existing strategies used by citizens can be incorporated into future planning;
for example, using side-roads to optimize journey times/timing of journeys to avoid major congestion;
Thus, helping to ensure that future plans are optimized / tailored to citizens’ needs;
Data gathering and analysis can be automated;
Therefore, it is very cost effective;
Thus, it is able to be scaled / increased without major impacts on budget;
Data monitoring and collection is real-time;
Therefore, the effect of implementing plans will be reflected by visible changes in use patterns / journey times / routes taken;
Thus, the city council can get reliable feedback/evaluation of how effective their plans are;
Award [6 max].
Possible changes in user behaviour
- users can create their own hashtags, allowing the opportunity for issues/topics to be classified that subsequently rise in prominence/trend among a wider range of social media users/increases the chance of users' concerns being noticed and addressed;
- contrasting/conflicting hashtags can spark debate and discussion among users, allowing users to be exposed to perspectives and arguments that they would otherwise miss / be unaware of;
- Users interact with content related to their interests / views by following hashtags / social media accounts they know align with their interests / views
- Hashtags / social media accounts provide opportunity / platform / communication channels to connect with people for collaboration
- Folksonomies / hashtags / social media / web 2.0 has given all users opportunity to create instead of simply seeking information;
- trending hashtags may make users with opposing points of view less willing to expose their dissent / more likely that users just follow the trend;
- Social media allows people to be anonymous and hence more likely to attack/hurt others
- users including certain hashtags may find themselves open to attack/abuse from other human users / automated bot accounts (e.g. “trolling”);
- hashtags are open to misuse and manipulation (e.g. "bot" accounts flooding social media with tagged posts / users stuffing posts with multiple lines of the same hashtag to create a false "trend");
- users who follow/search on popular hashtags may find themselves "bubbled" – i.e. they are only ever exposed to viewpoints that reflect their own existing perspectives;
- Content people share is moving towards viral / inappropriate content to attract attention
- Followers of popular accounts / hashtags tend to be influenced by the views / content of the account / hashtag (e.g. popular YouTube accounts may start advertising products)
Accept other reasonable answers that convey similar ideas.
Examiners report
Most candidates answered this correctly.
Most candidates answered this correctly.