Wainer Lusoli (born March 1, 1974) is an Italian academic, trained as a political scientist and policy analyst. He has worked on policy areas including science policy, open science, science in society, political participation, electronic democracy, digital identity, social computing and cloud computing.
From 2012 he has been a policy officer at the European Commission, DG Research and Innovation, working on the European Open Science Cloud and on Responsible Research and Innovation. From 2008 until 2012 he was a Scientific Officer and Senior Scientist at the Joint Research Centre (European Commission), Institute for Prospective Technological StudiesEC JRC IPTS Staff Pages and an honorary visiting research fellow at the University of Chester. Previously, he was a senior lecturer at the University of Chester and a research fellow at the University of Salford and at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Early life and education Born in Sassuolo, Italy, Lusoli grew up in Fiorano Modenese, Italy. He earned a Laurea in Political Science and from the University of Bologna, a Master's degree in European Political Systems and Cultures from the University of Bologna and the Network Europaeum, and a PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science. His thesis, dated 2006, was titled Voice and e-quality: The state of electronic democracy in Britain.
Career in academia On aggregate, Lusoli has an h-index score of 20, and a g-index score of 27.H-score calculator based on Google Scholar results His publications fall mainly in the areas of policy studies, e-government, electronic democracy and digital identity.
Between 1999 and 2006, Lusoli published extensively in peer-reviewed journalsA search for 'Wainer Lusoli' returned 284 entries in Google Scholar on 22 February 2014 on topics related to electronic democracy and e-participation. Especially, he contributed to literature the use of web services by political parties,Gibson, R. K., Ward, S. J., & Lusoli, W. (2003). The Internet and Political Campaigning: the new medium comes of age? Representation, 39(3), 166-180. by political party members,Lusoli, W. & Ward, S. (2004). Digital Rank-and-File: Party Activists' Perceptions and Use of the Internet. British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 6(4), 473-450. by political representatives, by trade unions, by various political organisations, and by citizens in several countries. In his overall work on electronic democracy, he arrives at the sobering conclusion that electronic media may have little to offer in terms of democratic engagement.Lusoli, W. (2006). Of Windows, Triangles and Circles: the Political Economy in the Discourse of Electronic Democracy. Comunicazione Politica, 7(1), 27-48 Lusoli, W. (2007). Forme di democrazia elettronica . In G. Pasqino (Ed.), Strumenti della democrazia (pp. 101-122). Bologna: Il Mulino
In relation to Internet and politics, he worked on several research projects funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and other funding bodies, mainly in collaboration with Rachel K. Gibson and Stephen J. Ward. These include the ‘Virtual Observatory for Online Networks: New Forms of Collective Action on the WWW’ (July 2006 – July 2008);ARC VOSON DEMO-net: The eParticipation Network, as affiliated expert (December 2006 – December 2008);DEMO-net - the eParticipation Network of Excellence ESRC - The Internet in the 2005 general election (March 2005 – December 2005);Campaigning in Cyberspace: The 2005/6 General Election Online the Internet & Elections ProjectInternet & Elections Project (March 2004 – June 2006), on the use of the new media by parties, candidates, pressure groups and the media during electoral campaigns in Europe, Asia and America; the ESRC Representation in the Internet Age projectESRC E-Society Programme: Representation in the Internet Age (July 2003 – June 2005), about the import of new media for representative democracy in Britain and Australia; and the ESRC Democracy and Participation Programme: The Internet, political organisations and participation projectESRC Democracy and Participation Programme: The Internet, political organisations and participation (August 2001 – June 2003), about the use of new media by British political organisation and citizens.
From 2007 to 2012, he contributed to the policy debate and to the academic literature on digital identity. He has researched digital natives's attitudes and behaviours regarding personal identity data disclosure;Lusoli, W., & Miltgen, C. (2009). Young People and Emerging Digital Services. An Exploratory Survey on Motivations, Perceptions and Acceptance of Risks (JRC Scientific and Technical Reports EUR 23765 EN). W. Lusoli, R. Compañó & I. Maghiros (Eds.) Sevilla: EC JRC IPTS. he has written on the policy and regulatory aspects of digital identity in Europe;Lusoli, W., Maghiros, I., & Bacigalupo, M. (2009). eID policy in a turbulent environment: is there a need for a new regulatory framework? Identity in the Information Society, 1(2). . he has written on the economics of identity markets.Compañó, R., & Lusoli, W. (2009). The Policy Maker's Anguish: regulating personal data behaviour between paradoxes and dilemmas. Paper submitted to the Eighth Workshop on the Economics of Information Security (WEIS 2009), London, 24–25 June 2009. He has conducted research on the market and the economics of electronic identity, the changing infrastructural landscape, the structure of service provision based on digital identity and relevant policy issues in relation to the Digital Agenda for Europe.Stevens, T., Elliott, J., Hoikkanen, A., Lusoli, W., & Maghiros, I. (2010). The State of the Electronic Identity Market: Stakeholders, their Roles and Strategies (JRC Scientific and Technical Reports No. EUR 24567 EN). Sevilla: EC JRC Institute for Prospective Technological Studies In this study and in related work,Lusoli, W., & Compañó, R. (2010). From security versus privacy to identity: an emerging concept for policy design? Info, 12(2), 80-94. he and his co-authors argue that usability, minimum disclosure and portability, which are essential features of future digital identity systems, are at the margin of the market and that cross-country/cross-sector systems for business and public services are only in their infancy. And that in economic terms, the utility functions of users and service providers in relation to digital identity data are divergent. This generates a market asymmetry, as service providers are able to extract value from user data via opaque value propositions. From 2008, he has contributed to the debate on social computing and identity, mainly arguing that the way personal identity data is monetised in the digital market in unclear and unregulated, both in Europe and elsewhere.Yves Punie, Wainer Lusoli, Clara Centeno, Gianluca Misuraca and David Broster (Eds.) (2009) The Impact of Social Computing on the EU Information Society and Economy, Sevilla: JRC Institute for Prospective Technological Studies
Conferences, public speaking and the media Lusoli was relatively active in public fora and academic conferences for about a decade, presenting his work to academics and policy-makers in several countries. He is not a public figure, as his work has not received broadcast media attention, exception made for a few references in the British pressThe Sunday Times, 13 March 2005, E-politics wins a vote of confidence. in relation to academic-related work.
External links Network Europaeum IPOL Research Website
See also digital identity electronic democracy
References