play and fun politics: useful tools for engaging social community users

On-line social communities are frequently depicted as venues for users’ active participation in various forms of co-production whereas online collaboration seems animated by a sense of fun and the promise of new interactive experiences. This study presents preliminary theoretical considerations of an ongoing research on smart city platforms. Our analysis referring to smart city platforms takes place within a research project (Orchestra - ORganization of Cultural HEritage for Smart Tourism and Real-time Accessibility) meant to develop a set of organizational solutions to foster the smart, sustainable and ecologically compatible. In particular we aim to reflect on a specific managerial tool, able to engage users in crowdsourcing processes. We argue that crowdsourcing processes are often grounded in a deep sense of fun among participants and we will explore the role covered by play & fun components, once these are deliberately used as managerial tools to incentive users’ participation.