Designing for Civil Society blog... Main page | about This blog was started at a workshop on Designing for Civil Society in September 2003. See original notice below. Report here. We hope develop a wider community of practice around the issues discussed here, so please use the comments facility under postings to give us feedback or ideas for content. David Wilcoxdavid@makingthenetwork.org Return
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SECOND CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
Andy Dearden
Steve Walker
1. INTRODUCTION
This workshop will bring together campaigners, practitioners and researchers to examine the use of technology by the organisations of civil society, such as trade unions, NGOs, campaign groups and charities. The workshop will explore how existing knowledge of Human Computer Interaction (HCI), in its broadest senses, can be applied by such groups, and what questions such groups pose for our emerging understanding of HCI.
We invite submissions from practitioners, designers, campaign organisers, activists and researchers who are:
* involved in designing for, or supporting NGOs, trade-unions, community, campaigning or voluntary groups;
If you are interested in participating, please email an expression of interest to the organisers (a.m.dearden@shu.ac.uk / s.walker@lmu.ac.uk)
- case studies of design experiences (successful or unsuccessful) or innovative applications and campaigns;
Statements should include a short paragraph detailing relevant personal experience.
2. IMPORTANT DATES
* Position papers/statements - 12th August 2003
3. WHY A WORKSHOP
The development of the internet has opened up many opportunities for a range of progressive social movements and organisations. Groups promoting (for example) women's rights, human rights,disability rights, community development, third world development, industrial democracy and more recently anti-globalisation and global justice groups are all developing ways of using technology to further social ends, as have others with less desirable ends such as hate groups and a variety of cults.
The use and development of information systems amongst these groups raise both practical and theoretical challenges for HCI and related disciplines. We know that social and organisational context are critical in designing appropriate technology. Therefore, methods developed for the needs of commercial organisations may not be appropriate to support socially-oriented organisations in their use of information and communication technology. Indeed, such methods may be antithetical to their values. Many social organisations may want to develop and apply design methodologies which more closely reflect their own values.
The needs of such social movements differ from industrial applications of HCI because they:
* rely heavily on the work of volunteers who are not professionally trained in their area of work;
4. THE AIMS OF THE WORKSHOP
This workshop posits a number of key questions for practitioners and researchers, including but not limited to:
* How can we design systems to enable and encourage fair access and participatory democracy in a world of computer mediated communication and digital divides?
5. PROPOSED WORKSHOP STRUCTURE
The morning session will consist of a short introduction, followed by an opportunity for each participant to present their initial position statements / case studies.
The afternoon session will consist of a set of break-out groups to address selected topics from those above. The groups will report back and the final part of the workshop will be given over to planning future activities and support networks.
We are currently in discussion with Springer-Verlag about a book based on this and related activities.
6. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION |