Community Designers

Abstract

Pueblo is a cross-generational, network-supported learning community developed by its own members. This participatory design effort has been different from many work-oriented systems projects and has expanded our view of what participatory design entails in a network community. The technical foundation of Pueblo is a MUD, a text-based, multi-user virtual world, which has been integrated into classroom use in a K-6 elementary school. The design process has been decentralized and open-ended, reflecting the combined efforts of a diverse group of people: researchers in computer science and education, elementary school educators and students, senior citizens, college students, and friends and colleagues around the Internet. As the community has changed, the evolving participation, roles, goals, expertise, and personal and professional relationships have played an important part in the design experience. The history of this community has been marked by increasing social maturity, with transitions from questions of "what can we do" to "what should we do" to "how should we decide what we should do".