Community Design: growing one's own information infrastructure

Abstract

This paper examines the phenomenon of Community Design. It is a radical phenomenon in that community members collectively grow their own community information infrastructures without the intervention of professionals typically associated with such endeavors. A recently initiated comparative study draws on ongoing, longitudinal research engagements with a small number of communities and has identified a set of characteristics that apply across these communities that undertake Community Design. We present the characteristics grouped into three dimensions of community: organizational, social and technical. Finally, we draw attention to future research topics that we see as relevant to the expanding scopes of Participatory Design.

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