Co-designing social technologies for Hamar

Juan Freire
http://juanfreire.net/ @jfreire

1. Drivers / barriers 2. What is a social technology project? 3. Co-designing paper prototypes 4. Presentation of each prototype 5. Conclussions and proposals

DRIVERS / BARRIERS

1. Access to technology: broadband, computers, mobiles Digital literacies 2. Afuent city: state provides most of services and covers most of the needs of citizens

DRIVERS / BARRIERS

3. Dispersal of population:
- car dependence
- difculties to access public spaces
- difculties to provide services

DRIVERS / BARRIERS
4. Sense of community: ++++
> isolation from outside
> strong local culture
> volunteers -----
> internal isolation
> waekening of people ties
> absence of collective (autonomous) projects

CHALLENGES:
get the people active
empower communities

Irrigation systems for agriculture in Nepal

STATE

MARKET

STATE

MARKET

COMMONS Users Institutions Social technologies

STATE

MARKET

COMMONS Users Institutions Social technologies

STATE

MARKET

Citizen participation

WHAT IS A SOCIAL TECHNOLOGY PROJECT?

arab springs

movement #15M in Spain

Social technologies
MACHINES infrastructures hardware software web services PERSONS empowerment coordination collaboration autonomy

social technologies facilitates: capacity of citizen coordination and development of propositive projects

Social technologies

Collective intelligence

Communities

Communities of practice / learning communities:

- common problems (goals) - common methods (work) - common rules (governance) - common platforms (technology)

Some examples

Solving problems

Providing infrastructures

gui.net

Creating new contexts, changing political agenda

3
CO-DESIGNING PAPER PROTOTYPES
General objective: open minds to imagine projects developed by the community to solve problems / attain goals of the community

Components of each project: - specic objectives - digital platform: functionalities; web services; software; mobile apps: mashups; ... - users: collectives within / outside the community; typology of users (levels of use); required literacies (need of learning actions) - dynamizing / facilitating / mediating - governance: people in charge; decision-making; conict resolution

- 3 groups / 5-6 persons / 1 hr work - Group work: diagrams, drawings, texts - Presentation of each project - Discussion of each project

4
PRESENTATION OF EACH PROTOTYPE

1. Helping people with everyday problems

Problem / Goal
Help people to coordinate to solve everyday problems (transport, food delivery, injuried people ...)

Technologies in use
SMS + geolocation + web service Spatial matchmaking between demands and volunteers

Governance
Volunteer organization. Moderators, curators. Point system to visualize work (reputation)

2. Mobility - car sharing

Problem / Goal
Returning home after the end of public transport Organizing groups of 4-5 persons to drive every weekend

Technologies in use
geolocation + web service Spatial and temporal matchmaking of people and resources

Governance
No governance needed? independent use by people?

3. Real-time collaborative calendar and map for childrens activities

Problem / Goal
Difculties to get information about activities. Restrictions in participation in activities

Technologies in use
geolocation + mobile app + web service digital billboards in public spaces publication of events by users popularity of events (i.e., no. of participants, i like ...) events organized by topic and location (search)

Governance
Managers ltering and approving events submited by users

5
CONCLUSSIONS AND PROPOSALS

1. Mobility is a key problem affecting daily lives. Public transportation is not the complete solution 2. To solve problems we need: Sharing information Sharing resources Sharing help (peoples time) 3. Volunteer tradition is a good starting point for developing projects (social infrastructure)

4. Technological needs - geolocation - mobile apps - websites - search engines ...

Generic apps (i.e. Facebook) doesnt work (lack of facilitation and adaptation to the local needs and idiosyncrasies)

5. Consequences for the public space (Stortorget) - more afuence of public - more time, more intense uses - more autonomy of people - developing communities of interest (potential creative users of public space) - increase the sense of community

Archigram. Instant City

Archigram When its raining on Oxford Street, the buildings are no more important than the rain

6. How to implement these (and many other) projects? - task force / civic organization - meta-project to develop basic, common infrastructures: maps, databases ... - new library / cultural centre as a production centre for community projects