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The promise and perils of a participatory approach to developing an open source community learning network

Published: 27 July 2004 Publication History

Abstract

This paper describes and analyses the early developmental stages of a community learning network based in an urban community and social service agency. With government funding, the community organization contracted with a small software firm to design and implement participatively a web-based ‘community portal’ using open source software and techniques. While adopting these progressive development ideals has brought notable benefits, they have also posed significant challenges for the parties involved. In particular, mis-matched expectations, budget squeezes, and slipped schedules have been attributed to the approach being too participatory and too open. We examine these claims and offer insights into community-oriented, participatory, open source development projects.

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  • (2022)Investigating participatory design and community attachment: a case study of Sai Ying Pun, Hong KongJournal of Urbanism: International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability10.1080/17549175.2022.2120527(1-20)Online publication date: 18-Sep-2022
  • (2020)Service design and participatory design: time to join forces?Proceedings of the 16th Participatory Design Conference 2020 - Participation(s) Otherwise - Volume 210.1145/3384772.3385133(76-81)Online publication date: 15-Jun-2020
  • (2019)Sustaining platforms as commons: perspectives on participation, infrastructure, and governanceCoDesign10.1080/15710882.2019.163135115:3(243-255)Online publication date: 26-Jul-2019
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cover image ACM Conferences
PDC 04: Proceedings of the eighth conference on Participatory design: Artful integration: interweaving media, materials and practices - Volume 1
July 2004
245 pages
ISBN:1581138512
DOI:10.1145/1011870
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 27 July 2004

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Author Tags

  1. community informatics
  2. community learning networks
  3. open source
  4. participatory design
  5. social services

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Cited By

View all
  • (2022)Investigating participatory design and community attachment: a case study of Sai Ying Pun, Hong KongJournal of Urbanism: International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability10.1080/17549175.2022.2120527(1-20)Online publication date: 18-Sep-2022
  • (2020)Service design and participatory design: time to join forces?Proceedings of the 16th Participatory Design Conference 2020 - Participation(s) Otherwise - Volume 210.1145/3384772.3385133(76-81)Online publication date: 15-Jun-2020
  • (2019)Sustaining platforms as commons: perspectives on participation, infrastructure, and governanceCoDesign10.1080/15710882.2019.163135115:3(243-255)Online publication date: 26-Jul-2019
  • (2019)Towards a Data Sonification Design FrameworkSonification Design10.1007/978-3-030-01497-1_5(151-178)Online publication date: 31-Jul-2019
  • (2015)Strangers at the GateProceedings of the 18th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing10.1145/2675133.2675147(1348-1358)Online publication date: 28-Feb-2015
  • (2014)Exploring participation in the design of public library e-servicesProceedings of the 13th Participatory Design Conference: Short Papers, Industry Cases, Workshop Descriptions, Doctoral Consortium papers, and Keynote abstracts - Volume 210.1145/2662155.2662174(17-20)Online publication date: 6-Oct-2014
  • (2013)Infrastructuring and the formation of publics in participatory designSocial Studies of Science10.1177/030631271247158143:2(241-264)Online publication date: 26-Feb-2013
  • (2013)Revealing the Socio-Technical Context of Design Settings: Toward Participatory IS DesignInternational Journal of Human-Computer Interaction10.1080/10447318.2013.76576729:4(289-307)Online publication date: Mar-2013
  • (2011)Design Tools and Processes for Building E-LearningEncyclopedia of Information Communication Technologies and Adult Education Integration10.4018/978-1-61692-906-0.ch025(415-434)Online publication date: 2011
  • (2010)The unit of analysis in understanding the politics of participatory practiceProceedings of the 11th Biennial Participatory Design Conference10.1145/1900441.1900473(183-186)Online publication date: 29-Nov-2010
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