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A tale of two publics: democratizing design at the margins

Published: 16 August 2010 Publication History

Abstract

The design and use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has now evolved beyond its workplace origins to the wider public, expanding to people who live at the margins of contemporary society. Through field work and participatory co-design with homeless shelter residents and care providers we have explored design at the common boundary of these two "publics." We describe the design of the Community Resource Messenger (CRM), an ICT that supports both those in need and those attempting to provide care in a challenging environment. The CRM consists of three components: 1) a message center that pools messages to and from mobile users into a shared, persistent forum; 2) a text and voice messaging gateway linking the mobile phones of the homeless with the web-enabled computer facilities of the care providers; 3) a shared message display accessible from mobile texting, voice, e-mail, and the web, helping the two groups communicate and coordinate for mutual good. By democratizing design and use of technology at the margins of society, we aim to engage an entire "urban network," enabling shared awareness and collective action in each public.

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cover image ACM Other conferences
DIS '10: Proceedings of the 8th ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems
August 2010
457 pages
ISBN:9781450301039
DOI:10.1145/1858171
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: 16 August 2010

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Author Tags

  1. constructed publics
  2. design
  3. homeless
  4. urban computing

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Cited By

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  • (2024)Promoting Criticality with Design Futuring with Young ChildrenProceedings of the 13th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/3679318.3685335(1-15)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2024
  • (2024)Democratizing Design through Generative AICompanion Publication of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3656156.3663703(239-244)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2024
  • (2023)Context matters: Exploring the mediated nature of digital service provision within homelessness organizationsMobile Media & Communication10.1177/2050157923121984212:2(424-440)Online publication date: 19-Dec-2023
  • (2023)Exploring Challenges to Inclusion in Participatory Design From the Perspectives of Global North PractitionersProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35796067:CSCW1(1-25)Online publication date: 16-Apr-2023
  • (2023)The Human Behind the Data: Reflections from an Ongoing Co-Design and Deployment of a Data-Navigation Interface for Front-Line Emergency Housing Shelter StaffExtended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544549.3585694(1-7)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
  • (2023)Unmaking as Emancipation: Lessons and Reflections from LuddismProceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544548.3581412(1-15)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
  • (2023)Design for Emergency: How Digital Technologies Enabled an Open Design Platform to Respond to COVID-19Interacting with Computers10.1093/iwc/iwad04235:5(650-665)Online publication date: 21-Aug-2023
  • (2023)eDakterBari: A Human-Centered Solution Enabling Online Medical Consultation and Information Dissemination for Resource-Constrained Communities in BangladeshHeliyon10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e23100(e23100)Online publication date: Nov-2023
  • (2022)Preliminary Exploration and Evaluation of Smart Support for Homeless Community2022 6th International Conference on Universal Village (UV)10.1109/UV56588.2022.10185514(1-14)Online publication date: 22-Oct-2022
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