Organizational Unit:
School of Interactive Computing
School of Interactive Computing
Permanent Link
Research Organization Registry ID
Description
Previous Names
Parent Organization
Parent Organization
Organizational Unit
Includes Organization(s)
ArchiveSpace Name Record
Publication Search Results
Now showing
1 - 8 of 8
-
ItemA Grassroots Praxis of Technology: View from The South(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020-10-29) Ghoshal, SuchetaGrassroots social movements led by Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) in the southeastern United States have survived and fought through centuries of systemic oppression. In the recent age of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), these movements often turn to popular, centralized technology systems like Facebook or Google Drive for support in accomplishing day-to-day tasks of organizing. Toward organizing their actions, grassroots social movements follow praxis---a combination of theory and practice. At the core of this grassroots praxis is the belief that our social movements must be centered around the people at the margins of a society. Popular centralized ICTs used in these movements, however, are often not made with grassroots praxis in mind. Though grassroots communities may be aware of this conflict, they have few alternatives to choose from. In fact, more value-aligned technical solutions are often more expensive and less inclusive. This poses interesting questions for the field of Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW)---how can we make sure community organizations are critically informed of the ways ICT values can affect their culture? How can we support them as they practice ICTs in ways that center their own values? What does it mean for us to design in solidarity with communities marginalized by hegemonic cultures of technology? In this dissertation, I aim to contribute to these broader questions with findings and analyses from four years of community-centered, participatory action research I have conducted with grassroots social movements of the US South. Specifically, my research has been in collaboration with two grassroots social movement communities of the U.S. South: i) Science for the People-Atlanta, a local grassroots organization that I also helped build, and ii) Southern Movement Assembly, a regional grassroots movement consisting of 110 local organizations located over the U.S. South. I conducted two interview studies, three participatory workshops, and four years of ethnographic work while simultaneously supporting the movements by volunteering my labor as a community organizer. I also designed tools---both physical and digital---with and for these communities. Specifically, I designed a web platform with SftP-Atlanta and a handbook of movement communication with the SMA. Finally, I analyzed this grassroots experience of ICTs in the light of notable theories of social transformation and technology-use---namely, liberatory pedagogy of social action, technocultural theory, and the body of work in CSCW and Social/Critical Informatics theorizing technology as enactment of structures. The tools I created as well as the overall process of my research were evaluated through ongoing reflections within the communities. I show that the consequences of value-conflicts between grassroots organizations and popular ICT culture have significant implications of exclusion and marginalization within these communities---e.g. favoring community members who have the privilege of technology access and ability, which is further related to the racial, gendered, classed privileges held by these people. For grassroots organizations situated in the U.S. South, this perpetuates hegemonic patterns of the past---especially since they end up excluding the same subjugated groups of people who have been historically excluded by systems of power these movements aim to resist. Through my analysis of their lived experiences of existing ICTs, as well as through material explorations of designing new technologies with and for these communities, I offer a critical perspective on technology-use by grassroots social movements. I argue that while popular ICTs largely came as a blessing to these movement communities that are often overburdened with the work of social transformation, relying on popular ICTs also came with a cultural cost. These tools and their surrounding culture of technology play a steady role in excluding the marginalized people in these communities by making invisible the power differentials underneath technical solutions---systemic issues such as lack of technological access/ability get foreshadowed by accounts of progress, efficiency, connectivity, etc. Thus, even in communities that actively question power, relying on ICTs can lead them to default to the values these technical solutions were often produced with. I further show that with adequate grounding and critical infrastructuring we can begin to imagine means of ICT-use that center grassroots praxis---an outcome that I present through my work in the field. Finally, I envision a future of critical technology practice where technology systems are designed, used, and held accountable with the liberatory values of grassroots praxis.
-
ItemIdentifying opportunities to improve content moderation(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020-03-18) Jhaver, ShagunThis thesis contributes a nuanced understanding of the challenges inherent in the design and implementation of fair and efficient content moderation systems. Using large-scale data analyses, participant observations, survey data and in-depth qualitative interviews, this research describes the perspectives and practices of different stakeholders - users who suffer online harassment, individuals whose posts get removed, people who rely on blocking tools to censor others, and community managers who volunteer time to regulate content. This work provides theoretical and practical guidelines for moderating against online harassment without impinging on free speech, for designing solutions that incorporate the needs of different user groups, and for adopting automated moderation tools that provide explanations of their decisions and that remain sensitive to localized contexts.
-
ItemVamos a resolver: Collaboratively configuring the internet in Havana(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2019-07-08) Dye, MichaelanneGlobally, nearly four billion people do not have access to the world wide web (WWW), and efforts to expand WWW access are growing rapidly. Despite these initiatives, local and international barriers along political, economic, and social dimensions continue to limit meaningful Internet engagements for individuals in politically and resource-constrained contexts. I focus on the case of Havana, Cuba, where, until recently, WWW access was limited to 5 % of the population. Based on fieldwork and qualitative research conducted throughout 2014-2018, this dissertation provides an empirical study of how increasing access to the WWW interoperates with locally-configured information networks to form a “Cuban Internet.’’ Against the backdrop of international media narratives that frame Cuba as an “isolated” country, I investigate the emergence of grassroots information networks for knowledge-sharing through content sold on USB thumb drives (“El Paquete”) and an intranet custom-designed by citizens (“StreetNet”). I also explore the introduction of government-sponsored WWW access initiatives through select workplaces and public WiFi hotspots. In Havana, the imagined potentials of the WWW collide with the realities of scarcity and barriers to access, as people collaboratively configure an Internet sustained by a human infrastructure. Incorporating the Cuban ethos of resolver (creative problem-solving amidst scarcity), I uncover the collective enterprises and negotiations that go towards the production of the Internet in Havana, thereby challenging established notions of what an (or the) Internet “should” look like in more and less connected contexts.
-
ItemThe role of copyright in online creative communities: law, norms, and policy(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2015-07-23) Fiesler, CaseyMany sources of rules govern our interactions with technology and our behavior online—law, ethical guidelines, community norms, website policies—and they do not always agree. This is particularly true in the context of content production because copyright law represents a collection of complex policies that often do not always account for the ways that people use and re-use digital media. Within legal gray areas, people make decisions every day about what is allowed, often negotiating multiple sources of rules. How do content creators make decisions about what they can and cannot do when faced with unclear rules, and how does the law (and perceptions of the law) impact technology use, creativity, and online interaction? Combining in-depth interviews, large-scale content analysis, and surveys, my work examines the complex relationship between law, site policy, norms, and technology. This dissertation provides a better understanding of how content creators engage with copyright and how norms organically form within communities of creators. It concludes with a set of design and policy recommendations for online community designers to help better support current practices among content creators.
-
ItemSupporting and transforming leadership in online creative collaboration(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2012-08-24) Luther, KurtOnline creative collaboration is challenging our basic assumptions about how people can create together. Volunteers from around the world who meet and communicate over the Internet have written the world's largest encyclopedia, developed market-leading software products, solved important open problems in mathematics, and produced award-winning films, among many examples. A growing body of research refutes the popular myth that these projects succeed through "self-organization" and instead points to the critical importance of effective leadership. Yet, we know little about what these leaders actually do, the challenges they must manage, and how technology supports or hinders their efforts. In this dissertation, I investigated the role of leadership in online creative collaboration. I first conducted two empirical studies of existing leadership practices, focusing on the domain of online, collaborative animation projects called "collabs." In the first study, I identified the major challenges faced by collab leaders. In the second study, I identified leader traits and behaviors correlated with success. These initial findings suggested that many collab leaders, overburdened and lacking adequate technological support, respond by attempting less ambitious projects and adopting centralized leadership styles. Despite these efforts, leaders frequently become overburdened, and more than 80% of collabs fail. To ease the burden on leaders and encourage more complex, successful projects, I led the development of a web-based, open-source software tool called Pipeline. Pipeline can support leadership by reinforcing a traditional, top-down approach, or transform leadership by redistributing it across many members of a group. This latter approach relies on social processes, rather than technical constraints, to guide behavior. I evaluated Pipeline's ability to effectively support and transform leadership through a detailed case study of Holiday Flood, a six-week collaboration involving nearly 30 artists from around the world. The case study showed that formal leaders remained influential and Pipeline supported their traditional, centralized approach. However, there was also evidence that Pipeline transformed some leadership behaviors, such as clarifying, informing, and monitoring, by redistributing them beyond the project's formal leaders. The result was a significantly more ambitious project which attained its goals and earned high praise from the community. The main contributions of this dissertation include: (1) a rich description of existing leadership practices in online creative collaboration; (2) the development of redistributed leadership as a theoretical framework for analyzing the relationship between leadership and technological support; (3) design implications for supporting and transform leadership; (4) a case study illustrating how technology can support and transform leadership in the real world; and (5) the Pipeline collaboration tool itself, released as open-source software.
-
ItemFeminist HCI for real: designing technology in support of a social movement(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2012-08-20) Dimond, Jill PatriceHow are technologies are designed and used tactically by activists? As the HCI community starts to contend with social inequalities, there has been debate about how HCI researchers should address approach this type of research. However, there is little research examining practitioners such as social justice activists who confront social problems, and are using technology, such as mobile phones, blogging, and social media to do so. In this dissertation, I build on this knowledge within the context of a social movement organization working to stop street harassment (harassment towards women and minorities in public) called Hollaback (ihollaback.org). I position myself as an action researcher doing research and building technologies such as mobile apps and a blogging platform to collect stories of harassment and to support activists. The organization has collected over 3000 stories and represents 50 different locales in 17 countries. Through a series of studies, I examined how technology impacts the organization, activists, and those who contribute stories of harassment. I found evidence that the storytelling platform helps participants fundamentally shift their cognitive and emotional orientation towards their experience and informs what activists do on the ground. My results suggest that doing activism using technology can help remove some barriers to participation but can also lower expectations for the amount of work required. I also looked at how different social media tactics can increase the number of followers and how traditional media plays a role in these tactics. My work contributes theoretically to the HCI community by building on social movement theory, feminist HCI, and action research methodology. My investigation also sheds light empirically on how technology plays a role in a social movement organization, and how it impacts those who participate.
-
ItemGlitch game testers: the design and study of a learning environment for computational production with young African American males(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2012-03-30) DiSalvo, BetsyThe implementation of a learning environment for young African American males, called the Glitch Game Testers, was launched in 2009. The development of this program was based on formative work that looked at the contrasting use of digital games between young African American males and individuals who chose to become computer science majors. Through analysis of cultural values and digital game play practices, the program was designed to intertwine authentic game development practices and computer science learning. The resulting program employed 25 African American male high school students to test pre-release digital games full-time in the summer and part-time in the school year, with an hour of each day dedicated to learning introductory computer science. Outcomes for persisting in computer science education are remarkable; of the 16 participants who had graduated from high school as of 2012, 12 have gone on to school in computing-related majors. These outcomes, and the participants' enthusiasm for engaging in computing, are in sharp contrast to the crisis in African American male education and learning motivation. The research presented in this dissertation discusses the formative research that shaped the design of Glitch, the evaluation of the implementation of Glitch, and a theoretical investigation of the way in which participants navigated conflicting motivations in learning environments.
-
ItemLearning in public: information literacy and participatory media(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009-07-06) Forte, AndreaThis research examines new systems of information production that are made possible by participatory media. Such systems bring about two critical information literacy needs for the general public: to understand new systems in order to assess their products and to become adept participants in the construction of public information spaces. In this dissertation, I address both of these needs and propose a view of information literacy that situates the information literate as both consumer and producer. First, I examine a popular example of a new publishing system, Wikipedia, and present research that explains how the site is organized and maintained. I then turn my attention to the classroom and describe three iterations of design-based research in which I built new wiki tools to support publication activities and information literacy learning in formal educational contexts. I use the rhetorical notion of genre as an analytic lens for studying the use and impact of these new media in schools. Classroom findings suggest that the affordances of a wiki as an open, transparent publishing medium can support groups of writers in building a shared understanding of genre as they struggle with an unfamiliar rhetorical situation. I also demonstrate how writing on a public wiki for a broad audience was a particularly useful writing experience that brought about opportunities for reflection and learning. These opportunities include transforming the value of citation, creating a need to engage deeply with content, and providing both a need and a foundation for assessing information resources.