Cultures of Participation in the Digital Age: From "Have to" to "Want to" Participate

Abstract

New levels of personalization and engagement with software systems (e.g. smart phones, social media) can boost users' interest to become part of small scale or large-scale design processes. It is through active and engaged participation that socio-technical solutions help lay the foundation for lifelong learning and design. "Do It Yourself" solutions ignite people's natural desire to explore and discover. Starting from these considerations and the results of the previous workshops on "Cultures of Participation in the Digital Age", the 4th CoPDA workshop at NordiCHI'16 explored theories, frameworks, systems, and experiences in order to understand and support what encourages users from wanting to participate rather than having to participate. We invited researchers and practitioners to discuss and exchange experiences with learning and working environments where people are encouraged to explore their unique talents and interests, and where designers are facilitators of the creative design process by providing the right context and tools for ordinary users and end-user developers. The focus on "wanting to participate" was aimed at enabling the design of products and services more effectively, while improving and developing user's skills in problem solving, decision making, collaboration, and communication.