Community Panel

Project Type

Civic participation and participatory design have historically been regarded as critical ways to tackle the power imbalance between ‘users’ and systems designers and developers. As part of Not-Equal's Open Commissioning process, citizens were invited to review the social impact of submitted research proposals to help determine which project should be funded. 

In the first call the Community Panel were involved in the selection process to decide on the final funded projects. They were tasked with establishing a set of judging criteria based on their own experiences and perceptions of issues related to social justice in the digital economy. They decided research into social justice and innovation should consider and respond to the needs of a community; help to reduce barriers to participation and involvement in technology and services; and support community cohesion. 

They provided a score for each criterion (out of 10) and a review statement for the proposals, based on reading the project title, tagline, and social impact statement. In the second call, the criteria already set out by the first panel was used to choose the projects. Members of the panel were matched to review projects based around their own experience and expertise. During the process, panelists found value in honest accounts that would openly consider the ambivalent nature that future digital innovations might entail. These insights add to the growing discourse about ethics in digital innovation and aligns with calls for design as a catalyst for social change.

Opening Research Commissioning To Civic Participation: Creating A Community Panel To Review The Social Impact of HCI Research Proposals

https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3411764.3445113