Panel on Community Collaboration

Part 4: Pannels International audience Working with local communities and gaining an intimate knowledgeof a community life can make significantly improve the efficacy and appropriatenessin the research and design of interactive systems. However, it is not alwayseasy to substantially engage a community in research and design, due toconstraints and barriers both within and without the project’s domain. Commonconstraints and barriers include navigating cultural, socio-economic and politicalissues, power relations and trust; poor or unfamiliar technical infrastructure;time and funding constraints; and, organizational requirements and expectationsof funding agencies and different project partners.Five panelists will share their experiences in engaging underservedcommunities in Africa and India in community-based participatory designs andresearch. Their discussion seeks to enrich our understanding and practices incollaboration by addressing the following themes:Effective approaches to and guidelines for collaborating with underservedcommunitiesStrategies to overcome barriers in community-based co-design and coresearchStakeholder rolesWays that theoretical concepts in African philosophy can assist in configuringcollaborationIssues raised in a workshop on community participation, to be held atINTERACT 2013 preceding the panelPanelists will be: Anupama Saxena, Gereon Kapuire, Bongiwe Dlutu-Siya,Dan Orwa Ochieng, Nicola J. Bidwell, Darelle van Greunen (Moderator).