Co-designing a social media service for civic participation: critical issues and challenges

  • Authors:

  • Teemu Ropponen;Pirjo Näkki;Asta Bäck;Auli Harju;Kari Hintikka

  • Affiliations:

  • Aalto University School of Science and Technology, Aalto, Finland;VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, VTT, Finland;VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, VTT, Finland;University of Tampere, Finland;University of Jyväskylä, Finland

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 14th International Academic MindTrek Conference: Envisioning Future Media Environments
  • Year:
  • 2010

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Abstract

User participation in social media design processes has similarities with civic participation for example in urban planning. Internet enables new virtual environments that can be planned collaboratively and be used for civic participation. In the Monimos case study we developed a social media website for immigrants and multicultural associations in a participatory design process together with the users. In this paper we present the critical issues in co-designing a social media service that aims at civic participation. We also give suggestions for how to cope with the challenges in a multicultural participation process. We claim that constant meta-level discussion about the goals and participation practices with the users is beneficial for the design process.