What: Community Informatics Studio final presentations

When: Saturday, August 9, 9:30-11:30am

Where: LIS room 341

This semester the Community Informatics Studio class set out to collect community input regarding design and innovation spaces. We visited several such sites around our community, and reviewed various methodologies for dialog with community. But our research began to raise more questions than just the best approach to take in dialoging with community as we worked to solidify our own understanding of what constituted a design and innovation space, and the differing purposes for such spaces.

To inform our academic research, students volunteered several hours each week at, and also brought their past experiences with, different public technology spaces in our community, including the Fab Lab, The Urbana Free Library 2nd floor computer lab and the Teen Open Lab, and the Champaign Public Library computer lab. At the end of the semester, students participated in a Demystifying Technology workshop at The Urbana Free Library as an opportunity to further dialog with community.

Come hear the result of the students consolidation of theory and praxis as they propose a potential theoretical framework for situating design and innovation spaces, possible methodological approaches to furthering dialog with community regarding such spaces, and initial insights garnered from their in-field experiences.

As an added bonus this semester, a PhD student from the University of Washington participated in the class remotely this summer. Ivette Bayo Urban will be presenting on how she has been applying the lessons we’ve been learning together to her own work with Casa Latina in Seattle, Washington this summer and how it will inform her work going into the fall.