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Governance, baby

Since I've been doing research on governance and how design can play a role in promoting the good use of it, I find this incredibly interesting. The internet allows for a different kind of information exchange that is now being affected by the voice of the users. It's like we're learning as we go about the "rights and responsibilities" that go along with being a part of this internet village. Now if information graphics could simply the text for those who speak a different language...that'd be cool.

I went to a conference on global health at UBC today. The last talk by Dr. Shafik Dharamsi had to do with ethics and responsibility. The conversations were relevant and when he showed this documentary film, They Come In The Name Of Helping, I felt like I was watching a video version of my thesis. The dialogue that occurs reflects the concepts I have looked at with the women in Rwanda. It takes a bit to load but is well worth watching.

Peripheral Participants

These are the ideas I'm after.

When I think of how the periphery have the potential to contribute to the whole (specifically in the context of those who face challenges in the developing world), I start to consider how this model could be translated back in Rwanda.

Because it speaks of good governance. The fact that citizenship is developed "by the people for the people" is recognizable. I realize we live with incredible freedoms to do so, but if this idea could be shared with a rural town in Rwanda, would the same potentials be realized? I get a bit of hope inside thinking about the "what if's".

The tools I'm trying to figure out in the process of this are being considered and evaluated through a lens that isn't my "home town"(like this Vermont case), which adds some complexity to my process. Language, beliefs, needs and values are relevant in this research (for them and me). In my case, I want to consider how a cultural probe (Gaver) might illuminate ways to bring a community on the other side of the globe into their own change (without assuming I know what that change should look like). Because many initiatives are developed without consulting the people who will be affected by them, I like what this town in Vermont is suggesting by including their peripheral actors. And perhaps by understanding deeper needs, future innovations can be approached without messing with what already works.

By the people, for the people.