PRADSAX: A Design activity

PRADSAX: The Design Activity

PRADSAX the design activity is a project to design
a new way of working to deliver the collective intelligence that we
need to help us get resources to improve the availability and use of
technology in social action.

Each time we have met face-to-face in the PRADSA
project, we have found ourselves exploring opportunities that one or
more of us is aware of that could be used to bring money and resources
to bear on the problem of improving ICT in the social action sector.
But often these conversations happen when the deadline for funding bids
is already very close. At a meeting in Loughborough in November 2007,
we started to think how, if we could support these exchanges on-line
somehow, we might develop some ‘collective intelligence’ that would
improve our performance, i.e. we might be able to bring more resources
to bear, more effectively to improve the availability and use of
technology in social action. What we hope to design is a new way of
working, using existing tools and new tools, to make this possible.

How can you help?

• Scenarios and user stories: We are starting by
  creating a set of scenarios (or user stories) that describe our vision
  of how we currently work, and how we might work in the future. Please
  write a story, or comment on some of the stories that are already
  there.
• What already exists: We are interested in
  what other groups or other technologies have tackled this kind of
  ‘matchmaking’ problem. Please use the del.ico.us tag PRADSAX to draw
  our attention to anything you see which could inform our design
  activity. If you can, leave a comment in del.ico.us about why you feel
  that example is important to us.
• Analysis: You may have time to summarise /
  discuss / analyse the items that have been tagged with PRADSAX. Please
  Blog your thoughts on the TechnologyAndSocialAction site, and tag your
  item with PRADSAX
• Evolving practice: If you have ways of
  working already that can contribute to the PRADSAX vision, then please
  blog these for us. Use the tag PRADSAX.
• Write a how-to guide to explain (in the
  simplest possible terms) how to use the collaborative tools we are
  using in the project (del.ico.us, this Drupal site etc.)
• Further activities: As our project grows,
  more possibilities will arise for actions later in the design
  lifecycle. Please let us know what you think comes next!