Practical Designs for Social Action: New Understandings, New Communities, New Practices

When: Monday 16th March 2009,  09.30 - 18.00

This final PRADSA showcase event focused on "How can the design of Information; Communication Technologies (ICT) affect your capacity to change the world?"

It celebrated our two years’ research into how ICT can support social action (www.technologyandsocialaction.org) along with the changing approaches to designing and using ICT in social action settings. The PRADSA team brought together community based practitioners and university based researchers. Together we developed deeper
understandings of how technology fits into the work of social action groups and collaborated upon innovative tools and practices to make social action organisations more effective.

The day included presentations, discussions, demonstrations and a celebration amongst
organisations and individuals working to create social change. Starting
from our mission, not from the technical jargon, we proposed ways to
make our work more effective. The day was ended with a celebration of
the partnerships that made PRADSA more than the sum of its parts.

This event showcased key findings and outputs from the project, including:
• Assembling free web tools to support collaborative learning
• Thinking strategically about staffing to meet your communication needs
• Autonomy, participation, entrepreneurship and accountability
•    Low cost computing for small organisations via Fossbox http://www.fossbox.org.uk;
•    Second Life as a campaign medium ;
The community site in Skinningrove. http://www.skinningrovelinkup.org.uk/;
A BBC story about events at Skinningrove. http://www.bbc.co.uk/tees/content/articles/2009/03/16/skinningrove_jetty...
• The action research journal tool http://journal.technologyandsocialaction.org