On Social Function: New language for discussing Technology for Social Action

Andy Dearden & Ann Light. On Social Function: New language for discussing Technology for Social Action. Presented at Directions and Implications of Advanced Computing (DIAC), 26th – 29th June 2008, Berkeley, CA.

Abstract

Designers of technology for social action can often become embroiled in issues of platform and technical functionality at a very early stage in the development process, before the precise social value of an approach has been explored. The loyalty of designers to particular technologies and to ways of working can divide activist communities and, arguably,
has weakened the social action world’s performance in exploiting technology with maximum usefulness and usability.

In this paper, we present a lexicon for discussing technology and social action by reference to the intention and relationship to use, rather than to detailed functionality. In short, we offer a language to support discussions of social function, and thus to avoid premature ommitment or argument about architecture or implementation details.