Facilitate Knowledge Sharing among BIPOC Public Interest Technology Entrepreneurs
Background: This project is a multi-unit collaboration between the School of Information, the Ford School of Public Policy, the College of Engineering, and external advisors working in the area of public policy. This project allowed me to revisit a past project of mine on augmenting interaction in a knowledge-based online community. Moreover, it enabled me to apply my research and software development skills, and at the same time to assume more mentoring and supervising responsibilities to lead a team effort in research and development.
I initially ran into this summer opportunity and joined the team as a generalist to provide guidance and support on research, design, and development of an application concept at its infant stage. As the project progressed, I took up more system design and development work to create the first system prototype of an online community. I am currently serving as a mentor and supervisor to lead a team consisting of two designers, and a developer/data scientist to develop the next version of this exciting platform.
My role(s): Developer, Supervisor
Collaborator(s): Dr. Tayo Fabusuyi, Raymar Hampshire, Anuya Karnik, Yun Lee, Jessica Taketa, Antonia Sweet, Jihee Yoon
Motivation: The lived experience of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) entrepreneurs in the field of Public Interest Technology (PIT) when developing their services or products, interacting with cross-sector stakeholders, obtaining funding, working with communities directly impacted by their solution, and holding values of social justice and equity would be invaluable for others working in the same field.
Problem Solving: Based on interview data the team previously obtained through conversation with 9 PIT BIPOC entrepreneurs, I identified one interesting knowledge-sharing challenge that technology could potentially support using the idea of journaling. I conducted an in-team experiment to test the idea and demonstrated the potential of sharing work journal entries to uncover knowledge-sharing opportunities. I collaborated with designers to refine the application concept and developed the first prototype as a web application. I also co-led or assisted with two grant applications to obtain funding, facilitate domain name brainstorming, and provide feedback to log design to support the deployment and branding effort.
Analyze Interview Transcripts
9 PIT entrepreneurs
In-team experiment
4 team members
Prototype
a team of two designers, and a developer/data scientist
Outcomes: I developed a web application using the Next.js framework that supports basic account login, sharing stories, and forming connections. The Google Cloud Platform credits grant application has been approved, which will allow hosting the platform for a year. I am currently in transition to a product manager role to organize a team of developers and designers to continue the development of this knowledge network platofrm for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) entrepreneurs and prepare for deployment and beta testing.
Summary:
Date: 2021 Spring
Platform: Public Interest Technology Knowledge Network
Research & Design Strategy
Analyze Interview Data to Identify Design Opportunity to Uncover Valuable Knowledge in PIT Entrepreneurs' Lived Experience
I started by reviewing transcripts of interviews conducted with 9 PIT BIPOC entrepreneurs to get a glimpse into their work and how their personal experience inspired them to become entrepreneurs. I worked with other team members to identify key themes using thematic analysis. One key finding was that they value the lived experience and believe they could learn from others, and yet, they didn't know how their own lived experience could be useful for others.
After noticing this interesting challenge, I started to investigate a way to uncover such implicit knowledge embedded in a person's everyday experience so that others can notice something valuable, and in return, allow the person to recognize the once hidden knowledge in her own experience.
Conduct a Small Scale Study to Obtain Insights into the Potential of Sharing Journal Entries to Facilitate Knowledge Sharing
Since the first step of such discovery requires the bits and pieces of the person's experience to be documented, the idea of journaling caught my attention as a potential starting point. I did a small experiment within our project team where members wrote brief journals and shared them with each other. The preliminary results demonstrated that we were able to document some experiences that ended up being useful for others, even if we wrote those journal entries mostly for ourselves.
Built on the initial positive results from the journaling experiment, I started designing a platform concept that would allow BIPOC entrepreneurs to effectively share such knowledge that reflects their lived experience and foster meaningful social connections, collaboration, and develop community knowledge by publishing on the platform.
Develop an Online Knowledge Community to Test Ideas and Build Community
I am currently leading the effort to develop a prototype to realize such a vision. In parallel, I am investigating the use of network analysis to understand and facilitate knowledge sharing and community formation. I also collaborate with team members to author a grant to obtain Google Cloud Platform credits in preparation for hosting the web app for public use. The short-term goal is to start alpha-testing with potential stakeholders.