Community Inquiry and Collaborative Practice: The iLabs of Paseo Boricua

Résumé

Many studies of human-computer interaction focus on environments that are fairly fixed and well-defined. These, however, leave many questions unanswered for the field of community informatics, which aims to understand how information and communication technologies (ICTs) are employed to help communities achieve their goals. In this paper, we describe and discuss the development of the iLab software and its integration with the philosophy and practice of community inquiry, by presenting our collaborative work with Chicagos Paseo Boricua neighborhood. Questions we address include: 1) What role does human-computer interaction have in the overall collaborative practices of Paseo Boricua? 2) How does the work with Paseo Boricua inform the development of ICTs for collaboration? 3) How does community inquiry theory help us to understand these processes and practices?