24
Jan
2025

In defence of Twitter, but not X

This post was inspired by something that has been bothering me about the exodus from Twitter: the moral pressure to leave that is being exerted on those who – for now – out of necessity still remain there.

While, of course, I see the danger of autocratic plutocrats controlling our global communication infrastructure, and yes, we should move toward publicly owned social media platforms, we face a practical dilemma. Ideally, we’d instantly switch to a smooth, decentralized, user-friendly Fediverse-like infrastructure that prevents dictatorial control while maintaining effective global reach for mass emancipatory movements. Sadly, we don’t live in that ideal world. In reality, Twitter (which I refuse to call X, as Twitter is the community, while X is the hijacked technical platform) remains a powerful global network for climate action, Gaza advocacy, COVID research, and many other similar, often fragile social movements.… Read more...

Posted by Aldo de Moor in CommunitySense, 0 comments
10
Dec
2024

Talk – From Classroom to Global Stage: Harnessing Deliberation on Wicked Problems in Education

The First Symposium on Educating for Collective Intelligence took place on December 5th and 6th, 2024. It was an honor to be invited as one of the speakers.


Check out my talk “From Classroom to Global Stage: Harnessing Deliberation on Wicked Problems in Education”, as well as the position paper that went along with it. Let me know what you think the role of the classroom could be in building capacity for social impact.

Posted by Aldo de Moor in Conferences, Publications, 0 comments
04
Sep
2024

New publication: Participatory Network Mapping for Public Action

B. Brayshay and A. de Moor (2024). Participatory Network Mapping for Public Action, in T. Rossetto and Laura Lo Presti (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Cartographic Humanities. Routledge, Abingdon, Oxon, UK, pp.371-380

[Download preprint]

Abstract:

In this chapter, we present findings from a participatory mapping project undertaken in the Black Caribbean community in the London Borough of Lambeth commissioned to create a Systems Map of community support available to unemployed people and identify the barriers and leverage points to their economic engagement. We introduce the case study and go on to outline our design philosophy to enable the community to find its voice using participatory mapping and storytelling. We show how we applied this philosophy in the Lambeth case study.… Read more...

Posted by Aldo de Moor in Publications, 0 comments
24
Jul
2023

Winning the openAI grant with Deliberation@Scale

So excited to be part of the innovative DeliberationAtScale consortium – winner of one of ten global openAI Democratic inputs to AI awards – that is going to help explore ways to make the incredible power of generative AI that has so suddenly been unleashed upon society into a force for the common good!

We’re thrilled to share that our team, DeliberationAtScale, consisting of NGOs, businesses, and local leaders in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, won #openai‘s grant – Democratic inputs to AI. We’re one of ten global teams to secure this grant. Our goal? Develop AI systems that work for everyone.

Read the full press release here: https://www.dembrane.com/blog/openai-grant-democratic-inputs

Shaping AI’s future is not easy but, we’re up to the task. We’re ready to take on the long haul and engage in fruitful talks about how this change affects ordinary people.
… Read more...
Posted by Aldo de Moor in CommunitySense, Projects, 0 comments
25
May
2023

New publication: The Role of Social Capital in Sustainable ICT4D

M. Marais, H. Lotriet, M. Matthee and A. de Moor (2022). The role of Social Capital in Sustainable ICT4D. In L. Stillman and M. Anwar (eds.), Proc. of the 20th CIRN Conference, Prato, Italy, 9-11 November, 2022, pp.128-147.

[Download PDF]

Abstract:

This paper tells the story of an Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) project and a research approach. The research used a novel definition of sustainable development that emerged from South American development philosophies. The concept of Social Capital (SC) is central to this definition and SC was used to study the sustainability strategies of participants in a project to deploy internet access to schools in a rural region in South Africa. A novel support model was developed by selecting local post-school youth for entrepreneurial attitudes and training these so-called "Village Operators" (VOs) as on-site technical support.

… Read more...
Posted by Aldo de Moor in Conferences, Publications, 0 comments
15
Feb
2023

New publications: Participatory Collaboration Mapping/Collaborative Sensemaking of Design-Enabled Urban Innovations: The MappingDESIGNSCAPES Case

DESIGNSCAPES was an EU H2020 program for building capacity for design-enabled innovation in urban environments. In the MappingDESIGNSCAPES project we piloted a participatory collaboration mapping approach for cross-case sensemaking across design-enabled urban innovation initiatives:

  • A. de Moor, E. Papalioura, E. Taka, D. Rapti, A. Wolff, A. Knutas, T. te Velde and I.
… Read more...
Posted by Aldo de Moor in CommunitySense, 1 comment
25
Jan
2021

New publication: Smart Cities – Heading Toward Panopticons or Smart Societies?

A. de Moor (2020). Smart Cities: Heading Toward Panopticons or Smart Societies?, ACM SIGCAS Computers and Society, Vol.49, No.3, pp.16-17. doi.org/10.1145/3447913.3447923

Abstract:

Smart cities are all the rage. To many, they seem to be a panacea to address all the city’s “wicked problems”. To this purpose, much effort and money is spent on developing high-tech Big Data and AI solutions. In this short essay, I argue that it is equally important to invest in unlocking the potential of the HUMAN intelligence embodied in the network of communities that together make up local society. One technique to do so is to – together with local communities – map and make sense of the “collaboration ecosystems” in which they meet and mingle.… Read more...

Posted by Aldo de Moor in CommunitySense, 0 comments
06
Nov
2020

New publication: New Community Research and Action Networks – Addressing Wicked Problems Using Patterns and Pattern Languages

Schuler, D., de Moor, A., & Bryant, G. (2020). New Community Research and Action Networks Addressing Wicked Problems Using Patterns and Pattern Languages. Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on ICT for Sustainability, 330–337. doi.org/10.1145/3401335.3401818

 

 
See also the presentation of our paper that co-author Doug Schuler gave at the LIMITS 2020 Sixth Workshop on Computing within Limits on June 21.
 

 

Abstract:

 

The goal of this paper is to present a vision of research and associated practice that is intended to help transcend many of the barriers that are preventing society from adopting the sustainable goals that will help them survive, and even thrive in the coming decades. We believe the research enterprise could be expanded to meet contemporary needs, and to see it as more of a collaborative undertaking involving thinking, implementing, monitoring and evaluations of interventions with larger groups of people (not only specialists) and would be more focused on social benefit.
… Read more...
Posted by Aldo de Moor in Conferences, Publications, 0 comments
15
Jul
2020

Greater than the Sum meets CommunitySense: the full interview series

Over two years ago, I was asked by Christine Capra of fellow participatory mapping consultancy company Greater than the Sum to be interviewed by her on my ideas on participatory community network mapping. This interview turned out to be something much more than that. Of course, over the years, I have already published many (academic) research publications on the development and application of the CommunitySensor methodology. However, I have never been able to put the grand essence of my mapping philosophy into words as artfully as Christine has, adding her own refreshing perspective as an “outsider to my inner thoughts”. In all, that first conversation became a whole series of reflective blog posts. In Christine’s own words:

“It’s been over two years since my original interview with Aldo.

… Read more...
Posted by Aldo de Moor in CommunitySense, Ideas, 0 comments
01
Jul
2020

New publication: Citizen Sensing Communities: From Individual Empowerment to Collective Impact

A. de Moor (2019). Citizen Sensing Communities: From Individual Empowerment to Collective Impact. In Proc. of the 17th CIRN Conference, Monash Centre, Prato Italy, 6 Nov – Friday, 8 Nov 2019, pp. 91-101.

[Download PDF]

Abstract:

We examine a case study in which one form of network mapping – participatory community network mapping – was used to visualize and help discover common collaborative ground between stakeholders in a Dutch multi-sectoral climate action coalition of the willing. After introducing the 2018 Dutch Klimaatstroom Zuid Climate Summit case, we discuss how the CommunitySensor methodology for participatory community network mapping can help discover collaborative common ground in such complex networks. We share how we applied CommunitySensor to the climate summit case. We end with a discussion on how such participatory mapping could support the process of common agenda setting towards collective impact.
… Read more...
Posted by Aldo de Moor in CommunitySense, Publications, 0 comments
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