Stakeholders, Users, and Who Else?: Constituent Groups for Reimaging Collective Impact

Description:
Open platforms like Decidim provide infrastructure and frameworks to create transparent and democratic technologies. The participatory nature of these spaces allows collaboration opportunities between a wide range of stakeholders, users and participants. But how can we go beyond these traditional groups in typical design circles to assess and examine harms, benefits, and opportunities of emerging digital platforms for collectives?

In this talk, we expand on concepts from traditional participatory design to include the role of “constituents” – those who are represented in or impacted by emerging technologies like AI to highlight the diverse spectrums of impact and ethical considerations throughout the technology pipeline.

We will introduce Constituent Engagement, developed by Civic Software Foundation, as a framework to validate assumptions and restore situated knowledge in technology lifecycle. We will also explain how to identify “constituent groups” in projects with use cases from Decidim, and illustrate how inclusive practices are not a marketing or PR strategy, and can measurably inform platform structures, validation cycles, and interpretation of KPIs.

Language of the session: The talk can be in Catalan, Spanish or English, as preferred by the organising team.

Logistical needs: Screen and projector if possible