Local Vocal: Where Design Thinking Meets Social Media and Creates Civic Engagement and Social Entrepreneurship

Nance, Kinyetta L.; Langston, William K.; Nixon, Christopher

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/48830 Copy

Description

Title

Local Vocal: Where Design Thinking Meets Social Media and Creates Civic Engagement and Social Entrepreneurship

Author(s)

• Nance, Kinyetta L.
• Langston, William K.
• Nixon, Christopher

Issue Date

2014-04-04

Keyword(s)

design thinking, civic engagement, community engagement, crowdfunding, 5 modes of design thinking, Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford, social entrepreneurship

Abstract

Local Vocal is a web application that uses design thinking and social media to foster collaborative civic engagement and social entrepreneurship to build stronger local communities. Local Vocal provides a platform for community members to create civic projects, share ideas, receive feedback and contribute to local projects through funding or time contribution. By using the five (5) modes of design thinking (empathy, define, ideate, prototype, test) created by the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford, Local Vocal propels each project through a similar five-stage development process to mature the plan for funding. Local Vocal connects the community through commenting and rating mechanisms common in social media; with the help of Local Vocal, projects become more than ideas. The web application aims to support community engagement in the online space, encouraging citizens to take their opinions and views from ideation to creation with the goals of improving the communities in which they reside or operate. The purpose of this paper is to present a design exploration of Local Vocal which includes the five modes of design thinking and how they have been incorporated into the web application, the paper will also discuss related work from projects already being implemented in the area of civic engagement and crowdfunding, and will conclude with considerations for future work.

Publisher

iSchools

Series/Report Name or Number

iConference 2014 (Social Media Expo)

Type of Resource

text

Language

en

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/48830

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