Hi there,
We call ourselves Newcastle University’s Digital Civics or NUDC for short and are a group of four students: Frida, Ed, Sara and Catherine. Our project aims to help the Jesmond Residents Association (JRA) to gather a more widespread response from the public about how the area might evolve. As it is now, there is a program called Streets for people (or S4P) going on all over Newcastle which focuses on making the streets more amiable for walkers and especially cyclists. So far they’ve pinpointed some places in Jesmond that are in need of change due to a lot of traffic and unsafe conditions for cyclists and pedestrians. In these areas they have come up with possible solutions that they now want to know the residents’ opinions on. However, a lot of the residents in the area are unfamiliar with the program and how to share their opinion on plans. This is why the JRA choose to take part in this module, what they as clients want to receive is a digital solution to their problem. By modifying cycle lanes, roads and aiming to reducing traffic, they plan to create a more accessible, lively and safe green environment. Therefore, they need a product that can inform the locals on what the potential plans look like and also gather feedback from them together with other possible solutions, suggestions or ideas.
As a team, we need to deliver a prototype which is easy to understand, interactive and informative. One possible way to display our idea is via a storyboard. In order to carry this out, first we must research by speaking to stakeholders such as members of Streets for People, Jesmond Residents Association and the local community. This phase should be completed within the following couple of weeks.
In preparation for the upcoming meeting with our client, we all deconstructed the brief and brainstormed questions to bring forward as well as various ideas that might provide a solution to the issues raised. We made sure to consider what information he may or may not know as chair of the JRA. We even decided to ask him questions the brief answered for us to make sure that we had the correct perspective. For example, we planned to ask about challenges that Jesmond faces and what previous efforts had been attempted.
Dear all, thanks for this entry. You have managed to briefly introduce yourself, and perhaps in the final report, you could expand a little bit further on this, who you are as a team, and what skills you bring.
From your brief summary of the project, you appear to have a good grasp of what the brief entails and why Tony has an interest in partaking in this project. I would encourage you to ask a few questions for what ‘digital civics’ might mean for you in the context of this project. In the lecture we related the emergence of the field to the observation that online new media might facilitate novel forms of interaction of individuals to the public. We related the idea of a ‘digital civic’ to the concepts by Dewey (as discussed in the paper by Le Dantec that is part of the weekly reading). For the final submission, I would encourage you to revisit those references for the week and reflect on how those concepts relate to your project.
Your reflections on priorities and key tasks in the project are useful and you do right to re-state and re-ask the client questions that are already included in the brief, so to check your understanding. It is a good practice to enable the client to set priorities and help you define your project choices. Note that the ‘story board’ you mention is a design activity that we will apply in week six to explain the engagement method that you have have come up with.
I look forward to your next post about the first meeting with the client.