Journal

DIRPC 2019

A cup of coffee sits on top of a stack of papers, a laptop and the programme for the DIPRC conference on Angela's lap.
But first: coffee.

It’s real now! We held the first presentation about the the SocialTech project at the Digital Inclusion Policy and Research Conference at the University of Liverpool in London.

It was a great conference, and an amazing opportunity to connect with other researchers, professionals from both the third sector and industry, government officials and students working on the intersections of society and new communication and (emerging) internet technologies.

We got some interesting feedback after our presentation.
The slides and annotations can be found on the project website, but I also want to give a short summary of the current state of the project itself below.

The main points we talked about

Text slide. Text reads: Tech Support for Social Issues. Accessibility is a social issue, but often defined in technical terms. Thinking diversity, inclusion, and accessibility together. Communication is creating response-ability Goal: Reach (a broad range of) people.

We explained the project itself, and the question-response format of the resource we are working on.

Text slide. Text reads: Finding Useful Questions: We have been dealing with accessibility and inclusion on an academic level for a while. How to make these topics approachable? Our project that aims to bridge the gap between academia and everyday organizational practice. We want to provide a starting point for those interested in reaching more people with whatever they do.
Text slide that shows 3 stages: Set Up, Play and Rewind. They are connected in a cycle made of arrows, but in a twisted and wonky not at all straightforward way.

This wonky knot is supposed to show how adapting communication practices and having inbuilt feedback loops both internally and with your audience make it easier to react to one’s audience/users/visitors and their needs easily.

We are excited to start incorporating the feedback we got and continue working on this project!