DRS2012 Bangkok Proceedings Vol 4 - Design Research Society

1680 Conference Proceedings
Neighborhood Labs – Community building through knowledge transfer
organizational framework for non-institutionalized peer-to-peer education and delivered
valuable insights and inspiration for us in dealing with that specific issue.
Entering the Community: First Research Phase
In an initial phase of gathering information about the community, as well as transferring
knowledge about ourselves to the community in order to establish a trustful partnership,
we tried to spend as much time as possible in the club – shadowing the everyday
processes, getting to know the main protagonists, and conducting a number of semistructured
video interviews, online/offline surveys and co-design workshops.
Analyzing the results of this first qualitative research phase, we considered the following
as the central insights:
� Participant’s motivations are marked by a pragmatic desire to take part in today‘s
information society. The participants want to learn to use technology in order to
keep up with the communication habits of their families and friends. Other
motivations range from the interest to meet like-minded persons, to a general
interest in personal encounters, which can be regarded a key motivation for
members. The leaders’ main motivations are to pass on knowledge from former
professional life to people in need, as well as the general interest to undertake
fresh tasks in a new life phase. Remaining active is also a motivation, so as to
establish and maintain social contacts.
� The club is proud of the fact that all club related communication is grounded on
active use of information technology: most club-related communication is
organized using the help of online tools. All members actively use email, online
calendars, and the like.
� While the group is interested in more inter-generational collaboration and
contacts, age distinction is important – the group members identify with the label
“senior” and regard it as the common basis. Still, the connected communication
goal is in “reciprocal learning” rather than on single directed knowledge transfers.
In addition, we experienced that learning goals scale down in relation to period
and intensity of engagement: all regular participants mentioned that the social
contact exceeded their initial learning interest in relation to membership duration.
� We understand that our key finding of the first research phase is the general
concept and the mechanisms of fostering social interaction through the exchange
of knowledge which we can support by the use of design methods, interventions
and prototypes.
Scaling & Opening of the Research Context
This first research phase led us to the understanding that the subject of knowledge —
computer skills — although central to the social fabric of the community, is arbitrary in
itself. Considering that the vehicle for enhancing this community is a general shared
interest, the interactions that are necessary in order to link the chosen subject with one
another are essential.
Following this insight, we adjusted the overall project design: instead of intervening within
the SCC, we moved towards the attempt of transferring the core element of this very
community — Community Building through Knowledge Transfer — to the entire
neighborhood of the Fischerkiez, which as mentioned above has been described as
anonymous and isolated.