Participate.net
In my presentation for the last Thesis Review, I used a chart (modified and cribbed from Ray Anderson’s book Mid-Course Correction) to illustrate the relationship between Education and Action over Time. The critical point is that both are required for successful change. Education without subsequent Action is useless, and Action without Education is also dangerous because you don’t know if you’re helping or hurting.
I was excited to read WorldChanging’s article about Participant Productions and Participate.net. In brief, Participant Productions makes movies about socially relevant issues (education) and provides a means through Participate.net for people to take action. And this is precisely what Participant Productions says on their website: “The movie is just the beginning.”
The challenge for me as a designer is how I can engage people in an educational process that leads to action. Is this something that occurs in one object, or over a process that spans several objects or moments? Ideally it’s something that doesn’t require much effort to engage with, but still provides the opportunity for richness and growth. This was one of the particularly valuable lessons I took away from the Service Design course last year: that the service blueprint is just the beginning. Ideally you provide less a framework and more a platform from which people can grow and develop.