Communities real and imagined
Tad Hirsch · 2009
In this paper, I describe how various understandings of community activated the design of Dialup Radio, a mobile phone-based independent media distribution system for Zimbabwean civil society and human rights activists. I identify three distinct communities and discuss their influence on the design process. Finally, I consider the challenges activist designers face in simultaneously addressing the needs of present-day users and the imagined future communities their projects hope to create.