WeDo: End-To-End Computer Supported Collective Action
Haoqi Zhang, Andrés Monroy‐Hernández, Aaron Shaw, Sean A. Munson, Elizabeth M. Gerber, Benjamin Mako Hill, Peter Kinnaird, Shelly D. Farnham, Patrick Minder · Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media · 2014
Many celebrate the Internet’s ability to connect individuals and facilitate collective action toward a common goal. While numerous systems have been designed to support particular aspects of collective action, few systems support participatory, end-to-end collective action in which a crowd or community identifies opportunities, formulates goals, brainstorms ideas and develops plans, mobilizes, and takes action. To explore the possibilities and barriers in supporting such interactions, we introduce WeDo, a system aimed at promoting simple forms of participatory, end-to-end collective action. Pilot deployments of WeDo illustrate that sociotechnical systems can support automated transitions through different phases of end-to-end collective action, but that challenges, such as the elicitation of leadership and the accommodation of existing group norms, remain.