WeDo: Exploring Participatory, End-To-End Collective Action

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, develops plans, mobilizes, and takes action. To explore the possibilities and barriers in supporting such interactions, we have developed 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.

💡 Research Summary

The paper titled “WeDo: Exploring Participatory, End-To-End Collective Action” discusses the potential and challenges of supporting participatory collective action through a sociotechnical system. While the internet is celebrated for its ability to connect individuals and facilitate collective action towards common goals, most existing systems support only specific aspects of this process. WeDo aims to bridge this gap by promoting simple forms of end-to-end collective actions where crowds or communities identify opportunities, set goals, brainstorm ideas, develop plans, mobilize resources, and take action.

The system has been piloted with encouraging results showing that sociotechnical systems can automate transitions through different phases of the collective action process. However, challenges remain, particularly in eliciting leadership roles within these groups and accommodating existing group norms. These issues highlight the need for a more nuanced approach that integrates social dynamics alongside technological solutions.

The paper underscores the importance of understanding community-specific needs and dynamics to effectively support participatory collective actions. It also points out that while technology can facilitate many aspects of collective action, it cannot fully replace human interaction and leadership roles within these communities. The research contributes valuable insights into how future systems might be designed to better support collaborative efforts in a digital age.