Concentric Circles of Participation

When designing the ways that people will contribute to and participate in your project, it can help to think of concentric circles of participation.

In the center is the small committed group of individuals from the neighborhood who will ultimately be designing and constructing the network. It can help to have consistency with this group: for example, meeting at least weekly, paying for their time, and supporting this group with whatever they need to build the network, such as requisite digital literacy education.

Outside of this circle is the larger community of people impacted by the technology project. These can be residents, workers, and business owners in the vicinity of your network, or friends and relatives of your small group of committed individuals. Since not all of these people will have the time and interest to be involved regularly in the planning and implementation of your project, think of lower impact ways to involve their insight and needs into the project. Your small group can hold community meetings and conduct interviews and other forms of user research.

Finally, the largest circle is the global community of people who may want to learn from and remix your project. For this group, it’s helpful to document your process, including the positives and negatives, and to share tools and curricula in an accessible, open source way. You may identify more levels, and these levels certainly overlap. But just remember that abundant community participation, decision-making, and ownership is essential (even if it takes extra legwork on your part to ensure that this happens).

---