Participate Consortium:
Environment / Pervasive computing

Participate is a three year DTI funded R&D initiative to explore how pervasive computing could support mass participatory media campaigns - especially those with an environmental focus.

For example, a campaign in which millions of people gather and share information about their local environments in order to create a dynamic national picture of environmental issues.

The project is led by BT and the partners are the BBC, Blast Theory, Microsoft Research, ScienceScope, the University of Bath and the University of Nottingham.

Stakeholder Analysis
At the start of the three year project I carried out interview and foresight analysis for the consortium. The goal was to uncover the groups ideas about the project: - mental-models, critical issues and goals.

The interview process and analysis was informed by techniques coming from future forecasting and scenario planning.

Analysis of these interviews identified agreement about project activities and goals as well potential tensions and challenges.

Future Foresight
The Participate group also wanted to get an overview of current thinking (from a mix of experts) about pervasive computing and what might happen in the next 5-10 years

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What could be the impact of these developments?

What would constitute a good or bad future? (for industry, the environment and end-users)

How can the Participate consortium make sure that it’s objectives contribute to a good future?

The future foresight report and workshop I designed was used by Participate management to help define success criteria for the next stages of their research.