PHD THESIS – presentation & discussion
The thesis in details
sorry, just in italian for the moment…
Cooperative design knowledge.
Ethnographic approach to design knowledge. Dialogue and participation as discovery tools within complex knowledge contexts
This paper has been presented in 2009 at IASDR Conference in Seoul, South Korea.
Ethnographic approach to design knowledge.
Dialogue and participation as discovery tools within complex knowledge contexts
get the full text proceeding | by Francesca Valsecchi, Paolo Ciuccarelli
Keyword: design methodology, ethnography, dialogue, knowledge tools, knowledge sharing
Abstract
The following paper explores two main concepts: a) the ethnography as a thick and qualitative observation method, which refers to an active interpretation of the traditional ethnography by the communication design research mindset; b) the definition of design knowledge space, as extended boundaries for the physical place of design activities.
In the paper we introduce the interpretation of ethnographic plan as a tool for communication epistemology and as a relevant research tool for the understanding and interaction with high complexity knowledge contexts. Ethnography has been practiced within design organizations
aiming to provide remarks and insights about knowledge management systems within knowledge intensive organizations. We describe ethnography structure, tools, data analysis and interpretation
techniques.
For communication design practice, the field research is not considered merely as a techniques toolbox that have been borrowed from social sciences; design rhetoric refers to the major purpose of design thinking to act transformations in the observed contexts; ethnography is a way to face problem setting through research tools that consider observation and dialogue as the necessary design premise.
IASDR conference 2009
Rigor and Relevance in Design Research, 18-22 October 2009, Seoul, South Korea
conference website
Handling changes trough diagrams: Scale and grain in the visual representation of Complex Systems
This paper has been co-written with Donato Ricci and Paolo Ciuccarelli, as members of the Densitydesign team.
It has been presented at Changing the Change conference, Turin, July 2008
Handling changes trough diagrams:
Scale and grain in the visual representation of Complex Systems
get the full text proceeding | by Ciuccarelli Paolo, Donato Ricci, Francesca Valsecchi
Abstract
To change towards a more sustainable development could means to make decisions not only with a systemic approach, but also to be able to decide in the right time: the density. It seems that, when the discipline of Design integrate a systemic approach with the competences of designers in visualization, it can cope with dense situations, providing effective artefacts – diagrams – to improve the decision process and making profit from the richness of complexity. The prior findings of the Complexity Science are here assumed as a theoretical framework to have an interpretative model on how the knowledge about systems could be organized and depicted. Three tools to produce effective diagrams, framing, graining and scaling are here discussed though six case studies.
Changing the Change Conference. Design Visions, proposal and tools.
An international conference on the role and potential of design research in the transition towards sustainability
Torino 10th – 11th – 12th July 2008
in the framework of WORLD DESIGN CAPITAL TORINO 2008 | © ICSID An Icsid initiative of the IDA
Ciuccarelli Paolo, Donato Ricci, Francesca Valsecchi. 2008. Handling changes trough diagrams: Scale and grain in the visual representation of Complex Systems. In Changing the change Proceedings, ed. Carla Cipolla and Pier Paolo Peruccio. Turin: Allemandi, July 10.
PHD THESIS – introduction & summary
Cooperative design knowledge.
Creative actions overlook sharing practice.
This doctoral program researched the issues of knowledge production and sharing within design communities.
Starting from the exploration of the local and contextual environment of tools and resources that are usually considered as design knowledge, it suggests a possible cross-field between the field of design knowledge management and the knowledge production practices that typify the cooperation within networks.
[Research context]
This cross-field bases on the increasing presence and significance of the digital knowledge within the wide context of knowledge systems. Internet is considered as a world of fresh inspiration for cooperation and sharing, that offers to contemporary practitioners technology patterns useful to the (digital) knowledge management, and also suggests the existence of a culture that has cognitive and social relevance in the topic of knowledge as public and commons undertaking. In fact the idea of network unveils new and effective organizational, social and productive models, and reveals latent and primary questions for our society: the extension, the meaning, the rules and the features of our own digital nature, which existence is widely recognized (chapter 1).
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Le comunità del Free Software come organizzazioni complesse.Il ruolo del design verso una cultura Open Knowledge
Questo paper è stato presentato alla Conferenza Nazionale Software Libero, Cosenza, nel maggio 2007
Le comunità del Free Software come organizzazioni complesse. Il ruolo del design verso una cultura Open Knowledge
get the full text proceeding (italian) | by Francesca Valsecchi, Massimo Menichinelli
abstract
L’esperienza del Free Software ha esplicitato nuovi modelli organizzativi basati sull’idea di comunità e sulle pratiche della condivisione e del fare comune. La diffusione di strumenti informatici e di forme organizzative
comunitarie ha contribuito al crescere della sensibilità che la società e gli individui oggi hanno verso l’idea di rete, come infrastruttura e tecnologia, e di connettività, come attributo di sempre maggiore rilevanza nel proprio agire quotidiano.
L’opportunità di traslare l’esperienza organizzativa del Free Software e interpretarla in altri ambiti sociali e disciplinari è una delle eredità culturali del mondo digitale. Le comunità del Free Software sono cresciute grazie alla loro capacità di sviluppare autonomamente strumenti di auto-organizzazione della comunità stessa. Questa competenza ha attirato l’interesse di ricerca da parte di altre discipline, che ne hanno individuato e apprezzato i principi organizzativi fino a considerarli non solo replicabili ma anche in parte pre-esistenti all’esperienza del Free Software stesso.
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