As an introduction to methods for studying the design of apps and overview of ongoing critical research into apps developed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, CIM researchers Michael Dieter and Nate Tkacz will deliver a talk and workshop as part the forthcoming Participatory Information Technology Centre (PIT) Summer School organised at the University of Aarhus.

The PIT Centre extends the Scandinavian participatory design tradition, which has historically focused on involving people in the introduction of technology to their workplaces. However, during the recent decades, information technology has become an integrated element of almost all parts of people’s everyday lives, including leisure, civic activity, art, and culture, thereby establishing new forms of participation and social practices. The pervasiveness of information technology in human life poses new challenges for the way participation occurs, is supported, and understood.

Accordingly, PIT poses the fundamental question of what participation currently means, and how it may be supported by IT, today and in the future.