Conference Agenda (All times are shown in Mountain Daylight Time (MDT) unless otherwise noted)

This paper introduces innovative participatory methods designed to foster community dialogue and engagement in development initiatives. We present participatory mapping, participatory photography, and two culturally grounded games, "Mayuk" and "Cachiveras," as tools to facilitate community participation, dialogue, and reflection. Grounded in the theory of participatory action research (PAR) by Orlando Fals Borda, these methods prioritize local knowledge, foster a dialogue of knowledge between communities and researchers, and aim for social transformation through active community participation. By implementing these participatory activities, we not only engage communities in identifying resources, strengths, and opportunities but also promote a playful strategy for adults to deepen analysis and engage in critical dialogue about their culture and communication. This approach aligns with the conference theme of Putting People First, demonstrating responsibility, reflexivity, and care in the creation and evaluation of participatory development activities.

Infrastructure consists of interlinked and nested sociotechnical systems, the construction, maintenance, and repair of which requires considerable ongoing outlays of material resources, technical know-how and throughput, and political will. Building upon “broken world” approaches, this research uses qualitative methods to study infrastructure development, breakdown, and repair through the lens of a particular collaborative humanitarian initiative involving the public health sector in the Gaza Strip. Findings from this research suggest that a lack of donation ethics combined with policies that privilege “service over stuff” enable and exacerbate key infrastructural breakdowns, perpetuate maladaptive behaviors, inhibit meaningful development, and reinforce dominant harmful regimes. The paper concludes by arguing for increased critical and ethical awareness of donation culture and its consequences, a reconsideration of development policies that limit funding support to services rather than material and infrastructure supports, and an emphasis on building local capacity for maintenance and repair work.

Video games are both information objects as well as experiences of play. However, current methods of game preservation often fail to capture the full gaming experience. To address this, one proposed solution involves leveraging player-generated content as an alternative to emulation. To investigate the viability of this suggestion, we examine the following research questions: (1) What types of gameplay content exist on the platform YouTube? and (2) What are the challenges and opportunities in utilizing this style of community created content for game preservation? We introduce a Taxonomy of YouTube Game-Related Content to answer these questions and discuss its application, along with the challenges and opportunities that arose during its creation. Our taxonomy and findings suggest that although utilizing this content for game preservation requires additional knowledge of games and their community, as well as consideration of how the platform and creators impact game history, it also presents opportunities to preserve more diverse voices and experiences of play. Furthermore it suggests YouTube videos offer a potential avenue, not only for preserving the game object, but also for preserving its broader cultural significance and multiple forms of knowledge.

Mobile map applications greatly facilitate users' everyday information practices and provide them with real-time and accurate information in different contexts. However, few studies have explored the contextual information needs of users in their interactions with mobile maps. Semi-structured interviews with 18 participants revealed that users present diverse and rich information needs in their everyday use of map applications, and in addition to the most common information needs for situ navigation, users' contextual information needs varied. Particularly, mobile map applications are increasingly characterized by serious leisure while highlighting their utility. In addition, with the evolution of the platformization of map applications, users are also demanding more autonomy, visibility, and security. This study contributes to the literature on human-information interaction in mobile maps and sheds light on the user experience design of mobile map applications.