Contradicting Motivations in Civic Tech Software Development: Analysis of a Grassroots Project

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Knutas, Antti, Siemon, Dominik, Tylosky, Natasha, Maccani, Giovanni
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2023
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author Knutas, Antti
Siemon, Dominik
Tylosky, Natasha
Maccani, Giovanni
author_facet Knutas, Antti
Siemon, Dominik
Tylosky, Natasha
Maccani, Giovanni
contents Grassroots civic tech, or software for social change, is an emerging practice where people create and then use software to create positive change in their community. In this interpretive case study, we apply Engeström's expanded activity theory as a theoretical lens to analyze motivations, how they relate to for example group goals or development tool supported processes, and what contradictions emerge. Participants agreed on big picture motivations, such as learning new skills or improving the community. The main contradictions occurred inside activity systems on details of implementation or between system motives, instead of big picture motivations. Two most significant contradictions involved planning, and converging on design and technical approaches. These findings demonstrate the value of examining civic tech development processes as evolving activity systems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2302_03469
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Contradicting Motivations in Civic Tech Software Development: Analysis of a Grassroots Project
Knutas, Antti
Siemon, Dominik
Tylosky, Natasha
Maccani, Giovanni
Software Engineering
Grassroots civic tech, or software for social change, is an emerging practice where people create and then use software to create positive change in their community. In this interpretive case study, we apply Engeström's expanded activity theory as a theoretical lens to analyze motivations, how they relate to for example group goals or development tool supported processes, and what contradictions emerge. Participants agreed on big picture motivations, such as learning new skills or improving the community. The main contradictions occurred inside activity systems on details of implementation or between system motives, instead of big picture motivations. Two most significant contradictions involved planning, and converging on design and technical approaches. These findings demonstrate the value of examining civic tech development processes as evolving activity systems.
title Contradicting Motivations in Civic Tech Software Development: Analysis of a Grassroots Project
topic Software Engineering
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2302.03469