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Designing for Upstream Work: Learnings from Co-Design for Preventative Solutions with Urban Fire Departments

Public health and social welfare fields increasingly recognize the need for preventative interventions that address root causes rather than respond to emergent problems – yet face significant challenges in designing tools and demonstrating success for such initiatives. We characterize these important, but difficult to develop and scale solutions using Dan Heath’s term “upstream work”. We then explore design solutions to support upstream work through a multi-phase co-design process to assist fire departments developing alternate EMS response programs to reduce 911 call volume.

Care Workers' Risk Work: How Nannies Manage Invisible Threats in Employers' Homes

Extending prior HCI and CSCW research on invisible challenges that domestic care workers face, we examine how childcare workers, particularly nannies, experience and manage workplace risks. Drawing on interviews with 21 full-time nannies, we identified three interrelated risks—physical, emotional, and financial—arising from structural and relational constraints in employers’ homes. Through the lens of risk work, we show how these multi-dimensional constraints create tensions that hinder nannies' direct risk mitigation strategies.

Predicting the Success of Local Gatherings: A Comparison of Organizer- and Participant-side Success in Meetup

This study examines the dynamics of local community gatherings facilitated by EventBased Social Networking platforms, a growing mode of social interaction in urban settings. While these platforms are increasingly used to organize real-world events, limited research has explored the factors that shape the success of these events across diverse city environments and how local socio-spatial contexts influence participation and engagement.

News Deserts as Information Problems: A Case Study of Local News Coverage in Alabama

This paper explores the phenomenon of news deserts as information problems to navigate research opportunities and theorize its dynamics. Drawing on the theory of local information landscapes, news deserts are conceptualized as more than merely an absence of news organizations or content; rather, emphasizing the structural and material dimensions of local news ecosystems, such as fragmentation, transience, and inconsistent distribution. We argue that news deserts should be understood as material pre-conditions of people’s access, interpretation, and engagement with information.

Exploring Librarians' Experiences and Perceptions of Public Library Data Work

This study investigates the experiences and concerns of public librarians responsible for statistical data management and explores strategies to address related challenges. In-depth interviews were conducted with ten librarians handling statistical tasks at public libraries in Metropolitan City A and Province B in the Yeongnam region. Findings revealed that librarians had established a systematic workflow involving data collection, internal verification, data entry, and external verification.

Data Discretion: Screen-Level Bureaucrats and Municipal Decision-Making

Public servants tasked with implementing rules or policies on the street-level often make discretionary decisions based on local context. Lipsky has labeled them street-level bureaucrats. During the COVID-19 pandemic, as most face-to-face interactions facilitated by local government moved online, many street-level decisions were moved to screens, representing the actions of who Bouvins and Zouridis refer to as screen-level bureaucrats. Discretionary decision-making among public servants continued, but much of it centered on the collection, analysis, and use of data.

The NYC311 App & Community Engagement in Coproducing Municipal Services

In the public sector, governments and the people they serve increasingly collaborate to coproduce public services. To support the coproduction of municipal services, specifically, local governments have incorporated various digital technologies into their information systems. How do digital technologies affect community residents' engagement in coproducing municipal services?

Two-sided Cultural Niches: Topic Overlap, Geospatial Correlation, and Local Group Activities on Event-based Social Networks

As event-based social networks (EBSNs) such as Meetup.com and Facebook Events gain popularity in managing local events like farmers' markets and social gatherings, they create two-sided cultural niches where event organizers and participants benefit from the platform while influencing each other. Among various factors, niche overlap, an ecological feature, has been studied as a key factor that shapes the success of online communities.

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