A community solution byYeaseul Kim, Susan Oldham, Laurel Stone & Ian Wyosnick

cultivating relationships through gardening

meet Greta

� misses sense of community � has extra food from garden � wants info she can trust

Strong & weak tiesEmotional connectionsSense of presenceLeadership conditionsBoundary activityBridge offline & onlineSplintering

Greta uses grownet to: � Share knowledge � Share food � Connect with community and promote local gardening

Strong & weak tiesEmotional connectionsSense of presenceLeadership conditionsBoundary activityBridge offline & onlineSplintering

knowledge sharing

Strong & weak tiesEmotional connectionsSense of presenceLeadership conditionsBoundary activityBridge offline & onlineSplintering

knowledge sharing

Strong & weak tiesEmotional connectionsSense of presenceLeadership conditionsBoundary activityBridge offline & onlineSplintering

food sharing

Strong & weak tiesEmotional connectionsSense of presenceLeadership conditionsBoundary activityBridge offline & onlineSplintering

food sharing

Strong & weak tiesEmotional connectionsSense of presenceLeadership conditionsBoundary activityBridge offline & onlineSplintering

social connection

Strong & weak tiesEmotional connectionsSense of presenceLeadership conditionsBoundary activityBridge offline & onlineSplintering

Greta & Nicole make strong ties

social connection

How did we  end up here?

We address Greta’s problems with an online environment that’s based on:

�Knowledge Sharing �Food Sharing �Social Connections

our platform

will it float?

will it float?

occasionallynever

often

81% of gardeners are comfortable/very comfortable sharing food with strangers

user research surveysFood SharingWhat do you do with extra fruit/vegetables that you have grown but cannot use?

Knowledge SharingHow often do you participate in online environments such as forums or social networks for knowledge sharing?

Social ConnectionsHow comfortable would you be sharing your garden produce with people you don’t know?

Need for Community Garden

1 2 3 4 5

20

16

12

8

4

0

20

16

12

8

4

0

41% Share with friends/family

20% Donate

02% Sell

Sell Share friends family

Share neigh-bors

Do-nate

Com-post

Other

community researchSeattle P-Patch 2009 Evaluation Key Findings

� Relationship Building � Source of Food and Economic Security � Skills Development

� Need for More Communication and Support

� Recognized need to continuously grow new leadership in the community

� A sense of personal gratification knowing that they provide a benefit to the community and to individual

our literature review

Combined Key Findings1. Support Strong & Weak Ties

2. Create & Maintain Emotional Connections

3. Convey a Sense of Presence

4. Establish Leadership & Boundary Activity

5. Bridge Offline & Online

6. Allow for Splintering

Topics � Sense of Community

�Knowledge Sharing

� Local Food

� Learning to Garden

competitive analysis

sharingknowledge

community events

food sharing

sense of community

Your PlotSupports Strong Ties

�Group size maximum of 100

Creates and Maintains Emotional Connections �Able to see offline life of those they care about

Convey a Sense of Presence �User always sees all members of plot

Establishing Leadership and Boundary Conditions

� System suggests people nearby to add to an established users plot

knowledge sharing

Your GroupsSupports Weak Ties

� Large knowledge base to draw from

Allows for Splintering �Users can customize to match up with their interests or specialities

Establishes Leadership �User can gain respect and expertise from group involvement

food sharing

Food ShareSupports Strong & Weak Ties

� Broad base for people to conduct transactions

Boundary Activity �Allows for “lurkers” who just want food � Introduces large user base to system � Limited to 100 mile radius from location

Bridging Offline & Online � Establishes an offline connection from an online environment

log in plot feed chat your

groupsyour plot

food share

profile builder

quick lookplot

groups

have food

need food

persistent action

system flow

future steps

Connect to Local Food

CommunityP-Patches

Food BanksMarketsGrowers

Extensions

Calendar &

Events

next• User studies • Prototyping • Usability testing• Responsive web design for multi-platform accessibility

Recipes for

LocavoresUser

ReviewsUser

Custom- izaton

Deploy Nationally

Support Weak & Strong TiesAiello, L., Dunbar, R. I. M. (1992). Neocortex size as a constraint on group size in primates. Journal of Human

Evolution, 22(6), 469–984.

Create & Maintain Emotional ConnectionsMcMillan, D.W., & Chavis, D.M. (1986). Sense of community: A definition and theory. American Journal of

Community Psychology, 14(1), 6-23.

Convey a Sense of PresenceBecker, B., Mark, G. (1999). Constructing Social Systems through Computer-Mediated Communication. German

National Research Center for Information Technology.

Vassileva, J., Lingling, S. (2007). Using Community Visualization to Stimulate Participation in Online Communities. e-Service Journal, (6)(1), 3-39. Indiana University Press

Establish LeadershipLudford, P., Cosley, D., Frankowski, D., Terveen, L. (2004). Think Different: Increasing Online Community

Participation Using Uniqueness and Group Dissimilarity. Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Vienna, Austria: ACM.

Establish Boundary ConditionsBendt, P., Barthel, S., & Colding, J. (2012). Civic greening and environmental learning in public-access community

gardens in Berlin. Landscape and Urban Planning, 109, 18-30.

Allow for SplinteringBruckman, A., Jensen, C. (2002). The Mystery of the Death of MediaMOO: Seven Years of Evolution of an Online

Community. In K. A. Renninger & W. Shumar (Eds.), Building Virtual Communities: Learning and Change in Cyberspace (21-33). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

our references

Questions?

Highpoint P-Patch

cultivating relationships through gardening

Thank you.