Distributed Participatory Design in Crowdsourced Information Systems Development

Distributed participatory design (DPD) is an approach to information systems development (ISD) where different stakeholders participate in the development and design of information systems in distributed design teams which are mostly online on Internet, web-based, and social media platforms. User participation in online DPD projects is primarily voluntary and the participants are typically unaffiliated with the development organisation. Going beyond individual methods, techniques, and practices and to extend research on participatory approaches to ISD beyond conventional settings, roles and types of participants, we are interested in how DPD projects in crowdsourced ISD are managed and performed in their entirety. To answer this research question we studied a case of DPD in crowdsourced ISD in the context of a DPD project which engaged Pacific Youth in the development of a digital game. As contemporary ISD is generally acknowledged as a complex activity we apply complex adaptive systems (CAS) theory to better understand and make recommendations for ISD practice.