The Civic Design Initiative aims to play a variety of roles within and beyond CMS/W:

1. To develop collaborative approaches for generating and testing ideas that address complex civic challenges.

Solutions need to be rooted in the experiences and needs of those they’re trying to serve. Designs and prototypes that address complex civic challenges should adapt novel materials and digital approaches collaboratively with people in the communities served. 

Communities and publics served by CDI designs will be collaborators in the design, implementation and evaluation, with the goal of informing research efforts with public insights and values. 

2. To make civic design ideas tangible and sustainable. 

CDI will develop and deploy solutions in communities for evaluation and creating impact at scale, using state-of-the-art media technologies through new approaches to prototyping.

From networked mobile media to tangible prototypes, the Initiative will dedicate its research efforts to utilizing emerging technologies to advance social values and community goals.

3. To build and share a knowledge base around successful collaborations and innovations in civic design.

CDI will promote cross-pollination of methods and tools by engaging in research projects that can draw on different kinds of technologies, expertise, and methodologies of the CMS/W research groups and beyond. We aim to develop an accessible knowledge platform, making resources and approaches available to all.

4. To offer public outreach and network-building around problems the CDI has engaged with.

The Initiative will promote new collaborations within and beyond the CMS/W research groups, including external stakeholders across industry, institutions, and agencies.

CDI will offer a variety of public and private workshops utilizing hands-on design methodologies for collaboratively addressing the civic issues of our time.