Communities are systems: What can systems thinking teach us when it comes to communities?
summary
Argues that communities function as interconnected systems and uses concrete systems-thinking tools — purposeful systems, stocks and flows, cardinality and connection, requisite variety — to evaluate design choices. Cites concrete surprises: speech recognition error rates are nearly double for Black speakers (Koenecke), PyCon faced a potential US$1M revenue shortfall in 2020, and iView defaults to sharing viewer data with Facebook/Google. Shows projects that worked (crowdsourced Find a Nat, accessible wheelchair controls) and warns entropy and hidden boundaries that burn out volunteer labor.
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chapters (8)
- 0:00Start
- 5:17WHAT IS A SYSTEM? "complexes of elements standing in (mutual) interaction"
- 7:08COMMUNITIES ARE SYSTEMS Analysing communities from a systems thinking perspective uncovers insights that help us help communities.
- 18:13Better communities help shape better technical systems. Better technical systems help shape better communities.
- 28:41CARDINALITY AND CONNECTION
- 32:141. Requisite variety helps systems be resilient to shocks-unexpected, destabilising events. 2. The greater the variety in your community, the more resilient your community will be.
- 35:131. Be aware of the force of entropy in your community, and what the balance of opposing forces is. 2. Choosing when to end your
- 35:49REBIRTH AND RENEWAL
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