About

Welcome!

Welcome to the VSD Coop! Coop is short for cooperative. A cooperative is an autonomous group of people mobilizing around a common set of aspirations or concerns.

This coop is for anyone and everyone seeking and interested ways to bring together concerns for human values, moral, and/or ethics to technical education (e.g., design, computer science, engineering, media arts). Our goal is to build a space to share educational resources (e.g., syllabi, class activities, presentations, project prompts, design studies, to name a few), and to help catalyze an ecosystem around these resources and practices. We are especially interested in educational resources related to Value Sensitive Design, but all sympathetic approaches are welcome.

Typically, coops are jointly owned and democratically controlled. As such, the coop is organized on a wiki. This means anyone is welcome to contribute content and resources, as well as edit existing content. We would love for the Coop to be as useful a resource as possible to as many people as possible. As such, when you are adding resources to the Coop, please use our style guide as a reference for what to include.

What is Value Sensitive Design?

Value sensitive design (VSD) seeks to provide theory and method to account for human values in a principled and systematic manner throughout the design process. Central to a value sensitive design approach are analyses of both direct and indirect stakeholders; distinctions among designer values, values explicitly supported by the technology, and stakeholder values; individual, group, and societal levels of analysis; the integrative and iterative conceptual, technical, and empirical investigations; and a commitment to progress (not perfection).

Other Sympathetic Approaches

There are other excellent approaches to design technology that accounts for human values as well. Many of them share similar commitments and are sympathetic to the concerns of VSD, though the specifics of each approach may not align perfectly. Every approach (including value sensitive design) has different strengths and weakness. Here is a incomplete list of some other sympathetic approaches, please feel free to expand it:

• IEEE Ethically Aligned Design
• IEEE P7000
• Values in Computing
• UT Delft Design for Value
• Responsible Research & Innovation

Contributing to the Coop

To contribute to the coop you must first create an account (see below). Once you have an account, please see the style guide to understand formatting your contribution. As the coop is under development, please feel free to make notes or changes where you see fit.

Create an Account

Our process for registering new users is still underdevelopment. For now, please email Nick at nlogler@uw.edu and let him know who you are and why you're interested and he will set up an account for you.

Style Guide

Each section begins with a recommendation regarding what to include in content as you share it on the Coop. Please feel free to submit your own original materials, as well as materials created by others (assuming you have permission to share).

Each template type includes the the styling markup you need to create your own entry. For example, putting ''' around text makes it bold.

 Look there are three apostrophes in a row (''') on either side of this text 

This is here to make adding content as easy as possible. If you have suggestions for format styling or information to include, please try it out.

At the VSD lab at the University of Washington, we have started using [www.github.com Git Hub] as an online repository for some of the teaching resources we use (e.g., pdfs, slides, word docs, etc). If you would like to contribute to a larger repository follow the instruction (Link to be added).

A list of educational resource types (please add!)

Courses

Please include the title of the course, number of credits, date, grade level, affiliation/institution, the instructors name, a short description, and appropriate links to any full courses of syllabi.

The format:

   Title of Course
   Short Description with any links
   Instructor. Affiliation. Credit. Dates. Grade Level. Format.
   Files

An Example:

   Value Sensitive Design. 
   Summary: Introduction to value sensitive design, information system design that 
   accounts for human values in a principled and comprehensive manner. 
   Instructor: David Hendry. Information School, University of Washington. (5 
   credits). Spring 2018. Undergrad (B.S. Informatics).
   Format: Weekly lectures and studios.
   Files | Files

Studio Activity

Classroom or studio activities that are generally completed in class over one or more class meeting. It may also involve work completed outside of class.

The format:

   Title of Activity
   Short Description with any links
   Instructor. Affiliation. Grade Level.
   Files

Design Project

The format:

   Title of Activity
   Short Description with any links
   Instructor. Affiliation. Grade Level.
   Files

Writing Prompts

Writing prompts require that students read and then respond to a prompt. Typically, students engage in theory or pursue some kind of critical analysis of an author's work.

The format:

   Title of Activity
   Short Description with any links
   Instructor. Affiliation. Grade Level.
   Files

An Example:

   Tools, Technology, and Human Experience  
   This writing prompts ask students to consider the implications of an essay, 
   Preserving Wilderness, by the American writer Wendell Berry for human- 
   centered design. This writing prompt can be used to raise a set of enduring 
   questions for value sensitive design, or for any approach in which values are 
   substantially and faithfully engaged in design processes.
   Instructor: David Hendry. Information School, University of Washington.
   Files | Files

Contact Us

There's an email coming soon just for the coop. for now, try nlogler@uw.edu.