PhD Research

I am currently working on a PhD in Digital Civics at Open Lab, Newcastle University.

The working title of the project is “Enabling Digital Access in Community Contexts”. In it, I am trying to answer the following questions:

• What design approach(es) can be employed by HCI research to support the development of interventions aimed at enabling digital inclusion in diverse community contexts?
• What design challenges are presented by attempts to design community-oriented digital inclusion interventions collaboratively with diverse stakeholders, and how can these challenges be navigated?
• How can interventions aimed at enabling digital inclusion in community contexts be evaluated with regardto their effectiveness, appropriacy to their context, and sustainability, and the insights from these evaluations incorporated into the design of further iterations ofthe same intervention, or future interventions in thesame or other community contexts?

In exploring these questions, my collaborators and I have identified that a lot of the challenges facing people in community organisations that do digital inclusion work have very little to do with the work itself. Instead, challenges stem from systemic issues such as a lack of sustainable funding, challenges with multi-organisation collaboration, inadequate public or organisational policy, and technology design patterns that are inadvertently hostile to people new to (or newly returning to) digital life.

To address this, we aim to develop a toolkit that supports people doing digital inclusion work in libraries, community centres, GP practices and so on to better capture their intuitive understanding of what needs to happen, and use those insights to push for systemic change.

Tackling Digital Poverty Report

Working with VONNE and Not-Equal in the context of COVID lockdowns in the UK, we explored digital poverty with range of practitioners doing digital inclusion work in the North East of England. We collectively constructed a list of needs, assets, and values possessed by these practitioners, and used them to make recommendations for changes to the local digital inclusion landscape that would enhance their work.

The full report can be found here.

Here’s what Anne Fry, Deputy CEO of VONNE at the time of this work, had to say about working with me on the project:

“Adam approached our working relationship from the perspective of valuing the contribution of the VCSE sector as an equal partner. He was always keen to understand the reality of what small charities are working to achieve, and the challenges they face. This meant he was open to influence and keen to ensure the outputs from his work were of relevance to VONNE and our stakeholders, and the charities and participants themselves.

As a result, the findings from Adams’ research with the sector went on to influence funders and stakeholders and was used in national work with the National Council for Voluntary Organisations.

At a personal level, Adam is a joy to with work and I hope to do so again in the future!”