Third Space, Information Sharing, and Participatory Design

Society faces many challenges in workplaces, everyday life situations, and education contexts. Within information behavior research, there are often calls to bridge inclusiveness and for greater collaboration, with user-centered design approaches and, more specifically, participatory design practices. Collaboration and participation are essential in addressing contemporary societal challenges, designing creative information objects and processes, as well as developing spaces for learning, and information and research interventions. The intention is to improve access to information and the benefits to be gained from that. This also applies to bridging the digital divide and for embracing artificial intelligence. With regard to research and practices within information behavior, it is crucial to consider that all users should be involved. Many information activities (i.e., activities falling under the umbrella terms of information behavior and information practices) manifest through participation, and thus, methods such as participatory design may help unfold both information behavior and practices as well as the creation of information objects, new models, and theories. Information sharing is one of its core activities. For participatory design with its value set of democratic, inclusive, and open participation towards innovative practices in a diversity of contexts, it is essential to understand how information activities such as sharing manifest itself. For information behavior studies it is essential to deepen understanding of how information sharing manifests in order to improve access to information and the use of information.

Third Space is a physical, virtual, cognitive, and conceptual space where participants may negotiate, reflect, and form new knowledge and worldviews working toward creative, practical and applicable solutions, finding innovative, appropriate research methods, interpreting findings, proposing new theories, recommending next steps, and even designing solutions such as new information objects or services. Information sharing in participatory design manifests in tandem with many other information interaction activities and especially information and cognitive processing. Although there are practices of individual information sharing and information encountering, information sharing mostly relates to collaborative information behavior practices, creativity, and collective decision-making.

Our purpose with this book is to enable students, researchers, and practitioners within a multi-disciplinary research field, including information studies and Human–Computer Interaction approaches, to gain a deeper understanding of how the core activity of information sharing in participatory design, in which Third Space may be a platform for information interaction, is taking place when using methods utilized in participatory design to address contemporary societal challenges. This could also apply for information behavior studies using participatory design as methodology. We elaborate interpretations of core concepts such as participatory design, Third Space, information sharing, and collaborative information behavior, before discussing participatory design methods and processes in more depth. We also touch on information behavior, information practice, and other important concepts. Third Space, information sharing, and information interaction are discussed in some detail. A framework, with Third Space as a core intersecting zone, platform, and adaptive and creative space to study information sharing and other information behavior and interactions are suggested. As a tool to envision information behavior and suggest future practices, participatory design serves as a set of methods and tools in which new interpretations of the design of information behavior studies and eventually new information objects are being initiated involving multiple stakeholders in future information landscapes. For this purpose, we argue that Third Space can be used as an intersection zone to study information sharing and other information activities, but more importantly it can serve as a Third Space Information Behavior (TSIB) study framework where participatory design methodology and processes are applied to information behavior research studies and applications such as information objects, systems, and services with recognition of the importance of situated awareness.

Preben Hansen is a Docent and Associate Professor at the Department of Computer and Systems Sciences, Stockholm University, Sweden. His main research focus is in the intersection of Human–Computer Interaction, Interaction Design, and Information Behavior. Preben's research focuses on the human in the center, interacting with the surroundings through various digital systems, services, objects and tools. His recent research deals with Gesture and distance-driven Interaction (with Dr Xiangdong LI) and Agile Research Methods (with Prof. Mike Twidale) and Collaborative Information Searching (with Dr Tina Du). He has published more than 120 academic articles/papers in journals and conferences and 3 edited books. He has served as chair at several ACM conferences like ACM CHIIR, ACM DIS, ACM/IEEE JCDL, TPDL and iConference. He has been a special issue editor for Journal of Information Science on Searching as Learning (2016) and special issue editor for IEEE Computer on Collaborative Information Seeking (2014).

Ina Fourie is a full professor and Head of Department of Information Science at the University of Pretoria. She is a rated South African researcher. Her main research focus is on information behavior, current awareness services, information literacy and autoethnography with special reference to cancer and palliative care and other existential contexts. She is a regular speaker and author in national and international contexts ranging from library and information science and education to healthcare. Ina serves on the editorial advisory boards of Library Hi Tech, Online Information Review, Information Research, and The Bottom Up. She was guest editor with Dr Heidi Julien of an Aslib Journal of Information Management special issue on Innovative Methods in Health Information Behavior Research (vol. 71 [6]: 693–702). Ina is currently Vice Chair of the ISIC (Information Seeking in Context) Steering Committee and part of the ASIS&T (Association for Information Science and Technology) Executive Board as Treasurer. She has published more than 130 articles, books and conference papers and has presented in more than 16 countries.

Anika Meyer is a Lecturer in the Department of Information Science, University of Pretoria. She completed her Master studies in 2016, titled: Information behavior in academic spaces of creativity: a building science pseudo-makerspace. She is currently enrolled for her doctoral studies at the Department of Information Science, University of Pretoria, titled: Information sharing in participatory design of a virtual academic creative space. Her research interests include creativity, collaborative information seeking (CIS), knowledge management, guided inquiry, third space, information literacy, information behavior and makerspaces―specifically the construction of these creative spaces through universal design, holistic ergonomics and participatory design. She has presented at international conferences (e.g., ISIC and EAHIL) and is a member of the ASIS&T African Chapter.