Collective Construction of Meaning and System for an Inclusive Social Network

Information and Communication Technology has the potential of benefiting citizens, allowing access to knowledge, communication and collaboration, and thus promoting the process of constitution of a fairer society. The design of systems that make sense to the users’ community and that respect their diversity demands socio-technical views and an in-depth analysis of the involved parties. The authors have adopted Organizational Semiotics and Participatory Design as theoretical and methodological frames of reference to face this challenge in the design of an Inclusive Social Network System for the Brazilian context. This paper presents the use of some artifacts adapted from Problem Articulation Method to clarify concepts and prospect solutions. Results of this clarification fed the Semantic Analysis Method from which this paper presents and discusses an Ontology Chart for the domain and the first signs of the inclusive social network system. M. Cecília C. Baranauskas University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil