We are pleased to announce that the PDC 2024 Community Track will be a part of the upcoming Participatory Design Conference (PDC) 2024. This track intends to bring together Malaysian and international indigenous community members interested in co-design, participation, inclusion and collaboration in the field of Participatory Design (PD). This track is only open to indigenous community members. In order to make the track more inclusive and diverse for the marginalised indigenous people, the track has engaged with community leaders as part of the co-chair in the organising team. With their assistance, we will actively collaborate with their community to design a course that meets their specific needs. In addition to considering the local environment, including the surrounding forest, we also consider the community’s traditional practices and shared values when determining for the track’s location later in Sibu, Sarawak, which will be away from the common conference setup.

Our goals for this community track are to:

• make the conference more inclusive and diverse for the marginalised indigenous communities
• propose a more inclusive and pluralistic strategy for knowledge creation and dissemination in the field of Participatory Design (PD).
• gather indigenous communities (community leaders and coordinators) from various nations in one physical location for enriched community-based co-design discussions.

The Community Track of the PDC 2024 will consist of three (3) events. The Community Meeting, Walkshop and Community Protocol will address and explore the following:

1. Community Meeting: To hear from the community voices

• Narrative sharing of previous project experiences
• Roundtable discussion across all the communities who participate, with the outcome published in an academic avenue

2. Walkshop: Community-led activities

• Guidelines to carry out activities with community members
• Reflection from previous research done, with the outcome published in an academic avenue

3. Community Protocol: Guidelines to work with communities (Community sharing in the main conference)

• Community sharing to PD community who are interested in collaboration
• Communicate Interaction Protocols of an Indigenous Community

We anticipate that this track will provide valuable insights and perspectives about community participatory design, as well as the chance to network with other community members. Additionally, the reflections from the seminar and workshop will be shared
during the main PDC conference and disseminated through academic publications.

We invite researchers, academics, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and anyone else involved in community-based research to nominate a community member to participate in the community track. Submissions for the nomination will need to provide a write-up of 500 words or less (without any specific formating required) and should include the community details such as the community name, background of the research and most importantly information about the community member representing the community. We accept submissions in both basic written English and indigenous languages. However, for submissions in indigenous languages, we require a brief summary in English to help the reviewer identify and engage a suitable translator to understand the content. 

Submissions for the community track are welcome without immediate proof of sponsorship or funding. Please submit your entries, and we’ll work together on funding strategies afterward. If you can self-fund or have leads on potential funding sources, we’d greatly appreciate your input and efforts. For more information, please do not hesitate to contact us at communitychairs@pdc2024.org.

You can submit your write-up via the ConfTool submission system.

Important dates (Note that all deadlines are for the end of the day Anywhere on Earth.)

• 18th Feb 2024 – Submission deadline
• 26th March 2024 – Notification and acceptance to the community track
• 10th – 11th Aug 2024 – PDC 2024 Community Track