Sustaining Community-Based Research in Computing: Lessons from Two Tech Capacity Building Initiatives for Local Businesses

Abstract

The field of human-computer interaction (HCI) has traditionally focused on the design of novel technology artifacts. However, ensuring considerations for artifact maintenance and repair is crucial to sustainably supporting the populations they aim to serve over the long term. Drawing on two multi-year programs for tech capacity building in post-industrial U.S. cities, this article presents a comparative analysis to investigate the challenges and strategies for sustained community-based research in computing. In particular, our work detailed three considerations for academic-community partnerships. First, long-term partnerships prioritized transferring trust across academic and community personnel and continually set expectations that responded to evolving community initiatives (i.e., relational sustainability). Second, partnerships used academic support as a way to kickstart community initiatives, and flexibly reframed interventions to stay aligned with evolving community goals (i.e., economic sustainability). Third, partnerships trained personnel to provide technical support alongside interventions and prioritized advice that resisted short-term trends (i.e., technical sustainability). We provide concrete examples of how our two academic-community partnerships carried out such suggestions-such details go unreported in scholarly articles yet are essential for sustainability considerations. We discuss ongoing challenges, such as rethinking when longevity should and should not be the end goal.