Public Outcomes of Publicly Funded Socio-Technical Projects: Reflections on Empowerment, Participation, and Researcher Responsibility

In this short essay, we present our reflections on public outcomes of publicly funded socio-technical projects in relevance to discussions on empowerment, participation, and researcher responsibility in the field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI). Our work offers a reflective analysis and raises critical questions for further communal discussion about the life of research projects when the funding ends. When a publicly funded research project for empowering users comes to an end, how do we as HCI researchers measure the social impact of our interventions? What are the public outcomes and what are our responsibilities after we leave the field? To address these questions, first, we introduce two publicly funded socio-technical projects, situate our work with respect to current discourse on empowering users in HCI, present findings and insights based on our analysis of the projects, and conclude with a set of questions that are intended to further communal discussion.