Participants in these new Creativity & Science Labs willbe able to work on real-life problems through projects andworkshops that are aligned with the thematic focus ofcombining design, science and technology. These labswill become a hive for the spread of ideas andtechnologies into the wider community. A similarapproach was successfully trialled by Prof. Carlo Rattiduring his stay as inaugural Queensland Innovator inResidence 2009, a program jointly led by the QueenslandGovernment, the State Library, and QUT. “LivingLaboratories are environments for innovation anddevelopment where users are exposed to new solutions in(semi)realistic contexts, as part of medium or long-termstudies targeting evaluation of new design solutions anddiscovery of innovation opportunities.” [2]. Before TheEdge was officially opened on 26 Feb 2010, Ratti andFoth already successfully trialled a Living Lab setup at anadjacent space of SLQ, called The Studio. The Edge lendsitself to adopt this approach for the purpose of theproposed study (Fig. 2). The labs will be set up in Year 1and continue throughout Years 2 and 3 with a view toturn the labs into what has earlier been described as ‘ideasstore,’ or ‘innovation incubator.’PHASE B: User StudiesStudy participants will be recruited from the pool ofvisitors via a combined approach guided by Patton [9]and Dillman [3] that includes both online / social mediachannels and printed media in order to recruit a mix ofboth users and non-users of social media, as well asvisitors and non-visitors [12]. A basic questionnaire willbe administered as a screening instrument in order torecruit study participants for diversity of demographicfactors and social media / digital technology exposureusing maximum variation sampling [9]. The study aimsfor a sample of 20 study participants in semi-structuredinterviews and focus groups.PHASE C: Design PrototypingTaking the form of prototypes exploring relationshipsbetween people, place and technology, the study’s aimsalign closely with the Queensland Government’s TowardQ2 strategy and its pioneering investment into The Edgeas a new space to investigate the very same questions thatthe fellowship poses: Design 1 focus: participation, thedemocratisation of knowledge, and new creativepractices. The design theme will be on environmentalconcerns, eg. the ‘Flood of Ideas’ collection recently heldat The Edge (floodofideas.org.au) to encourage people’scapacity to bring about change within their localcommunity by networking people using the equipment,skillsets, human resources and opportunities afforded by aprototype digital culture centre. Design 2 focus: user-ledinnovation, e.g. data mash-ups comprising localgovernment and library data, social media, and sensornetwork data, such as those presented at the nationallibraryhack.org competition. (Foth’s PhD student MarkBilandzic won the Digital Media mashup award.) Design3 focus: place-based civic engagement, e.g. the 2010Neogeography project at the Cooroy library as part of oneof our previous ARC Linkage grants, however, here,specifically with a focus on new sources and outlets ofcommercial innovation for local businesses. This goal hasbeen endorsed by the Director of The Edge, and inconversations that Foth had earlier this year with BillMacnaught, the new National Librarian of NZ.PHASE D: Impact EvaluationAlthough the action research approach already includesrepeated stages of reflection and refinement, the lastphase of the study calls for a final holistic evaluation.This impact evaluation will look specifically into how theexperiments and findings at the case study sites (Brisbaneand Goondiwindi) can inform best practice models forlibraries and cultural institutions with regional and statewideapplicability and transferability. Participatoryevaluation methodologies have long been effectively usedin a diversity of fields, including education, socialservices, and health [4]. This study will use a variantdeveloped specifically for ICT projects by Foth andcolleagues [7, 8]. The final evaluation phase will be acontinuation of the action research cycles alreadyestablished but supplemented with ICT usage data andrespondent interviews. The method will incorporate acritical reflection workshop, and will involve participantsfrom The Edge’s management team, visitors, the StateLibrary of Queensland, Goondiwindi Regional Counciland other relevant representatives. As per [7] theworkshop will include an overall analytical frameworkfor assembling and interrogating the above evidence basein terms of delivering the study’s aims and to verify thestudy’s claims about the impact of urban informatics toolsand applications to support place-based creativity,innovation, and engagement in regional Queensland.ACKNOWLEDGMENTSWe would like to thank our colleagues and supporters atQUT, the Australian Business Foundation, the AuroraFoundation, The Edge / State Library of Queensland, andparticularly Robert Prestipino of vitalplaces.com.au.REFERENCES1. Arts Queensland. arts culture + me: Children and Youngpeople in the Arts Action Plan. Queensland Government,Brisbane, 2008.2. Booth, C. Evaluation Report: Innovator in ResidenceProgram 2009, Office of Higher Education, Department ofEducation and Training, Queensland Government,Brisbane, QLD, 2010.3. Dillman, D.A. Mail and Internet Surveys: The TailoredDesign Method. Wiley, Hoboken, NJ, 2007.4. Fetterman, D.M. and Wandersman, A. (eds.).Empowerment Evaluation: Principles in Practice.Guilford Press, New York, 2005.5. Foth, M. Urban Informatics, Ubiquitous Computing andSocial Media for Healthy Cities. in Proceedings of the 4thMaking Cities Liveable Conference, Noosa, QLD, 2011.6. Foth, M., Choi, J.H.-j. and Satchell, C. Urban Informatics.in Proceedings CSCW '11, ACM, New York, 2011.7. Hearn, G., Tacchi, J., Foth, M. and Lennie, J. ActionResearch and New Media: Concepts, Methods and Cases.Hampton Press, Cresskill, NJ, 2009.8. Lennie, J., Hearn, G. and Hanrahan, M., The EvaluateITkit: A method for engaging communities in evaluating IT3
projects. in International Conference on EngagingCommunities, (Brisbane, 2005).9. Patton, M.Q. Qualitative Research and EvaluationMethods. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, 2001.10. Quiggin, J. Employment and Innovation in theInformation Economy. in Hearn, G. and Rooney, D. eds.Knowledge Policy: Challenges for the 21st Century,Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK, 2008, 175-187.11. Rifkin, J. The age of access: how the shift from ownershipto access is transforming modern life. Penguin, London,2000.12. Satchell, C. and Dourish, P. Beyond the User: Use andNon-Use in <strong>HCI</strong>. in Proceedings of the 21st AnnualConference of the Australian Computer-HumanInteraction Special Interest Group (OZCHI '09), ACM,New York, 2009, 9-16.Figure 1: RiverEdge 2020 development proposal and community consultation draft by Goondiwindi Regional CouncilFigure 2: Floorplan of The Edge with the proposed Living Lab in Lab 2Figure 3: Lab 2 at The Edge4
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