Design Teams as Change Agents: Diplomatic Design in the Open Data Movement

Designers and developers who want to participate in the open data movement should be more than technical experts, they should also be change agents. Realizing open data´s promise of innovation and entrepreneurialism requires the support of diverse stakeholders. Government agencies must release accessible and useful data, developers must use the data to build tools, and citizens must adopt the technology. The interests of one group may come at the expense of another. For this reason, we examine the usefulness of a diplomatic design approach, which focuses on the art and practice of conducting negotiations using specialized techniques. We conducted an exploratory case study on a national nonprofit fellowship program as it worked to design not only technology but also organizational and social change in the context of a digital government engagement.