This research project addresses the expansion of “the smart city” by exploring the challenge and opportunities of public software infrastructures. We’ve partnered with United Taxi Workers San Diego, an immigrant-led and union-affiliated worker center, to explore the benefits and challenges of public sector dispatch applications. This work begins with the well-being of taxi workers in a time of Uber and Lyft, but works at the intersections of fair labor, public safety, disability justice, and carbon reduction.
Most contemporary knowledge of designing, building and maintaining software has emerged in relation to the private sector marketplace. This project discovers the specific requirements of software development within the public sector and accountable to democratic institutions. This project aims to answer the following questions:
- How do public sector organizations maintain and transform software? How do public sector organizational processes shape and constrain maintenance?
- What participatory design methods effectively bring citizens into public sector software design and governance?
- What are the benefits and drawbacks of public sector platforms alternatives to private sector platforms?
Broadly, this project addresses the social problem of the smart city as services and data collection largely facilitated by private companies, ceding privacy, wage, welfare, and access policies to private sector actors. For example, what kinds of data collection and algorithmic control are desirable for workers, riders, and public planners? How can advocating for taxi worker well being also improve mobility independence for all San Diegans? What are the limits of platform transportation companies like Uber and Lyft determined by their commitment to independent contractor business models?
We address these research questions through workshops with taxi workers, qualitative research with public sector software developers, and participant observation with United Taxi Workers and their allies.