Team JAMRSMilestone 2

November 7, 2014

Problem Statement

How can technology help people who identify as Native American, but don’t live on the reservation and may not be an official member, engage in meaningful way with the Native American community?

Primary User Groups

live on the reservation

do not live on the reservation

Research Insights

● Official membership is complicated

● Definition of culture varies

● Perceptual barriers

“If you want to go to a college and not come back to the reservation and work somewhere else, you’re well within your rights to do that….too often a lot of tribal folk will put this emphasis on, you have to come back to the community, you have to work here.”

- Seneca Tribe Member

Main Design Areas

● Sharing stories and artifacts

● Direct engagement

● Observation and understanding

Sharing Stories and ArtifactsExample: Laura Pinnix’s video blogsharing her Cherokee culture

Video BlogsNative Americans living on the reservation or those who are outside the reservation can share their experience through a video blog.

Image courtesy of PBShttp://www.pbs.org/indiancountry/challenges/cherokee.html

Direct EngagementExample: Virtual Dinner Guest Project Connects Gaza and Native American Communities Using Video Technology

Virtual DinnerConnecting people living on the reservation with those living outside by organizing virtual dinners hosted through skype or other forms of video conferencing technology.

Image courtesy of http://blog.witness.org/2014/08/using-video-connect-across-borders-conversation-native-americans-gazans/

Observation and UnderstandingExample: Google cardboard and a smartphone to immerse themselves in their virtual surroundings

Virtual Reality Tourinteractive tour of a reservation with information being overlayed over Google street maps.

Observation and UnderstandingExample: Environment Tagging

Use smartphones to interact with the environment. Content is tagged to locations and users contribute to the content that could be shared with anyone in the same location.

Storytelling

Interactive

user generated content to explain events and locations

Creative Problem Solving through Gamification

● Provides an outlet to be the best version of yourself while playing.

● Can be empowering through creative problem solving.

● Connects people from different places to work together to complete a task.

Gaming

● Have a shared sense of values.

● Discuss tribal issues through council meetings & elections.

● Seek a tribal connection on and off the reservation.

Native Americans

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