Alison Powell's talk at ISDT11.

1. #FAIL: What we learn from failed tech projects Alison Powell, London School of Economics a.powell@lse.ac.uk Twitter: @postdocal http://www.alisonpowell.ca

4. Defining Failure

5. Systemic vs Partial Failure

6. Transparent vs Opaque Failure

7. Stated vs Unstated Goals

8. Policy contributions of 'failed' networks

10. The Reality of the Black Box

11. Community Wireless Networks (2000-2008)

13. Policy Challenge/Governance

15. Partial failure requires recognition of subjectivityTransparent Failure (Kuhn, 1963)

16. Contributes to future learning or progress

17. Includes planned obsolescence

18. Generative vs disruptiveOpaque Failure

19. Unclear what has failed or how

21. CWNs can create new organizational formsSocial Policy

22. CWNs can bridge the digital divideCommunication Policy

25. In Portland, CWN replaced by corporate network. Community monitored commercial network's performanceEqui-Nets (France, various)

26. Replaced by commercial networks

27. Drove campaign for public access to spectrumPicnic-Nets (Serbia and Athens)

28. Significant innovation – often illegal

31. Redefining Failure Policy (and law) posit transparent relations between goals and outcomes Yet legally marginal actions have outcomes of public benefit So too do 'failed' projects Is it possible to develop policy to encourage unstated goals?

32. Learning from Failure Design methods Iteration Effective use Critique of power Context