The possibility of linking paper to digital information is enhanced by recent developments in printed electronics. In this article we report the design and evaluation of a local newspaper augmented with capacitive touch regions and an embedded Bluetooth chip working with an adjunct device. These allowed the interactive playback of associated audio and the registration of manual voting actions on the web. Design conventions inherited from paper and the web were explored by showing four different versions of an interactive newspaper to 16 community residents. The diverse responses of residents are described, outlining the potential of the approach for local journalism and recommendations for the design of interactive newsprint.

'Children should learn to code', is a simple message that in recent years, has dominated the scene around the development of the computing and technology curriculum. A range of government, public, and privately funded initiatives have highlighted the value of introducing children to coding and computer science. Its role is the broader agenda of encouraging better engagement with Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM). As a result of this increased focus, a number of products blending hardware, software, creative thinking and play have emerged onto the market. This paper introduces a co-design process of transforming a playful learning technology product, 'littleBits', into an online digital onboarding experience, to assist creative minds in understanding the technology.

We describe the process of insight journalism, in which local amateur journalists were used to generate unique insights into the digital needs of a community. We position this as a means for communities to represent themselves to designers, both as a method of designing community technologies and as a first step towards supporting innovation at a local level. To demonstrate insight journalism, we present two case studies of community technologies that were directly inspired, informed and evaluated by journalistic content. Based on this experience, we evaluate the role that insight journalism can play in designing for communities, the particular characteristics that it lends to the design process and how it might be employed to support sustainable community innovation.

The increase of social media and web blogs has enabled a new generation of citizen journalism to provide new perspectives into local communities. However traditional news organisations are currently struggling to incorporate this new form of journalism into their existing organisational workflow. We present an analysis from 10 interviews with professional journalists and explore the current issues faced by professional journalists when searching for reliable and reputable local news sources as well as the perceived role of citizen journalists within a large news organisation. From this analysis we present a set of design implications for building systems that support interaction between citizen and professional journalists in order to encourage participatory news production and diversify national news perspectives.

Viewpoint is a public voting device developed to allow residents in a disadvantaged community to make their voices heard through a simple, lightweight interaction. This was intended to open a new channel of communication within the community and increase community members' perception of their own efficacy. Local elected officials and community groups were able to post questions on devices located in public spaces, where residents could vote for one of two responses. Question authors were subsequently required to post a response indicating any actions to be taken. Following a two-month trial, we present our experiences and contribute guidelines for the design of public democracy tools and dimensions impacting their effectiveness, including credibility, efficacy and format.

Mobile handheld devices are an increasing part of everyday fieldwork of news professionals. Mobile assignments delivered to mobile journalists' smartphones are one potential future development step. We present findings on using mobile assignments from two exploratory user studies in which smartphones were used as news reporting tools. Mobile assignments were perceived as handy for fast reporting situations and simple stories but challenging in case of more complex tasks. Structured information content of assignments, process phase based information and supporting situation and activity awareness would support the work of both editorial staff and mobile journalists. The locationing of reporters for sending location-based assignments was found acceptable for coordinating the work although some privacy concerns were expressed. The findings provide new information on using mobile assignments in work where carrying out tasks involves creativity and the tasks may be complex, not strictly limited or they may not have clear completion criteria.