Hi everyone - 

I would like to announce a new case study paper out at CHI 2025! https://mattziegler.net/papers/Cross-Section-Environmental-Orgs-CHI2025.pdf

Abstract: Managing shared environmental resources requires complex coordination among many diverse stakeholders, and global advances in communication technology are reshaping the relationships and organizational structures in environmental governance. To explore the role of communication technologies in environmental institutions, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 22 staff members from organizations in Uganda, India, and the USA. Participants highlighted how their organizations’ activities are fundamentally enabled and constrained by the technologies available in the communities where they work, enabling different forms of coordination, data collection, and community engagement. They also noted the mixed impact of technology on social aspects of their work; sometimes fostering trust and collaboration, while at other times chilling relationships, reinforcing top-down formalization, and having lukewarm effects on equity and inclusion efforts. These findings offer insights for environmental organizations to better leverage communication technologies for community engagement, and adapt to varying stages of technological adoption.