Sobre la cuentística

The empirical goal of this dissertation research was to expand participation among and about Latinos/as in the general use of locative media and, specifically, in the creation of locative storytelling because participation is fundamental for the creation of locative media projects. Participation also incorporates questions of how to involve people, how to motivate them, and which barriers prevent people from participating. Thus, the idea and process of participation was taken as a first step to understand how locative media could help Latinos/as to better understand their locality and have a better sense of place. However, I understood that before fostering the production of content, this group of participants had to be trained on how to create locative content, and thus, I had to foster participation from the ground up. In order to compliment this participation, I also had to encourage other participants to write about Latino culture through places in Austin. Also, the final outcome of increasing participation among Latinos/as in the production of locative storytelling is generating more equality in terms of geotagged information.

In this sense, this study was successful in enabling low-income Latinos/as to upload their stories to the hybrid space. The biggest achievement was to empower Latinos/as of different ages to share their stories about places. In addition, it is important to stress that the majority of the participants in this study were women. This result is highlighted as a special achievement because past research has shown that it is difficult to attract the participation of women in user-generated content (Stephens,

2012). As explained in the previous chapter, I noted that the women in the community of Dove Springs have a sharp desire for self-improvement and manifest that through their involvement with schools. The schools in Dove Springs play a strong role in in delivering local information and empowering these women to change the course of their family's future.

Another common theme explored in the literature of UGC and participation on the web is determining what factors motivate or reward participants in an attempt to understand how to increase participation. Some of this research has found that non-monetary reasons motivate users to produce content such as attention (Huberman, Romero & Wu, 2009), reputation, status, and virtual points (Nam, Ackerman &

Adamic, 2009; Yang, Ackerman & Adamic 2011). This dissertation research found that a possible way for increasing participation among Latinos/as in the production of locative storytelling is to frame the project as aiming to achieve cultural and familial heritage and stories based on memory. As such, several participants who were able to geotag their stories mentioned that they felt accomplished for having done something that their children could take pride in when they become adults. This is in line with other communicational studies on Latinos/as and media. In order to understand how Latinos/as use media and new technologies, Leonardi (2010) argues that it is fundamental to understand their cultural characteristics. Leonardi (2010) states that Latinos have a developed sense of pride and place a high value on simpatía, behaviors that promote smooth and harmonious relationships. In this sense, Latinos/as, according to Leonardi (2010), perceived technologies such as cell phones, computers, and the Internet in terms of how each technology promoted their own cultural value.

Similarly, I found that several participants from the digital inclusion program TechComunidad felt empowered mainly from the idea of leaving something written for others as heritage. I found support in psychology studies that explain that middle-aged adults come to realize that "I am what survives me" (McAdams, 1996). These studies argue that their identities may become the stories that will survive them. When I apply this concept to locative stories, I can expand this notion by including "place"

as an element that embeds change over time, enabling the creators of content to keep track of their identities by attaching content to a certain location over time. Moreover, the participants strongly related the action of writing and digitally attaching a picture

and story to a place forever to the idea of cultural heritage, which is also associated with identity development (McAdams, 1996).

These findings have implications for designing other storytelling projects with Latinos/as in the scope of locative media, involving matters of space and place, and also for the design of mobile/locative applications aimed at this demographic group.

After all, it can be inefficient to try to engage participants, especially low-income smartphone users, just for the sake of producing stories. Considering that most of these participants struggle to meet basic needs in life, such as having a house to live, providing education to their children, clothing and food, exploration of place and crafting of stories about those places may seem additional and not relevant to their daily lives. As, one of the participants said out loud in the classroom: “historia para que?” (”story for what?”). Hence, it is critical to respond to that question from the outset. The participants need to see a value in the act of crafting stories for their lives.

And this value needs to be instilled in order to foster participation. Learning from Leonardi (2010), I argue that in order to promote or foster sustainable production of locative storytelling among Latinos/as, it is important to relate the activity and locative technologies directly with their specific cultural needs. In other words, the meaning of place needs to be connected to their identity and heritage.

Furthermore, having the ability to partner with an organization, such as River City Youth Foundation, that works closely with a specific geographical area is key.

The partnership with them was fundamental in order to foster participation among disadvantaged populations and thus to close the gap of segregation of the hybrid space through a digital inclusion program. RCYF has a full annual cycle of community building events, such as Thanksgiving and Christmas for those who need it, as well as a Men’s and Father’s Pride parade, so it has built considerable trust and awareness in the community. Then it engages both parents and youth in training not only about technology but also about how to use technology in solving life problems and thus becoming more empowered.

It is also important to reflect on the fact that past research (Jönsson and Örnebring, 2010) on UGC have focused on two very important aspects: (1) degree of audience participation, i.e., how much effort is required by audience members in order to participate; and (2) type of content, i.e., if the content being produced is primarily private or public in character -- and if public, is it primarily