Research Questions and Outcomes

Let’s be honest; independent research means no one is constantly checking your work or setting a schedule with expected paper outcomes. The challenge is that you have to create your own structure. That’s why I’ve set myself a few research questions that reflect how I think about technology to help me stay focused.

I explore two key dimensions of technology: the structural, focused on the security and stability of emerging technologies, and the social, centered on how digital growth shapes societal structures. I believe in intersectionality, recognizing that no topic exists in isolation and that the most effective solutions come from blending insights across disciplines.

Each question is tied to actual work I’m doing, whether that be communities I’m part of or projects I’m building. And of course, they will evolve as I discover new, more interesting avenues or limitations.

Structural: How do emerging technologies move from ideation to implementation and adaptation?

How can we bridge the gap between academia and industry?

• What models accelerate the research-to-practice translation in combining the careful, deep rigor of academia with the innovative attitude of industry?
• How can knowledge production be democratized through civic science?
• Action: Exploring in relation to my consulting work with universities; my organizing work with the Association for Computing Machinery.

Is DC’s VC ecosystem growing?

• What factors are driving changes in the region’s investment landscape?
• How do regional characteristics (policy proximity, talent pipelines) shape its trajectory?
• Action: Exploring in relation to my consulting work with industry and my professional goal to lean more into VC.

What organizational structures and behaviors enable groups to work effectively?

• How do formal structures (hierarchy, decision-making processes) and informal dynamics (incentives, communication patterns) interact to support collaborative effectiveness?
• *Action: Exploring in relation to ecosystem-building through groups I help run.

Social: How do technology and human relationships shape each other within interconnected networks?

What sustains voluntaristic open technology communities?

• What motivates participation in online projects? How do digital coordination practices inform or differ from traditional community organizing?
• *Action: Exploring in relation to CIB Mango Tree

What does it really mean to build community?

• Beyond the buzzword, what are the ecosystem-building practices that create genuine community bonds? What role does tech play in facilitating community formation?
• Action: Exploring in relation to Civic Tech DC.

Can meetups gain credibility?

• Merriam-Webster defines meetups as “an informal meeting or get-together.” What would it take for a region’s economic establishment, businesses, investors, and institutions to recognize meetups as vital contributors to ecosystem-building rather than casual networking?
• Action: Exploring in relation to ecosystem-building through groups I help run.

Putting into Practice

Unlike traditional research projects with neat methodologies and predetermined outputs (aka the classic academic paper), independent research invites more wandering, more exploring. I see a lack of a predetermined output not as a weakness, but rather ensuring the outcome applies to what the challenge or what the community needs.

Many of the questions will eventually have outcomes, whether that be structure-changing outcomes, like developing new community practices at Mango Tree CIB by asking “What sustains voluntaristic open technology communities?” or product-focused outcomes, like building a community playbook at Civic Tech DC by asking “What does it really mean to build community?” However, they are not meant - or frankly cannot be - answered definitely.

But for now, the work is delightfully exploratory. I conduct ethnographic observations when I attend events and also have conversational interviews (or in fancy research terms, semi-structured informal interviews) with people whose experiences and work intersect with my questions.

Understandably, the idea that community work can be a research output might seem strange. Jason Benn, founder of Neighborhood, describes the discomfort of this kind of open-ended process well:

It's now been three months since I started on this quest. My first mission, on the advice of experienced independent researchers like Ben R, Nadia E, and Andy M, was to simply "explore my curiosity", without setting goals, to allow myself to discover what I REALLY want and find interesting.

This was harder than I thought it would be. My self-worth is unfortunately linked to my productivity (I'm working on it), and so embracing a state in which forward progress is impossible to measure has been uncomfortable at times. But don't get me wrong - it's also been lots of fun....

What makes Benn’s project interesting is what he actually built from this wandering to start researching community living and whether you could intentionally design a neighborhood for “friendly ambitious nerds” in a major US city. That’s the model I’m trying to follow and after some time learning, the first output can be found here.