Designed for Good: Community Well-Being Oriented Online Databases for Youth - Community-Built Databases: Research and Development - page 296

their attention to global problems and make them aware of how they can help be
part of the solution to some of these problems.
This website emphasises interactive features which enable young people to, for
example, be an editor of a mini-paper or a report; an open discussion forum
allowing youth to contribute to an online community with other youth around the
world and the ability to collaborate with other community members to create
newsletters and reports on relevant topics.
In terms of evaluating the degree to which this web space contributes to the
well-being of youth, it is perhaps useful to consider it in terms of the conceptual
model presented earlier (Fig. 12.1 ). This web space encompasses all three types of
web spaces for youth. It is interactive in so far as the features it provides enable
youth to send messages and emails to global organisations about issues they feel
strongly about, as well as giving them the opportunity to be part of the design
team of Voices of Youth in terms of suggesting changes to the website and the
addition of new topics they would like to see discussed. It is information provi-
sional as it provides information on a wide and diverse range of topics. It is
Collaborative as it allows youth to come together and produce artefacts such as a
monthly newsletter on topics that they are passionate about. It is community based
in so far as the discussion forum aspect of the website is concerned since youth
can not only communicate with other youth on issues that concern them, but also
consult professionals and decision makers on how to get their action projects off
the ground. In addition, Voices of Youth periodically holds online real-time chats
where adults and decision makers are invited along with the youth of the website
to discuss issues that concern them.
Fig. 12.1 Information,
community and collaboration