The electronic charrette (william george paul, 1996) is a short-term, interdisciplinary and collaborative online workshop that incorporates traditional communication tools and processes to generate real time planning and design data through a web site archive. A major goal for this traditional-electronic prototype, now under construction at Virginia Tech, is to strengthen grassroots community building through a smarter information technology tool kit for any citizen (i.e., the user) interested in participatory democracy.

The group members will participate in william paul’s first test of his dissertation project called the electronic charrette. The online collaborative design exchange on “event day” via NetMeeting and DataBeam meeting tools will be of primary focus for the comparative analysis using theories and models done as part of the HCI course. The asynchronous tools and the electronic charette participation guide may also be evaluated for possible inclusion.

The following models have been used for the analysis:

(1) Scenario Based Design Evaluation
(2) Claims Analysis
(3) Participatory Design/Activity Theory
(4) Metaphor Based Design