Participatory research and Web 2.0

Participatory research, the concept that people in the community should provide input into research design and throughout the study, is definitely gaining momentum. The advent of Web 2.0, a broad concept that encompasses the creation and sharing of information by communities of users, opens up an opportunity to substantially expand participatory research. Here are a few areas to consider:

• An on-line community should be engaged in the interpretation of research findings, creating a continuum between design, conducting studies, and following them up with new initiatives to either implement findings or initiate new studies to tackle additional questions. Professional researchers would participate in the process to ensure that design is compliant with accepted scientific standards, but the main issues would be proposed by the community itself.
• Ongoing studies should be discussed in social networks of blogs created by community leaders and participants
• All of this on-line activity could be enhanced by face to face meetings, although their role will probably decrease over time as technology improves
  

Although any area could serve as a platform for this type of initiative, chances of success would probably be higher among communities that already use the Web as a primary means of communication. Topics related to teenager health obviously come to mind, but participants' age is not a limiting factor as much as their interest and habit of participating in on-line communities. For a number of ideas on how to unleash the power of communities, Tapscott's book "We are smarter than me" is a good source.