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Research & innovation agreement

Introduction

The EAR community is a gathering place for members and those we partner with to help make public interest internet technology legible, usable, and practical for everyday people1. We engage in this work through a combination of action research and imagination tracks. Research and imagination programming provide pathways to investigate shared conditions, reflect on the past, and explore desirable futures together.

While all of this is in service of innovation, we intentionally create a space for imagination in service of innovation, rather than attempting to innovate on our own. This is in part because in order to realize desirable futures, we must first imagine them. There are many people capable of and involved in direct action. Indirect action is necessary to help create the conditions necessary to inform direct action with plural, inclusive, and effective contexts.

Action Research

People are more likely to help shape what’s next when they are active participants in exploring and improving situations affecting them.

We investigate current-state conditions and emerging opportunity spaces through the lenses of participatory and collaborative action research. This means we invite participation from those affected and collaboration with those who bring subject matter expertise and real world experience related to the matters we explore.

Imagination

While some of our research explores current-state conditions and near-term opportunities, a key factor in shaping innovation is to imagine a range of potential futures together. Imagination programs bring people together to reflect on the past and explore possibilities that may appear possible, plausible, probable, or preferable.

“By being very specific about the things we can imagine in the future, we sharpen our powers of discernment about what we want and do not want, identifying what dynamics are life-sustaining versus life-draining.”

—Ruha Benjamin, Imagination: A Manifesto

It’s our hope that through collective imagination we help give people an opportunity to participate in and contribute to the conversation about what a public interest internet might look like.

Methods

See the action research methods guide.

Principles

Principles help make decision-making criteria consistent and mitigate risk. Contact the Craft working group if you would like support regarding R\&I principles.

Research principles

Each working group is required to discuss and abide by principles during each stage of research. We document reusable principles for reference in the research principles agreement.

Data synthesis principles

See the data synthesis principles agreement.

EAR objectives 2026

Research & innovation programs at EAR ladder up to the one year objectives outlined in our founding charter, reviewed quarterly by the steering group, and ratified yearly by the project committee. To focus our work, programs proposed outside of or beyond the bounds of our one year objectives will not be considered by the steering group.

From the charter:

  1. Facilitate collective sense-making around key AT network ecosystem dynamics including what users value in common user experience scenarios and how the ecosystem is perceived.
  2. Elevate the capacity of AT network community support systems by developing visibility and shared understanding of the experience of builders, creators, community organizers, founders, trust & safety staff, subject-matter experts, and end-users in the ecosystem.
  3. Equip product, trust & safety, user experience, and engineering teams building on AT network technology with shared understanding and language around common concepts, patterns, user needs, and tasks relevant to the ecosystem.
  4. Provide resources, research artifacts, and reference materials to enable a diverse range of organizations and individuals to participate in the emergent ecosystem enabled by AT network technology.

How to begin

[Todo: Link to opportunities, research projects, and action research methods guides–e.g. Check out existing research projects, explore an opportunity, learn about methods we use.]

  • Action research methods (link to guide section)
  • Research principles (link to guide section)
  • Data, observations, and insights (link to guide section)
  • TO ADD: Presuppositions, assumptions, findings, insights, hypotheses, and recommendations
  • Yearly objectives (link to charter)
  • How to begin (link to guide section)