horizontl

Explain this co-design concept to me again.

The idea of co-design is to involve the people who use a technology, and whose lives are affected by it, in its design and development from the beginning. We help you understand the choices that go into building a product, and you participate in decision making as informed by your lived experiences, concerns and needs. The goal is a product that is built for all users rather than just a privileged few. The fact that it’s not more common is why a lot of technology is so good for a few people (who usually look like the creators) and not so good for everyone else.

What is the subject of the workshops I’ll be participating in?

The first workshop series is about technology design for privacy and trust. There are lots of different ways that we could build horizontl to protect privacy, but all involve our team making choices that have consequences for the user community. We think that representative voices and perspectives from the community are far better positioned to weigh the pros and cons of different approaches in order to arrive at design that serves the most people—and even more importantly, serves the most vulnerable members of the community who have particular high stakes for identity data privacy and interpersonal trust.

Am I a good fit for co-design work?

Are you open-minded, curious, willing to collaborate with others and consider other points of view in working toward a solution? Then, yes. You can certainly bring your own ideas and opinions, but we ask that you leave space for others’ experiences, needs, and concerns. Even in the context of shared challenges, we know there isn’t going to be a perfect solution or one right answer to many problems so we will be working collaboratively toward the very best compromise solution.

I use tech platforms but I don’t understand technology. Is that ok?

Yes, absolutely. In fact, we welcome it because we assume most of our users won’t be technologists. But of course if you do know a lot about tech, that’s ok too!

Are you building diverse, inclusive co-design groups?

Yes. One of the great failings of the internet as we know it is that platform businesses have often failed to take into account the needs and concerns of the most vulnerable users and communities. While we recognize that in the world at large, all in sex work often fall into this category, we know that within the community, there are varying needs and levels of vulnerability based on a variety of circumstances. We’re working to ensure different backgrounds, circumstances, and perspectives are included.

Why do I need to complete a survey to participate?

While we’d like to find ways for everyone to participate over time, we want to create smaller, representative working groups in order to make workshops collaborative and productive. We would also like to include individuals from a range of experiences, perspectives, backgrounds, and needs. We can only select representative co-design working groups by knowing more about each person. We plan to build ways to hear from and include all of you in the future, so even if we can’t make space for you now, we’d very much like you to stay involved. We’ve included a question at the end of the survey where you can let us know if you’re interested in participating in any capacity. If that’s the case, we’ll keep your contact email, keep you in mind and keep in touch.

How long will the survey take me to complete? What should I expect from it?

There are two different surveys, one for service providers and one for clients. Each takes 15-20 minutes to complete. We ask a number of questions that are relevant to building a representative co-design community and running workshops themselves. We ask about you, about your current situation and history as a provider or client, and about how and how much you would like to participate in any co-design work.

Can I complete it anonymously?

Yes and no. Yes, for the initial survey. We are using TypeForm, which is anonymous by default. Only your email address connects you to completed survey information. But if we invite you to participate, we’ll likely want a bit more information. We’ll let you know more when we get to that stage, as well as how your data will be handled, but you should anticipate that someone on our team will need to connect with you using your identifying email address. More information can be found on our privacy page.

Am I able to select a preference for being involved in particular aspects of design?

Yes. In the survey, we give you the chance to tell us what interests you most from among a number of topics: privacy, usability, security, policy, contract negotiation, and payments. If you have a strong preference, please note that. If you have no preference, let us know that too.

How do you handle my application data?

We will export survey responses into a CSV file that is only held locally by our team and hold responses in TypeForm no more than 30 days.

What if I change my mind about participating after I submit my responses?

That’s not a problem. We’ll be following up with everyone once we’ve selected the working groups, and if you’ve changed your mind, you can tell us then. Hopefully you’ll still be interested in participating in surveys and the like that require less of a commitment.

Will you pay me for my time?

Yes! We are currently raising funding to support community co-design work as part of our research and development process. We don’t yet have the precise amount per workshop, but we expect to pay £15-20/hr. We’ll do our best to offer reasonable pay for your contribution.

How much time should I expect to commit?

We’ll be looking for 3-4 hours per workshop. Right now, we expect to run two sex worker-only workshops, two client-only workshops, and one sex worker-client collaborative workshop. But this is just for this particular research project. There will be other workshops in the future, and you can let us know later if you’re interested in participating in those too.

Can I participate in workshops anonymously?

You do not need to reveal your identity to other participants in any workshop. We ask in the survey if you are comfortable showing your face, but that will not be required of anyone.

What should I expect from the workshop experience?

We’re working with Simply Secure, a women-led organization that is deeply experienced in working with under-represented user communities to incorporate their perspective and needs into design. With the help of Simply Secure (and their experience in leading workshops), we’ll be designing workshops to be as accessible to everyone as possible (that means in the concepts, in the language, in the overall tone). We’ll offer multiple ways to contribute (in conversation, in group chat, in direct conversation with moderators, so that they can represent your voice if you’re not comfortable introducing a topic) and manage topics and their tone in order to do our best to make everyone (and their ideas) feel welcome.

Is this going to be like social media, where the loudest, most opinionated people dominate the conversation or shame me for having a different opinion?

No, absolutely not. We will have clear ground rules for participation in each workshop and facilitators experienced in leading inclusive, respectful conversation. While we recognize that topics are bound to introduce some strong, passionate opinions, and we’ll do our best to create space for those, we won’t tolerate bigotry, personal attacks, bullying, shaming, or other behaviors that unfairly silence certain people or perspectives.

What if I disagree with or have really different ideas from other participants?

That’s ok! We’ll work to create space for different opinions and ideas as we work toward proposed solution design. We’ll also give you ways to introduce ideas for conversation anonymously, through workshop moderators, so that you can share without worrying that it puts you in the line of fire.

I have other questions you haven’t answered here. Can you help me?

Of course! You’ll find a “Contact” link in the footer of this website. Someone from our team will get back to you in 2-3 days. (Or possibly sooner.)

Do I need to be an activist or participate in the sex worker advocacy community to be selected?

Absolutely not. We’re aiming to build a representative co-design community, and we recognize that only a small fraction of active service providers are comfortable with or able to publicly advocate for the community.

Why are you inviting clients? If this platform is about making work safer for service providers, why do they need to participate?

horizontl can only work if both service providers and clients participate in its system. And in order to build a solution for everyone, we need to consider the needs and concerns of all users. Our highest priority is the safety and security of service providers, as they are far more likely to experience workplace abuse or exploitation.

Is it better for me to sign up to participate in both the sex worker-only group and the sex worker-client collaborative group?

Nope. Sign up for whatever level of participation is comfortable for you.

I live in a country where sex work is criminalized. Can I still apply to participate?

Yes, but It’s helpful for us to know if this is your situation, as we are interested in how different individual situations affect privacy needs. Our mission is to make all sex workers safe regardless of their circumstances.

My English isn’t great. Can I still participate?

Yes, we ask all participants to have basic English fluency as workshops will be conducted in English. But as long as you can understand others and communicate your ideas, we don’t need your English to be perfect. If you’re eager to participate but your English is really limited, please let us know when you complete the survey (as well as what your preferred language is). We’ll work to find ways to include you.

This seems really sex worker focused. Is there really room for my perspective?

100% yes. Clients are essential to making horizontl work, and we want to understand your concerns and needs. Many of these are shared with service providers (the need for privacy, the desire to safely connect person-to-person), but others are specific to the client experience.

Is it better for me to sign up to participate in both the client-only group and the sex worker-client collaborative group?

Nope. Sign up for whatever level of participation is comfortable for you.

I live in a country where sex work is criminalized. Can I still apply to participate?

Yes, but it’s helpful for us to know if this is your situation, as we are interested in how different individual situations affect privacy needs. Our mission is to make sex work safe everywhere.

My English isn’t great. Can I still participate?

Yes, we ask all clients to have basic English fluency as workshops will be conducted in English. But as long as you can understand others and communicate your ideas, we don’t need your English to be perfect.