ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how digital platforms like Spotify have disrupted the music business, Facebook the news media, and Airbnb the hospitality industry. It argues that any information-intensive, highly fragmented field that has a few gatekeepers and a lot of information asymmetry will likely find itself transformed by digital platforms that allow people to share information without the need of intermediaries. A public interest design educational platform would allow people to share ideas, information, and strategies, whether for educational or professional purposes. A widely accessible digital platform for public interest design education would also alter the equation of teacher and learner. For public interest design, that means not only sharing ideas and information, but developing ways to measure the value created by the work, something that this nascent field has yet to do in any systematic way.
