The mission of Pasadero, Inc. is reflected in its name, variously translated as “path maker,” “ladder,” and “stepping stone.” Its central aims are to develop “facilitator software” and “authoring-type interfaces,” and to provide a software and support materials “resource directory.” In these roles, Pasadero develops technologies and software support for people who are marginalized and poorly served by today’s top-down software engineering industries and academic disciplines. The strategy is to get free and low-cost technologies and tools into the hands of people who are not techies and who do not command research capital. The ultimate aim is to enable these people to create software to serve their own needs as they feel and experience them. Toward this end, Pasadero developed user interface technology and software for persons with visual, cognitive, developmental, and learning disabilities. This development produced the prototype called “Screen Director,” which was subsequently developed and widely distributed by Arkenstone, Inc. (Now Benetech) and by Freedom Scientific under the name “Wynn.” Details about this program. Read the history of Screen Director. This target population also includes people who do not have large budgets for conducting research and evaluation. In this capacity, Pasadero is pitched to serve “distributed small science” rather than “centralized big science.”

Pasadero’s major on-going programs involve software for research design and data collection called ProtoGenie, a directory of software and support for research design and data collection, and a study of emergent democracy aimed at the development of tools for citizen participation. See below

ProtoGenie, the Researchers Online Software Toolkit:
Pasadero’s most recent program involves the development and implementation of a generic online research design software development toolkit (developed by researchers) called ProtoGenie to serve a highly diverse and decentralized “small science” that is aimed at breaking the stranglehold of super funded “big science” on problem definition, determination of what is to be studied, and how it should be studied. ProtoGenie enables research design and data collection through the construction of online research protocols designed to guide and automate data collection and the research process. It is designed to support all disciplines and all areas of business and government, especially in the science equivalent of cottage industries. ProtoGenie's friendly interface is grounded in the logic of scientific method and the familiar look and feel of the traditional user interface and Internet tools. Together, these features enable programmers and non-programmers alike to build powerful, configurable, and recyclable research support applications for virtually nothing. For more on ProtoGenie, click here.

For recent Press Releases involving ProtoGenie, click here. View the ProtoGenie web site.

Resource Directory for Research Design and Data Collection: Online and Offline Software, Instructional Materials, Tutorials, and Demos.

There is a veritable cornucopia of statistical resources and lists of statistical resources and links to statistical resources on the Web, but one really has to look high and low to find any lists of the tools and support resources that produce the data in the first place, namely research methodology, design, and data collection. Another kind of lopsided development in research support on the Web is the amount of attention given the survey design relative to all other methods. The purpose of prestatistics.com is to help remedy the everything-before-statistics gap on the Internet and to play catch up on the Internet regarding everything that makes up research BEFORE statistical analysis and to give equal time to research methods other than the survey design.

To visit and use the Everything Before Statistics website, click here. Also, to help other researchers, go to prestatistics.com and list you own research support resources and software for research methods, design, and data collection. Build this new resource by putting a link on your web page to pasadero.com and to prestatistics.com




Computer Display Modification For People With Special Needs:
Pasadero’s second major research and development program focuses on the development of specialized user interface technology for persons with visual, cognitive, developmental, and learning disabilities. With expertise in both basic research and product design, Pasadero bridges the gap between academic research and the commercial world. The initial focus was on the development of computer display modification for people with disabilities. The inspiration was the pressing needs of people with visual disabilities and the advent of electronic text. The guiding principle was that once in digital form the content of documents could be “served up” in any form. This program produced the prototype called “Screen Director,” which was subsequently developed and widely distributed by Arkenstone, Inc. (Now Benetech) and by Freedom Scientific under the name “Wynn.”. We are currently continuing development and application of several byproducts of the display modification program involving display coloring. For more details, click here.

Online Tools for Participatory Democracy:
Pasadero’s third major research and development program involves and intensive study of the genetic and cultural roots of “emergent democracy” with the ultimate aim of advancing our knowledge of democratic systems and of developing tools, such as facilitator networks and citizen initiated polling, for extending citizen participation in the decision-making that affects their lives. Developments in the toolkit project are already serving the goals of the emergent democracy research and development program by providing authoring tools for the construction of online surveys and other information technologies. Also, ideas coming out of the research on the roots of democracy, particularly involving differences in the ways that people think about problems and their solutions, have provided insights into the source of the division of research into quantitative and qualitative methods and ways to integrated them in the ProtoGenie toolkit. For details see the web site for Emergent Democracy which is currently under development - in progress.