Donovan Maasz

Donovan Maasz is a Namibian technology professional and entrepreneur with experience in software development, digital systems design, and solution delivery across a range of sectors. He has contributed to the development of innovative platforms and technology-driven initiatives focused on improving efficiency, accessibility, and service delivery. With a strong interest in using digital innovation to address practical challenges, he is committed to advancing impactful, locally grounded solutions that support development and collaboration in Namibia and beyond. His research endeavours have focused extensively on the digitisation, safeguarding, and dissemination of Indigenous Knowledge Systems in Namibia, with particular emphasis on participatory design, virtual and augmented reality, and community-centred digital preservation approaches. He has contributed to interdisciplinary research initiatives and scholarly publications that explore how technology can support indigenous communities in documenting, preserving, and sharing their cultural heritage on their own terms.

Research Interest: 
Interaction Design, Participatory Design, Community-Based Co-design , Indigenous Knowledge

Publications: 
Stichel Brit , Blake Edwin , Maasz Donovan , Stanley Colin , Winschiers-Theophilus Heike , Afrikaner Helena. 2019. Namibian Indigenous Communities Reflecting on Their Own Digital Representations. In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Communities & Technologies - Transforming Communities (C&T '19). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 51–59. https://doi.org/10.1145/3328320.3328378 

Winschiers-Theophilus Heike, Zaman Tariq , Maasz Donovan , Muashekele Chris, Mbinge Uariaike, Jengan Garen , Stanley Colin, Ab Hamid Khairuddin. 2022. Indigenous Knowledge Fairs: a new approach to pluralistic knowledge dissemination in HCI. In Adjunct Proceedings of the 2022 Nordic Human-Computer Interaction Conference (NordiCHI '22). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 49, 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1145/3547522.3547687 

Winschiers-Theophilus Heike ,Zaman Tariq , Maasz Donovan, Muashekele Chris , Mbinge Uariaike, Jengan Garen, Stanley Colin, Ab Hamid Khairuddin. 2022. Indigenous Knowledge Fairs: a new approach to pluralistic knowledge dissemination in HCI. In Adjunct Proceedings of the 2022 Nordic Human-Computer Interaction Conference (NordiCHI '22). https://doi.org/10.1145/3547522.3547687