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Adding critical sensibilities to domestic communication technologies
Abstract
This paper presents suggestions for a more pragmatic approach to the design of emerging and future domestic communication technologies, particularly technologies destined for the home that may be deemed 'ubiquitous'. This is achieved through two critical reviews of a small number of social studies related to the design and use of existing and emerging communication technologies. The first review explores how existing, recent and emerging technologies are adopted within the domestic home and explores how social patterns dictate adoption. The second review draws more broadly on research activity related to the design and development of ubiquitous technologies for everyday life and what lessons can be learnt from them. Together, these two reviews suggest novel communication technology adoption will evolve through small imperceptible steps from the edges of existing products and services; therefore design research needs to be more aligned to this approach. To make any real impact and influence, research activity needs to move away from attempts to deliver ubiquity in the home and place more emphasis at the pragmatic, incremental level of emerging communication services and products.
... This is illustrated in the wide range of organizations, industries, and contexts in which network-mediated information access and communication is being researched. In addition to business, that list of contexts includes health care delivery , families (Bonner, 2009), psychological therapy (De Boni, Richardson, & Hurling, 2008Hubal, Fishbein, Sheppard, Paschall, Eldreth, & Hyde, 2008), psychological assessment (Naus, Philipp, & Samsi, 2009), support groups (Barak, Boniel-Nissim & Suler, 2008), professional organizations (Silva, Figueroa, Gonzalez-Reinhart, 2007), higher education (Gerjets, Scheiter, Opfermann, Hesse, & Eysink, 2009;Wu, Tennyson, Hsia, & Liao, 2008), and the military . ...
... Through wireless networks, information technology engineers open communication channels in industrial, business, and social places that were not previously open to networked communication, and this is contributing expanded use of networked technologies in human interactions which expands the evolutive and reflexive influences of modern information technology and is positively associated with increased social expectation that information technology will be available and used (Jung, Perez-Mira, & Wiley-Patton, 2009;Wang, Shu, & Tu, 2008). The possibility of ubiquitous interactivity over wireless networks is a factor that motivates many users of wireless networks in domestic and person situations as well (Bonner, 2009;. ...
... The decision to use information technology is frequently made when an individual perceives access to information or social interaction as a desired state that can be accomplished only by adopting technology. Bonner (2009) provided the example of parents' desire to maintain contact with children as a desired state that motivates the initial use of information technology in a domestic situation. Factors that affect that decision to adopt technology for domestic communication depends on the fit between the natural rhythms of life and the communication mediated through technology; technology that intrudes on other activities is perceived as not easy to use or not useful will not be accepted in domestic situations. ...
... In this study, students generally reported infrequent contact with parents via social media. However, digital technology is constantly changing, and it is unclear how different types of communications technology are being incorporated into the communication practices of families (Bonner 2009). ...
... Phone calls and text messaging were the two most frequently used methods of communicating with parents reported by the present sample of 326 young adults attending college. Contact with parents via email was the third most frequently (Bonner 2009). In our study, college students generally reported more frequent contact with parents via phone, text and other types of communications technology than reported previously (Gentzler et al. 2011). ...
Continued involvement of parents in the lives of young adults is a topic of great interest to both scholars and the lay public. Although young adults’ astounding use of cell phones, texting, video chat, and social media in negotiating their social relationships is well documented, few studies have examined the role of different types of communications technology in facilitating young adults’ involvement with their parents. Researchers have begun to examine familial and psychological correlates of parental involvement for college students, but existing studies offer mixed results. The present study examined college students’ reports of frequency of contact with parents using different types of communications technology and examined familial relationship and individual well-being factors associated with young adults’ reports of frequent parental contact. College students (N = 326) completed measures of frequency of contact with mothers and fathers using seven types of communications technology, the quality of family relationships (felt obligation towards parents and family satisfaction) and individual well-being (self-esteem, depressed mood, and general psychological well-being). Phone calls and texting were the two most popular methods of parental contact reported by college students. Level of self-reported contact with parents was not significantly related to participants’ reports of self-esteem, depressed mood, or general well-being. Results of multinomial logistic regression analyses indicated that higher levels of felt obligation and family satisfaction meaningfully distinguished between young adults who reported frequent and infrequent parental contact. Our results indicate the importance of understanding young adults’ reports of parental contact within the context of ongoing family relationships.
... This was achieved through a large-scale survey of parents across the United Kingdom. We focused on parents in particular, as they are often the gatekeepers who determine what technologies are introduced in the family [4]. Given the little we know about the adoption of location tracking, adoption was measured using the exploratory framework proposed by Rogers' diffusion of innovations theory [30]. ...
... Before implementing a technology, users will engage in a 'mental exercise of thinking and deciding' [30]. In the domestic context, parents act as technology advocates [4] whose choices ultimately bear on children's wellbeing. Parents acknowledge this responsibility by reflectively evaluating their motives when using technologies with their children [21]. ...
A number of commercial location tracking systems exist which enable parents to monitor where their children are when outdoors. The adoption of these services and whether, through their design, they reflect parental values has not been investigated. This question was pursued with a large-scale survey of 920 parents from the UK. The use of location tracking was not prevalent amongst parents and only a minority had considered using these technologies. Parents favoring location tracking described it in the context of security, peace of mind and the need to reduce uncertainty. Parents who were against location tracking described a general lack of need as they had established reliable mechanisms for security and valued trust in the family as well as children's self-direction. Our findings show that location tracking concurrently supports and threatens parental values. By focusing on the values it undermines, we are able to suggest new directions for location systems.
... This was achieved through a large-scale survey of parents across the United Kingdom. We focused on parents in particular, as they are often the gatekeepers who determine what technologies are introduced in the family [4]. Given the little we know about the adoption of location tracking, adoption was measured using the exploratory framework proposed by Rogers' diffusion of innovations theory [30]. ...
... Before implementing a technology, users will engage in a 'mental exercise of thinking and deciding' [30]. In the domestic context, parents act as technology advocates [4] whose choices ultimately bear on children's wellbeing. Parents acknowledge this responsibility by reflectively evaluating their motives when using technologies with their children [21]. ...
A number of commercial location tracking systems exist which enable parents to monitor where their children are when outdoors. The adoption of these services and whether,
through their design, they reflect parental values has not been investigated. This question was pursued with a large scale survey of 920 parents from the UK. The use of location tracking was not prevalent amongst parents and only a minority had considered using these technologies. Parents favoring location tracking described it in the context of security, peace of mind and the need to reduce uncertainty. Parents who were against location tracking described a general lack of need as they had established reliable mechanisms for security and valued trust in the family as well as children’s self-direction. Our findings show that location tracking concurrently supports and threatens parental values. By focusing on the values it undermines, we are able to suggest new directions for location systems.
... In the home smartness is regarded as high awareness and responses which means, in the terms of environments it should be responsible to mediate ambient information between users and environments outside. Current studies suggest the home as a set of organizational systems and routines which provide sufficient evidences for interactive technology design [5], other critical studies reflect that design in existing and pragmatic way may be better than in the way of revolutionary progresses [6]. With the increasing emergence of interactive technologies such as radio, television and email we have been in a world fulfilling of information and connections while, coexisting many conventional domestic infrastructures. ...
In this paper, we present novel development of domestic central heating control panel from conventional wall-mounted device to ambient media. We perform cycles of designs and evaluations in order to refine the understanding of the new media. Based on that we investigate potential methodologies to develop conventional devices into ambient media and, explore types of massages which may be provided by new ambient media.
... Since Mark Weiser defined the term 'ubiquitous computing' in 1991, a number of cases have been put forward for devices which interweave into normal domestic routines but exist invisibly [1,2]. So far research has developed many smart homes, these include Georgia Tech's Aware Home, MIT's Place Lab, Samsung's Smart Home Project and Microsoft's MS Home [3]. ...
In this paper we consider how 'smartness' should be designed to enhance the communication in the home. We aim to evoke a rethinking of how smart technologies should be embedded in perspectives of user needs. Through a set of experimental studies, which employ a Wizard of Oz (WoZ) as design and evaluation methodology, we observe and analyse user interactions accordingly with the wizard's simulations. Based on experiment results, our argument is, designing smartness for communication in the home should not heavily rely on invisibly distributed sensors and networks due to interaction design misunderstandings that a large number of sensors and networks can make ambient intelligence with few user understandings. The results also argue that, smartness can be realised by first improving the integration of personal information into the environments, which is closely relevant to social routines.
... Specifically addressing use, studies that acknowledge the need of a follow-up to improve products (yet not for environmental performance improvement) can be found in Abramovici and Lindner (2011). Bonner (2009) reports insights on the relations between the user and home technology. Involving users in innovation is discussed by Peine and Herrmann (2012). ...
For many modern products, the use phase is intensive and poses a serious environmental impact because of the energy and resources consumed. This could be resolved by optimizing the product's environmental impact by improving the understanding of the users’ relationship with it. In this work, we propose a model that can be used to include the use phase and the eco-oriented strategies in the environmental impact assessment of a product. This model takes into account the changing nature of the interactions between the user and the product over time. An indicator designated mitigation rate is introduced to help model this change. It acknowledges the loss in performance of eco-oriented strategies over time. This work presents the methodology to understand, model, and select among different eco-oriented strategies with different time frames. A case study is also presented, where four alternative models considering different eco-oriented strategies are shown and compared.
... Particularly, drawing favorable or unfavorable comparisons against a technology in one previous investigation is more likely to be misleading than informative. Brown et al. point out the incredible difficulties in attempting to generalize from single-case field deployments, as even small variations in participants and methods can lead to drastical-ly different interpretations of the same technology [5]. However, as similar technologies are deployed in a variety of contexts, there may be a large enough sample to compensate for this variability and allow for between-study comparisons. ...
As CSCW creates and investigates technologies for social communication, it is important to understand the emotional benefits and costs of these systems. We propose the Affec-tive Benefits and Costs of Communication Technologies (ABCCT) questionnaire to supplement traditional qualita-tive methods of understanding communication media. We discuss the pilots of this survey with 45 children and 110 adults measuring the inter-item reliability of this instru-ment. We present the results of interviews with 14 children and 14 adults, which help confirm that the ABCCT measures the same constructs that may emerge through interview investigations. Finally, we demonstrate that the ABCCT is sensitive enough to discriminate between differ-ent communication technologies and has shown promise in some of its early adoption. Though the ABCCT is not with-out limitations, it may provide a way to compare technolo-gies in field deployments, draw findings across investiga-tions, and quantify the impact of specific design decisions.
In the context of smartphone-mediated family communication, the study investigates relationships of nomophobia and phubbing with affective effects of smartphone use among emerging adults. This web survey examines 714 Taiwanese young users utilising smartphones to communicate with parents. Structural equation modelling results show that nomophobia is positively associated with affective benefit (presence-in-absence) and cost (unwanted obligation and threat to privacy) of using smartphone, while phubbing is positively related to unwanted obligation and threat to privacy. Additionally, presence-in-absence shows a positive association with family cohesion, while unwanted obligation has a negative relationship, and threat to privacy shows no influence. Moreover, the study develops a nomophobia measure with sub-dimensions (information anxiety, social panic and losing online connectedness). Gender is the only demographic factor affecting nomophobia. Implications of smartphone’s ABCCT impacts on family cohesion are discussed.
Increasing utilizations of kill switches, remote deletion, and intelligent agents as a part of “Internet of Things” (IoT) architectures present emerging cybersecurity and privacy challenges. These issues are compounded in complexity by the frequent updates and other controls instituted by the growing assortment of purveyors of household IoT devices and systems. This paper proposes that aspects of user ownership, awareness, and voice be clarified and in some venues fostered in part to expose as quickly as possible potential technological and social dangers. It addresses rights of household participants to obtain knowledge and control over the intelligent IoT agents operating (and perhaps “quartering”) in their personal and intimate spheres, as well as to be free from inappropriately opportunistic applications associated with IoT systems.
Technology to assist people in the kitchen has become a major research topic as technology becomes more ubiquitous in the home. Research is being carried out in numerous areas to assist with cooking, from solving difficulties in the kitchen to more recently enhancing already good experiences related to cooking. To design solutions that are not only usable, but useful in all related aspects of cooking, we must get a good understanding of the needs of the user. It is important that real needs are identified, so that products or systems designed are adopted and are sustainable. There are various methods that researchers and designers use to gain user insights and there is much debate on different approaches and their effectiveness. Whilst there have been a number of ethnographic style studies in people's homes, there has been little in the way of understanding user goals in the kitchen which could lead to more effective design solutions. In this paper, we present goal-directed research of cooking needs in Singapore. We produce three primary design personas and three secondary personas, describing their goals and needs and where they can be helped through technology. An online survey was carried out to validate our personas, comparing our qualitative and quantitative findings. We provide a general holistic overview of kitchen requirements for these personas, whether in helping correct problems or enhancing positive experiences and how these needs can be connected. The user requirements provided can help guide researchers and help designers produce more meaningful, complete and acceptable technology solutions in the kitchen.
Recent research in Human Computer studies have shown that smart and efficient technology alone is not what people desire for in their homes. The Interactive Carpet project aims to produce a new kind of interaction - Poetic Communication, enabling remote communication through the creation of a sense of sharing, co-presence, and connectedness. This technology connects two carpets in remote locations enhancing communication through more meaningful aesthetic interactions.
In recent years, computer and Internet technologies have broadened the ways that people can stay in touch. Through interviews with parents and grandparents, we examined how people use existing technologies to communicate and share with their extended ...
Multimedia technology is becoming ubiquitous in modem society, and it is having profound effects on institutions and expectations. The technology is very fluid, and development is shaped by a great many social factors. Prediction of the coevolution of multimedia technology and society needs to be informed by a research framework that focuses attention on the key social, psychological, political, and economic influences on technology and technology use as well as on the emergence of stable uses, infrastructures, standards, and development paths. This article criticizes "technologically deterministic" approaches, which simply seek to extrapolate social change from technological potential. It shows how a three-layer model of component, system, and application technologies can be used to integrate findings from the use and development of technology in specific sectors. Three cases of technology-based predictions are examined from education, retailing, and work organization, and lessons for understanding technology futures are illustrated by research in different industry and user sectors.
Current research has identified social communication as a primary area of technological development in the networked home of the future. The primary research focus is on supporting !phatic" communication - i.e., on supporting communication that is mediated by words, whether spoken or written and co-located or distributed. We provide an ethnographic study of mail use in the home to show that phatic communication is itself mediated through the social construction of visual displays that support the at-a-glance coordination of practical action and the management of domestic affairs. These !coordinate displays" are distributed around the geography or ecology of the domestic space. Their explication opens up new possibilities for the development of communication technologies for domestic employment, particularly the design of networks of ecologically situated and mobile displays that support the visible and timely flow of information around the home.
The need for an integrated social constructivist approach towards the study of science and technology is outlined. Within such a programme both scientific facts and technological artefacts are to be understood as social constructs. Literature on the sociology of science, the science-technology relationship, and technology studies is reviewed. The empirical programme of relativism within the sociology of scientific knowledge and a recent study of the social construction of technological artefacts are combined to produce the new approach. The concepts of `interpretative flexibility' and `closure mechanism', and the notion of `social group' are developed and illustrated by reference to a study of solar physics and a study of the development of the bicycle. The paper concludes by setting out some of the terrain to be explored in future studies.
Visions of Pervasive Computing and ambient intelligence involve integrating tiny microelectronic processors and sensors into everyday objects in order to make them“smart.”Smart things can explore their environment, communicate with other smart things, and interact with humans, therefore helping users to cope with their tasks in new, intuitive ways. Although many concepts have already been tested out as prototypes in field trials, the repercussions of such extensive integration of computer technology into our everyday lives are difficult to predict. This article is a first attempt to classify the social, economic, and ethical implications of this development.
We describe a new methodology for designing technologies for and with families called technology probes. Technology probes are simple, flexible, adaptable technologies introduced into families' homes with three interdisciplinary goals: the social science goal of collecting data about the use of the technology in a real-world setting, the engineering goal of field-testing the technology, and the design goal of inspiring users and designers to think about new technologies. We present the results of designing and deploying two technology probes, the MessageProbe and the VideoProbe, with families in France, Sweden, and the U.S. We conclude with our plans for creating new technologies based on our experiences.
Recently, households have begun to adopt networking technologies to interconnect devices within the home. Yet little is known
about the consequences for households of setting up and living with these complex networks, nor the impact of such technologies
on the routines of the home. In this paper, we report findings from an empirical study of households containing complex networks
of computer and audio/visual technologies. Our study finds that home networks require significant household effort not just
to coordinate their use, but also their set up and maintenance. We also show how the coordination around networking has to
be worked into the routines of the home and the householders.
With the advent of pervasive systems, computers are becoming a larger part of our social lives than ever before. Depending on the design of these systems, they may either promote or inhibit social relationships. We consider four kinds of social relationships: a relationship with the system, system-mediated collaborative relationships, relationships with a community, and interpersonal relationships among co-located persons. In laboratory studies, the design of pervasive computers is shown to affect responses to social partners. We propose a model of how pervasive systems can influence human behavior, social attributions, and interaction outcomes. We also discuss some implications for system design.
We present steps toward a conceptual framework for tangible user interfaces. We introduce the MCRpd interaction model for tangible interfaces, which relates the role of physical and digital representations, physical control, and underlying digital models. This model serves as a foundation for identifying and discussing several key characteristics of tangible user interfaces. We identify a number of systems exhibiting these characteristics, and situate these within 12 application domains. Finally, we discuss tangible interfaces in the context of related research themes, both within and outside of the human-computer interaction domain.
We describe a new method for use in the process of co-designing technologies with users called technology probes. Technology probes are simple, flexible, adaptable technologies with three interdisciplinary goals: the social science goal of understanding the needs and desires of users in a real-world setting, the engineering goal of field-testing the technology, and the design goal of inspiring users and researchers to think about new technologies. We present the results of designing and deploying two technology probes, the messageProbe and the videoProbe, with diverse families in France, Sweden, and the U.S. We conclude with our plans for creating new technologies for and with families based on our experiences.
Teenagers compromise a large proportion of our population, and their technology use is a bellwether of future trends. Today's teens are coming of age with the rapid development of advanced communication and media tools. This paper describes a study exploring teen communication media usage patterns and their design implications.
This paper reports the key findings of an ethnographic study of domestic technology in the home. The issues addressed include: the gendered division of domestic labour and gendered product design; the privatisation of domestic space through entertainment technologies; and the necessity of making mundane housework more enjoyable. The paper briefly describes the technology biography procedure that was used to gather data, outlines key design implications, and presents illustrative product suggestions, which are intended to inspire or provoke designers.
This paper presents two case studies of informal group communication using multimedia conferencing that supports various media including video, audio and chat. The studies provide a comparison of audio and chat as communication medium and present data on usage patterns, user preferences and attitudes. The quantitative and qualitative data collected suggest that chat does have advantages in some situations when used for informal communication along with video. The results provide evidence against the hypothesis that chat is a low bandwidth alternative only used when audio communication is unavailable. This suggests that video mediated chat deserves further attention from designers and the research community, since it is often ignored as a "useful" scenario.
This paper reviews some of the research on the use and consumption of technology in the domestic space that may not be familiar
to members of the usability and design community, especially those traditionally focused on design for the workplace. The
paper also introduces original research findings and conclusions from a qualitative study of the adoption and use of new ICTs
conducted in a number of households and workplaces in the late 1990s, a time when many new ICT products and services were
becoming available, and more traditional media and communication products were becoming widespread in homes. The paper does
not make recommendations about the type of products and services to be developed, nor those that may be successful, although
it is quite possible to draw this type of conclusion from it. Instead it looks at some rather broader trends in the way that
we engage with technologies, rejecting and adopting them, and the importance of our domestic space and social networks to
the way we will engage with future technologies aimed at the home space.
The challenges faced in designing large displays for ubiquitous computing environments are discussed. Ubiquitous computing system that form the background of the way we expect things to work is discussed. Three different approaches addressing the common issue of how to design and build disappearing computers are presented. These approaches have been developed over some time by using different implementations to find manswers and solutions to the opem problems and issues. The development of ambient information displays that shows information about the activities of the working groups into which the Smart Environments at Fraunhofer ISPI are based are also described.
The domestic environment is predicted by market analysts to be the major growth area in computing over the next decade, yet it is a poorly understood domain at the current time of writing. Research is largely confined to the laboratory environment, although it has been recognized that ubiquitous computing will in due course have to resonate with the ‘stable and compelling routines of the home’. This paper seeks to inform ubiquitous computing for the home environment by unpacking the notion of domestic routines as coordinational features of domestic life. We focus in particular on the routine nature of communication and use ethnographic study to explicate a discrete organization of coordination whereby household members routinely manage communications coming into and going out of the home. The coordinate ways in which members routinely organize communication are made visible through sequences of practical action, which articulate domestic routines and key properties of communication. These include ecological habitats, activity centres, and coordinate displays at which technology is at the core. These organizational features combine to form a locally produced system of communication and open up the play of possibilities for design, articulating the distinct needs of particular settings and ‘prime sites ’ for the deployment of ubiquitous computing devices.
This paper considers how we may provide support for the development of general design principles in domestic environments. In particular we examine the potential for using design patterns as a means of presenting ethnographic material and outlining design solutions. The paper reports on the development of an initial pattern language based on our studies of a number of domestic environments and offers a general structure for presenting these patterns. Finally, we briefly reflect on our experiences of developing an on-line set of patterns for this class of environments.
Ubiquitous computing is unusual amongst technological research arenas. Most areas of computer science research, such as programming
language implementation, distributed operating system design, or denotational semantics, are defined largely by technical
problems, and driven by building upon and elaborating a body of past results. Ubiquitous computing, by contrast, encompasses
a wide range of disparate technological areas brought together by a focus upon a common vision. It is driven, then, not so
much by the problems of the past but by the possibilities of the future. Ubiquitous computing’s vision, however, is over a
decade old at this point, and we now inhabit the future imagined by its pioneers. The future, though, may not have worked
out as the field collectively imagined. In this article, we explore the vision that has driven the ubiquitous computing research
agenda and the contemporary practice that has emerged. Drawing on cross-cultural investigations of technology adoption, we
argue for developing a “ubicomp of the present” which takes the messiness of everyday life as a central theme.
In this article we consider what it should mean to build 'smartness' or 'intelligence' into the home. We introduce an argument suggesting that it is people who imbue their homes with intelligence by continually weaving together things in their physical worlds with their everyday routines and distinct social arrangements. To develop this argument we draw on four ongoing projects concerned with designing interactive surfaces. These projects illustrate how, through the use of surfaces like fridge doors and wall displays, and even bowl shaped surfaces, we keep in touch with one another, keep the sense of our homes intact, and craft our homes as something unique and special. Intelligence, here, is seen to be something that emerges from our interactions with these surfaces—seen in the thoughtful placement of things throughout the home's ecology of surfaces. IT for the home is thus understood less as something to be designed as intelligent and more as a resource for intelligence.
Users have become an integral part of technology studies. The essays in this volume look at the creative capacity of users to shape technology in all phases, from design to implementation. Using a variety of theoretical approaches, including a feminist focus on users and use (in place of the traditional emphasis on men and machines), concepts from semiotics, and the cultural studies view of consumption as a cultural activity, these essays examine what users do with technology and, in turn, what technology does to users. The contributors consider how users consume, modify, domesticate, design, reconfigure, and resist technological development—and how users are defined and transformed by technology.
The essays in part I show that resistance to and non-use of a technology can be a crucial factor in the eventual modification and improvement of that technology; examples considered include the introduction of the telephone into rural America and the influence of non-users of the Internet. The essays in part II look at advocacy groups and the many kinds of users they represent, particularly in the context of health care and clinical testing. The essays in part III examine the role of users in different phases of the design, testing, and selling of technology. Included here is an enlightening account of one company's design process for men's and women's shavers, which resulted in a "Ladyshave" for users assumed to be technophobes. Taken together, the essays in How Users Matter show that any understanding of users must take into consideration the multiplicity of roles they play—and that the conventional distinction between users and producers is largely artificial.
We are continuing to witness the burgeoning growth of new electronic informa tion and communications technologies (ICTs). These include interactive and multimedia communications, Internet and World Wide Web, video conferen cing, virtual realities, computer-aided design, the information superhighway, and the technologies of electronic surveillance and consumer profiling. These new electronic technologies have been widely regarded as the impetus for radical changes. All these technologies are set to modify the nature and experience of interpersonal relations and communications across a vast range of human activities.
Multimedia technology is becoming ubiquitous in modern society, and it is having profound effects on institutions and expectations. The technology is very fluid, and development is shaped by a great many social factors. Prediction of the coevolution of multimedia technology and society needs to be informed by a research framework that focuses attention on the key social, psychological, political, and economic influences on technology and technology use as well as on the emergence of stable uses, infrastructures, standards, and development paths. This article criticizes "technologically deterministic" approaches, which simply seek to extrapolate social change from technological potential. It shows how a three-layer model of component, system, and application technologies can be used to integrate findings from the use and development of technology in specific sectors. Three cases of technology-based predictions are examined from education, retailing, and work organization, and lessons for understanding technology futures are illustrated by research in different industry and user sectors.
Specialized elements of hardware and software, connected by wires, radio waves and infrared, will be so ubiquitous that no one will notice their presence.
This paper describes results from the first stage of a long-term study of people’s use of ICT (information and communications
technology) products and services in the domestic environment. It is part of BT’s ongoing commitment to understanding, modelling
and meeting the needs of its residential customers. At one level the research has already generated significant knowledge
that has led directly to commercial benefit; at a second it has validated a number of research methods needed to capture the
data to build a rich picture of people’s actual as well as reported behaviour. At a third level it has also generated significant
new scientific knowledge about the use of ICT products.
The next step is to build on these successes using a 1000 strong UK household panel to build an unprecedented and unparalleled
understanding of how and why people purchase, adapt and adapt to ICT as UK society moves into the 21st century.
Specialized elements of hardware and software, connected by wires, radio waves and infrared, will be so ubiquitous that no one will notice their presence.
New forms of information technology, such as email, webpages and groupware, are being rapidly adopted. Intended to improve efficiency and effectiveness, these technologies also have the potential to radically alter the way people communicate in organizations. The effects can be positive or negative. This paper explores how technology can encourage or discourage moral dialogue -- communication that is open, honest, and respectful of participants. It develops a framework that integrates formal properties of ideal moral discourse, based on Habermas' (1984) theory of communicative action, with properties of informal communication that help sustain good moral conversations (Bird, 1996; Johannesen, 1996). Ten criteria distilled from these works form the basis of a template that can be used for assessing the positive and negative impacts of emerging information technologies on moral dialogue.
Much of IT research focuses on issues of adoption and adaptation of established technology artifacts by users and organizations and has neglected issues of how new technologies come into existence and evolve. To fill this gap, this paper depicts a complex picture of technology evolution to illustrate the development of Web browser technology. Building on actor-network theory as a basis for studying complex technology evolution processes, it explores the emergence of the browser using content analysis techniques on archival data from 1993-1998. Identifies three processes of inscribing, translating, and framing that clarify how actors acted and reacted to each other and to the emergent technological definition of the browser. This spiral development pattern incorporates complex interplay between base beliefs about what a browser is, artifacts that are the instantiation of those beliefs, evaluation routines that compare the evolving artifact to collective expectations, and strategic moves that attempt to skew the development process to someone's advantage. This approach clarifies the complex interdependence of disparate elements that over time produced the Web browser as it is known today.
Multimedia communication systems promise better support for widely distributed workgroups. Their benefits for complex communication—problem-solving, negotiating, planning, and design —seem obvious, introducing appealing new technologies into the marketplace, however, can require years of Investment [13, 22]. In particular, finding productive uses for new systems takes time. Adoption strategies are needed to guide and accelerate the process.
Computer-mediated communication (CMC) is a keystone of computer-supported collaborative work. Current CMC theory utilizes an information channel metaphor in which media vary according to how well they afford the transfer of messages in the channel, i.e., bandwidth. This paper draws attention to a different aspect of communication argued to be equally important: a relation between people that defines a state of communicative readiness in which fruitful communication is likely. Drawing on research on instant messaging (Nardi et al., 2000) and face to face communication (Nardi et al., 2002; Nardi and Whittaker, 2003), as well as related literature, three dimensions of connection that activate readiness are pro- posed: affinity, commitment, and attention. These dimensions comprise a field of connection between dyads. A field of connection is conceptualized as a labile, multidimensional space in which the values of the dimensions vary according to the history of communicative activity. Affinity, commitment, and attention are constantly monitored, negotiated, and managed through social bonding, expression of commitment, and capture of attention. The manage- ment of fields of connection requires significant interactional work to sustain communication over time.
This chapter discusses challenges for developers while using groupware applications. To understand the problems encountered by groupware applications, it is essential to realize that most interest in groupware development is found among the developers and users of commercial off-the-shelf products who previously focused exclusively on single-user applications. In addition to technical challenges, groupware poses a fundamental problem for product developers: Because individuals interact with a groupware application, it has all the interface design challenges of single-user applications, supplemented by a host of new challenges arising from its direct involvement in group processes. A groupware application never provides precisely the same benefit to every group member. Costs and benefits depend on preferences, prior experience, roles, and assignments. Although a groupware application is expected to provide a collective benefit, some people must adjust more than others. Ideally, each individual benefits, even if they do not benefit equally. Most groupware requires some people to do additional work to enter or process information required or produced by the application.
Analyzes how successful firms fail when confronted with technological and market changes, prescribing a list of rules for firms to follow as a solution. Precisely because of their adherence to good management principles, innovative, well-managed firms fail at the emergence of disruptive technologies - that is, innovations that disrupt the existing dominant technologies in the market. Unfortunately, it usually does not make sense to invest in disruptive technologies until after they have taken over the market. Thus, instead of exercising what are typically good managerial decisions, at the introduction of technical or market change it is very often the case that managers must make counterintuitive decisions not to listen to customers, to invest in lower-performance products that produce lower margins, and to pursue small markets. From analysis of the disk drive industry, a set of rules is devised - the principles of disruptive innovation - for managers to measure when traditional good management principles should be followed or rejected. According to the principles of disruptive innovation, a manager should plan to fail early, often, and inexpensively, developing disruptive technologies in small organizations operating within a niche market and with a relevant customer base. A case study in the electric-powered vehicles market illustrates how a manager can overcome the challenges of disruptive technologies using these principles of disruptive innovation. The mechanical excavator industry in the mid-twentieth century is also described, as an example in which most companies failed because they were unwilling to forego cable excavator technology for hydraulics machines. While there is no "right answer" or formula to use when reacting to unpredictable technological change, managers will be able to adapt as long as they realize that "good" managerial practices are only situationally appropriate. Though disruptive technologies are inherently high-risk, the more a firm invests in them, the more it learns about the emerging market and the changing needs of consumers, so that incremental advances may lead to industry-changing leaps. (CJC)
The common rhetoric about technology falls into two extreme categories: uncritical acceptance or blanket rejection. These two positions leave us with poor choices for action. They encourage us to accept as inevitable whatever technological changes come along. Claiming a middle ground, these chapters from the book Information Ecologies (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1999) call for responsible, informed engagement with technology in local settings, or information ecologies. An information ecology is a system of people, practices, technologies, and values in a local environment. Like their biological counterparts, information ecologies are diverse, continually evolving, and complex.
We're filling up the world with technology and devices, but we've lost sight of an important question: What is this stuff for? What value does it add to our lives? So asks author John Thackara in his new book, In the Bubble: Designing for a Complex World. These are tough questions for the pushers of technology to answer. Our economic system is centered on technology, so it would be no small matter if "tech" ceased to be an end-in-itself in our daily lives. Technology is not going to go away, but the time to discuss the end it will serve is before we deploy it, not after. We need to ask what purpose will be served by the broadband communications, smart materials, wearable computing, and connected appliances that we're unleashing upon the world. We need to ask what impact all this stuff will have on our daily lives. Who will look after it, and how? In the Bubble is about a world based less on stuff and more on people. Thackara describes a transformation that is taking place now—not in a remote science fiction future; it's not about, as he puts it, "the schlock of the new" but about radical innovation already emerging in daily life. We are regaining respect for what people can do that technology can't. In the Bubble describes services designed to help people carry out daily activities in new ways. Many of these services involve technology—ranging from body implants to wide-bodied jets. But objects and systems play a supporting role in a people-centered world. The design focus is on services, not things. And new principles—above all, lightness—inform the way these services are designed and used. At the heart of In the Bubble is a belief, informed by a wealth of real-world examples, that ethics and responsibility can inform design decisions without impeding social and technical innovation.