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From:
Monika Buscher <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Monika Buscher <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sat, 10 Feb 2007 09:51:23 +0000
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Designing for palpability:
Workshop at Pervasive 2007, May 13-16, 2007 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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Important dates
---------------
February 16, 2007: Deadline for Position/Design example Paper (3-5 
pages) submissions
March 2, 2007: Notification of accepted Proposals, registration for the 
workshop
May 13, 2007: Palpable Computing Workshop and Pervasive 2007 conference

http://www.ist-palcom.org/palpable_pervasive_2007
Mail to: [log in to unmask]

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
Pervasive computing has taken computing beyond comprehensive systems 
into a multitude of devices and environments. In some sense this makes 
the computer disappear (Weiser 1991) and it enables ‘bricolage’ of 
disparate elements. However, people find it hard to realise the 
potential of pervasive computing. Which devices, services or resources 
are the best ones to use in a given situation? How to address breakdown? 
What to do when surrounded by potentially thousands of services and 
devices one could use? What when safety or privacy matters? To engage 
pervasive computing technologies effectively and creatively, people need 
to be able to notice and make sense of actual and potential 
computational processes, states, affordances and dependencies. They need 
to be able to do so in ways that are appropriate for their specific 
situation, their level of computer ‘literacy’ and interest.

For us, an important element of what is needed is captured by the word 
‘palpable’, especially in its meaning of 'plainly observable', 
'noticeable, 'manifest, obvious, clear' (Oxford English Dictionary). 
Palpability is not a property of the technology itself, but an effect of 
people's engagement with technologies, objects, and environments. For 
designers of pervasive computing, this means that they cannot design 
palpability into technologies. But they can design for palpability, to 
support people in making computing palpable. Doing so challenges a 
number of concepts introduced with the vision for pervasive computing. 
For example, 'invisibility', 'ambient intelligence', 'autonomy' and 
'(de-)composition' - turn out to require respecification with regard to 
people's practices of using technologies at work, and in everyday life 
and play. Notions like inspection, experimentation, translation, 
emergent use, etc. become important.

For this workshop we invite 3-5 page position/design example papers that 
explore how one might design for ‘palpability’. Our own approach is 
informed through ethnographic studies and participatory design and 
focuses on the development of architectural support and a vision for 
‘palpable’ pervasive computing. Questions contributors might wish to 
address include:

* How do people make things 'palpable' for themselves and others? E.g. 
fieldstudies of human-computer interaction, but also practices within 
the sciences, medicine, the arts or any other relevant area of human 
practice. Theoretical or philosophical submissions are also welcome.
* What technical possibilities exist? E.g. reviews and reports of 
existing approaches, for example, computational reflection, 
accountability, seamful design, design for dependability, palpable 
computing
* What are the experiences with existing technical approaches?
* How can we understand, and create new resonances, between human and 
machine, actual and potential, behaviour?
* Which design methods are best suited to addressing the challenges? 
E.g. reports and reflections on methodological innovations, or new 
challenges for traditional methods

The aim of this workshop is to bring together experts from different 
disciplines and approaches to develop the state-of-the-art in this 
emerging field of research and design. We may pursue opportunities to 
publish a special issue journal edition. Participation is limited to 30 
participants. Position papers will be circulated beforehand. It is 
possible to participate without submitting a paper. Please contact us.

Organisers
----------
Peter Andersen,Mads Ingstrup, Morten Kyng, Preben Mogensen,
Computer Science Department, Aarhus University, Denmark
Monika Büscher, Dan Shapiro,
Department of Sociology, Lancaster University, UK
Christian Heath, King’s College, London, UK


Background
----------
The proposers have a long-standing involvement in socio-technical 
innovation and participate in the Palpable Computing project (PalCom: A 
new perspective on ambient computing, www.ist-palcom.org), which brings 
together European research teams to create an open architecture, 
application prototypes, and a vision for, palpable computing through 
ethnographically informed and participatory design. The PalCom 
initiative envisages pervasive computing technologies whose states, 
processes and affordances can be made ‘palpable’, and are therefore more 
effectively understood, appropriated and controlled.

Agenda
------
March 2- May 13 Exchange of papers.
Participants are encouraged to read all papers before the workshop.

Sunday, May 13, Pervasive 2007
09:30 – 10:00 Introduction and plan for the day
10:00 – 11:00 Short presentations/demos by participants
11:00 – 11:30 Coffee
11:30 – 13:00 Short presentations/demos by participants
13:00 – 14:00 lunch
14:00 – 15:30 Group discussions
15:30 – 16:00 Plenary discussion
16:00 – 16:30 Coffee
16:30 – 17:30 Plenary discussion, summary of results in a poster for the 
conference Exhibition area. Where do we go from here?

-- 
----------------------------------
Monika Buscher
Senior Research Fellow
PalCom http://www.ist-palcom.org/
Department of Sociology
Lancaster University
Lancaster
LA1 4YD
UK

Tel: +44 (0)1943 604944
Mobile: +44 (0)7890847166
email: [log in to unmask]
Homepage: http://www.daimi.au.dk/~buscher/mbuscher/mbuscher.htm
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