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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
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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
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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
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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
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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?
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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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