Workshop 4. Monday 19 September
Settings for Collaboration: The role of place
Luigina Ciolfi, Interaction Design Centre, University of Limerick (Ireland)
Geraldine Fitzpatrick, Interact Lab, University of Sussex (UK)
Liam Bannon, Interaction Design Centre, University of Limerick (Ireland)
Background and rationale
Existing Recent work in HCI, CSCW and –more recently- interaction design has begun to critically examine the concept of place, its meaning and the implications for design. of the notion of place. Erickson (1993) and Harrison and Dourish (1996) suggested that place, is a more appropriate concept rather than space is the notion that for providing an appropriate suitable framework for understanding people’s interaction with their physical environment. Whereas space refers to the structural, geometrical qualities of a physical environment, place is the notion that includes the dimensions of lived experience, interaction and use of a space by its inhabitants.
More recently, a consideration of place has been introduced in studies of particular domains such as geographical technologies, collaborative systems and interactive environments (see for example, Brown and Perry, 2001; Fitzpatrick, 1996, 2003; Ciolfi and Bannon, 2005). In particular, increasing attention is being paid to the notion of place as a useful conceptual tool when studying people’s interaction with ubiquitous computing environments, whereby computational power augments and enhances existing features of actual physical environments. Place provides a frame for understanding how people relate to complex environments that include technology, physical and material resources and especially other inhabitants. A debate is emerging regarding different conceptual definitions of place and on their implications if introduced within the HCI, CSCW and interaction design areas, particularly in terms of methodological approaches. Some notions of place are mainly focused on the physical and behavioural aspects of human activity (see, for example, Canter, 1974); others have a more pronounced social and cultural thrust (Tuan, 1977); others are grounded in the philosophical notion of embodiment (Malpas, 1999). The meaning and implications of these different notions needs to be discussed and analysed, and especially when the notion of place is applied to understanding social and collaborative activities in a number of locales, from work environments, to public spaces,. This is even more so as new forms of collaboration are enabled through ubiquitous computing environments.
Goals and Objectives
This one day workshop aims to bring together researchers that have dealt or are currently dealing are involved in with studying and understanding place, and particularly how an awareness of place can help us make sense of collaborative and social behaviour. In the workshop we aim at to discussing how concerns emerging from different notions of place can help us:
- To understand collaborative practices within existing environments (whether work or leisure environments);
- To develop design specifications aimed at supporting collaboration and social interaction within novel ubiquitous computing environments.
Prospective Workshop participants will be requested to submit a position paper (2-4 pages) describing:
- their conceptual approach to place
- the specific case study which they are using
Participants will be asked to prepare poster presentations based on their position papers as a background for group discussion, and will be involved in a group exercise: small groups of participants will engage in a short field trip to different locations in Paris, where they will have the task of capturing salient aspects of the place and of the activities taking place there. The results from each group’s work will be presented in a plenary session at the end of the workshop for discussion and debate.
Intended participants
The group will be limited to 15 participants. We aim at attracting participants with background and expertise in Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, Architecture, Geography, Media and Cultural Studies, Computer Science.
Outcomes
Participants in the workshop will be invited to submit extended versions of their papers for a special issue of JCSCW.
Submission deadline: June 20th, 2005
Email your submission (.doc or .pdf format) to luigina.ciolfi@ul.ie
Notification of acceptance: July 2nd, 2005
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