Supporting ethnographic studies of ubiquitous computing in the wild

Crabtree, M., Benford, S., Greenhalgh, C., Tennent, P., Chalmers, M. and Brown, B. (2006) Supporting ethnographic studies of ubiquitous computing in the wild. In: Symposium on Designing Interactive Systems, University Park, Pennsylvania, June 26-28 2006, pp. 60-69. ISBN 1595933670 (doi: 10.1145/1142405.1142417)

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Abstract

Ethnography has become a staple feature of IT research over the last twenty years, shaping our understanding of the social character of computing systems and informing their design in a wide variety of settings. The emergence of ubiquitous computing raises new challenges for ethnography however, distributing interaction across a burgeoning array of small, mobile devices and online environments which exploit invisible sensing systems. Understanding interaction requires ethnographers to reconcile interactions that are, for example, distributed across devices on the street with online interactions in order to assemble coherent understandings of the social character and purchase of ubiquitous computing systems. We draw upon four recent studies to show how ethnographers are replaying system recordings of interaction alongside existing resources such as video recordings to do this and identify key challenges that need to be met to support ethnographic study of ubiquitous computing in the wild.

Item Type:Conference Proceedings
Additional Information:© ACM, 2006. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Proceedings of the 6th ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1142405.1142417
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Chalmers, Professor Matthew
Authors: Crabtree, M., Benford, S., Greenhalgh, C., Tennent, P., Chalmers, M., and Brown, B.
Subjects:Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science
College/School:College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science
Publisher:ACM Press
ISBN:1595933670
Copyright Holders:Copyright © 2006 ACM Press
First Published:First published in Proceedings of the 6th ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems
Publisher Policy:Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher including additional information statement.

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