TY - CONF T1 - Curating an Infinite Basement: Understanding How People Manage Collections of Sentimental Artifacts T2 - Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Supporting Group Work Y1 - 2016 A1 - Jones, Jasmine A1 - Ackerman, Mark S. KW - collection management KW - curation KW - digital curation KW - digital memento KW - family memory KW - memorabilia KW - memory artifacts KW - pervasive computing KW - sentimental artifacts KW - ubicomp AB -

Valuable memories are increasingly captured and stored as digital artifacts. However, as people amass these digital mementos, their collections are rarely curated, due to the volume of content, the effort involved, and a general lack of motivation, which can result in important artifacts being obscured and forgotten in an accumulation of content over time. Our study aims to better understand the challenges and goals of people dealing with large collections, and to provide insight into how people select and pay attention to large collections of digital mementos. We conducted an interpretivist analysis of forum data from UnclutterNow.com, where participants discussed issues they face in curating the sentimental artifacts in their homes. We uncovered a number of social, temporal, and spatial affordances and concerns that influence the ways that people curate their memories, and discuss how curation is closely tied to how people use storage and display in their home. In our study, we drew out and unpack "curation regimes" as patterns that people enact to focus the attention they are able to pay to the artifacts in their collections. We close with a discussion of the design opportunities for memory artifacts, which support and facilitate the curatorial processes of users managing digital mementos in everyday life.

JF - Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Supporting Group Work UR - Complete ER - TY - CONF T1 - Progressive Scenarios: A Rapid Method for Understanding User Interpretations of Technology T2 - Proceedings of the 16th ACM Conference on Supporting Group Work (GROUP ’10) Y1 - 2010 A1 - Huh, Jina A1 - Mark S. Ackerman A1 - Mark W. Newman A1 - Ayse G Büyüktür KW - ambiguity KW - multiple interpretations KW - pervasive KW - pervasive environments KW - scenario-based design KW - ubicomp KW - usercentered design AB -

For emerging group technologies that require evaluations on long-term use and social norms, assumptions, and implicit rules that develop around the technologies, standard usability testing may not be adequate. At the same time, field based research that allows for observing technology use over long-term is costly in terms of time. In this paper, we present a rapid method that we call progressive scenarios, which could help replicate the processes by which interpretations evolve over time in natural settings and how invisible assumptions and social norms dictate the technology use. Using a preliminary design concept of a publicly available ambient personal information and communication system, we demonstrate how the method helped to elicit design implications.

JF - Proceedings of the 16th ACM Conference on Supporting Group Work (GROUP ’10) UR - Complete ER - TY - CHAP T1 - The politics of design: Next generation computational environments T2 - Computerization movements and technology diffusion: From mainframes to ubiquitous computing Y1 - 2008 A1 - Mark S. Ackerman ED - Margaret S Elliott ED - Kraemer, Kenneth L KW - pervasive KW - Semantic Web KW - socio-technical KW - socio-technical design KW - socio-technical evolution KW - ubicomp AB -

This paper describes and analyzes two next-generation computational environments and their architectures: the Semantic Web and pervasive computing. Each of these necessarily carries with it political assumptions about how the environments will be used, and these political assumptions are reflected in the accompanying computerization movement’s rhetoric. However, unlike "first growth" computerization efforts, both the Semantic Web and pervasive computing will result within a growing infrastructure that does not allow topdown design (or even overall design) but within which new designs must fit. The underlying assumptions for both environments are largely libertarian but with differing modalities of user control. This paper examines the libertarian assumptions, the promise of democratization in one but not the other, and the resulting conceptual tensions surrounding these two second-generation computerization movements.

JF - Computerization movements and technology diffusion: From mainframes to ubiquitous computing PB - Information Today CY - New York UR - Complete ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Privacy in context JF - Human–Computer Interaction Y1 - 2001 A1 - Ackerman, Mark A1 - Darrell, Trevor A1 - Weitzner, Daniel J KW - IoT privacy KW - organizational context KW - pervasive KW - privacy KW - social context KW - ubicomp AB - Context-aware computing offers the promise of significant user gains-the ability for systems to adapt more readily to user needs, models, and goals. Dey, Abowd, and Salber (2001) present a masterful step toward understanding context-aware applications. We examine Dey et al. in the light of privacy issues-that is, individuals' control over their personal data-to highlight some of the thorny issues in context-aware computing that will be upon us soon. We argue that privacy in context-aware computing, especially those with perceptually aware environments, will be quite complex. Indeed, privacy forms a co-design space between the social, the technical, and the regulatory. We recognize that Dey et al. is a necessary first step in examining important software engineering concerns, but future research will need to consider how regulatory and technical solutions might be co-designed to form a public good. VL - 16 UR - Complete ER -