Airi Lampinen

Monetizing Network Hospitality: Hospitality and Sociability in the Context of Airbnb

We present a qualitative study of hospitality exchange processes that take place via the online peer-to-peer platform Airbnb. We explore 1) what motivates individuals to monetize network hospitality and 2) how the presence of money ties in with the social interaction related to network hospitality. We approach the topic from the perspective of hosts -- that is, Airbnb users who participate by offering accommodation for other members in exchange for monetary compensation. We found that participants were motivated to monetize network hospitality for both financial and social reasons. Our analysis indicates that the presence of money can provide a helpful frame for network hospitality, supporting hosts in their efforts to accomplish desired sociability, select guests consistent with their preferences, and control the volume and type of demand. We conclude the paper with a critical discussion of the implications of our findings for network hospitality and, more broadly, for the so-called sharing economy.

Indebtedness and reciprocity in local online exchange

Many existing and emerging online systems allow people to share content and coordinate the exchange of goods and favors in local geographic settings. We present a qualitative case study of user experiences concerning exchange and reciprocity in local online exchange. Findings from eleven in-depth interviews (containing forty-nine separate exchange experiences) reveal an aversion to indebtedness and several user behaviors that lessen these negative feelings: (1) offering small tokens of appreciation to exchange partners, (2) understanding and accepting the indirect nature of generalized exchange, (3) managing expectations by framing offers and requests carefully, (4) minimizing efforts needed in exchange processes, and (5) bartering and exchanging for a third party. The paper contributes to our understanding of emergent behaviors and norms in local online exchange systems. We discuss design implications from these empirical insights that can help alleviate the discomfort of indebtedness and better encourage and sustain participation in systems of indirect reciprocity.

Social norms and self-presentation on social network sites: Profile work in action

“Profile work,” that is strategic self-presentation in social network sites, is configured by both the technical affordances and related social norms. In this article, we address technical and social psychological aspects that underlie acts of sharing by analyzing the social in relation to the technical. Our analysis is based on two complementary sets of qualitative data gleaned from in situ experiences of Finnish youth and young adults within the sharing mechanisms of Facebook and Last.fm. In our analysis, we identified social norms that were formed around the prevailing sharing practices in the two sites and compared them in relation to the sharing mechanisms. The analysis revealed that automated and manual sharing were sanctioned differently. We conclude that although the social norms that guide content sharing differed between the two contexts, there was an identical sociocultural goal in profile work: presentation of authenticity.

Five Provocations for Ethical HCI Research

We present five provocations for ethics, and ethical research, in HCI. We discuss, in turn, informed consent, the researcher-participant power differential, presentation of data in publications, the role of ethical review boards, and, lastly, corporate-facilitated projects. By pointing to unintended consequences of regulation and oversimplifications of unresolvable moral conflicts, we propose these provocations not as guidelines or recommendations but as instruments for challenging our views on what it means to do ethical research in HCI. We then suggest an alternative grounded in the sensitivities of those being studied and based on everyday practice and judgement, rather than one driven by bureaucratic, legal, or philosophical concerns. In conclusion, we call for a wider and more practical discussion on ethics within the community, and suggest that we should be more supportive of low-risk ethical experimentation to further the field.

Data and the City

We consider how data is produced and used in cities. We draw on our experiences working with city authorities, along with twenty interviews across four cities to understand the role that data plays in city government. Following the development and deployment of innovative data-driven technology projects in the cities, we look in particular at collaborations around open and crowdsourced data, issues with the politicisation of data, and problems in innovating within the highly regulated public sphere. We discuss what this means for cities, citizens, innovators, and for visions of big data in the smart city as a whole.

Measuring networked social privacy

Much privacy research focuses on concerns about data protection and has established metrics, such as privacy scales, for evaluating those concerns. Recent work recognizes the importance of understanding interpersonal and interactional privacy concerns in social media, but ways to measure privacy within these contexts remain unsettled. This workshop aims to cultivate an understanding of the current landscape for interpersonal privacy framework and ways to measure social privacy for networked settings. For full details, visit http://networkedprivacy2013.wordpress.com/

Does the Sharing Economy do any Good

Despite the benefits offered by sharing economy, researchers have identified several challenges preventing disadvantaged groups (e.g. low socioeconomic status, un(der)employed and/or users from emerging regions) from receiving the same level of benefits as those from advantaged populations. This panel brings researchers from the sharing economy and mobile crowdsourcing space whose research has identified unique challenges for underserved populations. We consider the opportunities offered by these platforms to disadvantaged communities and examine to what extent these platforms instead may recreate disadvantage, as well as the workarounds communities employ to make these platforms work for them. We examine the opportunities for the CSCW community to address these challenges going forward.

Market Design for HCI: Successes and Failures of Peer-to-Peer Exchange Platforms

This paper explores an HCI approach to designing markets, with a primary focus on peer-to peer exchange platforms. We draw on recent work in economics that has documented how markets function, how they can be evaluated, and what can be done to fix them when they fail. We introduce five key concepts from market design: thickness, congestion, stability, safety, and repugnance. These lend HCI an analytic vocabulary for understanding why markets may succeed or struggle. Building on prior empirical work, we apply these concepts to compare two well-known network hospitality platforms, Couchsurfing and Airbnb. As a second illustrative case, we use market design to shed light on the challenges experienced by smaller-scale peer-to-peer marketplaces for lending, renting, and selling physical goods. To conclude, we discuss how this kind of analysis can make conceptual, evaluative, and generative contributions to the study and design of exchange platforms and other socio-technical systems.

Situating Wearables: Smartwatch Use in Context

Drawing on 168 hours of video recordings of smartwatch use, this paper studies how context influences smartwatch use. We explore the effects of the presence of others, activity, location and time of day on 1,009 instances of use. Watch interaction is significantly shorter when in conversation than when alone. Activity also influences watch use with significantly longer use while eating than when socialising or performing domestic tasks. One surprising finding is that length of use is similar at home and work. We note that usage peaks around lunchtime, with an average of 5.3 watch uses per hour throughout a day. We supplement these findings with qualitative analysis of the videos, focusing on how use is modified by the presence of others, and the lack of impact of watch glances on conversation. Watch use is clearly a context-sensitive activity and in discussion we explore how smartwatches could be designed taking this into consideration.

Caring for Batteries: Maintaining Infrastructures and Mobile Social Contexts

This paper advances the study of batteries in everyday life. We provide a situated understanding of smartphone battery care based on a qualitative user study involving device logging and behavioral tracking to support our inquiry. Our findings depict how caring for batteries fits into everyday routines, the work that is done to prepare and maintain an infrastructure that supports mobile energy needs, and the ways in which batteries are monitored and preserved. Moreover, they illustrate what happens when everyday routines are disrupted and when planning or infrastructure fails, causing flat batteries and the need to apply mechanisms for coping. We build on these insights to propose shifting the research focus from user and device centric approaches towards more contextualized understandings of situated practices. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for two increasingly important topics within HCI, personal informatics and the Internet of Things (IoT).