Daniel C. Howe

Trust online

trust Online T rust matters. It allows us to reveal vulnerable parts of ourselves to others and to know others intimately in return. A climate of trust eases cooperation among people and fosters reciprocal caretaking. The resources—physical, emotional, economic—that would otherwise be consumed guarding against harm can be directed toward more constructive ends. Here, we explore the nature of trust and how and where it flourishes online. We also seek to make sense of seemingly disparate perceptions. For example, some say the public is too trusting online; without thinking, people routinely download software likely to destroy important information or blithely engage in e-auctions or chat rooms with strangers. Others say the public does not trust enough, that people refrain, for example, from e-commerce under the mistaken belief that their financial transactions are not secure. How can we know if the trust we choose to give or withhold is warranted? Can we trust machines or other technological systems? How can those of us who create and maintain the technological infrastructure help establish a climate of trust? Addressing such questions, we provide a conceptual framework for understanding trust, then offer 10 characteristics of online interaction that can help engineer trust online and distinguish between trust in e-commerce activities and trust in online interpersonal interactions.

Information Technology and Moral Philosophy: Embodying Values in Technology: Theory and Practice

INTRODUCTION The idea that values may be embodied in technical systems and devices (artifacts) has taken root in a variety of disciplinary approaches to the study of technology, society, and humanity (Winner 1986; Latour 1992; Hughes 2004; MacKenzie and Wajcman 1985). A pragmatic turn from this largely descriptive posture sets forth values as a design aspiration, exhorting designers and producers to include values, purposively, in the set of criteria by which the excellence of technologies is judged. If an ideal world is one in which technologies promote not only instrumental values such as functional efficiency, safety, reliability, and ease of use, but also the substantive social, moral, and political values to which societies and their peoples subscribe, then those who design systems have a responsibility to take these latter values as well as the former into consideration as they work. (See, for example, Friedman and Nissenbaum 1996, Mitcham 1995, and Nissenbaum 1998.) In technologically advanced, liberal democracies, this set of such values may include liberty, justice, enlightenment, privacy, security, friendship, comfort, trust, autonomy, and sustenance. It is one thing to subscribe, generally, to these ideals, even to make a pragmatic commitment to them, but putting them into practice, which can be considered a form of political or moral activism, in the design of technical systems is not straightforward. Experienced designers will recall the not too distant past when interface, usability, and even safety were overlooked features of software system design.

Informed consent in the Mozilla browser: implementing value-sensitive design

Reports on one of the first efforts to apply value-sensitive design (VSD) to a large-scale real-world software system. We sought to improve informed consent in Web-based interactions through the development of new technical mechanisms for cookie management. We describe our VSD methodology, explicate criteria for informed consent in online interactions and summarize how current browsers fall short with respect to those criteria. Next, we identify four goals for the redesign of current browsers. These goals, in turn, initiate an iterative design process that lies at the heart of the VSD methodology wherein we move among the design and implementation of new technical mechanisms, formative evaluation and the design goals coupled with the criteria for informed consent online. Key mechanisms include peripheral awareness of cookies and just-in-time interventions. At various phases in the design process, we implement our design improvements in the Mozilla browser (the open source for Netscape Navigator).

Values at play: design tradeoffs in socially-oriented game design

Significant work in the CHI community has focused on designing systems that support human values. Designers and engineers have also become increasingly aware of ways in which the artifacts they create can embody political, social, and ethical values. Despite such an awareness, there has been little work towards producing practical methodologies that systematically incorporate values into the design process. Many designers struggle to find a balance between their own values, those of users and other stakeholders, and those of the surrounding culture. In this paper, we present the RAPUNSEL project as a case study of game design in a values-rich context and describe our efforts toward navigating the complexities this entails. Additionally, we present initial steps toward the development of a systematic methodology for discovery, analysis, and integration of values in technology design in the hope that others may both benefit from and build upon this work.

Users' conceptions of risks and harms on the web: a comparative study

In this study, we analyzed Web users concerns about potential risks and harms from Web use to themselves and to society at large. In addition, we assessed how strongly users felt something should be done to address their concerns. Seventy-two individuals, 24 each from a rural community in Maine, a suburban professional community in New Jersey, and a high-technology community in California, participated in an extensive (2-hour) semistructured interview about Web security. Results show that Web users were primarily concerned about risks to Information, and secondarily about risks to People and Technology. Different sets of concerns were identified among the rural, suburban, and high-technology communities. Our discussion focuses on implications for interface design and information policy.

Advertising positions : data portraiture as aesthetic critique

Advertising Positions integrates 3D scanning, motion capture, novel image mapping algorithms and custom animation to create data portraits from the advertisements served by online trackers. Project volunteers use bespoke software to harvest the ads they receive over months of browsing. When enough ads have been collected, the volunteer is interviewed, 3D scanned and motion captured. Each ad is then mapped to a single polygon on the textured skin of their virtual avatar. Outcomes have been displayed as 2D/3D images, animations and interactive installations.