Dave Randall

Information and Expertise Sharing in Inter-Organizational Crisis Management

Emergency or crisis management, as is well-attested, is a complex management problem. A variety of agencies need to collaborate and coordinate in real-time and with an urgency that is not always present in other domains. It follows that accurate information of varying kinds (e.g. geographical and weather conditions; available skills and expertises; state-of-play; current dispositions and deployments) needs to be made available in a timely fashion to the organizations and individuals who need it. By definition, this information will come from a number of sources both within and across organizations. Large-scale events in particular necessitate collaboration with other organizations. Of course, plans and processes exist to deal with such events but the number of dynamically changing factors as well as the high number of heterogeneous organizations and the high degree of interdependency involved make it impossible to plan for all contingencies. A degree of ongoing improvisation, which typically occurs by means of a variety of information and expertise sharing practices, therefore becomes necessary. This, however, faces many challenges, such as different organizational cultures, distinct individual and coordinative work practices and discrete information systems. Our work entails an examination of the practices of information and expertise sharing, and the obstacles to it, in inter-organizational crisis management. We conceive of this as a design case study, such that we examine a problem area and its scope; conduct detailed enquiries into practice in that area, and provide design recommendations for implementation and evaluation. First, we will present the results of an empirical study of collaboration practices between organizations and public authorities with security responsibilities such as the police, fire departments, public administration and electricity network operators, mainly in scenarios of medium to large power outages in Germany. Based on these results, we will describe a concept, which was designed, implemented and evaluated as a system prototype, in two iterations. While the first iteration focuses on situation assessment, the second iteration also includes inter-organizational collaboration functionalities. Based on the findings of our evaluations with practitioners, we will discuss how to support collaboration with a particular focus on information and expertise sharing.

What People Do with Consumption Feedback: A Long-Term Living Lab Study of a Home Energy Management System

Oneofthegreatsocietalchallengesthatwefacetodayconcernsthemovetomoresustainablepatterns of energy consumption, reflecting the need to balance both individual consumer choice and societal demands. In order for this ‘energy turnaround’ to take place, however, reducing residential energy consumptionmustgobeyondusingenergy-efficientdevices:Moresustainablebehaviourandlifestyles are essential parts of future ‘energy aware’living.Addressing this issue from an HCI perspective, this paper presents the results of a 3-year research project dealing with the co-design and appropriation of a Home Energy Management System (HEMS) that has been rolled out in a living lab setting with seven households for a period of 18 months. Our HEMS is inspired by feedback systems in Sustainable Interaction Design and allows the monitoring of energy consumption in real-time. In contrast to existing research mainly focusing on how technology can persuade people to consume less energy (‘what technology does to people’), our study focuses on the appropriation of energy feedback systems(‘whatpeopledowithtechnology’)andhownewlydevelopedpracticescanbecomearesource for future technology design.Therefore, we deliberately followed an open research design. In keeping with this approach, our study uncovers various responses, practices and obstacles of HEMS use. We show that HEMS use is characterized by a number of different features. Recognizing the distinctive patterns of technology use in the different households and the evolutionary character of that use within the households, we conclude with a discussion of these patterns in relation to existing research and their meaning for the design of future HEMSs. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS • We developed an own Home Energy Management System (HEMS). • We rolled out our HEMS system in a living lab setting to seven households over a period of 18 months. • Our System provides feedback through TV, PC, smartphone and tablet-based interfaces. • This allowed us to explore ‘what people do with HEMS in daily life’. • We identify and discuss nine meaningful categories of appropriating HEMS. • Based on our results, we discuss potentials for the design of future HEMSs.

Help beacons: design and evaluation of an ad-hoc lightweight s.o.s. system for smartphones

We present the design and evaluation of a lightweight mobile S.O.S. system that facilitates ad-hoc communication between first responders and victims in emergency situations. Our approach leverages established protocols and standards in unforeseen ways to provide a platform supporting the creation of short-lived communication links. The system comprises two mobile applications: one victim application that allows the broadcasting of distress signals by a novel use of Wi-Fi SSIDs; and a responder application that allows first responders to discover and trace the people broadcasting the signals. The main difference of our system with other platforms enabling communication in crisis situations is that our system is independent from existing network infrastructure and runs on off-the-shelf, commercially available smartphones. We describe the results of our evaluation process in the context of both a design evaluation during a real-world emergency response exercise and of two user workshops in preparation for an upcoming large-scale exercise.

ICT-Based Fall Prevention System for Older Adults: Qualitative Results from a Long-Term Field Study

Falls and their consequences are arguably most important events for transition from independent living to institutional care for older adults. Information and communication technology (ICT)-based support of fall prevention and fall risk assessment under the control of the user has a tremendous potential to, over time, prevent falls and reduce associated harm and costs. Our research uses participative design and a persuasive health approach to allow for seamless integration of an ICT-based fall prevention system into older adults’ everyday life. Based on a 6-month field study with 12 participants, we present qualitative results regarding the system use and provide insights into attitudes and practices of older adults concerning fall prevention and ICT-supported self-management of health. Our study demonstrates how it can lead to positive aspects of embodiment and health literacy through continuous monitoring of personal results, improved technical confidence, and quality of life. Implications are provided for designing similar systems.

Work or leisure? Designing a user-centered approach for researching activity in the wild

Mobile devices have conquered nearly all parts of the daily life. These devices support their owners in specific situations, both at work and in leisure contexts, and therefore make it increasingly difficult to keep work and private life separated. Examining the practices around the use of mobile technology has become a topic of some interest as issues around “work–life balance” emerge. Although the field of HCI provides different approaches for capturing people’s activities in situ, we will show that an additional value can be obtained from a consideration of the “situated” view of contextuality, one which incorporates concerns of privacy and which identifies the reasons people might have for long-term user participation in this kind of study. Despite the undoubted sophistication of existing platforms, the issue of how to provide for dynamic adjustment to meet emerging research questions over time remains challenging. In this paper, we examine how one might approach the design of an observation environment that includes methods for understanding the way of how users reason about research, based upon the context they find themselves in. We have developed a research framework called “PartS,” which captures in situ information about the individual as well as his/her (work/personal) context and offers functionality for collaborative discussions about the information collected. Based on its evaluation, we outline six lessons that need to be considered when designing a study for capturing the subjective context and related activities from an individual user’s as well as a researcher’s perspective.

Design of A GPS Monitoring System for Dementia Care and its Challenges in Academia-Industry Project

We present a user-centered development process for a GPS monitoring system to be used in dementia care to support care for persons with wandering behavior. The usage of GPS systems in dementia care is still very low. The article takes a socio-technical stance on development and appropriation of GPS technology in dementia care and assesses the practical and ideological issues surrounding care to understand why. The results include (1) results from qualitative user studies from which design ideas, implications, and requirements for design and redesign were developed. (2) Description of the politics, negotiations, and challenges encountered in the project at hand. These processual matters had a powerful impact on the product that was finally envisaged. The design process was taken as a whole to illuminate the way in which design outcomes are arrived at and to foster discussion about how “best practice” might possibly be achieved.

Out of Syria: Mobile Media in Use at the Time of Civil War

ABSTRACT Social media usage during the recent uprisings in Arab countries has gained increasing attention in human–computer interaction research. This study adds to these insights by providing some findings on the use of information and communications technology (ICT), specifically mobile media, by opposition forces and political activists during the Syrian civil war. The presented study is based on 17 interviews with Syrian FSA fighters, activists, and refugees. A first analysis showed evidence for some very specific use patterns during wartime (compared to media usage of political activists under less anomic conditions). The study also describes a fragmented telecom infrastructure in Syria: government-controlled regions offer fairly intact infrastructures while rebel-controlled regions have been cut off from telephone and Internet. Moreover, the central and very critical role of mobile video for documenting, mobilization, and propaganda is discussed.

Transferability of research findings: context-dependent or model-driven

In this panel we will explore two distinct approaches to reach transferability currently prevailing in the HCI community. We will discuss epistemological differences and the strengths and criticisms of each approach. Importantly, we will discuss the implications for HCI research practice given this diversity of methodological approaches.

Preface to the Special Issue on `Reconsidering Awareness in CSCW'

The centerpiece of this Special Issue is the article by Josh Tenenberg, Wolff-Michael Roth, and David Socha (2016) in which some of the established positions on ‘awareness’ are subjected to critical discussion and an alternative conceptualization is proposed. To give this bold attempt its due, we have invited a number of scholars from different schools of thought within CSCW to respond to the challenge. We are pleased that Gutwin and Greenberg (2016); Harper (2016); Koschmann (2016); Robertson (2016); and Stahl (2016) found time to write thoughtful, critical, and constructive commentaries. Co-editor Kjeld Schmidt also contributes with a commentary (2016). Tenenberg, Roth and Socha have, of course, the opportunity of replying to the six commentaries (Roth et al. 2016). To wrap up the discussion, for now, co-editor Dave Randall summarizes the discussion and maps out the various positions as they appear at this stage (Randall 2016).

What Is Common in Accounts of Common Ground

Tenenberg, Roth, and Socha’s paper “From I-awareness to we-awareness in CSCW” is, or should be, of special significance to those in the CSCW and HCI communities with more than a passing interest in the theoretical issues that underpin our work. It can be argued, and I would be a proponent of this view, that fundamental intellectual disagreements too seldom get an airing in our community, perhaps because it is in large part conference driven. Because of this, underlying perspectival disagreements can appear rather arcane. One of the great merits of the contributions to this special issue, I hope and believe, is that they will appear less so after careful reading.