Gunnar Stevens

Component-based technologies for end-user development

Component-based software development (CBSD) involves multiple roles. Framework builders create the infrastructure for components to interact; developers identify suitable domains and develop new components for them; application assemblers select domain-specific components and assemble them into applications; and end users employ component-based applications to perform daily tasks [7].

Sports over a Distance

Sport is a domain full of movement-based interactions. These interactions typically have positive health effects as well as an impact on social bonding. We have investigated ways in which computer augmented devices can lead to new sport experiences and explored opportunities to combine physical activities with remote social bonding. Three prototypes have been implemented which showcase movement-based interaction in sports. “Breakout for Two” allows geographically distant users to play a physically exhausting ball game together. “FlyGuy” gives users a hang-glide experience controllable through body movement. “Push’N’Pull” uses isometric exercise equipment over a network to encourage users to complete a cooperative game whilst performing intense muscular actions. A comparison of these applications shows that such movement-based interaction in a networked environment allows players in different locations to achieve a work out and also to socialize. Based on these projects, we conclude with practical design implications for future Exertion Interfaces.

Engaging with practices: design case studies as a research framework in CSCW

Information and communications technology (ICT) pervades most aspects of our lives and changes everydays practices in work and leisure time. When designing innovative ICTs, we need to engage with given practices, institutional arrangements, and technological infrastructures. We describe the research framework used at the University of Siegen. It is based on a collection of design case studies in particular fields of practice and identifies cross-cutting issues to compare and aggregate insights between these cases. To illustrate this framework, we describe our research activities and discuss three themes which became important in different design case studies.

A new dimension in access control: studying maintenance engineering across organizational boundaries

Inter-organizational cooperation has specific requirements for access control. The paper presents the results from a field study which looks at the cooperation between two engineering offices and a steel mill. Based on these findings we have developed new mechanisms for access control in groupware. These mechanisms allow to restrict operations on shared data while or even after they take place. The new access mechanisms can be decomposed and implemented into a component-based framework. We show how this framework can be extended to realize additional mechanisms for access control with little efforts.

Sustainable energy practices at work: understanding the role of workers in energy conservation

Energy conservation has become a very relevant social issue. There is a growing body of knowledge in the literature focused on supporting consumers in reducing their personal carbon footprint in their domestic context. In the workplace, however, most of the research focuses on optimizing formalized production processes and investing in energy efficient equipment. This leaves the question open of the role of workers in energy conservation. To explore this question, and overcome this bias, we conducted a series of participatory action research studies in which we introduced new smart metering technologies in a large organization and observed their contribution in supporting sustainable energy practices at work. In the paper we discuss the opportunity and risks posed by using this technology to make energy practices more transparent.

Appropriation Infrastructure: Supporting the Design of Usages

End User Development offers technical flexibility to encourage the appropriation of software applications within specific contexts of use. Appropriation needs to be understood as a phenomenon of many collaborative and creative activities. To support appropriation, we propose integrating communication channels into software applications. Such an appropriation infrastructure provides communication and collaboration support to stimulate knowledge sharing among users and between users and developers. It exploits the technological flexibility of software applications to enable these actors to change usages and configurations. Taking the case of the BSCWeasel groupware, we demonstrate how an appropriation infrastructure can be realized. Empirical results from the BSCWeasel project demonstrate the impact of such an infrastructure on the appropriation and design process. Based on these results, we argue that appropriation infrastructures should be tightly integrated in the application using the IT artifact itself as a boundary object as well as a bridge between design and use.

Supporting the Collaborative Appropriation of an Open Software Ecosystem

Since the beginning of CSCW there was an intense interest for research on workplace design using tailorable applications and sharing customizations. However, in the meantime the forms of production, distribution, configuration and appropriation of software have changed fundamentally. In order to reflect these developments, we enlarge the topic of discussion beyond customizing single applications, but focusing on how people design their workplaces making use of software ecosystems. We contribute to understand the new phenomenon from within the users’ local context. By empirically studying the Eclipse software ecosystem and its appropriation, we show the improved flexibility users achieve at designing their workplaces. Further the uncovered practices demonstrate, why design strategies like mass-customization are a bad guiding principle as they just focus on the individual user. In contrast we outline an alternative design methodology based on existing CSCW approaches, but also envision where the workplace design in the age of software ecosystems has to go beyond.

Bridging among Ethnic Communities by Cross-cultural Communities of Practice

The integration of immigrants is a big challenge for western societies. In this paper we describe how to bridge between ethnically defined communities by means of computer-supported project work. Our approach is grounded in socio-cultural theories of learning, especially Community of Practice (CoP). To evaluate our approach, we have built up a computer club in a multi cultural neighbourhood of the city of Bonn. Parents and children of mainly German and Turkish origin work jointly to create multimedia artefacts. These artefacts represent aspects of the neighbourhoods recent history. The paper describes the project and its theoretical background. We also provide empirical findings to evaluate our approach.

Towards a paradigmatic shift in IS: designing for social practice

The paper elaborates on the theoretical foundation of Information System understood as a field of design science. Revisiting Hevners et al. seminal paper [44], we elaborate on theoretical and conceptual shortcomings. Theoretically, we state a somehow limited perception of pragmatist thinking. Conceptually, we criticize a limited definition of the IS research field and argue in favour of an (obligatory) evaluation of IT artifacts in real world settings. To develop the design science paradigm beyond these shortcomings, we present a theoretical framework which takes the interrelation of IT artifacts and social practices as a central focus of research. Such an epistemological and ontological opening of the design science perspective leads to methodological implications. We exemplify methodological shifts by taking the Canonical Action Research (CAR) method as a problematic example. Design probes are discussed as a method which holds considerable promises under a reframed paradigm. The consequences of the theoretical and methodological reflections for a socially relevant IS design science are discussed finally.

Supporting the social context of technology appropriation: on a synthesis of sharing tools and tool knowledge

There is an increasing spread of flexible software applications that can be modified by adding components (sometimes called plug-ins or add-ons). A popular example in the software development domain is Eclipse, a flexible development environment that can be extended with literally thousands of different plug-ins. However, searching, installing and configuring new plug-ins requires complex overhead work that is only weakly addressed by existing support mechanisms. Recent research has highlighted the related practices of learning about new plug-ins and tailoring software tools as being highly cooperative, situated, socially embedded, and often connected to particular work situations. Based on an empirical study in small software enterprises, we develop an understanding of appropriation as a social and collaborative activity. We then suggest design principles for appropriation support that are grounded in the practices we have found in the field, and present a prototypical implementation of the concept that extends existing mechanisms of sharing tools and tool-knowledge.