Oliver Stickel

Come_in@palestine: adapting a german computer club concept to a palestinian refugee camp

Come_IN computer clubs are a well-established approach to foster learning, social networks and integration in German neighborhoods with a high percentage of migrant population. We have transferred this concept to a different part of the world: a Palestinian refugee camp. Similar to the German neighborhoods we deal with, refugee camps are also the result of migration moves; however, in this case - an enforced one. This paper describes the come_IN approach and investigates its adaptation to a Palestinian refugee camp. Obviously it exhibits fundamental cultural, social, and political dissimilarities from the German setting. Refugees living in camps have to deal with a number of local living and subsistence challenges, as well as having to tackle mounting critical issues related to their refugee status. Here we describe the first three years of activities and experiences.

3D Printing with Marginalized Children—An Exploration in a Palestinian Refugee Camp

We work with a multi-national network of computer clubs for families and children called come_IN. In two such clubs (located in Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank), we worked with children on playful approaches concerning 3D modeling and 3D printing within a five-week, qualitative field study. Based on this study, we report on the achievements as well as on the difficulties of digital fabrication and of “Making” in developmental and educational contexts. The benefits are related to an overarching theme of self-expression where the main focus was on dimensions as playfulness, approachable complexity, individualization, immediacy and physicality and collaboration as well as motivation. The problematic aspects were mostly related to socio-technical limitations concerning the themes of orientation and camera control, the lack of coordination and collaboration features, usability and UX issues as well as the construction and limitations of current 3D printers. Based on those findings, we have derived implications for the design and the appropriation of future systems for digital fabrication with children, especially in developmental/educational settings, such as improvements of their collaboration support or better feedback mechanisms regarding the system status towards the end user.

Towards sociable technologies: an empirical study on designing appropriation infrastructures for 3D printing

Over the last years, digital fabrication technologies such as 3D printers have become more and more common at universities and small businesses as well as in communities of hobbyist makers. The high complexity of such technologies, the rapid technological progress and the close link between hardware and software in this field poses challenges for users and communites learning how to operate these machines, especially in the contexts of existing (and changing) practices. We present an empirical study on the appropriation of 3D printers in two different communities and derive design implications and challenges for building appropriation infrastructures to help users face those challenges and making technologies more sociable.

Computer supported urban gardening

In this working paper, we present first results from ethnographic research into common issues faced by Urban Gardening groups such as coordination or awareness problems. Based on our preliminary analysis, we then propose first design mockups for supportive ICT systems consisting of stationary, solar powered and radio connected devices in the Garden, a mobile app and a web-based backend.

Fab Labs and Interdisciplinary Academic Teaching: A research agenda

This contribution summarizes the agenda and some first results of a three-year research project on the integration of Fab Labs in German universities and academic practices.

User Integration in Agile Software Development Processes: Practices and Challenges in Small and Medium Sized Enterprises

HCI and CSCW research as well as practice has strongly indicated the value of integrating (end) users in software development processes. Such integration can help address actual needs and wants, to avoid undesirable developments and to strengthen the User Experience of a product. A user-focused approach to software development has some conceptual overlap with agile software development practices, such as quick and iterative (user) testing. However, out in the wild, organisations seem to have difficulties actually mapping user-centered development with agile processes for a variety of reasons ranging from organisational or hierarchical aspects up to financial issues. This problem seems specially prevalent in Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) where such constraints can be even tighter than in larger organisations. To help understand those problems and to identify possible solutions, we turned to three quite different German software SMEs, varying in size, market focus and organisational structure. By way of qualitative field studies, we were able to identify key roles and tools as well as methodological, organisational and analytical practices and challenges in integrating (end) users into agile software development.