Sami Vihavainen

We want more: human-computer collaboration in mobile social video remixing of music concerts

Recording and publishing mobile video clips from music concerts is popular. There is a high potential to increase the concerts perceived value when producing video remixes from individual video clips and using them socially. A digital production of a video remix is an interactive process between human and computer. However, it is not clear what the collaboration implications between human and computer are. We present a case study where we compare the processes and products of manual and automatic mobile video remixing. We provide results from the first systematic real world study of the subject. We draw our observations from a user trial where fans recorded mobile video clips during a rock concert. The results reveal issues on heterogeneous interests of the stakeholders, unexpected uses of the raw material, the burden of editing, diverse quality requirements, motivations for remixing, the effect of understanding the logic of automation, and the collaborative use of manual and automatic remixing.

“I can't lie anymore!”: The implications of location automation for mobile social applications

Human factors research has shown that automation is a mixed blessing. It changes the role of the human in the loop with effects on understanding, errors, control, skill, vigilance, and ultimately trust and usefulness. We raise the issue that many current mobile applications involve mechanisms that surreptitiously collect and propagate location information among users and we provide results from the first systematic real world study of the matter. Our observations come from a case study of Jaiku, a mobile microblogging service that automates disclosure and diffusion of location information. Three user groups in Finland and California used Jaiku for several months. The results reveal issues related to control, understanding, emergent practices, and privacy. The results convey that unsuitable automated features can preclude use in a group. While one group found automated features useful, and another was indifferent toward it, the third group stopped using the application almost entirely. To conclude, we discuss the need for user-centered development of automated features in location-based services.

From closed to open to what?: an exploration on community innovation principles

This paper introduces a set of community innovation principles relevant for social media design. By drawing on the comparison between Closed and Open Innovation introduced by Chesbrough, we develop a set of hypotheses that explore the nature of community innovation practices and their related principles. Furthermore we test those principles against two real world cases.

Cross-use of smart phones and printed books in primary school education

The adoption of new technologies in primary schools has fallen behind in terms of childrens everyday use of technology. The use of mobile phones has been proposed as a promising field for learning. To date, the mobile learning technologies have rarely been integrated with current educational practices, however. Here, we present the results of our intervention study in which a mobile hybrid media system that combines the use of the traditional printed book with the mobile phone was used in English as foreign language (EFL) education in primary school. The results revealed an increase in learning motivation but also some conflicts when the boundaries of the school world and everyday life were blurred through the use of new technology.

A digital ecosystem for boosting user-driven service business

In recent years, we have seen the rise of Web 2.0, where users become co-creators and software turns into services. While Web 2.0 technologies and concepts have been studied separately, we suggest that the digital ecosystem they form together and the ways in which users interact with it in social contexts have not been made explicit. In this paper, we provide a conceptual model of a community and a digital ecosystem for boosting user-driven service business. To construct such a model, we first identify the key actors and their interactions by applying use case modelling. Based on that, conceptual modelling is used to sketch an illustrative model of the overall ecosystem. Finally, we use the field of bioinformatics to evaluate the model and to propose ideas for boosting user-driven service business in that field as well.

Playful learning with hybrid school books

This paper presents the preliminary results of a hybrid school book study. Books were designed and tested to make learning more playful, and to enlarge the role of printed book in school work.

Automation not automatically good in mobile social applications

Social interaction is increasingly computer mediated. Part of the mediated interaction is being automated by the technology used, especially in mobile phone technology. Human factors research has shown that automation is a mixed blessing. It changes the role of the human in the loop with effects on understanding, control, skill, vigilance, and ultimately trust and usefulness. The question we want to raise is: What are the implications of increasing automation in mobile social applications? Jaiku, a mobile awareness service, automates disclosure and diffusion of location metadata, and ZoneTag, a photo-uploading program, automates and suggests metadata associated with images. We discuss alternative models of automation in these systems and present a study of three user groups in Finland and California using Jaiku and ZoneTag. The results reveal issues related to control, understanding, emergent practices, and privacy. We discuss the potentials and limitations of automated solutions in this context and discuss about the need for further research on automation in mobile social applications.