Vicki L. O'Day

Design for network communities

Collaboration has long been of considerable interest in the CHI community. This paper proposes and explores the concept of network communities as a crucial part of this discussion. Network communities are a form of technologymediated environment that foster a sense of community among users. We consider several familiar systems and describe the shared characteristics these systems have developed to deal with critical concerns of collaboration. Based on our own experience as designers and users of a variety of network communities. we extend this initial design space along three dimensions: the articulation of a persistent sense of location, the boundary tensions between real and virtual worlds, and the emergence and evolution of community.

The social-technical design circle

Computer systems developed for groups of people often have built-in social imperatives, either explicitly or implicitly brought to bear during technology design and use. Even when users are active, ongoing participants in design, conflicts can arise between the social assumptions inscribed in technical mechanisms and those in existing or proposed social practices, resulting in changes to both. This paper describes the joint evolution of tools and social practices in Pueblo, a school-centered learning community supported by a MOO (an Internet-accessible virtual world). Examples illustrate how one can design and use a social practice to simplify a technical implementation, and how one can make a choice in technical implementation to work towards a desirable social goal. Social and technical practices in a network community co-evolve as social values and policies become clearer and as growth in the community pushes it toward changes in the distribution of authority and power.

Making a place for seniors on the Net: SeniorNet, senior identity, and the digital divide

The most recent edition of the annual “Falling Through the Net” report from the U.S. Department of Commerce says that people aged 50 and older are among those groups who are least likely to be Internet users [1]. While we might question whether demographic categories are the most useful way to track Internet use, it’s clear that these categories are dominant in conversations about the digital divide. In this paper, we will follow that thread to look at the digital divide for the category of seniors, based on our year-long study of SeniorNet, an organization that supports seniors in learning about technology. By focusing on seniors as a group, we conform to the discourse of the digital divide. At the same time, we want to open up this discourse, to move outside of its conventional story lines and categories. We are both speaking the language of the digital divide and questioning some of its assumptions.

When worlds collide: molecular biology as interdisciplinary collaboration

The field of molecular biology is in a remarkably rapid period of change, as the genome sequencing projects and new experimental technologies have generated an explosion of data To analyze and draw insights from the vast amounts of information, biologists use a new generation of bioinformatics software tools, often working closely with mathematicians and computer scientists. There are elements of both collision and convergence in these interdisciplinary encounters. We conducted user studies with biologists engaged in investigating the molecular basis of disease. We describe several issues that arise in this collision/convergence of disciplines, drawing on the notion of boundary objects in-the-making. We provide recommendations on building technology for people whose work now sits at the crossroads of diverse and rapidly changing scientific fields.

CSCW '96 workshop: widening the net: the theory and practice of physical and network communities: Nov.16–17, 1996, Cambridge, MA

This introduction is a summary of the workshop from the perspective of one of the workshop participants. It is followed by a report written by the workshop organizers, giving their perspective, and then the position papers.

Information Ecologies: Using Technology with Heart - Chapter One: Rotwang the Inventor

Chapter One: Rotwang the Inventor, from the book, Information Ecologies. This book calls for call for responsible, informed engagement with technology in local settings, or information ecologies.