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The field of community informatics focuses on how information and communication technology can contribute to the development and sustainability of local communities. The ubiquity of mobile technologies, coupled with their affordances of connecting people and accessing information anytime, anywhere, brings new opportunities for community informatics research. These same affordances also entrain new methodological challenges in capturing and understanding mobile technology use, as mobile-supported interactions can be difficult to study systematically. Such interactions are often situated in complex social and physical settings, such as the local community context. In response to these challenges, we describe the method for scripting events that participants enact within their community and through which we probe how mobile technology impacts community building and vice versa. With the scripted method, we emphasize the need to integrate multiple streams of data and analyses to triangulate and obtain a holistic picture of community interactions. This scripted method is designed to afford ecological validity in employing socially and behaviorally realistic activities, while maintaining some research control, in providing a standard scaffold for participants to enact target behaviors. We discuss how our method could be leveraged in other mobile media communication studies involved in complex social and physical contexts.

Microblogging is becoming increasingly pervasive in computer–supported collaboration, providing new opportunities for organisations to support their effective operations. However, research on microblogging practices at the organisational level, especially in virtual organisations, is very limited. To enhance the understanding of how virtual organisations use microblogs in similar and different ways, we investigate microblogging practices of two virtual organisations by examining the content characteristics of their Twitter posts. We identify ten categories of microblog themes of three dimensions, consisting of both common and different categories between the two organisations. We further discuss how the commonalities and contrasts of microblogging practices between the two organisations serve organisational objectives and work activities in similar and different ways, and compare these practices of virtual organisations with other types of microblogs.

Many user studies of the internet employ survey methods and focus on societal-level impacts. A richer and more valid understanding of the internet includes other types of data (e.g., individual interviews, direct-observation ethnographies, session logging) and finer-level impacts (e.g., impacts on family life, on proximate communities, or on geographical regions). We describe a logging study of 43 households in Blacksburg, Virginia and surrounding Montgomery County. This proximate community is the home of the Blacksburg Electronic Village (BEV), a mature, World Wide Web-based community network. We discuss methodological challenges of logging studies and summarise novel approaches of analysis and interpretation. We conclude with summaries of overall patterns of activity, specifically focusing on locally-oriented internet activity.

Design research, without empirical evaluation, is often looked upon as a poor relation to more obviously experimental work. A common reason to reject design studies submitted for publication concerns their failure to provide an empirical evaluation of the use and effects of an artifact in the laboratory or in more realistic field settings. The authors argue that this scepticism towards pure theoretical design research without empirical results not only hinders scientific progress and scientific efficiency in human–computer interaction research, but also discounts the value of designs conceived and realized in practice. Pure theoretical design research has value because envisioning and implementing a design is a form of theorizing, theory integration, theory refinement, and analytic evaluation. The artifact, in essence, embodies a theory, with analytical value independent of its empirical evaluation. The activities of analysis, design, and construction are common in both academe and in design practice, and represent an underexploited resource for systems design science. In part this limitation might stem from the lack of epistemological grounding for design as a knowledge generating activity, and in part from the lack of a distinct methodological perspective from which to assess theoretical design science. The authors ground their perspective with reference to the philosophy of science and through analysis of a design research exemplar, and suggest a set of criteria for evaluating research products in theoretical design science.

AbstractDesign research, without empirical evaluation, is often looked upon as a poor relation to more obviously experimental work. A common reason to reject design studies submitted for publication concerns their failure to provide an empirical evaluation of the use and effects of an artifact in the laboratory or in more realistic field settings. The authors argue that this scepticism towards pure theoretical design research without empirical results not only hinders scientific progress and scientific efficiency in human–computer interaction research, but also discounts the value of designs conceived and realized in practice. Pure theoretical design research has value because envisioning and implementing a design is a form of theorizing, theory integration, theory refinement, and analytic evaluation. The artifact, in essence, embodies a theory, with analytical value independent of its empirical evaluation. The activities of analysis, design, and construction are common in both academe and in design practice, and represent an underexploited resource for systems design science. In part this limitation might stem from the lack of epistemological grounding for design as a knowledge generating activity, and in part from the lack of a distinct methodological perspective from which to assess theoretical design science. The authors ground their perspective with reference to the philosophy of science and through analysis of a design research exemplar, and suggest a set of criteria for evaluating research products in theoretical design science.

Learning about information technology is typically not a first-order goal for community-based volunteer organizations. Nonetheless, information technology is vital to such groups for member recruiting and management, communication and visibility to the community, and for primary group activities. During the past 12 years, we have worked with community groups in Centre County, Pennsylvania, and Montgomery County, Virginia. We have built partnerships with these groups to better understand and address their learning challenges with respect to information technology. In this paper, we suggest that patterns, standard solution schemata for recurring problems (as used in architecture and software engineering, among other design domains), can be a paradigm for codifying and developing an understanding of learning in and by community organizations. Patterns are middle-level abstractions; they capture regularities of practices in ways that are potentially intelligible, verifiable, and perhaps useful to the practitioners themselves. We present two example patterns and discuss issues and directions for developing patterns as a theoretical foundation for community-based learning.

Contemporary classroom practices have evolved, and are continuing to evolve toward an emphasis on authentic learning activities. To a considerable degree, lectures and proscribed classroom exercises are being replaced with more open-ended, problem-based activities that are frequently carried out by groups of students (i.e., collaborative learning). We are investigating the use and assessment of such learning activities in a usability engineering course for 3rd and 4th year Information Science undergraduate students at the Pennsylvania State University. This paper advances our project by attempting to better articulate the specific learning objectives of case-based activities employed in this course and appropriate assessment goals and methods for these learning objectives.

This article focuses on authentic case-based learning. Case studies, or cases, are descriptions of a specific activity, event, or problem, drawn from the real world of professional practice. They provide narrative models of practice to students and other novice practitioners. Cases incorporate vivid background information and personal perspectives to elicit empathy and active participation. They include contingencies, complexities, and often dilemmas to evoke integrative analysis and critical thinking. The paradigmatic case study is a brief but provocative story, sketching a problematic situation, and inviting the reader to elaborate missing or open details of the premise, and to construct possible resolutions. Some of the most impressive case studies are extremely brief, comprising just a half-page of text. Cases can also be quite voluminous, involving 50 or more pages of material, and requiring detailed study and analysis to characterize the problematic situation and its possible resolutions.

Geocollaboration is a new field of research that investigates how technology can support human–human collaboration with geospatial information. This paper considers the design issues inherent in distributed geospatial software. It looks at providing a non-spatial communication channel, supporting real-time synchronous awareness, designing interaction techniques, establishing common ground, and using floor control and attention techniques. Using examples from existing geocollaboration tools and realistic geocollaboration scenarios, it demonstrates some of the design alternatives for geocollaboration. The paper concludes with a future research agenda describing the complexities in supporting longer-term geocollaboration activities.

Six blind men encounter an elephant. Each of them touches a different part of the elephant and expresses what the elephant is. Although they are touching the same elephant, each man's description is completely different from that of the others. We have been using this story as a metaphor for understanding different views of scenario-based system design.

This paper describes a new laboratory model developed for studying complex CSCW phenomena. In our prior work a more ecological laboratory approach was developed to study activity awareness issues derived directly from earlier fieldwork. In the first study participants worked on a simulated long-term project with a confederate who introduced collaborative breakdown scenarios. Although the study produced many realistic behaviors, findings indicated that there was room for improving the model by making the simulation more ecological and engaging for participants. This paper examines the results of a follow-up study conducted with the goal of improving the laboratory model. The follow-up study varied two important elements of simulation from the first study. A real long-term project was used, and the confederate was replaced with another participant. Differences in results from the two studies indicate how the changes made to the model impacted its effectiveness.

MOOsburg is a community-oriented multi-user domain. It was created to enrich the Blacksburg Electronic Village (BEV) by providing real-time, situated interaction and a place-based model for community information. Three versions of MOOsburg have been developed: a classic text-based MOO, a MOO extended to drive a Web-browser, and a Java-based system. The most recent version of MOOsburg is fundamentally different from classic MOOs, supporting distributed system development and management and a direct manipulation approach to navigation. We are currently developing a variety of community-oriented applications, including a virtual science fair and a dispersed natural history museum.

We have been using critical incidents to research the design and evaluation of computer-mediated collaborative and communication technologies for use in K-12 education. A variety of methods have generated a number of critical incidents identified during classroom evaluations. To enhance our analysis and understanding of these incidents, we developed a Web-based forum called the collaborative critical incident tool(CCIT). Users (teachers) and researchers collaboratively post, rate incident criticality, and elaborate on critical incidents through sustained dialog, contributing to the understanding of underlying conditions, causes, and implications. In this paper we describe the tool and its impact on evaluation.

Data logging has been a standard, but under utilized, software evaluation technique for single-user systems. Large volumes of objective data can be collected automatically and unobtrusively. This data, however, is usually in the form of low-level system events, making it difficult to analyze and interpret meaningfully. In this paper we extend traditional logging approaches to collaborative multi-user (groupware) systems. We also show how data captured at a higher level of abstraction can characterize user-system interaction more meaningfully. Lastly, we show how higher-level data abstracted from logging can be more effectively combined with data from other usability methods.

Recent discussion has resolved the question of how prior knowledge organizes new learning into the technical definition and study of “metaphor”. Some theorists have adopted an “operational” approach, focusing on the manifest effects of suggesting metaphoric comparisons to learners. Some have resolved the question formally into a “structural” definition of metaphor. However, structural and operation approaches typically ignore the goal-directed learner-initiated learning processthrough which metaphors become relevant and effective in learning. Taking this process seriously affords an analysis of metaphor that explains whymetaphors are intrinsically open-ended and howtheir open-endedness stimulates the construction of mental models.

To design intelligent interfaces it can be useful to start from a consideration of what users already know and expect to do. This is not the only way to design intelligent interfaces and in fact not the typical method in practice. Several examples are discussed to urge that current practice be broadened to correct this.

Random noise obscuring digit ized images or text can be removed by a new technique that recognizes the appearance o f randomness in short bit strings. This test makes uses binary derivatives. The derivative of a bit string is formed by recur sively XORing the bits pair- wise. The measure of random ness depends is the maximum range of the one's ratio (p) among various order deriva tives. Random pixel strings in digital images can be zeroed out leaving outlined regions where image details can be recovered by edge-detection or other tech niques. Binary derivatives can also assist cryptographers and cryptanalysts. And they can help simulationists avoid selecting random-number generator seeds that would bias their results.

Ten subjects rendered names for each of 168 novel entities. The entities were quite varied. Naming “strategies” in this task situation were assessed with several dependent measures: (1) the structural form of the name expression (compound noun, lexically modified noun, etc.), (2) the content analysis of the name (i.e., into morphological patterns that directly convey content properties of referents), (3) statistical measures (number of syllables), and (4) comments and ratings elicited from participants. Several general strategies were induced.

Scenario management (SM) means different things to different people, even though everyone seems to admit its current importance and its further potential. In this paper, we seek to provide an interdisciplinary framework for SM from three major disciplines that use scenarios – strategic management, human–computer interaction, and software and systems engineering – to deal with description of current and future realities. In particular, we attempt to answer the following questions: How are scenarios developed and used in each of the three disciplines? Why are they becoming important? What are current research contributions in scenario management? What are the research and practical issues related to the creation and use of scenarios, in particular in the area of requirements engineering? Based on brainstorming techniques, this paper proposes an interdisciplinary definition of scenarios, frameworks for scenario development, use and evaluation, and directions for future research.:

The problem of allocating firefighting resources is complicated by the existence of numerous criteria for measuring the adequacy of service and by differ ences in the equipment and capabilities of service units. Our simulator consists of one program that generates simulated events from historical data and a second program that processes the simulated data and produces statistics that describe the avail ability and utilization of firefighting resources. We are able to improve the accuracy with which the simulator reproduces historical data by:(1) factoring data concerning the occurrence of fire incidents into daily, monthly, and hourly components, (2) dividing a generalized exponential distribution of fire incident duration into response and time- dependent components, and (3) characterizing driving- time distributions as geographically dependent gamma functions. The simulator uses historical data available from fire departments. Example applica tions include evaluating alternative approaches to improving fire service in a particular area, invest igating the possible impact of a series of arson fires, and planning for urban growth.

The defining of police patrol zones is a complex problem that can be handled by computer simulation. Typical criteria for establishing zone boundaries are average response time and amount of time avail able for actual patrol duties. Typical constraints include the number of patrol cars and a desired minimum response time. In our application, the criterion was to maximize the amount of time avail able for patrol duties (i.e., repressive patrol); the constraints were the current average time to respond to a call and a limit on the number of patrol cars. We developed a multiple linear regres sion model to forecast calls and a simulator to pre dict performance. The results were reasonable and indicated that, possibly, a small increase in patrol time could be achieved by redefining zone boundaries and that the work load in the zones could be made considerably more uniform.The simulation, however, was undertaken primarily as a training exercise and did not represent the com plete problem. As a result of factors outside of the scope of the work reported here, the findings were not applied. Even so, it can be argued that the study produced benefits that justified its cost.

In this paper, we recruit the construct of psychological design rationale as a framework for integrating theory development with design evaluation in HCI. We propose that, in some cases, part of an artefact's psychological design rationale can be regarded as inherited from second-order artefacts (prescriptive design models, architectures and genres, tools and environments, interface styles). We show how evaluation data pertaining to an artefact can be used to test and develop the second-order artefact from which it inherits.

Scenarios are a natural and effective medium for thinking in general and for design in particular. Our work seeks to develop a potential unification between recent scenario-oriented work in object-oriented analysis/design methods and scenario-oriented work in the analysis/design of human-computer interaction. We illustrate this perspective by showing: (1) how scenario questioning can be used to systematically interrogate the knowledge and practices of potential users, and thereby to create object-oriented analysis models that are psychologically valid; (2) how depicting an individual object's point-of-view can serve as a pedagogical scaffold to help students of object-oriented analysis see how to identify and assign object responsibilities in creating a problem domain model; and (3) how usage scenarios can be employed to motivate and coordinate the design implementation, refactoring and reuse of object-oriented software. Copyright 1994, 1999 Academic Press

Abstract:This paper outlines a psychological theory of aesthetic experience. The theory is based upon the role of representational conflict and the natural process of resolving such conflict during mental growth in childhood. It proposes that aesthetic experience in adults re-creates the type of mental and emotional activity that is typical of childhood mental growth. Works of art provide the experience of mental growth and the emotional responses accompanying this growth, long after the initial process of understanding the world has been completed. The framework for mental representation and the resolving of representational conflicts comes from the field of cognitive psychology and the developmental theory of Piaget.

In two experiments subjects listened to a sentence containing a brief tone, then wrote out the sentence and marked the location of the tone. The experimental sentences were biclausal with the tone placed before or after the clause break. The initial clause was either functionally complete or functionally incomplete. Functionally complete clauses contain a complete set of fully specified grammatical relations, while functionally incomplete clauses do not. In Experiment 1 tones were mislocated toward the clause break and the final word of the first clause significantly more often for functionally complete clauses. Experiment 2 replicated this finding holding deep-and surface-structure variables constant. The resulis indicate that functionally complete clauses are better segmentation units during sentence perception than functionally incomplete clauses. Purely structural theories of the units of sentence perception cannot account for this finding.

Proper names often have shorter variants, e.g., the Boston Common< == > the Common, New York City < == > New York. A description of this phenomenon is proposed that decomposes it into four sub‐processes: Category Ellipsis, Location Ellipsis, Appellation Formation, and Explicit Metonomy. Discussion focusses principally on the former two processes, which produce “nameheods”—briefer alternations of proper names that preserve the naming function. It is argued that the name shortening processes (a) operate in a lexical domain; but (b) are non‐grammatical. An extra‐grammatical analysis of the processes is outlined.

Designed artifacts unavoidably restructure human activity. In this sense, the design of tools and environments for people to use in their work, as well as of the training and information that support this use, can be seen as the design of human activity.This conception of what it is to design things motivates alternative representations, processes. and tools for design work. This paper describes an approach to the design of computer systems and applications in which scenarios of human‐system interaction are a central working design representation. This approach is illustrated by examples from the design of a multimedia information system.

Human–computer interaction (HCI) is the area of intersection between psychology and the social sciences, on the one hand, and computer science and technology, on the other. HCI researchers analyse and design-specific user-interface technologies (e.g. three-dimensional pointing devices, interactive video). They study and improve the processes of technology development (e.g. usability evaluation, design rationale). They develop and evaluate new applications of technology (e.g. computer conferencing, software design environments). Through the past two decades, HCI has progressively integrated its scientific concerns with the engineering goal of improving theusabilityof computer systems and applications, thus establishing a body of technical knowledge and methodology. HCI continues to provide a challenging test domain for applying and developing psychology and social science in the context of technology development and use.

The English “good and” intensifier is discussed as an example of a form that is acceptable even though ungrammatical, both synchronically and diachronically. The construction is analyzed as a case of creative analogy: the extension of a grammatically generated form to a new function, one for which it has no direct grammatical justification. From the perspective of a “dynamic” theory of language acquisition and evolution, it is argued that such forms constitute a new sort of evidence regarding the nature of language universals.

A structural analysis of film can make good on the traditional “film is language” metaphor in several ways. As a linguistic grammar formally partitions the world into sentential and nonsentential objects, a structural theory of film partitions the world into those objects that are narrative film scenes and those that are not. Additionally, it is argued, such an analysis offers substantive foundation for descriptions of structural relations between film scenes, the organization of film perception, the film as an aspect of human symbolic capacity, and of film aesthetics.