Personal Sphere: Information Management in Everyday Life

Personal Sphere
Information management in everyday life

Kari-Hans Kommonen Arki research group / Media Lab University of Art and Design Helsinki TAIK khk@taik.fi http://arki.uiah.fi
EC Infoday 11.5.2009 / Personal Sphere Information Management in Everyday Life / Kari-Hans Kommonen / Arki ! Media Lab ! TAIK
Outline
digitalization eMe ecosystems and practices users as designers opportunities in empowering users in the personal sphere
Evolution of the digital dimension
Touches all people, in all societies

Because of its high capability to deliver efficiency, digital systems will pervade or influence all systems and structures in society and play a big role in its changes. All areas of human life, all people, in all societies, will be affected, because their life is always touched by some systems and structures that become more digital. For example: money, trade, transport, media, locks, control, identification, ... will become more digital. The more efficient system replaces the old one. A realistic possibility to choose between the old and new way disappears soon.
When systems become digital

they operate on digital information they communicate they can be programmed, they are flexible they can report, store and manipulate the information can be moved anywhere flows tie components into systems, growing dependencies all activities generate data, a lot of it is stored creates a persistent existence
Digital existence the eMe

- my devices and the information I maintain in them (e.g. my writings, photos, - my memory) - my representations in systems that I participate in (social media e.g. facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, MySpace) - my representations in systems that know about me (Gmail, Google Calendar, credit cards, healthcare, banks, tax authorities, ) - my representations in the media and documentations created by others (websites + Google etc.) - my existence in sensor networks, telecom databases, security systems etc.
6
I am eMe
Increasingly, we need to operate through the eMe. - email, sms, facebook required to participate in activities - financial transactions require digital banking or credit card payments - without digital key we can not enter - payment in bus with a digital travel card - purchase from an online system - every action leaves a trail
Controlling my existence
Today users have very limited access only to a part of their external eMe, and typically in non-reusable format (e.g. printout, sometimes as pdf, but not xml or semantic) A lot of data is created about us that is important how could we get access? Should we have a say or control? Can we correct it if it is wrong? Is the data safe? Do systems implement adequate security? Are the authorized persons responsible? Good discussion of privacy concerns: Daniel J. Solove: The Digital Person, Technology and Privacy in the Information Age. New York University Press, 2004
We also design our own eMe

- email signature - blog - flickr photostream - nike plus - facebook - discussion fora - twitter, qaiku - dopplr
The Digital Ecosystem

Digital products live in ecosystems designed by their users. Users are system integrators that take up new products and put them into use in their practices. Products can only be successful if they fit in well into the users practices and ecosystems; they can also become indispensable building blocks for new practices.
10
Users as Designers
End users are the experts of their own lives and designers of their own practices. The success of new digital products is often based on their users ability to invent new social practices that rely on these products. >> The trend is to leverage the creativity of the users by designing products and services to be designable e.g. to be simple to extend or to join with other products to create more sophisticated new systems, that support new practices (e.g. mashups)
11
Understanding the ecosystems and practices
12
Ecosystems and practices

What are the components of the personal digital ecosystem? What are the practices that users have? What information flows are important in this ecosystem? What gaps in the ecosystem hinder the users interests? What wishes does the user have for future applications? How is this ecosystem connected to other digital ecosystems? (social networks, enterprises, service offerings)
13
Uses for information management

Managing ones own daily life Lifestreams, diary, sharing experiences, documenting life Trading information about practices for benefits
14
R&D topics
- The information resources in the personal sphere are dispersed across a variety of systems, services and formats that often only communicate through a user interface offering no or only poor programmatic interface with what tools could users manage their information in integrated, comprehensive fashion? - What kinds of concepts and tools would be the most natural ones for people to be able to understand the essential things about information management, access and disclosure management so that they could manage them? o Files, folders, tags, collections are not enough
15
R&D topics
- How do people understand concepts such as disclosure policy, preservation of privacy, accountability, in practice? - A growing concern for users is likely to be to get their data from external servers to own systems, to be safe, archived, and transferable to new services; the facilitation and management of such export/import and backup is a backbone for other new capabilities
16
R&D topics
- When the whole sphere of everyday life becomes tied to the same information management systems, how complex models of the social relationships and networks need to be supported to facilitate the right kinds of access and sharing management? - 3D interactive designable tools for personal information management, browsing and organization, with intuitive interactions (e.g. games, Wii) . e.g. how did I use the money I paid for food last month, How should I budget the holiday?
17
R&D topics
The topics would benefit from horizontal sense-making research, e.g. - a multiplicity of open ended explorations on how people could benefit from the kind of information and services this call promises to make available
18
Reflection on the call

systems that are accountable and privacy preserving by design - this is very important, and a big challenge - what constitutes accountability and preservation of privacy? - this also needs to be researched - future scenario work is essential
19

information created from data collected from peoples activities is potentially privacy threatening - should people have access to it - can they technically have access to it - can they deny its use - Daniel Solove proposes that this relationship should be participatory and fiduciary
20

propositions for services now or soon available on websites are discouraged - it should be noted that it constantly compromises end-users privacy to have to submit and maintain their private datasets on commercial servers, where the data is often used in undisclosed ways, for undisclosed purposes, and where users have little security of sustainability and little effective and/or juridical protection against potential service failures, hazards and misuses - new mechanisms for more distributed, less centralized social networking would help alleviate these concerns
21
Discussion
Thank you! Kari-Hans Kommonen, khk@taik.fi
22

Personal Sphere: Information Management in Everyday Life

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Personal Sphere: Information Management in Everyday Life

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Personal Sphere

Information management in everyday life

Evolution of the digital dimension

Touches all people, in all societies

When systems become digital

Digital existence the eMe

We also design our own eMe

The Digital Ecosystem

Understanding the ecosystems and practices

Ecosystems and practices

Uses for information management

Reflection on the call

Reflection on the call

Reflection on the call

You might also like