moderator: jacek gwizdka

8/14/2019 Moderator: Jacek Gwizdka

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Panel: Intersection of Devices(PIM mobility)Moderator: Jacek Gwizdka Department of Library andInformation Science

Panelists: Amy Karlson, Jakob Eg Larsen,

Karl Voit

CONTACT:

www.jsg.tel


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The Panelists Karl Voit

University Assistant at Graz, University of Technology (Institute forSoftware Technology)

Interests: HCI research on Personal Information Management; Newapproaches to access stored data (information retrieval process)concerning multiple user contexts

Amy Karlson Researcher at Microsoft Research in the Visualization and

Interaction Group

Interests: Mobile HCI with a focus on mobile productivity andsupporting smoother task-flow as users move between devices,

especially mobile phones and PCs Jakob Eg Larsen

Assistant Professor, Technical University of Denmark, DTUInformatics, Cognitive Systems Section. Head of Mobile InformaticsLab (MILAB)

Interests: Mobile HCI, Personal Information Management, Context-awareness. Mobile phones as cognitive systems applying embedded


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Questions for Panelists Karl Voit

Workshop Theme: Personal information intersections: What happens when PIM

spaces overlap? multiple users, one user with multiple roles, tasks, privacy and security, organizational strategies andpolicies.

What makes people use multiple (mobile) devices? People want to have constant access to their tasks, contact list, calendar , and other

data wherever they are. Desktop computers or Notebooks are not handy enough to bea permanent companion. Recently, mobile devices are also very popular as a tool to

access internet services.

Is multiplicity of devices a good thing or not?

I do not think, that the multiplicity itself is good or bad from the users point of view.What is bad is the current support for this multiplicity. The main focus of a user is (orshould be) the data she or he is accessing and the tasks she or he will accomplish.Because of the inability of current systems, this multiplicity is recognized as bad.

Do tasks and information move between the devices? Again, I do think that the current limitations of the products available limits the ubiquity

of information. Tasks and information shouldmove between the devices as easily asthe user is able to switch between them. So yes, I do think that tasks and informationare moving between devices.

What could help users to cross the boundaries between devices? The user needs software solutions that take over the burden of synchronization.

Whenever the user switches to a device the information has to be up to date and anymodifications should be propagated without user interaction. Let the user think about


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Questions for Panelists: Amy KarlsonWorkshop Theme: Personal information intersections: What happens when PIM

spaces overlap?

multiple users, one user with multiple roles, tasks, privacy and security, organizationalstrategies and policies.

What makes people use multiple (mobile) devices?People use the most convenient device that will satisfy the task at hand, taking into account portability,

availability, startup time, and functionality

Is multiplicity of devices a good thing or not? I would argue that multiple devices are a good thing wrt the above statement (e.g.,

convenience) devices but that today data is artificially segmented by the hardware, whichcreates problems for users. Ideally information spaces should be device agnostic (e.g., availablefrom any device), but individuals will vary in how distinct they want their information spaces tobe from one another, and thats where the technology should held the user.

Do tasks and information move between the devices? Absolutely tasks do, but the burden of crossing the barrier is largely put on the user today. Even

email, which is arguably the most successful due to its fundamental client server model, isnegatively impacted by multiple-device access as mobility injects new types of disruptions totask flow.

What could help users to cross the boundaries between devices? Systems that capture richer task state (including context) and which share that state across all

devices.

Allowing users to explicitly summon tasks and state that were abandoned at one device toanother, as well as providing cues for task resumption at different devices.

Systems that support tasks at a finer granularity that allow users to make progress toward thecompletion of a task in short bursts of time and less capable devices. This relies on appropriateinterfaces at the mobile device, and users being able to rehydrate the task and continue from

any device.


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Questions for Panelists Jakob Larsen

Workshop Theme: Personal information intersections: What

happens when PIM spaces overlap? multiple users, one user with multiple roles, tasks, privacy and security,

organizational strategies and policies.

What makes people use multiple (mobile) devices? Probably multiple parameters play a role in determining the choice of device: task

itself, size/complexity of task, urgency, device features and limitations, convenience,

privacy/security, etc...

Is multiplicity of devices a good thing or not? With the current lack of integration and unification across devices it tends to separate

into different information spaces (with some exceptions). Good/bad, information dealtwith in separated spaces, but it may lead to task/information fragmentation andadditional cognitive load.

Do tasks and information move between the devices? Device boundaries are generally hard to cross. Depends on information types. Some

has decent support (e.g. email) and some hardly at all (e.g. bookmarks).

What could help users to cross the boundaries between devices? There is a set of research challenges to develop models for the necessary tool support,

so enable users to cross device boundaries, both in terms of tasks and information

Providing contextual information may be one possible solution to facilitatemana ement of ersonal information across device boundaries. Carr in task and/or


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