personal sphere: information management in everyday life

8/14/2019 Personal Sphere: Information management in everyday life

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EC Infoday 11.5.2009 / Personal Sphere Information Management in Everyday Life / Kari-Hans Kommonen / Arki ! Media Lab ! TAIK 1

Personal SphereInformation managementin everyday life

Kari-Hans Kommonen Arki research group / Media LabUniversity of Art and Design Helsinki [email protected] http://arki.uiah.fi


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Outline

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digitalization- eMe- ecosystems and practices- users as designers- opportunities in empowering users in the personal sphere


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Evolution of the digital dimension


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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 andplay 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 andstructures that become more digital.For example: money, trade, transport, media, locks, control,identification, ... will become more digital. The more efficientsystem replaces the old one. A realistic possibility to choosebetween the old and new way disappears soon.


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When systems become digital

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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


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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, GoogleCalendar, credit cards, healthcare, banks, tax authorities, )- my representations in the media and documentations created byothers (websites + Google etc.)

- my existence in sensor networks, telecom databases, security systems etc.


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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 cardpayments

- 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


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Controlling my existence

Today users have very limited access only to a part of their externaleMe , 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 itif it is wrong? Is the data safe? Do systems implement adequatesecurity? Are the authorized persons responsible?Good discussion of privacy concerns: Daniel J. Solove: The Digital PeTechnology and Privacy in the Information Age. New York UniversityPress, 2004


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We also design our own eMe

- email signature- blog- flickr photostream- nike plus- facebook- discussion fora- twitter, qaiku

- dopplr


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The Digital Ecosystem

Digital products live in ecosystems designed by their users .Users are system integratorsthat take up new products and put theminto use in their practices .Products can only be successful if they fit in well into the users

practices and ecosystems; they can also become indispensablebuilding blocksfor new practices .


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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 ontheir users ability to invent new social practices that rely on theseproducts.

>> The trend is to leverage the creativity of the users bydesigning products and services to be designable e.g. to be simpleto extend or to join with other products to create moresophisticated new systems, that support new practices (e.g.mashups)


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Understanding the ecosystems and practices


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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)


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Uses for information management

Managing ones own daily lifeLifestreams, diary, sharing experiences, documenting life Trading information about practices for benefits


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R&D topics

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The information resources in the personal sphere aredispersed across a variety of systems, services and formats that oftenonly communicate through a user interface offering no oronly poor programmatic interface with what tools couldusers manage their information in integrated, comprehensive fashio?

- What kinds of concepts and tools would be the most naturalones for people to be able to understand the essential thingsabout information management, access and disclosure management sothat they could manage them?

o Files, folders, tags, collections are not enough


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R&D topics

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How do people understand concepts such as disclosurepolicy, 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 ofsuch export/import and backup is a backbone for other newcapabilities


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R&D topics

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When the whole sphere of everyday life becomes tied to the sameinformation management systems , how complex models of the socialrelationships and networks need to be supported to facilitate theright kinds of access and sharing management?

- 3D interactive designable tools

for personal informationmanagement, browsing and organization, with intuitiveinteractions (e.g. games, Wii) . e.g. how did I use the money Ipaid for food last month, How should I budget theholiday?


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R&D topics

The topics would benefit from horizontal sense-making research , e.g.- a multiplicity ofopen ended explorationson how people couldbenefit from the kind of information and services this callpromises to make available


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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


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information created from data collected from peoples activities is pote 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


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propositions for services now or soon available on websites are discou- it should be noted that it constantly compromises end-usersprivacy to have to submit and maintain their private datasetson commercial servers, where the data is often used inundisclosed ways, for undisclosed purposes, and where usershave little security of sustainability and little effective and/orjuridical protection against potential service failures, hazardsand misuses

- new mechanisms for more distributed, less centralized socialnetworking would help alleviate these concerns


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Discussion

Thank you!Kari-Hans Kommonen, [email protected]

personal sphere: information management in everyday life

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