Where Are You and When Are You Coming Home? Foundations of Interpersonal Awareness
Date
2004-10-01
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Abstract
A barely explored frontier in HCI is how computers can augment the
everyday social world of home inhabitants. Within this rich setting, our own
focus is on how people naturally maintain interpersonal awareness for members
of their household and other individuals in their personal lives. We carried
out an exploratory study designed to: a) define the interpersonal
relationships critical to home members, and b) articulate the needs of home
members for maintaining awareness of the activities and lives of these
people. Our results identify three types of interpersonal awareness: home,
intimate, and extended awareness. For each type, we identify the people for
whom this awareness is desired; the actual awareness information wanted; and
the current techniques people use to maintain this awareness. Our results
also identify two problems that inhibit people s maintenance of this
awareness: time constraints, and distance/time separation. These results
motivate and lay the foundations for groupware that augments how home
inhabitants maintain interpersonal awareness.
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Computer Science