Time, Meaning and Ownership: the Value of Location in the Home

Date
2004-10-01
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Abstract
Ubiquitous computing researchers suggest that technology embedded within the home can augment communication and coordination of home inhabitants. Our goal in this paper is to inform the design of effective home information systems, where we determine how households now manage communication and coordination. Through contextual interviews, we identify four types of communicative information found in homes: reminders and notes, awareness and scheduling, visual displays and alerts, and resource coordination. We found that these information types are created and understood by home inhabitants as a function of contextual locations within the home. We also found that the choice of location is highly nuanced. Location affects the time when others need to interact with that information, the meaning of that information and what needs to be done with it, and the ownership: who this information belongs to and who should receive it.
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Computer Science
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