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CHI 2006 Workshop on
Mobile Social Software Realizing potential, managing risks Background While this has been technically possible for small groups of cutting edge technology users, such as heavily mobile laptop and pda users, the transition to mobile phones brings social software not only to a significantly larger user base, but also to the more “everyday” consumer of technology. This imminent ubiquity of social software on mobile devices means that users are always socially connected, enabling a host of phenomena, such as smart convergence (Smart Mobs [4]), augmented physical social networking (Dodgeball [2]), and location tagging. The goal for this workshop is to explore the research questions, coming directions, and relevant technologies surrounding expanded adoption of mobile social software. Research
Questions
First, how will mobile social software change the way we socialize? If teenagers represent an edge case, we are already seeing an unsurpassed level of fluidity in social coordination that foreshadows a radical departure from what many are accustomed to. As Mimi Ito describes in a study of Japanese teenagers use of text messaging [3], social convergence is accomplished through a process of an initial general meeting place and time (e.g., Shibuya, noon), followed by continual status updating until an actual convergence takes place. Some authors have dubbed this process, micro-coordination. Natural extensions of micro-coordination include fluid socializing based on who is available for a desired activity at whatever time and place are convenient. As social software comes to mobile devices, the amount of backchanneling via the mobile device is sure to increase. Like the fluid social dynamic, this represents significant social change: the physically present social environment is no longer the only social environment in which people are participating. This backchanneling already takes place to some extent through voice calls and text messaging, but could see an exponential increase as mobile communication channels open. In the non-mobile case, IRC channels and instant messaging have been used to backchannel during college courses or meetings, presaging the possible upcoming tools that will allow backchannelling at all times. Location services are starting to become widely available and have the potential to radically change social software. Everything from social networking (a friend of a friend is nearby) to recommender systems (people in your social network recommend a different Italian restaurant than the one you are standing in front of) will have the potential to incorporate location information. Location systems will influence so many of the coming mobile social technologies that they warrant special attention. Another goal for the workshop is to define and discuss the technical and research issues with different location systems and especially to understand the impact of various design choices of the location system on the end-user’s (perception of) privacy. Location provides one sense of context to mobile social software systems. More broadly, increased use of context from the physical world is, in some way, the key differentiator of mobile social software from its desktop counterpart. The research agenda for mobile social software must incorporate critical issues on how and to what extent to account for this context. For example, that a user is in a nightclub with a group of friends can inform a system that the user is currently being social, is with a particular group of friends, and is listening to music. The system may then be able to make more informed decisions about with whom the user wants to share photos she is taking, or who else she might want to invite out for the evening. Capturing context, however, is by no means a trivial task, and using context appropriately in applications is even more challenging. This workshop aims to bring together leading researchers to explore the bounds of the socially acceptable and desirable aspects of context as well as the technical requirements to actually capture them. With all of these research questions, it is important to identify the user boundary conditions. For example, with respect to location services, what level of disclosure becomes uncomfortable for users to the point where any benefit of location information is outweighed by the loss of privacy? Just how socially fluid do people want to become before social interaction feels superficial? How much backchanneling is acceptable before causing a breach in social etiquette? How does this vary with different social contexts? A major goal for this workshop is to brainstorm research that can probe these boundary conditions. It is hoped that inventive research methods will arise to test for these boundary conditions, given the difficulty in studying this type of phenomenon. Finally, cultural differences need addressing when considering not only the research issues, but the research methodologies, in studying and developing social software on mobile devices. The mobile device plays different roles in different cultures, given social and technological differences. Further, “cultural” differences are not limited only to geographical boundaries, but to other demographic differences, such as age and level of familiarity with mobile devices. How then can we facilitate awareness and results sharing amongst research in different cultures? What’s
Next? Social software requires critical mass. Unlike web-based social software, there are few standards for hardware, software, and transfer protocols for mobile social software. From 3G to GSM to WAP to different operating systems and programming languages, there are, quite simply, many technologies involved in mobile social software. Researchers are often faced with decisions regarding which operating system to build for, which transfer protocol to use, and so on, and these decisions impact the reach of any particular project. Thus, this workshop also seeks to discuss the different technologies, in their current and forecasted future states, in the hopes of maximizing research efforts. Specific Research and Application
Areas
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