I was kindly invited to present myself and my group's research at the Knowledge Media Research Center in Tubingen, Germany.

1. Knowledge Technologies Institute
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V. Pammer-Schindler July 14, 2015 Ubiquitous Techn. f. Knowledge Workers
Ubiquitous Technologies for Knowledge
Workers
Viktoria Pammer-Schindler
July 14, 2015

2. Knowledge Technologies Institute
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V. Pammer-Schindler July 14, 2015 Ubiquitous Techn. f. Knowledge Workers
Career and Contact
Work
– 2011 Deputy Area Manager “Knowledge
Services” at Know-Center
– 2012 Area Manager Ubiquitous Personal
Computing (previously Knowledge Services)
– 2012 Tenure Track at
Knowledge Technologies Institute,
Graz Univ. of Technology
Education
– 2005 Diploma in “Telematik” (CS + Electr.
Engineering) at Graz Univ of Technology,
with distinction
– 2010 Doctoral degree “Applied Computer
Science” at Graz Univ of Technology, with
distinction
http://Kti.tugraz.at/staff/
viktoriapammer
viktoria.pammer@tugraz.at

3. Knowledge Technologies Institute
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V. Pammer-Schindler July 14, 2015 Ubiquitous Techn. f. Knowledge Workers
Topics, Publications and Resources
Topics
Information Systems, HCI, Mobile and Ubiquitous Computing, Technology-
Enhanced Learning, Knowledge Management
Publications
– H-Index: 13
– 44 peer-reviewed publications, of which 3 journal articles
– 4 book chapters
– 5 workshop proceedings editor
Resources - Funding
– Responsible for ~ 1Mio€ budget per year
– Contributed to acquiring COMET budget ( 20Mio € for 8 years)
– Acquired ~750k€ on top of COMET budget since 2012

4. Knowledge Technologies Institute
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V. Pammer-Schindler July 14, 2015 Ubiquitous Techn. f. Knowledge Workers
My Current Research in 5min
Ubiquitous Technologies for Knowledge Workers
– Baseline: In knowledge work, working and learning are
inseparably linked
– Assumption about the Future: Ubiquitous technologies will
mediate human-computer interaction in the workplace.
• Personal, mobile devices and wearables; but also ambient devices;
interactive, networked, context-aware devices
– From here to there: Such ICT support for knowledge work is not at
all reality in most workplaces I have seen.
– Research Approach Part 1: Observe and Understand ICT usage
at work – Usage patterns and work practice co-depend on each
other. Change the one, change the other.
– Research Approach Part 2: Design information systems and
functionality – New technologies require new interaction paradigms;
and will lead to different work practice.

5. Knowledge Technologies Institute
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V. Pammer-Schindler July 14, 2015 Ubiquitous Techn. f. Knowledge Workers
Comments: Working and Learning
Central unit of analysis: The Knowledge Worker
– Observable activities / statements - “you are what you do”
– Knowledge worker as part of a social system (mostly: organisation)
Work support
– Emphasis on supporting operative work processes
– Finding, creating, learning and transmitting knowledge (adapted
from Kelloway & Barling, 2000)
Learning support
– Informal learning: No curriculum, no certificates, no teachers
– Situated (learning takes place in the same context where it is
applied) and Contextual Learning (learning is relevant only in its
context of application)
– Reflective learning (re-evaluating the past to learn for the future)

6. Knowledge Technologies Institute
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V. Pammer-Schindler July 14, 2015 Ubiquitous Techn. f. Knowledge Workers
Comments: Ubiquitous Technologies
Ubiquitous Computing is the next computing paradigm
after personal computing
– Every person owns many computers
– Everyday objects “are” computers
– Computers are networked, aware of their environment, and
intelligent
– Awareness and networking enable fundamentally different
functionality and interaction paradigms in information
systems than were possible in the era of personal computers
– … but central challenges of knowledge workers remain (how
to find, create, learn and transmit knowledge)

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V. Pammer-Schindler July 14, 2015 Ubiquitous Techn. f. Knowledge Workers
Comments: Methods from Interactive
Systems Design
Understanding: Analysis/Evaluation
– Qualitative: Observations, Interviews, Focus groups
– Quantitative: Usage data, questionnaires
– Heuristics: Walkthroughs, usability heuristics
– Very little experiments (task-based) – mostly field studies
(real users, real work environments)
Design
– Cooperative with stakeholders (varying degrees)
– Iterative
– Varying stages of maturity: Storyboards, prototypes of
different accuracy of system representation

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V. Pammer-Schindler July 14, 2015 Ubiquitous Techn. f. Knowledge Workers
Ubiquitous Working – Research Agenda
A Facilitate Ubiquitous Working and Learning –
Understand, Design for, Evaluate and Refine
innovative ICT systems and functionality
1. Conceptual model of ICT support for ubiquitous working
and learning
2. Example ICT systems/functionalites
B Harness sensing information to make systems
aware and intelligent
1. Infer/predict high level concepts from sensing data
2. Ubiquitous sensing software framework