The document summarizes a study comparing two fishing villages - Change Islands in Newfoundland and Grindavík in Iceland. The study examined how ubiquitous technologies could support and preserve local cultures in these communities. Key lessons included obtaining informed consent from participants, preserving local cultures through technology, and translating embodied skills of fishing into digital formats. The researchers learned their agendas and assumptions impacted the work, and political issues within the communities also influenced outcomes. The goal was to understand how technologies could enhance fishing lifestyles in a thoughtful way.

1. Ubicomp from the Edge of the North Atlantic: Lessons
from Fishing Villages in Iceland and Newfoundland
Hrönn Brynjarsdóttir & Phoebe Sengers - Cornell University
Wednesday, September 30, 2009

2. Two working class fishing communities
Change Islands Grindavík
with permission from www.calumdavidson.com
Wednesday, September 30, 2009

3. www.maps.google.com
Wednesday, September 30, 2009

4. The takeaway:
• Politics
• Agendas
• Assumptions
Wednesday, September 30, 2009

5. Lessons
Informed Consent
Preservation of Local Culture
Physical vs. Abstract Skills
Wednesday, September 30, 2009

6. Informed Consent
A mismatch between the expectations and understanding of the
academic environment, for us and our informants.
Preserving local cultures
How do ubiquitous technologies support, extend the community you
are working with?
What is worth “saving” or “enhancing”?
Wednesday, September 30, 2009

7. Physical vs. Abstract skills
Embodiment - Everything we do can only be understood by us
through our actions, interactions and experience in the world.
How do we translate embodied knowledge - “art” - into an abstract,
digital representation?
What does being a fisher mean today, as opposed to 30 years ago?
Wednesday, September 30, 2009

8. Wednesday, September 30, 2009

9. The takeaway:
Vast political issues on the
ground
Our agendas and
assumptions are inherent in
our approaches.
What can we learn from the
examples from Newfoundland
and Iceland?
Wednesday, September 30, 2009

10. Thanks!
This work was funded by was funded by NSF grant 0847293 and by a grant from The
Center of Excellence in Gender, Equality and Diversity Research in Iceland.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009