Researchers from the Federal University of São Carlos in Brazil studied how public interactive displays and mobile devices could be used to create social spaces and a sense of community. They designed the WishBoard installation, which allowed people to anonymously and publicly share their wishes for the current and following year. Two deployments of WishBoard in a university building lobby showed that it attracted people to interact both with the display and each other, transforming the space into a social third place. Analysis of the shared wishes found mostly positive and individualistic messages, with themes like achieving personal goals, bringing more happiness, and creating a better world. The researchers concluded that technologies can effectively support community bonding and discussion when used to facilitate public expression and interaction in shared spaces.

1. SHARING WISHES ON PUBLIC DISPLAYS:
USING TECHNOLOGY TO CREATE SOCIAL PLACES
Vinicius Ferreira Junia Anacleto Andre Bueno
Advanced Interaction Laboratory - LIA, Department of Computing
Federal University of São Carlos - UFSCar, Brazil

2. AGENDA
 Contextualization
 Beyond Third places
 Before I die
 WishBoard
 In-the-wild study
 Data Analysis & Findings
 Conclusion
2 /20

3. CONTEXTUALIZATION
Self-expression is a habitual practice among human beings
 cultural sensitive
 individual freedom
 social media
Traditional social interaction is losing ground
 community fragmentation
 sense of community
 decline of the Third places
3 /20

4. BEYOND THE THIRD PLACES
Third places are places where people gather and enjoy each other’s company (Ray Oldenburg, 1999)
Characteristics of a third place:
 Neutral ground
 Leveler
 Conversation
 Accessibility and accommodation
 Having regulars
 Low profile
 The mood is playful
 A home away from home
4 /20

5. BEYOND THE THIRD PLACES
Despite decline of the third places in the physical world
 virtual multi-user environments
 companies spread the idea of ‘third-place-ness’
restricted only to customer satisfaction, not civics
In this paper, we use the definition of thirdplaceness
 sense of being in a third place not limited to the architectural constrains
 ‘event’ of achieving the third place’s characteristics in a certain place and time
 constructed and sustained through people`s experiences and interactions with and in the place
 transform a place in a third place-like permanently or just for that period
5 /20

6. BEFORE I DIE
6 /15

7. We all have the power to
make wishes come true, as
long as we keep believing
7 /20
Louisa May Alcott
American writer

8. WISHBOARD
8 /15

9. WISHBOARD
WishBoard is an interactive installation
 express openly their thoughts and feelings in a public and common space
 space for self-reflection of expectations and wishes for the future
WishBoard explores the interaction between mobile devices and public displays
 place attachment
 community awareness
 technology-supported relationships
 face-to-face interaction
 collaboration among community members
 thirdplaceness experience
9 /20

10. IN-THE-WILD STUDY
Using WishBoard, we carried out 2 deployments
 lobby of a university’s department
 “For next year I want …” and “For this year I want …”
 ethical agreement
 mailing list and signs
With this study, our goals were
 understand the audience behavior
 observe thirdplaceness supported by ICT
 find cultural trails in the content shared
10/20
10days of
experiment
messages in-situ observations
comments video recordings

11. DATA ANALYSIS & FINDINGS
In both deployments, we collected data aiming at understanding:
 audience behavior around the installation
 effectiveness of the installation
 social interaction among users
 users’ acceptance by engaging and inviting others
 people’s concerns about their privacy
 similarities and differences with the results in the Before I Die
 if and how the WishBoard achieved thirdplaceness
 cultural trails in the collected wishes
11/20
50hours of
recordings
391messages
collected

12. DATA ANALYSIS & FINDINGS
12/20
GROUPS
Messages posted being in a group
68%
Competition for the
most creative message
messages for the immediate
present instead of future
use of emoticons and
internet slang expressions
APROPRIATION OF USE
People subverted the installation
HONEY-POT EFFECT
Situation in which the audience
increases progressively forming
a sociable ‘buzz’ in the place
WISHBOARD
ATTRACTED PEOPLE
Passersby turned their head
27% of the passersby stayed
for a time in the installation

13. DATA ANALYSIS & FINDINGS
SOCIAL IMPACT
Some people used the installation space to:
 introduce themselves
 talk about their common interests
 share devices, the pouf and the floor
 discuss about the messages
 guess who sent the messages
 laugh of the funny messages
13/20
Previously ‘socially abandoned’, the place became a social
space for students, professors, employees and visitors

14. DATA ANALYSIS & FINDINGS
14/20
PRIVACY CONCERNS
People wanted to show their message to others:
 pointing to their message
 calling someone to see their message
 exchanging direct messages using names
 taking a photo of their message
ANONYMITY
In the collected comments, some people said:
 perceived the anonymity of the messages
 can make the use of the system comfortable
 shy people can have a chance to express themself

15. DATA ANALYSIS & FINDINGS
15/20
Neutral ground Leveler Conversation Accessibility and
accommodation
Having regulars Low profile The mood is playful A home away from home

16. DATA ANALYSIS & FINDINGS
16/20
FINDING CULTURAL TRAILS
We analyzed the anonymous posts using:
 language dependent analysis
 classification used in the Before I Die
 Affective Norms for English Words (Portuguese version)
 individualism dimension (Hofstede’s cultural dimensions)
 morphologic analysis

17. DATA ANALYSIS & FINDINGS
17/20
live in a world
without wars
be a Jedi achieve nirvanamore smiles fix everything that is
wrong in his/her life
DEEP INSIDE THE MESSAGES
The messages were classified:
 themes presented in Before I die
 three new themes introduced
 main topics discussed
CONCENTRATION OF MESSAGES IN THE THEMES

18. DATA ANALYSIS & FINDINGS
18/20
DEEP INSIDE THE MESSAGES
Analyzing deeply the messages, we found:
 higher concentration of positive words
 only five blocked messages
 most of messages were individualistic
 self-reflection about their own future
 24% of the messages had metaphors
 20% had superlative and comparative adjective
 predomination of the adjectives: ‘more’ and ‘better’
AFFECTIVE ANALYSIS
High concentration of
positive phrases

19. CONCLUSIONS
19/20
 The use of public displays and mobile devices in creating community meeting
spaces by promoting and achieving thirdplaceness
 How technologies can enhance the nature of the spaces provide information that
can leverage discussions

20. 20/20
SHARING WISHES ON PUBLIC DISPLAYS:
USING TECHNOLOGY TO CREATE SOCIAL PLACES
Vinicius Ferreira Junia Anacleto Andre Bueno
vinicius.ferreira@dc.ufscar.br junia@dc.ufscar.br andre.obueno@dc.ufscar.br
Advanced Interaction Laboratory - LIA, Department of Computing
Federal University of São Carlos - UFSCar, Brazil