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.
Sharing wishes on public displays: Using technology to create social places (Interact '15 - Bamberg)
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
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
Editor's Notes
I am Vinícius Ferreira, from Federal University of São Carlos, and I will present the paper
Sharing wishes on public displays: using technology to create social places
First, I will give some contextualization, followed by the motivation for this work.
Then, I will explain the art project called Before I die, and how this project inspired us to create our installation called WishBoard.
With WishBoard we carried out an in-the-wild study, that I will show our results and conclusion
The focus of this paper is on how promoting self-expression by sharing wishes through technology can create social places.
Self-expression is a common practice among human beings, revealing their internal attributes, such as preferences, beliefs, and values.
In Western culture, self-expression is a powerful sign of individual freedom. This kind of expression involves projecting individual thoughts and ideas into the world.
With the rise of social media, new possibilities of expression and communication are emerging.
However, promoting traditional social interaction is still necessary to avoid community fragmentation and lose of the sense of community.
Community fragmentation is a problem that has been increasing because of urbanization and decline of places outside contexts of work or family-based communication, called third places.
Third places are places where people gather and enjoy each other’s company.
This term was coined by Ray Oldenburg which says that places are important to keeping in touch with reality, promoting intimate personal ties outside the home (the first place) and workplace (defined as the second place)
Coffee shops, pubs, and squares are most common example of possible third places.
These places can provide the feeling of inclusiveness and belonging to a community, influencing positively individuals’ quality of life.
However, despite decline of the third places in the physical world people found in virtual multi-user environments their third places.
Although, those place differ from third places in respect of the ‘realness’ of the interaction or dependence upon simulation.
Taking the advantage of the third place concept, some companies started to spread the idea of their stores were third places.
However, they were focused on ‘third-place-ness’ restricted only to customer satisfaction, not civics as traditional third places do.
In this paper, we use the definition of thirdplaceness as a sense of being in a third place not limited to the architectural constrains.
Thirdplaceness is an ‘event’ of achieving the third place’s characteristics in a certain place and time.
The thirdplaceness experience is constructed and sustained through experiences and interactions with and in the place.
Thirdplaceness can transform a place in a third place-like permanently or just for that period.
Aiming at creating social places through the promotion of thirdplaceness, we translated the essence of the global art project Before I die.
Before I die is a public art installation in which people can pick a chalk and write on a wall about things they want to do before die.
We choose this project due to their successful replications around the world.
Taking the inspiration on promoting self-expression and the spirit that we all have the power to make wishes come true, as long as we keep believing.
We created WishBoard, a project that invites people to share their individual aspirations with the community using their mobile phones to interact with public displays.
WishBoard gives an opportunity to express openly their thoughts and feelings in a public space.
Offers a space for self-reflection of expectations and wishes for the future.
engages people by asking them to complete a phrase
WishBoard explores the interaction between mobile devices and public displays in order to promote place attachment, community awareness, technology-supported relationships, face-to-face interaction, collaboration among community members, and thirdplaceness experience.
Using WishBoard, we held 2 deployments, totalizing 10 days of experiment at the lobby of a university’s department.
We chose that space is a transitional and socially non-used space, as well as, the space in the first Before I Die installation.
Taking the advantage of the festive spirit around the New Year, in the first deployment, we used the prefix “For next year I want …”.
In the second deployment, held in April, people filled “For this year I want …”.
We used model of central and peripheral attention in order to have the more visibility and attract people to interact with the installation.
For this study, we collected data from messages, in-situ observations, spontaneous comments and video recordings.
During the use of the system, people were present to our ethical agreement on keeping the anonymity of the participants.
In addition, we used mailing list for informing people about the study, the installation and the presence of cameras.
We also, informed people how to not participate of this study.
With this study, our goals were understand the audience behavior, observe thirdplaceness supported by ICT and find cultural trails in the content shared.
In both deployments, we collected data aiming at understanding the audience behavior.
The data were 50 hours of recordings, annotations of the comments and observations.
With this data we first observed the audience behavior around the installation, effectiveness of the installation, social interaction among users, users’ acceptance by engaging and inviting others, and people’s concerns about their privacy.
We also compared our results with the reported in the Before I Die, aiming at evaluating if we were successful in our translation.
In our result, we observed that almost 70% of the messages were posted by people when they were in a group.
In some moments, people subverted the installation, starting a competition for the most creative message.
People sent messages for the immediate present instead of future.
People used emoticons and internet slang expressions.
We observed, the honey pot effect, in which the audience increases progressively forming a sociable ‘buzz’ in the place.
We also saw lot of passersby turning their head, and a rate of 27% passersby that stayed for a time in the installation.
People used the installation space to:
introduce themselves, talk about their common interests, share democratically devices, the pouf and even the floor, discuss about the messages, laugh of the funny messages, guess who sent the messages.
The place previously ‘socially abandoned’, became a social space for students, professors, employees and visitors.
About privacy, people did not show any concern.
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.
In order to achieve thirdplaceness these characteristics are essential:
People need to feel free to express their thoughts and opinions.
People might have the same privileges and opportunities to express themselves or to participate of the activities in the place.
The experiences and interactions with and in the place can empower relationships and promote place attachment.
The place needs to be easy to access and promote the feeling of fulfilled needs in the occupants.
Regulars bring the place to social life making newcomers welcomed.
The place needs to provide comfort for their occupants, but this cannot be the main reference of the place.
The mood cannot be hostile and people always will try to find ways to maintain their spirit high, even when few people want to bring this feeling down.
People need to have the relative feelings of warmth, possession, and belonging of being in their own homes.
Finding cultural trails in anonymous posts: language dependent analysis, classification used in the Before I Die, Affective Norms for English Words, Hofstede’s cultural dimensions (Individualism), morphologic analysis.
The messages inside the themes, we found out that the messages were: casual, interesting, funny, poetic, heartbreaking.
People want more smiles, to live in a world without wars, be a Jedi, achieve nirvana, fix everything wrong in his/her life.
We classified the messages shared in WishBoard: Using the themes presented in “Before I Die, the book” and we introduced three new themes.
For each theme we observed the main topics discussed.
Going deeper inside the messages, we found a higher concentration of positive words, only five blocked messages by being potentially offensive.
Using the Individualism’ Hofstede dimension most of messages were individualistic, we believe that occurred because of the 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’