Data-in-Place

Abstract

We present findings from a year-long engagement with a street and its community. The work explores how the production and use of data is bound up with place, both in terms of physical and social geography. We detail three strands of the project. First, we consider how residents have sought to curate existing data about the street in the form of an archive with physical and digital components. Second, we report endeavours to capture data about the street's environment, especially of vehicle traffic. Third, we draw on the possibilities afforded by technologies for polling opinion. We reflect on how these engagements have: materialised distinctive relations between the community and their data; surfaced flows and contours of data, and spatial, temporal and social boundaries; and enacted a multiplicity of 'small worlds'. We consider how such a conceptualisation of data-in-place is relevant to the design of technology.

Traces

“…It was easy to deduce if individuals were walking straight to offices, lingering in the lobby, were new visitors to the building, or if events were taking place. While previous research shows the benefit of locally embedded visualisations [41], and ambiguous information to support personal interpretation about behaviours [44], we present the potential for low-level behavioural information to convey higher-level meaning when displayed in-situ.…”

“…It is likely that ambiguity in walking trajectories would also support individuals in creating personal meaning from the visualisation. Whilst in Williamson and Brewster's system [44] the observer was displaced from the performer, presenting information locally, in the place it refers to, can better support the interpretation of both [21,27,41]. In a behaviour change study, designed to encourage building occupants to use the stairs rather than an elevator, Rogers et al [38] found situated an ambient displays of raised and lowered balls provoked reflection and behaviour change, despite ambiguity in the visualisation.…”

Strategies for Engaging Communities in Creating Physical Civic Technologies

“…For this reason, HCI research has a long history of considering the role of technology at the neighbourhood scale, often through long-term engagement with neighbourhoods to create meaningful interventions that reflect the unique characteristics of the people and places they are designed for [e.g. 6,27,28].…”

Quantified Data & Social Relationships

“…Researchers have increasingly investigated the stories people tell themselves, and each other with data. Taylor et al [11] provide a description of 'data-in-place' to detail how social, cultural, political and historical contexts are key -how data comes to be situated, to matter and to settle in a place.…”