Placelessness, spacelessness, and formlessness

Abstract

People worldwide are increasingly acquiring virtual possessions. While virtual possessions have become ubiquitous, little work exists on how people value them, and how their experiences of them differ from material possessions. In this paper, we reflect on and synthesize findings from five studies we conducted over the past five years that investigated people's perceptions of and practices with virtual possessions. Through the higher-level perspective we adopt, we propose three thematic qualities that help characterize people's experiences with virtual possessions, as compared to their material things: placelessness, spacelessness, and formlessness. We draw on these proposed qualities as lenses to help frame future research and practice opportunities for better supporting value construction activities with virtual possessions.

Exploring New Metaphors for a Networked World through the File Biography

“…On the one hand these must cater for artefacts such as photos, music and books, which we might consider as largely complete or finished, and which have been exemplars in much of the research on virtual possessions [e.g. 16,17,18,8]. On the other hand, new metaphors must cater for artefacts such as papers and source code; works that are still in production.…”

On Speculative Enactments

“…The project sought to explore themes of remembering with a 'Quantified Past' [31]; designing data as a lasting digital possession [44,61], technology heirlooms [58], and curating data related to important life events. Weddings are seen as unique, one-off events, and therefore any data collected at a wedding would likely be intended for remembering and sharing the day [54]; rather than to somehow optimize or record one's progress at getting married (or more alarmingly for the sake of comparison with the next one)!…”

Evolving the Ecosystem of Personal Behavioral Data

“…This shift is significant in part because people's possessions both reflect and contribute to their identities (R. W. Belk, 1988). In contrast to material possessions, virtual possessions are placeless, spaceless, and formless (Odom, Zimmerman, & Forlizzi, 2014). These qualities affect the circumstances under which people manage their possessions including the process of curating and archiving their possessions (Kaye et al, 2006), their process of spending time with and reflecting on their virtual possessions (Odom et al, 2010), and the legacy that they leave through their possessions (Gulotta, Odom, Forlizzi, & Faste, 2013).…”

“…As such, many of the challenges, research questions, and exploratory systems within virtual possessions and personal informatics inform each other and the study of personal data at large. For example, the finding that fragmented virtual possessions are problematic for end users (i.e that they are stored in different non-compatible applications and services) (Odom et al, 2014) is an important issue for personal data at large. Similarly, the importance of and challenges with leaving a digital legacy (Gulotta et al, 2013) is an important point of consideration for the whole of an individual's personal data archives, even the aspects of that archive that might not be considered "virtual possessions.…”