Fabien Girardin caught this one, a paper called Understanding Situated Social Interactions in Public Places, Jeni Paay and Jesper Kjeldskov.
Abstract: Designing context-aware mobile information systems for supporting
sociality requires a solid understanding of the users’ context, situated interac-
tions, and the interplay between the two. Currently such understanding is lack-
ing in the field of HCI research and is sought after by several authors. Address-
ing this gap we conducted a field study of small groups socialising in a public
place. Based on a grounded analysis of our findings we present a conceptual
framework of situated social interactions in public. Finally, we illustrate how
this framework informed design of a mobile context-aware prototype.
Why do I blog this? I endeavor to understand social interactions in public places. And I heartily admire Dourish and others’ approach to understanding how to facilitate, create and maintain such interactions.
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