as part of CRITICAL COMPUTING -- Between Sense and Sensibility The Fourth Decennial Aarhus Conference, August 2005
Final Deadline: August 1, 2005.
Ambient, pervasive, and ubiquitous computing have been seen as the key to a future where people in an almost effortless way can do incredible things by means of technology they do not perceive. The aim of the workshop is to examine quality of life issues in relation to these visions.
Ambient computing is currently a field in strong development, and a vision that has been supported e.g. within the European IST program. Ambient computing is about moving computing capabilities beyond the desktop and about constantly and seamlessly adapting configurations of technology to changing situations and needs. Key issues in ambient computing include:
Gradually a number of interesting technologies are becoming available commercially and a large number of promising systems and concepts are being developed in the research laboratories, pointing to a future where amazing things can be accomplished for the users by the technology without the users knowing that the computers are there and what they do.
However, from a critical perspective this vision of ambient computing is problematic because it leaves the users without control and because the focus most often is on efficient and smart gadgets as such. Only in very few cases is the focus of ambient computing on systems supporting people in understanding what is going on at the level they choose, and supporting them in suggesting courses of action rather than acting automatically. There seems to be a need for a balanced view emphasizing how ambient systems need to be visible, how they can be deconstructed, how coherence can be achieved, how they can provide stability and understandability, and in particular how users can stay in control when dealing with a huge number of autonomous components.
Furthermore, there is room for both deeper and broader perspectives on the consequences of ambient computing technologies. How can such technologies enhance the quality of life, in work settings, in the home, in healthcare, etc? Do ambient technologies generate specific social, psychological or cultural challenges that we have to be concerned with? Which new theoretical, conceptual, analytical, or empirical perspectives do ambient technologies create a call/need for? Do researchers in ambient computing have a specific social responsibility? Whereas some of the established critical perspectives, e.g. in participatory design, have been caught or absorbed in the mainstream and thereby lost their critical edge, ambient computing may be the new battleground for a revitalized critical agenda.
The aim of this one-day workshop is to bring researchers from various fields together in order to develop new critical perspectives on quality of life related issues in ambient computing. We invite submissions based on discussions of specific projects/products in context as well as submissions taking off from an intellectual perspective or a specific theoretical position. Possible questions to be addressed in the workshop include, but are not limited to:
Potential participants should submit a brief position paper addressing the issue of quality of life in ambient computing. Upon acceptance, workshop participants will be asked to produce a poster with their example (technology, use scenarios, observations, perspective etc), that will be used during the workshop, e.g. to consult during the group sessions. Posters should be concrete, e.g. by being based on a scenario or study.
Position papers addressing quality of life issues in ambient computing in a critical perspective can be up to 4 pages in the ACM/SIGCHI publication format. Position papers should be submitted via email to by 1 August 2005.
Olav W. Bertelsen, University of Aarhus, Denmark
Patrizia Marti, University of Siena, Italy
Dan Shapiro, Lancaster University, England
More information about the main conference can be found at: http://www.aarhus2005.org