Domesticating home networks

This thesis addresses the following question: How should domestic networks be reinvented to support self-management by domestic users? It takes a user-centred design approach to redesign the underlying domestic network infrastructure to better fit domestic users. The overall aim of this work is to create user-centred mechanisms to support self-management of domestic networks by domestic users. Two areas of the domestic network are studied in detail, user-centred mechanisms for domestic network infrastructure control and user-centred presentations of network data. User-centred mechanisms for domestic network infrastructure control are explored to improve Wi-Fi device association in domestic environments. A user-centred design approach is adopted to create a new method for sharing Wi-Fi credentials between devices, specifically tailored for domestic environments called MultiNet. The network performance impact of MultiNet is quantified using the standard metrics of throughput, latency, and jitter in a lab based experiment. MultiNet's usability is then compared to Wi-Fi Protected Setup in a lab based usability evaluation. These show that better Wi-Fi device association methods targeted for domestic environments can be built. It also shows that user-centred networking infrastructure can support self-management by domestic users. User-centred presentations of network data address the poor legibility of domestic networks hinders configuration and maintenance of them. A user-centred approach is adopted to design and construct a network data visualisation and annotation platform, HomeNetViewer. Through a series of deployments in real households the HomeNetViewer platform is used to explore user-centred presentations of network data to support the local negotiation of domestic network policy. HomeNetViewer improves domestic network legibility by enabling the construction of user-centred presentations of domestic network data. Additionally, it shows that users are comfortable annotating their network data using activities, applications, and users as a vocabulary. Together this highlights, with the correct user-centred tools, that domestic users are able to gain new insight into their networks to support self-management. HomeNetViewer also shows that manually annotating domestic traffic place an ongoing burden on the users. Automating user-centred presentations of network data are explored to address the burden the annotation process places on users. The use of enterprise traffic classification techniques to generate user-centred presentations of network data struggle to classify the data annotated by HomeNetViewer participants. It concludes by suggesting two ways in which these difficulties could be addressed in future work. Overall the domestic access point provides an important point of configuration, visibility and control over the domestic network infrastructure. This dissertation demonstrates that taking a user-centred design approach to reinventing the domestic network, to support self-management by users, can resolve the existing problems and merits further research and exploration by industry and standardisation bodies

Domesticating home networks

This thesis addresses the following question: How should domestic networks be reinvented to support self-management by domestic users? It takes a user-centred design approach to redesign the underlying domestic network infrastructure to better fit domestic users. The overall aim of this work is to create user-centred mechanisms to support self-management of domestic networks by domestic users. Two areas of the domestic network are studied in detail, user-centred mechanisms for domestic network infrastructure control and user-centred presentations of network data. User-centred mechanisms for domestic network infrastructure control are explored to improve Wi-Fi device association in domestic environments. A user-centred design approach is adopted to create a new method for sharing Wi-Fi credentials between devices, specifically tailored for domestic environments called MultiNet. The network performance impact of MultiNet is quantified using the standard metrics of throughput, latency, and jitter in a lab based experiment. MultiNet's usability is then compared to Wi-Fi Protected Setup in a lab based usability evaluation. These show that better Wi-Fi device association methods targeted for domestic environments can be built. It also shows that user-centred networking infrastructure can support self-management by domestic users. User-centred presentations of network data address the poor legibility of domestic networks hinders configuration and maintenance of them. A user-centred approach is adopted to design and construct a network data visualisation and annotation platform, HomeNetViewer. Through a series of deployments in real households the HomeNetViewer platform is used to explore user-centred presentations of network data to support the local negotiation of domestic network policy. HomeNetViewer improves domestic network legibility by enabling the construction of user-centred presentations of domestic network data. Additionally, it shows that users are comfortable annotating their network data using activities, applications, and users as a vocabulary. Together this highlights, with the correct user-centred tools, that domestic users are able to gain new insight into their networks to support self-management. HomeNetViewer also shows that manually annotating domestic traffic place an ongoing burden on the users. Automating user-centred presentations of network data are explored to address the burden the annotation process places on users. The use of enterprise traffic classification techniques to generate user-centred presentations of network data struggle to classify the data annotated by HomeNetViewer participants. It concludes by suggesting two ways in which these difficulties could be addressed in future work. Overall the domestic access point provides an important point of configuration, visibility and control over the domestic network infrastructure. This dissertation demonstrates that taking a user-centred design approach to reinventing the domestic network, to support self-management by users, can resolve the existing problems and merits further research and exploration by industry and standardisation bodies

Places in placelessness — notes on the aesthetic and the strategies of place–making

The paper discusses the aesthetic aspects of place‑making practices in the urban environment of Western metropoles that are struggling with the progressive undifferentiation of their space and the weakening of communal and personal bonds. The paper starts by describing the general characteristics of an urban environment as distinct from the traditional vision of a city as a well‑structured entity, and in relation to formal and informal aesthetics and participatory design ideas. The author then focuses on two contrary but complementary tactics for translating a space into a positively evaluated p l a ce: by dome ticating it through introducing nature into an urbanscape; and by accentuating its alienness with the example of the urban exploration movement. The growing popularity of the latter is presented in relation to the discourses related to the decline of cities and the romantic endeavours for reaching into the realm of the unknown or the uncanny in order to rediscover and enrich the unique identity of a place. The paper ends with conclusions that present the necessity for the cultivation of a multidimensional aesthetic awareness and an aesthetic engagement as a crucial issue in the complex task of endowing places with a density of meaning

Interplay between telecommunications and face-to-face interactions - a study using mobile phone data

In this study we analyze one year of anonymized telecommunications data for over one million customers from a large European cellphone operator, and we investigate the relationship between people's calls and their physical location. We discover that more than 90% of users who have called each other have also shared the same space (cell tower), even if they live far apart. Moreover, we find that close to 70% of users who call each other frequently (at least once per month on average) have shared the same space at the same time - an instance that we call co-location. Co-locations appear indicative of coordination calls, which occur just before face-to-face meetings. Their number is highly predictable based on the amount of calls between two users and the distance between their home locations - suggesting a new way to quantify the interplay between telecommunications and face-to-face interactions

Internet Information and Communication Behavior during a Political Moment: The Iraq War, March 2003

This article explores the Internet as a resource for political information and communication in March 2003, when American troops were first sent to Iraq, offering us a unique setting of political context, information use, and technology. Employing a national survey conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life project. We examine the political information behavior of the Internet respondents through an exploratory factor analysis; analyze the effects of personal demographic attributes and political attitudes, traditional and new media use, and technology on online behavior through multiple regression analysis; and assess the online political information and communication behavior of supporters and dissenters of the Iraq War. The factor analysis suggests four factors: activism, support, information seeking, and communication. The regression analysis indicates that gender, political attitudes and beliefs, motivation, traditional media consumption, perceptions of bias in the media, and computer experience and use predict online political information behavior, although the effects of these variables differ for the four factors. The information and communication behavior of supporters and dissenters of the Iraq War differed significantly. We conclude with a brief discussion of the value of "interdisciplinary poaching" for advancing the study of Internet information practices

A 'Performative' Social Movement: The Emergence of Collective Contentions within Collaborative Governance

The enmeshment of urban movements in networks of collaborative governance has been characterised as a process of co-option in which previously disruptive contentions are absorbed by regimes and reproduced in ways that do not threaten the stability of power relations. Applying a theoretical framework drawn from feminist philosopher Judith Butler this paper directs attention to the development of collective oppositional identities that remain embedded in conventional political processes. In a case study of the English tenants' movement, it investigates the potential of regulatory discourses that draw on market theories of performative voice to offer the collectivising narratives and belief in change that can generate the emotional identification of a social movement. The paper originates the concept of the ‘performative social movement’ to denote the contentious claims that continue to emerge from urban movements that otherwise appear quiescent

Open source and consumption

This article illuminates the common concepts and widely-observed practices concerning open source. Positioning 'open-source' as a common practice and a viable methodology for collaborative participatory co-production in today's knowledge society, the article explains how open-source co-production participatory methods, now also seen in mundane cultural, food and beverage production and consumption, evolve from the Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) movement, what motivate people to participate, and how such practices implicate in different sectors in contemporary societies. This article argues that the open-source practices resemble the amateur DIY cultures and can be considered as a lifestyle, elected and subscribed by some. Open source suggests that consumption is no longer simply a passive activity; it could be a personal statement, a liberating, creative and varied experience

Análisis de la domesticación y estudio sobre el uso que hace la población infantile de los smartphones y las tablets

The article provides a sense of how the field of domestication analysis has developed over the last 25 years, showing the range of ways in which has been deployed, and how it can address social issues relating to technologies. Understanding cross-cultural differences has not been a strong feature of this framework to date, but examples are provided to indicate how this dimension could be included and developed. Finally, a case study of children’s experience of smartphones and tablets is provided to illustrate how the framework can be used and be useful