Self-tracking modes: reflexive self-monitoring and data practices

The concept of ‘self-tracking’ (also referred to as life-logging, the quantified self, personal analytics and personal informatics) has recently begun to emerge in discussions of ways in which people can voluntarily monitor and record specific features of their lives, often using digital technologies. There is evidence that the personal data that are derived from individuals engaging in such reflexive self-monitoring are now beginning to be used by actors, agencies and organisations beyond the personal and privatised realm. Self-tracking rationales and sites are proliferating as part of a ‘function creep’ of the technology and ethos of self-tracking. The detail offered by these data on individuals and the growing commodification and commercial value of digital data have led government, managerial and commercial enterprises to explore ways of appropriating self-tracking for their own purposes. In some contexts people are encouraged, ‘nudged’, obliged or coerced into using digital devices to produce personal data which are then used by others. This paper examines these issues, outlining five modes of self-tracking that have emerged: private, communal, pushed, imposed and exploited. The analysis draws upon theoretical perspectives on concepts of selfhood, citizenship, biopolitics and data practices and assemblages in discussing the wider sociocultural implications of the emergence and development of these modes of self-tracking

Implications of the Information Technology Revolution for People with Disabilities

The paper focuses on opportunities for the integration of persons with different types of disabilities in the information technology (IT) labour market. Recent IT developments are identified and examined for their potentially harmful or beneficial effects on access to the IT labour market for persons with disabilities. The opportunities created by new job creation, new forms of training, teleworking, and the role of assistive technologies in facilitating workplace accommodations are briefly described. The focus is on new options for the design and implementation of computer-related assistive technologies in the workplace, and the impact of teleworking and the World Wide Web on employability and work-related training of persons with disabilities. The paper closes with a brief discussion of the roles that government agencies, business firms, labour unions, non-governmental organisations and education can play to help people with disabilities join the IT revolution and share its benefits

Everything we do, everything we press: Data-driven remote performance management in a mobile workplace

© 2018 Copyright is held by the owner/author(s). This paper examines how data-driven performance monitoring technologies affect the work of telecommunications field engineers. As a mobile workforce, this occupational group rely on an array of smartphone applications to plan, manage and report on their jobs, and to liaise remotely with managers and colleagues. These technologies intend to help field engineers be more productive and have greater control over their work; however they also gather data related to the quantity and effectiveness of their labor. We conducted a qualitative study examining engineers' experiences of these systems. Our findings suggest they simultaneously enhance worker autonomy, support co-ordination with and monitoring of colleagues, but promote anxieties around productivity and the interpretation of data by management. We discuss the implications of datadriven performance management technologies on worker agency, and examine the consequences of such systems in an era of quantified workplaces

Feeling Stressed and Unproductive? A Field Evaluation of a Therapy-Inspired Digital Intervention for Knowledge Workers

Today’s knowledge workers face cognitively demanding tasks and blurred work-life boundaries amidst rising stress and burnout in the workplace. Holistic approaches to supporting workers, which consider both productivity and well-being, are increasingly important. Taking this holistic approach, we designed an intervention inspired by cognitive behavioral therapy that consists of: (1) using the term “Time Well Spent” (TWS) in place of “productivity”, (2) a mobile self-logging tool for logging activities, feelings, and thoughts at work, and (3) a visualization that guides users to reflect on their data. We ran a 4-week exploratory qualitative comparison in the field with 24 graduate students to examine our Therapy-inspired intervention alongside a classic Baseline intervention. Participants who used our intervention often shifted toward a holistic perspective of their primary working hours, which included an increased consideration of breaks and emotions. No such change was seen by those who used the Baseline intervention

Moving from brain-computer interfaces to personal cognitive informatics

Consumer neurotechnology is arriving en masse, even while algorithms for user state estimation are being actively defined and developed. Indeed, many consumable wearables are now available that try to estimate cognitive changes from wrist data or body movement. But does this data help people? It's a critical time to ask how users could be informed by wearable neurotechnology, in a way that would be relevant to their needs and serve their personal well-being. The aim of this SIG is to bring together the key HCI communities needed to address this: personal informatics, digital health and wellbeing, neuroergonomics, and neuroethics

The mission and culture of the corporation

The economic crisis has brought a new situation also for the Hungarian economic policy, as neoliberalism as the main trend in economic thought is no longer valid. This phenomenon cannot be reduced to be a mere macroeconomic course shift, as an entire economic philosophy and approach has lost its relevance. One consequence of this is the need for a thorough revision of the theory and practice of business management, along with the re-evaluation of the notion and position of the corporation. Our study aims to contribute to this theoretical reformation, presenting that social values derived from psychological and sociological findings such as human motivational theories or trust are fundamental elements of the 21st century corporate model. To point to this, we use the ideological correspondences, while proving that our national research on corporate theory and even rather its application are far behind the 21st century requirements and lack even the Western view of the 20th century

Life-swap:how discussions around personal data can motivate desire for change

Personal informatics technologies support the collection of and reflection on personal data, but enabling people to learn from and act on this data is still an on-going challenge. Sharing and discussing data is one way people can learn from it, but as yet, little research explores how peer discourses around data can shape understandings and promote action. We ran 3 workshops with 5-week follow-ups, giving 18 people the opportunity to swap their data and discuss it with another person. We found that these workshops helped them to recontextualise and to better understand their data, identify new strategies for changing their behaviour and motivated people to commit to changes in the future. These findings have implications for how personal informatics tools could help people identify opportunities for change and feel motivated to try out new strategies

현장 데이터 수집 능력을 확장하기 위한 자유도 높은 셀프 트래킹 기술의 디자인

학위논문 (박사)-- 서울대학교 대학원 : 공과대학 컴퓨터공학부, 2019. 2. 서진욱.Collecting and tracking data in everyday contexts is a common practice for both individual self-trackers and researchers. The increase in wearable and mobile technologies for self-tracking encourages people to gain personal insights from the data about themselves. Also, researchers exploit self-tracking to gather data in situ or to foster behavioral change. Despite a diverse set of available tracking tools, however, it is still challenging to find ones that suit unique tracking needs, preferences, and commitments. Individual self-tracking practices are constrained by the tracking tools' initial design, because it is difficult to modify, extend, or mash up existing tools. Limited tool support also impedes researchers' efforts to conduct in situ data collection studies. Many researchers still build their own study instruments due to the mismatch between their research goals and the capabilities of existing toolkits. The goal of this dissertation is to design flexible self-tracking technologies that are generative and adaptive to cover diverse tracking contexts, ranging from personal tracking to research contexts. Specifically, this dissertation proposes OmniTrack, a flexible self-tracking approach leveraging a semi-automated tracking concept that combines manual and automated tracking methods to generate an arbitrary tracker design. OmniTrack was implemented as a mobile app for individuals. The OmniTrack app enables self-trackers to construct their own trackers and customize tracking items to meet their individual needs. A usability study and a field development study were conducted with the goal of assessing how people adopt and adapt OmniTrack to fulfill their needs. The studies revealed that participants actively used OmniTrack to create, revise, and appropriate trackers, ranging from a simple mood tracker to a sophisticated daily activity tracker with multiple fields. Furthermore, OmniTrack was extended to cover research contexts that enclose manifold personal tracking contexts. As part of the research, this dissertation presents OmniTrack Research Kit, a research platform that allows researchers without programming expertise to configure and conduct in situ data collection studies by deploying the OmniTrack app on participants' smartphones. A case study in deploying the research kit for conducting a diary study demonstrated how OmniTrack Research Kit could support researchers who manage study participants' self-tracking process. This work makes artifacts contributions to the fields of human-computer interaction and ubiquitous computing, as well as expanding empirical understanding of how flexible self-tracking tools can enhance the practices of individual self-trackers and researchers. Moreover, this dissertation discusses design challenges for flexible self-tracking technologies, opportunities for further improving the proposed systems, and future research agenda for reaching the audiences not covered in this research.일상의 맥락에서 데이터를 모으는 활동인 셀프 트래킹(self-tracking)은 개인과 연구의 영역에서 활발히 활용되고 있다. 웨어러블 디바이스와 모바일 기술의 발달로 인해 사람들은 각자의 삶에 대해 말해주는 데이터를 더 쉽게 수집하고, 통찰할 수 있게 되었다. 또한, 연구자들은 현장(in situ) 데이터를 수집하거나 사람들에게 행동 변화를 일으키는 데에 셀프 트래킹을 활용한다. 비록 셀프 트래킹을 위한 다양한 도구들이 존재하지만, 트래킹에 대해 다양화된 요구와 취향을 완벽히 충족하는 것들을 찾는 것은 쉽지 않다. 대부분의 셀프 트래킹 도구는 이미 설계된 부분을 수정하거나 확장하기에 제한적이다. 그렇기 때문에 사람들의 셀프 트래킹에 대한 자유도는 기존 도구들의 디자인 공간에 의해 제약을 받을 수밖에 없다. 마찬가지로, 현장 데이터를 수집하는 연구자들도 이러한 도구의 한계로 인해 여러 문제에 봉착한다. 연구자들이 데이터를 통해 답하고자 하는 연구 질문(research question)은 분야가 발전할수록 세분되고, 치밀해지기 때문에 이를 위해서는 복잡하고 고유한 실험 설계가 필요하다. 하지만 현존하는 연구용 셀프 트래킹 플랫폼들은 이에 부합하는 자유도를 발휘하지 못한다. 이러한 간극으로 인해 많은 연구자들이 각자의 현장 데이터 수집 연구에 필요한 디지털 도구들을 직접 구현하고 있다. 본 연구의 목표는 자유도 높은---연구적 맥락과 개인적 맥락을 아우르는 다양한 상황에 활용할 수 있는---셀프 트래킹 기술을 디자인하는 것이다. 이를 위해 본고에서는 옴니트랙(OmniTrack)이라는 디자인 접근법을 제안한다. 옴니트랙은 자유도 높은 셀프 트래킹을 위한 방법론이며, 반자동 트래킹(semi-automated tracking)이라는 컨셉을 바탕으로 수동 방식과 자동 방식의 조합을 통해 임의의 트래커를 표현할 수 있다. 먼저 옴니트랙을 개인을 위한 모바일 앱 형태로 구현하였다. 옴니트랙 앱은 개개인이 자신의 트래킹 니즈에 맞는 트래커를 커스터마이징하여 활용할 수 있도록 구성되어 있다. 본고에서는 사람들이 어떻게 옴니트랙을 자신의 니즈에 맞게 활용하는지 알아보고자 사용성 테스트(usability testing)와 필드 배포 연구(field deployment study)를 수행하였다. 참가자들은 옴니트랙을 활발히 이용해 다양한 디자인의 트래커—아주 단순한 감정 트래커부터 여러 개의 필드를 가진 복잡한 일일 활동 트래커까지—들을 생성하고, 수정하고, 활용하였다. 다음으로, 옴니트랙을 현장 데이터 수집 연구에 활용할 수 있도록 연구 플랫폼 형태의 '옴니트랙 리서치 킷(OmniTrack Research Kit)'으로 확장하였다. 옴니트랙 리서치 킷은 연구자들이 프로그래밍 언어 없이 원하는 실험을 설계하고 옴니트랙 앱을 참가자들의 스마트폰으로 배포할 수 있도록 디자인되었다. 그리고 옴니트랙 리서치 킷을 이용해 일지기록 연구(diary study)를 직접 수행하였고, 이를 통해 옴니트랙 접근법이 어떻게 연구자들의 연구 목적을 이루는 데에 도움을 줄 수 있는지 직접 확인하였다. 본 연구는 휴먼-컴퓨터 인터랙션(Human-Computer Interaction) 및 유비쿼터스 컴퓨팅(Ubiquitous Computing) 분야에 기술적 산출물로써 기여하며, 자유도 높은 셀프 트래킹 도구가 어떻게 개인과 연구자들을 도울 수 있는지 실증적인 이해를 증진한다. 또한, 자유도 높은 셀프트래킹 기술에 대한 디자인적 난제, 연구에서 제시한 시스템에 대한 개선방안, 마지막으로 본 연구에서 다루지 못한 다른 집단을 지원하기 위한 향후 연구 논제에 대하여 논의한다.Abstract CHAPTER 1. Introduction 1.1 Background and Motivation 1.2 Research Questions and Approaches 1.2.1 Designing a Flexible Self-Tracking Approach Leveraging Semiautomated Tracking 1.2.2 Design and Evaluation of OmniTrack in Individual Tracking Contexts 1.2.3 Designing a Research Platform for In Situ Data Collection Studies Leveraging OmniTrack 1.2.4 A Case Study of Conducting an In Situ Data Collection Study using the Research Platform 1.3 Contributions 1.4 Structure of this Dissertation CHAPTER 2. Related Work 2.1 Background on Self-Tracking 2.1.1 Self-Tracking in Personal Tracking Contexts 2.1.2 Utilization of Self-Tracking in Other Contexts 2.2 Barriers Caused by Limited Tool Support 2.2.1 Limited Tools and Siloed Data in Personal Tracking 2.2.2 Challenges of the Instrumentation for In Situ Data Collection 2.3 Flexible Self-Tracking Approaches 2.3.1 Appropriation of Generic Tools 2.3.2 Universal Tracking Systems for Individuals 2.3.3 Research Frameworks for In Situ Data Collection 2.4 Grounding Design Approach: Semi-Automated Tracking 2.5 Summary of Related Work CHAPTER3 DesigningOmniTrack: a Flexible Self-Tracking Approach 3.1 Design Goals and Rationales 3.2 System Design and User Interfaces 3.2.1 Trackers: Enabling Flexible Data Inputs 3.2.2 Services: Integrating External Trackers and Other Services 3.2.3 Triggers: Retrieving Values Automatically 3.2.4 Streamlining Tracking and Lowering the User Burden 3.2.5 Visualization and Feedback 3.3 OmniTrack Use Cases 3.3.1 Tracker 1: Beer Tracker 3.3.2 Tracker 2: SleepTight++ 3.3.3 Tracker 3: Comparison of Automated Trackers 3.4 Summary CHAPTER 4. Understanding HowIndividuals Adopt and Adapt OmniTrack 4.1 Usability Study 4.1.1 Participants 4.1.2 Procedure and Study Setup 4.1.3 Tasks 4.1.4 Results and Discussion 4.1.5 Improvements A_er the Usability Study 4.2 Field Deployment Study 4.2.1 Study Setup 4.2.2 Participants 4.2.3 Data Analysis and Results 4.2.4 Reflections on the Deployment Study 4.3 Discussion 4.3.1 Expanding the Design Space for Self-Tracking 4.3.2 Leveraging Other Building Blocks of Self-Tracking 4.3.3 Sharing Trackers with Other People 4.3.4 Studying with a Broader Audience 4.4 Summary CHAPTER 5. Extending OmniTrack for Supporting In Situ Data Collection Studies 5.1 Design Space of Study Instrumentation for In-Situ Data Collection 5.1.1 Experiment-Level Dimensions 5.1.2 Condition-Level Dimensions 5.1.3 Tracker-Level Dimensions 5.1.4 Reminder/Trigger-Level Dimensions 5.1.5 Extending OmniTrack to Cover the Design Space 5.2 Design Goals and Rationales 5.3 System Design and User Interfaces 5.3.1 Experiment Management and Collaboration 5.3.2 Experiment-level Configurations 5.3.3 A Participants Protocol for Joining the Experiment 5.3.4 Implementation 5.4 Replicated Study Examples 5.4.1 Example A: Revisiting the Deployment Study of OmniTrack 5.4.2 Example B: Exploring the Clinical Applicability of a Mobile Food Logger 5.4.3 Example C: Understanding the Effect of Cues and Positive Reinforcement on Habit Formation 5.4.4 Example D: Collecting Stress and Activity Data for Building a Prediction Model 5.5 Discussion 5.5.1 Supporting Multiphase Experimental Design 5.5.2 Serving as Testbeds for Self-Tracking Interventions 5.5.3 Exploiting the Interaction Logs 5.6 Summary CHAPTER 6. Using the OmniTrack Research Kit: A Case Study 6.1 Study Background and Motivation 6.2 OmniTrack Configuration for Study Instruments 6.3 Participants 6.4 Study Procedure 6.5 Dataset and Analysis 6.6 Study Result 6.6.1 Diary Entries 6.6.2 Aspects of Productivity Evaluation 6.6.3 Productive Activities 6.7 Experimenter Experience of OmniTrack 6.8 Participant Experience of OmniTrack 6.9 Implications 6.9.1 Visualization Support for Progressive, Preliminary Analysis of Collected Data 6.9.2 Inspection to Prevent Misconfiguration 6.9.3 Providing More Alternative Methods to Capture Data 6.10 Summary CHAPTER 7. Discussion 7.1 Lessons Learned 7.2 Design Challenges and Implications 7.2.1 Making the Flexibility Learnable 7.2.2 Additive vs. Subtractive Design for Flexibility 7.3 Future Opportunities for Improvement 7.3.1 Utilizing External Information and Contexts 7.3.2 Providing Flexible Visual Feedback 7.4 Expanding Audiences of OmniTrack 7.4.1 Supporting Clinical Contexts 7.4.2 Supporting Self-Experimenters 7.5 Limitations CHAPTER 8. Conclusion 8.1 Summary of the Approaches 8.2 Summary of Contributions 8.2.1 Artifact Contributions 8.2.2 Empirical Research Contributions 8.3 Future Work 8.3.1 Understanding the Long-term E_ect of OmniTrack 8.3.2 Utilizing External Information and Contexts 8.3.3 Extending the Input Modality to Lower the Capture Burden 8.3.4 Customizable Visual Feedback 8.3.5 Community-Driven Tracker Sharing 8.3.6 Supporting Multiphase Study Design 8.4 Final Remarks APPENDIX A. Study Material for Evaluations of the OmniTrack App A.1 Task Instructions for Usability Study A.2 The SUS (System Usability Scale) Questionnaire A.3 Screening Questionnaire for Deployment Study A.4 Exit Interview Guide for Deployment Study A.5 Deployment Participant Information APPENDIX B Study Material for Productivity Diary Study B.1 Recruitment Screening Questionnaire B.2 Exit Interview Guide Abstract (Korean)Docto