Hybrid Assemblages, Environments, And Happenings: Technologies And Strategies For An Emerging Participatory Culture

This talk will present and critique a body of work evolving across several years of research at the intersection of computer science and participatory culture - namely Citizen Science. I will re-examine the emerging technologies and algorithmic approaches as well as the cultural practices surrounding sensor legibility, scaffolding strategies, motivation, and human relationships to participatory computing systems. We deconstruct our current perceptions of mobile technologies away from that of simply communication tools towards that of super-computer-radio-stations-with-sensors. By rethinking mobile sensing technologies, interactive and social experiences, and the architecture of such systems, we believe that important new computing platforms and practices will emerge around community engagement, civic participation, and collective action. Computing enabled Citizen Science is positioned to revolutionize new cooperative and collaborative approach to literacy, transparency, and problem solving. Through studies of several deployments across a range of landscapes - personal, infrastructural, community based, etc. and exploring a variety of interactive experiences, this talk will highlight specific strategies for engaging individuals and motivating them to participate in emerging Citizen Science efforts.
Our work leverages the "cognitive surplus" of citizens across everyday landscapes and the opportunistic gaps for small moments of "micro-volunteering". Throughout this work is a reframing of Citizen Science beyond simply a focus on data collection and towards an experience to promote curiosity, joy, wonderment, and "new ways of seeing" our world. More importantly, we believe that successfully designed Citizen Science projects can effect positive societal change and produce a more participatory and transparent democracy with improved understanding of our personal, environmental, and urban ecology.

Speaker: Eric Paulos, UC Berkeley