1. CITRIS-HP Day Presentation Prof. Nancy Van House University of California at Berkeley School of Information Management and Systems http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~vanhouse The Social Uses of Personal Photos Understandings for Emerging Networked Imaging Technologies

2. CITRIS-HP Day Presentation Problem Classic problem: predicting uses for new technology New tech enters into pre-existing sociotechnical ensemble of technology, artifacts, activities, practices, understandings, participants… Can we understand the social space that the tech will enter into?

3. CITRIS-HP Day Presentation Our Study: Social Uses of Personal Photos Looking not just at what people do with digital imaging technology, but why Goals –Identify social uses of photography to predict resistances and affordances of next generation mobile media devices and applications –Use social science approaches to develop methods for understanding/projecting uses Methods –Situated video interviews –Review of online photo sites –Sociotechnological prototyping (magic thing, technology probes)

4. CITRIS-HP Day Presentation Surprising observations “Resistance”: –Many are deeply attached to prints Can be created from either film or digital file, but many want prints as end product –Reluctance to annotate photos Hard, time-consuming; but that’s not all Innovation: Internet-based photo sites are catching on fast –Photoblogs, moblogs, internet-based sites for storing, sharing photos

5. CITRIS-HP Day Presentation Approach Rooted in 2 social science analytical approaches –Social Construction of Technology (SCOT): used to explain “stabilization” of technology post hoc –Activity Theory: used mostly to examine work, relationships among activity systems, goal- directed actions, automatic operations, tools, and artifacts

6. CITRIS-HP Day Presentation Activity Theory 1: Hierarchy of Activities activity operation action operation activity

7. CITRIS-HP Day Presentation Activity Theory 2: Mediating Artifacts Include objects, tools, technologies Shape the way people behave (and think) Carry culture, history –Prior experiences, practices, understandings

8. CITRIS-HP Day Presentation Social Construction of Tech (SCOT): Groups have multiple problems … Social Group Problem

9. CITRIS-HP Day Presentation Problems have multiple solutions… Social Group Solution Problem Solution …some of which solve multiple problems…

10. CITRIS-HP Day Presentation Multiple groups, multiple problems Social Group Solution Problem Solution

11. CITRIS-HP Day Presentation Interpretive Flexibility Social Group Solution Problem Solution Same object can have has different ‘meanings’ for different groups.

12. CITRIS-HP Day Presentation Our approach Activities are slow to change People seek to use new tech for on-going activities Technology, understandings, and activities co- evolve Interpretive flexibility : Photos are interpreted as many different things Hierarchy of activities: Higher level activities for which personal photos are used = Social uses Photos are mediating artifacts: carry history, culture, understandings, practices…

13. CITRIS-HP Day Presentation Networked digital imaging technology For which pre-existing social uses of photos will/can this tech be effective? For which on-going activities for which photos have not been used will networked programmable imaging devices be used?

14. CITRIS-HP Day Presentation Photos As objects and as communication As symbolic objects and as pieces of information Cross time and space Make things real – appear to be just images of things as they are when they embody interpretations

15. CITRIS-HP Day Presentation Investigating the social uses of photos What do people take pictures of? What do they do with them? How do they understand them, think about them? What are the activities for which photos are mediating artifacts? How do the affordances of various media articulate with these uses?

16. CITRIS-HP Day Presentation Subjects of photos

17. CITRIS-HP Day Presentation kids

18. CITRIS-HP Day Presentation travel

19. CITRIS-HP Day Presentation Art ADD PHOTOS

20. CITRIS-HP Day Presentation Fun

21. CITRIS-HP Day Presentation What people do with photos

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26. Storage (w/o annotation)

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28. Photo-sharing sites

29. CITRIS-HP Day Presentation freewisdom

30. CITRIS-HP Day Presentation Web version

31. CITRIS-HP Day Presentation Collective photoblogs & themes: “Gatherings”

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34. Social Uses of Personal Photos Memory Relationships Self-presentation, self-expression

35. CITRIS-HP Day Presentation Memory “Off-loading” memories Evoking memories Sharing memories

36. CITRIS-HP Day Presentation Relationships Representing Maintaining Creating

37. CITRIS-HP Day Presentation Self-expression, self-presentation

38. CITRIS-HP Day Presentation Media Physical Digital Oral

39. CITRIS-HP Day Presentation The Complex Interplay of Social Uses, Media, Affordances As society changes As technology changes As conditions change (thanks to Patrick Scaglia): –Global Scale, distance, distribution –More real time –Mobile –virtual

40. CITRIS-HP Day Presentation Surprising observations Attachment to prints Physicality matches well with f2f uses, interaction, shared experience, gifts (relationships, memory) Display = unplanned encounters (relationships, self- expression) Embedded info about importance, age Reluctance to annotate photos Counter to orality, f2f uses, interaction, shared experience (relationships, memory) De-situates the story (relationships) Mortality: I won’t always be here Internet-based photo sites Easy sharing x space (time?) Access to vast audience (self-expression, self-presentation) Create/maintain relationships (known and unknown others)

41. CITRIS-HP Day Presentation War blog

43. CITRIS-HP Day Presentation Digital photos and war “Today’s soldiers…function like tourists, as Rumsfeld put it, ‘running around with digital cameras and taking these unbelievable photos and then passing them off, against the law, to the media, to our surprise.’…In our digital hall of mirrors, the pictures aren’t going to go away…” Susan Sontag, “Regarding the Torture of Others,” NY Times Magazine, May 23, 2004

44. CITRIS-HP Day Presentation Implications: Methods Further investigation of social uses for existing and emerging tech (all kinds) More interaction between technology design and social theory (where are the other social scientists today?) –Ethnographic data collection methods popular –Social theoretic approaches are not used/understood –Tie to other social concerns E.g., how people determine credible info, sources People’s activities are continuous – not tied to tech but use and are facilitated by tech, shape how tech is used “Magic thing,” prototyping

45. CITRIS-HP Day Presentation Design implications Add affordances of the physical back into the digital –E.g., showing how much a photo is used Enable real-time orality with photo sharing –Over distance –Over time? Facilitate sharing but also evaluation of sources across large scale, distributed, pre-existing and ad hoc social groups