Digital Economy
In their use of social technologies people are engaging, participating and collaborating with others to create extensive and innovative multi-media resources. They are developing dynamic digital economies, although it is unclear how these relate to our conventional understandings of markets, and models of production and consumption. Mobile and pervasive devices offer the potential of further extending the Digital Economy, not only for the general user to engage in social activities but also to extend and transform the ways people interact with and within organisations.
With our research on digital economies, we investigate these emergent practices, the capabilities of social, pervasive and mobile technologies, and explore how we can develop understandings of services, exchange and interaction that benefit the whole of the UK economy.
Current Research Activities
A new perspective for ambient computing
As computing technologies become an ever more 'invisible' and powerful part of our lives, it is crucial that people are supported in understanding what these technologies are doing and what they could do for them. The European research project PalCom supports people in making computing palpable, that is, 'noticeable' and 'understandable'.
Project Overview
Palpability is not a property of technology itself, but an effect of people's engagement with technologies, objects, and environments. For designers of pervasive computing, this means that they cannot design palpability into technologies. But they can design for palpability, to support people in making computing palpable.
Doing so challenges a number of concepts introduced with the vision for pervasive computing. For example, 'invisibility', 'ambient intelligence', 'autonomy' and '(de-)composition' - turn out to require respecification with regard to people's practices of using technologies at work, and in everyday life and play.
Notions like
- inspection
- experimentation
- translation
- emergent use
become important, as people creatively connect and use 'assemblies' of palpable pervasive technologies. The PalCom team have produced an open software architecture and a range of prototypes.
Go try out some of our technologies at www.ist-palcom.org/try-it/
More Information
Project website: www.ist-palcom.org
Research Cluster on Innovative Media for a Digital Economy
In this research cluster, we investigate digital economy practices that are emerging around the capabilities of social, mobile and pervasive technologies. We explore how we can develop new services, new forms of exchange and interaction that benefit the whole of the UK economy.
Project Overview
We will survey existing research, and develop a novel research agenda that aims to change how we understand the role of new media and how we can shape innovative service and technology development. In order to ground the discussion in concrete examples, we will focus on the three key identified in the Digital Economy programme: healthcare, transportation and the creative industries. The cluster is organised around a series nine open events where we will utilise a number of innovative techniques to develop a novel programme of research. If you would like to participate, please contact Monika Büscher
More Information
Contact: Monika Büscher
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