I have just published this short position paper for the Human-Data Interaction through Design workshop which I will be attending at the CHI '21 conference. In the paper I outline the two very different reasons why people need to interact with data - Personal Data Control and Life Information Exploration. Click the image to read more.
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By storing data about citizens for the purposes of service provision, private and public organizations have disempowered the people they serve, shifting the balance of power toward themselves as data holders.
Through three co-production engagements involving families receiving "early help" support from their local authority and support workers involved in supplying this care, we have identified existing data usage practices, explored the impact of those practices upon the supported families, and co-designed new and improved approaches - both technological and practice-based - that are perceived to offer families fairer treatment, greater influence, and to benefit from better decision-making.
Our findings show that by applying Human-Data Interaction and giving supported families direct access to see and manipulate their own data, both during and outside of the support engagement, the locus of decision-making could be shifted towards the data subject.
Across social care, healthcare and public policy, there are moves to “join up” citizen databases to provide care workers with holistic views of families they support. In this context, questions of personal data privacy, security, access, control and disempowerment are critical considerations for system designers and policy makers alike. We worked with four families to explore their views on this landscape. To read more about our findings, click the image to read the paper.
Abstract As a response to the call for theoretical perspectives on how to move human-computer interaction closer to the human and remove barriers to flexibility, I outline that a key part of the solution involves changing the way we model, and think about, our data – that we must build for the totality of individuals’ … Continue reading Free Data Interfaces
Abstract: As a response to the call for “grand visions” for Human- Computer Interaction, I propose a future where people interact using a new type of interface: a Digital Life Assistant. This draws on ideas of human-data interaction, ubicomp, semantic analysis and humane design. Trained by us to understand the meaning and value of our data and digital interactions, digital life assistants will be our butlers and bodyguards, putting our needs ahead of those of corporations, marketers & service providers, embodying a previously unseen level of helpful technology and computer-aided human empowerment. Click the image to read the full paper.
Through my work at Zooniverse, I worked with the MICO Project looking at what motivates citizen science volunteers on Snapshot Serengeti. Our research found that mundane images actually increase, not reduce, volunteer engagement. The work was presented at the HCOMP 2015 conference, as a work-in-progress paper (PDF version here) and as a poster as shown below … Continue reading This Image Intentionally Left Blank: Mundane Images Increase Citizen Science Participation
Dr. Alex Bowyer 