Divining a Digital Future: Mess and Mythology in Ubiquitous Computing

by Paul Dourish, Genevieve Bell

A sociotechnical investigation of ubiquitous computing as a research enterprise and as a lived reality. Ubiquitous computing (or ubicomp) is the label for a "third wave" of computing technologies. Following the eras of the mainframe computer and the desktop PC, ubicomp is characterized by small and powerful computing devices that are worn, carried, or embedded in the world around us. The ubicomp research agenda originated at Xerox PARC in the late 1980s; these days, some form of that vision is a reality for the millions of users of Internet-enabled phones, GPS devices, wireless networks, and smart domestic appliances. In Divining a Digital Future , computer scientist Paul Dourish and cultural anthropologist Genevieve Bell explore the vision that has driven the ubiquitous computing research program and the contemporary practices that have emerged--both the motivating mythology and the everyday messiness of lived experience. Reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of the authors' collaboration, the book takes seriously the need to understand ubicomp not only technically but also culturally, socially, politically, and economically. Dourish and Bell map the terrain of contemporary ubiquitous computing, in the research community and in daily life; explore dominant narratives in ubicomp around such topics as infrastructure, mobility, privacy, and domesticity; and suggest directions for future investigation, particularly with respect to methodology and conceptual foundations.

Genres: Technology, Nonfiction, Anthropology, Design, Computers

248 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Paul Dourish is Chancellor's Professor of Informatics in the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of Where the Action Is: The Foundations of Embodied Interaction and coauthor of Divining a Digital Future: Mess and Mythology in Ubiquitous Computing, both published by the MIT Press.

Reviews

[Ed Summers · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book came recommended to me after I was bemoaning the fact that my ethnographic research project yielded no satisfying "implications for design". It was well worth the read, and I'm very grateful to have run across it. If you do qualitative research, particularly ethnography, of information systems and/or HCI I think you will enjoy it.

If you do take a look don't be put off by the term ubicomp. It's a bit of research jargon, but really it's just a stand-in for the application of computing in everyday life away from the desktop or traditional sites for computing.

I also didn't quite understand why no reference was made to Law's After Method: Mess in Social Science Research. It felt like there were some sections that were almost directly paraphrasing him, but not one citation, which was kinda weird. But there were lots of other citations to the literature that I'm going to be adding to me to-read list.

[Anna Paukova · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too abstract for me. I expected either a lot of ethnographic vignettes, or some actionable ideas, but found neither of those. I get the general statement that ethnography is great for design and technological development (totally on board with that), but it is not clear, how exactly this kind of knowledge is supposed to be implemented. I know, it is kind of an anti-“implications for design” kind of book, but what is the point then?

[Kingsborough Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picked this book out of a bibliography as follow-up reading, really knowing nothing about it, and I was surprised by two things:

1. that its methodology was so deeply anthropological
2. that the critiques it raises about ubiquitous computing methodologies were so interesting and incisive

[Mike]

Rather starts out as a review and breakdown of the early works of a seminal researcher in what wasn't yet clearly a useful field of computing.

Phrases at stand out to me:
"social sciences and their evolving position within computer science research...[should influence ubicomp research by] drawing on research in the social sciences about learning, participation, motivation and behaviour change." Intriguing implication that until we explicitly base our UX decisions in these social science realms, we will never truly manifest technologies that become an inextricable part of everyday living.

[Brad Needham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written as a sociological critique of Ubicomp and as a roadmap for further multidisciplinary research in that field, this book also clearly defines the specific and substantial value anthropologists bring when working with designers, engineers, business developers, and managers to develop strategies and experiences.

In the current context of the Internet Of Things - which is really Ubicomp in different clothes - Divining a Digital Future is a valuable guidebook to the unstated and unquestioned assumptions of the field, and flings open a door into a much wider world.

[Peter Foley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read so far. Fascinating coverage of ubicomp development in Singapore and South Korea.