Course-­‐work  description   Group Project (CSCW 2013 sem. 2) This  document  describes  the  course-­‐work  to  be  completed  by  the  students  who  are  taking  the  module  on  CSCW  in  the  academic  year  2013-­‐2014.    

Mark  component:  Group  work  =  50%1  

The  mark  is  divided  in  3  deliverable  D1-­‐  group  preparation  (10%)  

D2  –  presentation  (20%)  

D3  –  final  report  (70%)  

Learning   outcomes:   the   project   is   designed   to   give   students   first-­‐hand  experience   of   a   community   building   project.   The   project   is   based   on  SmartCampus  providing  the  students  with  the  unique  possibility  to  participate  in  a  real-­‐life  action-­‐research  project.  

The   students   will   learn   how   to   foster   a   community,   how   to   understand   user  behaviour  conducting  interviews,  analyzing  and  interpreting  the  data  within  the  theoretical   frameworks   introduced   in   the   course,   write   an   evaluation   report.  Students  will  be  exposed  to  typical  group  work  dynamics,  and  will  learn  how  to  share  information  and  co-­‐ordinate  tasks.    

Deadline: May 27 presentation sessions – May 29 deliverable e-mailed to deuffici@disi.unitn.it Objectives The  assignment  consists  of   the  design  of  a  mobile  social  network  for  the  smart  campus   project   to   increase   students   participation   in   the   smartcampus   project.  The   students   will   apply   the   theoretical   framework   introduced   in   the   class   to  study   adoption   drivers   and   behavioural   patterns   within   a   student   population.  The  major  research  questions  addressed  by  the  assignment  are  

a) What  factors  and  functions  do  make  mobile  SNP’s  attractive  to  students?  b) What   are   mobile   SNP’s   used   for,   and   how   do   they   differ   from   more  

traditional  one?  c) What   strategies   should   the   smartcampus   project   adopt   in   order   to  

increase  its  community  base?                                                                                                                    1 The project will include both individual and group activities. Students will hand-in evidence of their individual work (interview transcripts and data analysis), which will be marked for completeness and accuracy and influence the student’s mark in case of discrepancy with the group-work mark. Students will also be invited to evaluate each group member contribution, including their own. Evidence of exceptional performance or sub-average contribution will be taken into consideration in the final mark.

The  project  is  composed  of  3  phases:  

 

Analysis   of   existing   mobile   social   networks.   The   students   have   to   analyse  critically   existing   mobile   social   networks   describing   advantages   and  disadvantages   related   to   them.   Examples   include   but   are   not   limited   to  Foursquare,  Twitter  etc.        

 

Interviews.   Each   student   will   interview   3   students   face   to   face.   Participants  should  not  be  familiar  with  the  smartcampus  project.  During  the  interviews  the  participants’  virtual  spaces  will  be  used  as  props.    The  main  questions  will  focus  around   the   student   behaviour   in   on-­‐line   communities,   their   expectations,   likes  and   dislikes.   Particular   attention   should   be   devoted   to   mobile   on-­‐line   social  networks,   to  understand   if   the   students  know  about   them  and  how   they  differ  from  traditional  internet  based  ones.  Participants  should  be  presented  with  the  best  examples  found  in  the  previous  phase  asking  them  to  use  it  and  comment  on  them.     Finally,   the   interviewers   should   introduce   the  participants   to   the   smart  campus   project   asking   them   to   comment   on   current   possibilities   for  communication  (forum,  SNPs,  myCV,  event  sharing  in  Vivi  Trento).    

 

Design  of  a  mobile  social  network  for  smart  campus.  In  this  phase  the  students  should  write   a  plan   for   the   creation  and   consolidation  of   a   lively  mobile   social  network  within  the  smart  campus  apps.  The  community  could  be  designed  inside  existing  apps  or  as  a  stand  alone  app,  taking  into  consideration  anyway  the  smart  campus  eco-­‐system.      

Report   writing.   The   group   will   produce   a   20   pages   (max)   report   of   the  evaluation.   Report   writing   is   both   an   individual   and   a   group   activity.   All  members   are   expected   to   contribute   to   it   and   the   report   will   be  marked   as   a  group  deliverable   not   as   a   collection   of   chapters   authored   by   different   people.  The  report  will  be  composed  of:    

-­‐  Executive  summary  (1  page  stating  the  main  findings  and  recommendation  from  your  study)    

-­‐  Objectives  (stating  and  justifying  the  objectives  of  the  study)    

-­‐   Analysis   of   existing   mobile   social   networks   (description   of   current  technological   offers   possibly   supplemented   by   a   literature   review   on  evaluation  studies)    

-­‐  Interviews  (clear  description  of  the  evaluation  procedures  and  results)    

-­‐  Design  proposal   (detailed   report   on  mobile   community   proposals,   taking  into  account  issues  of  usability  and  sociability)    

-­‐  Conclusion  (recommendations,  suggestion  for  further  research)    

 

 

SmartCampus:  An  introduction    

SmartCampus (www.smartcampuslab.it) was launched and funded by Trento RISE in 2012. Trento RISE is a core partner of the EIT-ICT Labs and a pole of international excellence in Trentino connecting the major regional actors in ICT research, education and innovation. The University of Trento and the Fondazione Bruno Kessler participate in the project both as providers of research results and innovative ICT solutions, and as institutions of the SmartCampus ecosystem. SmartCampus is a first step toward the vision of a smart city in Trentino. The campus, with its students, researchers, and institutions, is a scaled-down, but complete, model of a SmartCity. It provides a complex, yet controlled, ecosystem of citizens, operations, and businesses. Our long term goal is to realize a smart city living lab in Trentino, and SmartCampus will prepare a first core of citizens for seeding the vision and opening it to a wider population. The SmartCampus project is creating a mobile social network for students and staff. This network offers information about the university and the city, as well as various ways to create and share information. SmartCampus aims to a massive delivery of novel services to improve the quality of life of students, researchers, and all other citizens of a campus. These services are to support people not only in their work activities, but also in their practical and social life fostering their wellbeing as individuals and citizens. At the moment, there are six apps available, but new ones will be added later following a community based participatory design. The available apps are illustrated in Figure 1

Figure 1. The smart campus apps MyCVs lets students create an officially approved portfolio of their experiences at the university. LifeLog lets users create and record their experiences around the campus and the city and share these experiences with others. MyPeople lets people manage their friends list and their social networks, deciding what to share with who. Inbox is meant to help users manage messages from the other apps as well as external sources, such as the university. ViviTrento displays interesting places and activities within Trento. Users follow places, post and are notified about events. They can also share itinerary for pragmatic or hedonic purposes, such as the itinerary for collecting all documents to apply for a VISA, or to spend an enjoyable night out. ViaggiaTrento helps people plan trips within the city using public or private transportation. Users can comment on the trip, communicating delays and accidents, congestions, and organising outings with friends. The emphasis on mobility is a specific requirement of the campus in Trento, which despite being a pretty small city, hosts the scientific park on a hill, the rest of the University in the historical city centre, the students accommodations and most sport facilities in the outskirts. The ambitious goal of the project is to increase exponentially the number of services, exploiting the community creativity in all parts of the project. Thus, the technological backbone of SmartCampus is developing as an End-User Development platform (http://web.media.mit.edu/~lieber/EUD-Book-Intro.html) which offers an open environment where people and institutions collaborate in the identification, design, development, and delivery of services. This platform does not only offer flexible, dynamic, and personalized access to the services, through Web and mobile applications. It also aims to empower the community to create innovative services they want and like. In this vision, ICT solutions become invisible and pervasive, enabling the delivery of innovative services to support personal, social and cultural growth of the community members. Thus, SmartCampus promotes a central and

active role for the community. Members are users, designers and developers of the services they want and need. The project started on January 1st, 2012, and will last 36 months. The start-up phase, which covered the first 8 months, lead to the deployment of the ICT infrastructures, the design of the first services, and the establishment of a community of active users. In October 2012, we delivered a Samsung Galaxy S II Android smartphone and the first services to 100 Computer Science students enrolled in the course of HCI. This initiated one of the largest field-study in a real life context worldwide allowing evaluation and refinement of the services. The best ideas developed by these students are currently in development at the SmartCampusLab, where the students were offered internship and thesis possibilities. In February 2013, we distributed 25 devices to Sociology Students, and in March 2013 another 50 between Computer Science students enrolled in the course of HCI and researchers in the HCI team at the University of Trento. In return for the smartphone and a pre-paid SIM card, the students agree in participating to a large-scale user research. The objective of the project is to create a lively community of active users. The community was initially involved in the very early phase of the project to identify those services that are more valuable to them. Then, they were involved in the design and evaluation of these services, and more recently they have been involved in development. The ultimate goal of SmartCampus is a steady growth of the community who will appropriate the platform and services, thus ensuring sustainability after the end of the project.