Fluidtime

Milk doesn’t expire at the stroke of midnight: it’s in a fluid continuum we test by taking a sip

Mobile phones transform space-time points into flows
ex: counter timers on traffic lights that tell you when the light will turn green

Time coordination: How time concepts affect time coordination
Time personalities: What are people’s time behaviors
Social-network roles: What roles do people have in social networks
Tools: What tools are they using
Event types: How does the event type effect people’s efforts?
Location and transportation: How do location and access matter?
Moods

Clock time
Chronos: using the hour of the clock to schedule

Event time
Kairos: Allowing activities to transpire on their own schedule

Applied dreams

CASE STUDY: 7 PEOPLE AND A MESS OF SMS
- roles: time manager, connector, time juggler, time opportunist, time wanderer (?), pace setter (changes plans), pace taker (adjusts)
the wondering time
--> time coordination can be cumbersome
personalities affect it
flexibility increases complexity, but current tech doesn’t address

Point shift coordination (somewhat stable appointments), progressive coordination (appointment time in flux — we hone in on it)

CASE STUDY: GIRLS NIGHT OUT
roles: group organizer (organizes meetings, enforces membership)
group members
IM and email are primary modes because all women have desk jobs and constant internet access
not everyone gets all the messages, however: missed coordination
emotional state and hypercoordination (Rich Lin?)
-- using communication to express identity and power

INSIGHTS: SOCIAL NETWORKS

People and roles who’s invited? Who’s avoided? Is anyone being dried out? How will people get along? What are the time and emotional personalities to be considered in the mix? How formal does the interaction need to be? Roles: Leader (political center), organizer, connector (reaches out to other groups), manager (person who makes the decisions in a group or couple)
Quote from Ethan Watters

Tools how do people reach out to each other over an event’s lifecycle? What forms do they use? How immediate is the message? Do they require confirmation?

Event type Where is the group going?

Location and transportation Who can share transportation? Communcation, confirming, confirmation

Moods, emotions, soft factors Did someone have a bad day? Is the location too loud? Does it have a bad vibe? How’s the weather?

CASE STUDY: STUDENTS DOING LAUNDRY
Service running at Ivrea now
Increasing options of time use: include different needs (slow, fast)
Reserve time spots
Remind people to bring their laundry
Alert them when the laundry is finished
Everything done via phone

Parameters for reminder timing:
Density of the day (how many other people need to use the facilities?)
Punctuality How have you acted in the past?
B/c receiving messages constantly is not efficient

Java app running on mobile phone and desktop that lets you know how the washing machine is doing and how many minutes are left — processor converts internal signals of washing machine to serial data, then sends to phone

Wall-mounted ambient display — [public negotiation of social responsibility for often-scarce resources]

emphasize:
Volatility of personalities
Variable roles of group members
Redundancy of information among channels, b/c people use whichever channel is most immediately accessible

Life is really messy
UCD --> detailed insights
“deep dive” into someone else’s world --> intricacies
social network dynamics --> how the system really works
questioning the assumptions --> better system design

We can’t have everything happen at the same time, otherwise we can’t understand each other

We have to incorporate flexibility

Q: What does this do to cities? (MJ)

www.girlwonder.com/presentations/Social-Fluidtime.pdf