Context sharing in a ‘real world’ ubicomp deployment

Abstract

While the application of ubicomp systems to explore context sharing has received a large amount of interest, only a very small number of studies have been carried out which involve “real world” use outside of the lab. This article presents an in-depth analysis of context sharing behaviours that built up around use of the Hermes interactive office door display system received during deployment. The Hermes system provided a groupware application supporting asynchronous messaging facilities, analogous to a digital form of Post-it notes, in order to explore the use of situated display systems to support awareness and coordination in an office environment. From this analysis we distil a set of issues relating to context sharing ranging from privacy concerns to ease of use; each supported through qualitative data from user interviews and questionnaires.