Mobility and Accessing Information Infrastructures

Mobility and Accessing Information Infrastructures

Interested in participating in this taskforce? Please contact Prof Christopher Lueg christopher.lueg@utas.edu.au or Dr Jennie Carroll j.carroll@econ.usyd.edu.au

START DATE: January 2007

TASKFORCE COORDINATORS:

Prof Christopher Lueg

christopher.lueg@utas.edu.au

Tel 03 6226 2911 Fax 03 6226 1824

Private Bag 100 Hobart TAS 7001

Dr Jennie Carroll

j.carroll@econ.usyd.edu.au

SENIOR RESEARCH ADVISOR/MENTORS

Prof Doug Vogel City University of Hong Kong isdoug@cityu.edu.hk

A/Prof Michael B. Twidale University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA twidale@uiuc.edu

TEAM MEMBERS

Dr Sandy Chong Curtin University Sandy.Chong@cbs.curtin.edu.au

Prof Amanda Spink Queensland University of Technology ah.spink@qut.edu.au 

Dr  Kerry Taylor CSIRO ICT Centre Kerry.Taylor@csiro.au

Ms Wasana Bandara Queensland University of Technology w.bandara@qut.edu.au

ACTIVITIES

Meetings

Visit by International Mentor

Focus Groups

OVERVIEW

Information Infrastructures are ensembles of technologies, data, protocols, rules and routines that provide, manage and store information. We build and maintain Information Infrastructures to deliver information that satisfies the information needs of human users; this involves providing the right information or services at the right time in the required format for the chosen ICT devices. The EII Network has previously focused on one aspect of Information Infrastructures, data, exploring research themes such as data modelling, data visualization and data security. In this application we turn our attention to another aspect of Information Infrastructures, the human users, and explore the ways that users of information infrastructures access and use the information and services made available; the ICT devices used as part of these information infrastructures in organisational, social, private or leisure contexts; and the barriers to effective and efficient information delivery.  

The previous decade has seen a radical shift in the forms and functions of information provision due to the acceptance of new technologies broadly described as ubiquitous or pervasive computing.  In Australia, the number of mobile phones exceeded landlines in 2003, widespread use of laptop computers, BlackBerries, PDAs and iPods signify a fundamental shift in the shape of computing, and Internet cafes, hotspots and WiFi provide access to information while on the move. The appropriate provision of information is thus undergoing rapid change and the existing "desktop" computing metaphors and organisational theories are no longer sufficient to illustrate or explain people’s practices in accessing information as they move around within one location, travelling between locations, or visiting at a new location (Dahlbom and Ljungberg 1998; Dunlop and Brewster 2002). The new "information at your fingertips" metaphors are needed for an audience that is increasingly using diverse technologies while mobile to meet their immediate, situated needs for information and services. For example, in an industry like healthcare the use of mobile technology in hospitals and nursing homes is expected to be largely driven by the need to bring document processing and data collection to the place where patients are being treated. After all, healthcare is largely a mobile and highly context-dependent activity. Further pressure to adopt mobile technologies may come from compliance requirements demanding the use of electronic records.

According to the taskforce objectives and related discussion at the 2006 EII AGM, taskforces should focus on identifying and scoping promising research areas as well as building networks of researchers to address the research identified. Accordingly the Information Infrastructures – Mobile Access Taskforce (II-MAT) aims to:

• identify and review major emerging themes and issues regarding mobility and access to information infrastructures when mobile,

• explore the drivers and barriers to MAII that are perceived by organisational stakeholders (at the strategic, IT and operational levels of organisations)

• explore the drivers and barriers to MAII that are perceived by users of information infrastructures, and

• develop a framework of research directions, collaboration opportunities (with either EII members or external parties) as well as funding opportunities so that the taskforce is expanded into an Australia-wide network linking Australian and international researchers that are examining IIs and mobility.

Our aim is to set a research agenda and link the key players from industry, government and academia in order to jointly pursue the targets identified.

SCOPE

Researching mobile information infrastructure access across the whole range of industry sectors and user populations relevant to EII is clearly not feasible for a relatively small task force like II-MAT. Therefore II-MAT will focus on two industries,

• public transport

• healthcare

that are currently in the process of being transformed by the demands of mobile information access.

Public transport and healthcare were identified as they represent two different views on "external"[1] users: public transport information infrastructures aim at providing information to ordinary citizens (often via timetables or other media displayed at bus stops) whereas healthcare information infrastructures aim at providing information to professionals "on the job" ie primarily doctors and nurses. However, healthcare information infrastructures could possibly be extended to include patients and their families as well which again would involve "ordinary citizens" and their probably divergent interface and access requirements.

II-MAT aims at establishing collaborations with a number of information infrastructure maintainers and their users as well as representing a range of use scenarios that are typical of Australia. Taskforce members have some existing contacts with infrastructure maintainers, which would allow to jumpstart taskforce activities. In the Australia-wide public transport area, in particular, we aim at collaborating with maintainers in different settings, including:

●    metropolitan,

●    suburban,

●    regional,

●    rural,

●    remote (if applicable).

Climate has a considerable influence on how much energy users are willing to invest when dealing with information access For example, climate has an impact on how much weight in terms of computing technologies users are willing to carry during a shift (healthcare scenario) and how far they are willing to walk in order to access information (public transport scenario). Research by Lueg and Mahmood (2004) conducted in tropical Darwin suggests that climate may actually suggest moving to electronic representations due to climate and other impacts on "traditional" scheduling representations. Taking into account these variables suggests looking also at different climate zones across Australia, including:

●    tropical climate

●    sub-tropical climate

●    moderate climate

●    desert climate

An important aspect of the scoping study will be identifying a suitable number of focus areas. Brisbane, for example, might cover "metropolitan" and "sub-tropical"; Hobart would cover "urban-regional" and "moderate climate"; Townsville might cover regional desert; and the Far North from Cairns tropical rural/remote.

SIGNIFICANCE

In what follows we distinguish between relevance of II-MAT to the EII Research Network and its research program, and relevance to external stakeholders and prospective collaborators.

Relevance to the EII Research Network

II-MAT is positioned horizontally and cuts across many identified EII research themes including e-learning, e-health and e-commerce. Exploring information infrastructure access and mobility from the users' point of view (see eg Kjeldskov and Graham 2003; Carroll 2004a; Bidwell and Axup 2005; Carroll 2006) means II-MAT addresses a number of dimensions of the identified EII Research Program "Adoption and Impact" as discussed at the 2005 AGM. See e.g. Carroll (2004b) for the link between use and appropriation. II-MAT directly contributes to exploring e-Health which had also been identified as a topic of high relevance to the EII network in regards to e-health being a national top priority as well as in terms of general needs. Hence, the outcomes of this project will provide valuable input to the research agenda for the whole EII network. The derived research portfolio will position the top-ranked issues and provides a way to guarantee the relevance and actual impact of related research. It will help to map existing and planned future research on information infrastructure access against the core issues as perceived by the relevant wider community.

Relevance to  external stakeholders

Contacts with taskforce-relevant industry and government maintained by taskforce members suggest both are well aware that eg in the case of public transport changes to existing information infrastructures and means of accessing them need to be adopted to an increasingly mobile and technology-augmented generation of users equipped with mobile phones, PDAs and iPODs.  Discussions with industry and government, however, strongly suggest that they do not yet know how to address this challenge.

Mobile access to information infrastructures is even more challenging in industries including healthcare (eg Chau and Turner 2004;  Kjeldskov and Skov 2004) where compliance requirements demand the use of electronic records. Hospitals, nursing homes etc. are in the process of introducing electronic record keeping but too often the process breaks down at the interface to daily work practices in the ward where paper is still dominating record keeping. Respective industries do not yet know how to introduce mobile technology into existing work processes such that the gap between paper records and electronic records (and possibly unnecessary data entry work by nurses) could be narrowed.

To sum up II-MAT is exploring topics that are perceived to be of considerable interest by industry and government.

OUTCOMES

According to the taskforce objectives and performance discussion at the 2006 EII AGM, taskforces are about identifying and scoping promising research areas as well as building networks capable of addressing the research identified. Accordingly, outcomes of the taskforce will comprise a preliminary scoping study, outcomes from liaising with both infrastructure maintainers and their user communities, as well as preparation of other deliverables.

• Scoping study:

  • literature review and input from leading practitioners and academia will be used to produce initial map of the topic;

• Liaising with stakeholders including

• infrastructure maintainers (different levels discussed earlier)

• users

and use findings for extending/refining initial map of research territory and key players from industry & academia;

• Preparation of Deliverables

• develop and apply instruments allowing assessment of collaborations among industry partners and academics in Australia and overseas that were established by the taskforce (as proposed at 2006 AGM)

• consolidate framework and outline research agenda for the EII Network in the information access and mobility area

• deliver survey papers for leading conferences and/or journals,

• prepare ARC Linkage Grant applications linking representatives of the industries investigated and taskforce members

• assist ECR taskforce members in preparing ARC Discovery Grant applications (if applicable)

All deliverables will be summarised and made accessible via the EII web repository. It is also intended to consolidate the main outcomes in the form of teaching materials, which could be used for seminars introducing EII members, students and industry partners to user-oriented research methods beyond questionnaires. Our international collaborators could be invited to visit taskforce member institutions during the course of the taskforce to conduct seminars and/or workshops.

II-MAT aims at consolidating the findings such that future related research projects can start from taskforce findings rather than starting from scratch. Establishing a respective research portfolio means other research network members and industry partners will be aware of the relevant body of research in the related fields of human-computer interaction (HCI), mobile HCI, computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW), and knowledge management (KM).

It is envisioned to continue taskforce operations beyond the 1-year funding period and possibly widen the scope to include additional information infrastructure maintainers (eg tourism, transport and the financial services sector). We expect that in the long term this will lead to developing a strong proposal for an ARC Centre of Excellence as the infrastructure access & mobility perspective is a horizontally aligned research area not a vertical one. Furthermore this research explores and reflects the huge variety of business and environmental settings in Australia which means outcomes are valuable to numerous settings outside Australia.