Previous CSCW research has paid increasing attention to regional innovation systems providing the context for CSCW research and design. In this paper we provide insights into attempts to intervene in such a regional innovation system via practice-oriented activities. Our findings describe experiences of co-creating knowledge around digitization of SMEs on a regional level, beyond individual company contexts. We reflect on the benefits and challenges such an approach affords and highlight the importance of interpersonal relationships and similarities between practices in different contexts to enable intended but also initially unexpected knowledge spillovers. Our findings highlight how a praxeological approach to CSCW can be influential in regional development programs, and open this field to CSCW research and design. We draw out lessons for similar interventions and outline fruitful avenues for future research.

Abstract Advoc ates of autonomous driving predict that the occupation of taxi driver could be made obsolete by shared autonomous vehicles (SAV) in the long term. Conducting interviews with German taxi drivers, we investigate how they perceive the changes caused by advancing automation for the future of their business. Our study contributes insights into how the work of taxi drivers could change given the advent of autonomous driving: While the task of driving could be taken over by SAVs for standard trips, taxi drivers are certain that other areas of their work such as providing supplementary services and assistance to passengers would constitute a limit to such forms of automation, but probably involving a shifting role for the taxi drivers, one which focuses on the sociality of the work. Our findings illustrate how taxi drivers see the future of their work, suggesting design implications for tools that take various forms of assistance into account, and demonstrating how important it is to consider taxi drivers in the co-design of future taxis and SAV services.

Currently, there is a broad range of studies dealing with the design and visualization of energy consumption data for the domestic and increasingly for the office context. However, studies addressing the industrial context are quite rare, and due to the diversity of machines, processes, tasks, personal motivations, teams and the specific organizational culture of companies, it is not sufficient to provide only consumption data. For an adequate consideration of these factors, detailed design guidelines and system concepts are currently missing. However, this study shows the potential that a common understanding of consumption data can emerge through suitable visualization to support everyday work and possibilities of data sharing. Therefore, we show exemplarily how a design can be derived from empirically collected requirements and how a system concept can look like that enrich current eco-feedback design research for the industrial context.

Smart home systems change the way we experience the home. While there are established research fields within HCI for visualizing specific use cases of a smart home, studies targeting user demands on visualizations spanning across multiple use cases are rare. Especially, individual data-related demands pose a challenge for usable visualizations. To investigate potentials of an end-user development (EUD) approach for flexibly supporting such demands, we developed a smart home system featuring both pre-defined visualizations and a visualization creation tool. To evaluate our concept, we installed our prototype in 12 households as part of a Living Lab study. Results are based on three interview studies, a design workshop and system log data. We identified eight overarching interests in home data and show how participants used pre-defined visualizations to get an overview and the creation tool to not only address specific use cases but also to answer questions by creating temporary visualizations.

We present the results of a design case study focusing on supporting the daily transportation of elderly in Germany. We conceptualized, developed and studied the appropriation of a transportation information system intended to ease switching between different transportation modes. Based on a literature review and a context study with 21 interviews we explored routinized transport mode usage and barriers when switching between modes. Iteratively, we co-designed a transport platform accessible via a website, a mobile app, and an iTV app. We further looked at the appropriation of the platform into the daily lives of 19 persons. Studying the appropriation highlighted different factors that facilitate the adoption of alternative transport options. The factors included reducing uncertainty, complementing transport information with context information (e.g. weather) and providing informational access based on the user's preferences as well as fitting in with the situational needs (activity related).

Research in the field of assistive technologies often claims to support their target group's autonomy. However, autonomy is mostly interpreted by the researchers and designers as independence or its meaning is not further specified. There are few studies where the users' perception and interpretation of autonomy is taken into account. Hence, technology for supporting autonomy is often rather intricate and based on a generalized notion of autonomy. We argue that autonomy contains more dimensions than just mere independence. Furthermore, we argue that the perception of autonomy is individually differing and focussing on small, individual solutions my help in shaping autonomy support on an individual level.

The availability of ICT services can be severely disrupted in the aftermath of disasters. Ad-hoc assemblages of communication technology have the potential to bridge such breakdowns. This article investigates the use of an ad-hoc system for sending SOS signals in a large-scale exercise that simulated a terrorist attack. In this context, we found that the sensitivity that was introduced by the adversarial nature of the situation posed unexpected challenges for our approach, as giving away one's location in the immediate danger of a terrorist attack became an issue both for first responders and the affected people in the area. We show how practices of calling for help and reacting to help calls can be affected by such a system and affect the management of the visibility and validity of SOS calls, implying a need for further negotiation in situations where communication is sensitive and technically restrained.

Alternative mobility modes for older adults are increasingly important for economic, ecological and social reasons. A promising option is ridesharing, defined as use of the same vehicle by two or more people traveling to a common destination. In particular, mobile computer supported ridesharing provides a promising way to enlarge older adults' mobility choices in addition to private driving and public transportation options. In order to understand the opportunities and obstacles of ridesharing from the point of view of elderly people, we conducted an interview study in order to examining ridesharing experiences. It turns out that "mobile independence" and "decisional autonomy" are key issues for mobile wellbeing. This partially conflicts with common ridesharing concepts. Hence, we further analyze older adults' strategies dealing with these conflicts and show that these strategies offer departure points for the design ridesharing solutions, which are better suited to the demands of older adults.

There is an increasing spread of flexible software applications that can be modified by adding components (sometimes called plug-ins or add-ons). A popular example in the software development domain is Eclipse, a flexible development environment that can be extended with literally thousands of different plug-ins. However, searching, installing and configuring new plug-ins requires complex overhead work that is only weakly addressed by existing support mechanisms. Recent research has highlighted the related practices of learning about new plug-ins and tailoring software tools as being highly cooperative, situated, socially embedded, and often connected to particular work situations. Based on an empirical study in small software enterprises, we develop an understanding of appropriation as a social and collaborative activity. We then suggest design principles for appropriation support that are grounded in the practices we have found in the field, and present a prototypical implementation of the concept that extends existing mechanisms of sharing tools and tool-knowledge.