HCI3P 2013 - Workshop on Human Computer Interaction for Third Places

There is a growing interest in understanding the roles that pervasive technologies play on places where people interact with each other. Some of these places are “third places”, or places that are neither home nor work ? but are instead places like coffee shops and bars ? where people deliberately come together to socialize. Third places are essential to social life because they provide a common ground where people with different interests and backgrounds can interact with each other and create the interpersonal ties that keep communities together.
New location based technologies and ever increasing pervasive technologies such as situated displays, mobile devices, passive sensing, or geo-location, enhance such places and affect how we interact with other people. The need to understand how such technologies affect third places has been previously recognized by the HCI community. Yet, we believe that we are at a critical stage wherein it would be beneficial to the research community to discuss a common research agenda tackling common questions regarding human computer interaction in third places.
The first Workshop on Human Computer Interaction in Third Places (HCI-3P) will explore the intersection between different types of third places and human computer interaction. The workshop will allow participants to discuss current research and, through a field activity taking place within several Parisian third places, provide a common ground to build a research agenda that can lead to collaborative research efforts.
Tangible Outcomes
Produce a research agenda for human computer interaction in third places
Initiate collaborative research efforts to tackle questions outlined by the produced research agenda
Host a special issue journal with accepted paper submissions (Targets: SIGCHI Bulletin, Interactions, Behaviour & Information Technology)
Initiate a recurring CHI Workshop on human computer interaction in third places.
Workshop Organization: Field activity in Parisian Third Places
Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, Parisian cafés served as essential places for political revolutionaries, artists and local communities alike. Their morphology and functioning have inspired many third places around the world for centuries. Similarly, Parisian open places ? like the Haussmann boulevards and the stairs of Montmartre ? have served as ideals of urban conviviality.
HCI-3P will host a field activity in Parisian third places, where participants will discuss the nature of contemporary third places, and the roles of computing on the future of third places around the world. The organizing committee has selected an initial list of such third places, based on their historical value or relevance to the topic of contemporary third places. The proposed places are within walking distance of the Métro Line 1, and no more than twenty minutes away from the Palais de Congrès de Paris.
Topics of interest
HCI-3P will focus on the following topics, but similar topics and discussions will be welcomed for submission and discussion during the workshop.
Novel interfaces to support human interaction in third places
Natural and unobtrusive interfaces to support conversation within third places
Aesthetic approaches to public interfaces within third places
Crowd-computing in third places
Comparison of third places with different cultural rootings
Supporting third places in special communities (e.g. nomad, non-technical)
Virtual or hybrid (virtual/face-to-face) third places
Computing for third places in the developing world