ABSTRACT
In the late 1980s, a new research program – ubiquitous computing, sometimes called “ubicomp” – emerged that envisioned a world in which our primary engagement with computation would no longer focus on desktop devices, but on many smaller devices worn on the body, carried with us, or embedded into the physical world. At Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) and other corporate and academic labs, researchers began to consider how we could design, build, understand and experience systems that followed this new computational paradigm. In this chapter Paul Dourish addresses current challenges that ubiquitous computing as a research field faces. On the one hand, it constantly attempts to envision and create the future. On the other hand, ubicomp also strives to understand current technologically rich environments. Dourish follows the latter approach while presenting his work with Genevieve Bell as a model for how we should place social sciences at the center of this debate, and make ubicomp as a site for interdisciplinary research. Dourish brings an anthropological perspective to understanding ubicomp in practice, as it arises in our contemporary world, and as it has been imagined by researchers working in the field. Historical facts inform Dourish’s lecture. He witnessed the emergence of ubi-
comp during the time he worked at the Xerox PARC lab. His main lesson is the realization that constant looking to the future leads one to ignore the practical reality of the world. Dourish recognizes in his lecture that individuals in many parts of the globe already inhabit ubicomp settings, which opens up many new possibilities for research. For this reason, his dialogue with students addresses issues like privacy, control and technological regulation, and provides a rich picture of the state of the art for ubicomp.
