CHS: Small: Context-aware mobile systems to facilitate synergistic face-to-face interactions

网络人类系统有望实现无缝的移动的社交导航，移动中的人们能够在正确的时间和正确的地点与正确的人建立联系。偶然相遇，彼此不熟悉的人之间的意外相遇，是罕见但强大的事件，为人们提供了发展新的社会关系的机会。建立新的社会关系，从而增加社会资本是很重要的，因为个人嵌入在丰富的社会环境中，例如，能够更好地处理个人挫折，如财务失败和疾病，并为他人提供社会支持。虽然我们经常被潜在的新朋友包围，但识别他们是谁以及如何与他们联系是一个问题。情境感知系统有可能调解这种偶然相遇，从而改变我们建立新的社会关系的方式。该项目的目标是了解偶然相遇的动态，并开发、部署和测试有助于这种偶然相遇导致新的社会联系的系统机制。在第一项研究中，研究人员将进行一项前瞻性队列研究（n=500），其中两组大一学生将被跟踪超过18个月，探索他们的社交网络的变化程度，这是偶然相遇的结果，以及如何形成新的关系可能会通过上下文感知系统来增强。人种学和经验抽样研究的结合将提供对偶然相遇的动态和影响人们在旅途中与他人会面的动机的上下文变量的见解，例如地点的性质;附近的人数（社会背景）;个人用户背景，例如，当前活动（认知背景）;两个潜在匹配的人之间的关系的性质，例如，共享属性（关系上下文）和隐私问题。第二阶段涉及设计研究，以产生创新的机制和设计的系统，将在现场使用验证。这些研究的结果将确定上下文数据可以识别偶然相遇的机会并支持偶然介绍的方式，从而实现创建增强人类能力和促进社会凝聚力的系统的CHS使命。

Cyber-Human Systems hold the promise of seamless mobile social navigation, where people on the move are able to make connections to the right people at the right place and the right time. Chance encounters, the unintended meeting between people unfamiliar with each other, are rare but powerful incidents that offer people an opportunity to develop new social ties. Building new social ties and thus increasing social capital is important because individuals embedded in richly connected social environments are, for example, better able to handle personal setbacks, such as financial failures and illness, and to provide social support for others. While we often are surrounded by potential new friends it is problematic to identify who they are and how to connect with them. Context-aware systems have the potential to mediate such chance encounters and, hence, transform the way we make new social ties. The goal of this project is to understand the dynamics of chance encounters and to develop, deploy and test mechanisms for systems that can facilitate such chance encounters leading to new social ties.The project has two phases. In the first, the investigators will conduct a prospective cohort study (n=500), in which two cohorts of freshmen students will be followed over 18 months, exploring both the extent of changes in their social networks that are the result of chance encounters and how formation of new ties might be enhanced by a context-aware system. A combination of ethnographic and experience sampling studies will provide insights into the dynamics of chance encounters and the contextual variables that influence people's motivations for meeting others when on-the-go, such as the nature of place; number of people nearby (social context); the individual user context, e.g., current activity (cognitive context); the nature of the relationship between two potentially matched people, e.g., shared attributes (relational context), and privacy concerns. The second phase involves design research to generate innovative mechanisms and designs for systems that will be validated in field use. Findings from these studies will identify ways that contextual data can identify opportunities for chance encounters and support serendipitous introductions, fulfilling the CHS missions of creating systems that enhance human capabilities and advance society's cohesiveness.