CAREER: Physical Interfaces to Empower Community Connections

本项目将通过研究界面类型和界面不对称性在支持社会连通性方面的作用，推动信息技术支持通信的研究。社交计算技术可能会增加人际联系，但之前的研究发现，某些形式的社交媒体可能会产生意想不到的社交孤立效应。因此，明确地调查、设计和测量社会连接作为社会计算系统的结果是很重要的。该项目正在两个高影响力的背景下调查社会联系：促进同伴支持从药物使用障碍中恢复，以及支持代际联系，以减少老年人的孤立，并为儿童提供一对一指导。这些原型有可能为应对这些重大的社会挑战做出积极贡献。所有开发的原型都将是开源的，所有的软件、电路设计和制造模型都可以下载，这项工作将有助于创新的教育整合活动。调查解决了设计和部署社交连通性技术的三个研究挑战：(1)了解作为专用物理接口开发的社交连通性系统与作为商品设备软件开发的社交连通性系统的相对权衡；(2)探索界面不对称对社交连通性系统和关系的影响，因为以前的工作通常假设通信伙伴使用相同的接口；以及(3)开发一个支持复制和元分析的社会连接性研究框架。这些研究挑战通过三个研究推进得到解决。前两个重点是在两个高影响力的社区连接环境中设计和现场部署社交连接系统，比较基于经过验证的社交连接度量的接口效果。第三个主旨要求与领先的社会联系研究人员合作，综合这些部署和其他相关调查的结果，为未来的工作制定一个复制框架。

This project will advance research on information technology supported communications by investigating the role of interface type and interface asymmetry on supporting social connectedness. Social computing technology may hold the promise of increasing interpersonal connectedness, but previous work has found that certain forms of social media may have unintended social isolation effects. Thus, it is important to explicitly investigate, design for, and measure social connectedness as an outcome of social computing systems. This project is investigating social connection in two high-impact contexts: facilitating peer support in recovery from substance use disorders and supporting intergenerational connections to reduce elder isolation and provide one-on-one mentoring for children. The prototypes have the potential to positively contribute to addressing these significant societal challenges. All prototypes developed will be open source, with all software, circuit designs, and fabrication models available for download, and this work will contribute to innovative educational integration activities.The investigation addresses three research challenges in designing and deploying technologies for social connectedness: (1) understanding the relative tradeoffs of social connectedness systems developed as dedicated physical interfaces versus as commodity device software; (2) exploring the effect of interface asymmetry in social connectedness systems and relationships, given that previous work typically assumes that communication partners are using identical interfaces; and, (3) developing a framework for social connectedness research to support replication and meta-analyses. These research challenges are addressed through three research thrusts. The first two thrusts focus on the design and field deployment of social connectedness systems in two high impact community connection contexts, comparing interface effects based on validated social connectedness metrics. The third thrust calls for synthesizing the findings of these deployments and other relevant investigations in collaboration with leading social connectedness researchers to develop a replication framework for future work.