Skip to main content
Log in

Hybrid ecologies: understanding cooperative interaction in emerging physical-digital environments

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Personal and Ubiquitous Computing Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We consider the emergence of hybrid ecologies, which marry mixed reality environments and ubiquitous computing environments together to bridge the physical-digital divide. Hybrid ecologies are new class of digital ecology that merge multiple environments, physical and digital, together. Collaboration in these emerging environments is characterized by ‘fragmented interaction’ in that it is mediated by interaction mechanisms that are differentially distributed. Unpacking the collaborative nature of fragmented interaction requires that we uncover the ordinary interactional competences that users exploit to make differentially distributed mechanisms of interaction work and the distributed practices that articulate ‘seamful’ representations and provide for awareness and coordination.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. www.blasttheory.co.uk/bt/work_uncleroy.html

References

  1. Barkhuus L et al (2005) Picking pockets on the lawn. In: Proceedings of the UbiComp 2005, Springer, Tokyo, pp 358–374

  2. Benford S, Fahlén L (1993) A spatial model of interaction in large virtual environments. In: Proceedings of the ECSCW 1993, Kluwer, Milano, pp 107–132

  3. Benford S et al (2004) The error of our ways. In: Proceedings of the UbiComp 2004, Springer, Nottingham, pp 70–87

  4. Benford S et al (2006) The frame of the game: blurring the boundary between fiction and reality in mobile experiences. In: Proceedings the 2006 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, ACM, Montreal, pp 427–436

  5. Bly S, et al (1993) Media spaces: bringing people together in a video, audio, and computing environment. Commun ACM 36(1):28–46

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Brown B, et al (2005) Sharing the square: collaborative leisure in the city streets. In: Proceedings of the ECSCW 2005, Springer, Paris, pp 427–429

  7. Burrell J, et al (2002) Context-aware computing: a test case. In: Proceedings of the UbiComp 2002, Springer, Gothenberg, pp 1–15

  8. Button G, Sharrock WW (1997) The production of order and the order of production. In: Proceedings of the ECSCW 1997, Kluwer, Lancaster, pp 1–16

  9. Chalmers M (2004) Space/place reconsidered. Presented at spaces, spatiality and technology conference, Napier University, Edinburgh, 12–14 December

  10. Chalmers M, Galani M (2004) Seamful interweaving. In: Proceedings of the DIS 2004, ACM, Cambridge, MA, pp 243–252

  11. Crabtree A, Rodden T (2004) Domestic routines and design for the home. J CSCW 13(2):191–220

    Google Scholar 

  12. Crabtree A, et al (2004) Orchestrating a mixed reality game ‘on the ground’. In: Proceedings of the CHI 2004, ACM, Vienna, pp 391–398

  13. Crabtree A, Rodden T, Benford S (2005) Moving with the times: IT research and the boundaries of CSCW. J CSCW 14(3):217–251

    Google Scholar 

  14. Crabtree A, et al (2006) Developing digital records: early experiences of record and replay, Computer supported cooperative work. J Collab Comput 15(4):281–319

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Dourish P, et al (1996) Your place or mine? J CSCW 5(1):33–62

    Google Scholar 

  16. Flintham M, et al (2003) Where on-line meets on-the-streets. In: Proceedings of the CHI 2003, ACM, Florida, pp 569–576

  17. Fraser M, et al (2003) Assembling history: achieving coherent experiences with diverse technologies. In: Proceedings of the ECSCW 2003, Kluwer, Helsinki, pp 179–198

  18. Garfinkel H, Wieder DL (1992) Two incommensurable, asymmetrically alternate technologies of social analysis. In: Watson G, Seiler SM (eds) Text in context: contributions to ethnomethodology, Sage, New York, pp 175–206

    Google Scholar 

  19. Garfinkel H (1996) Ethnomethodology’s program. Soc Psychol Q 59(1):5–21

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Garfinkel H (2002) Instructions and instructed actions. In: Proceedings of the ethnomethodology’s program: working out Durkheim’s Aphorism, Rowman & Littlefield, Maryland, pp 197–218

  21. Gaver W (1992) The affordances of media spaces for collaboration. In: Proceedings of CSCW 1992, ACM, Toronto, pp 17–24

  22. Harrison S, Dourish P (1996) Re-place-ing space. In: Proceedings of the CSCW 1996, ACM, Boston, pp 67–76

  23. Heath C, Luff P (1991) Disembodied conduct. In: Proceedings of the CHI 1991, ACM, New Orleans, pp 99–103

  24. Heath C, Luff P (1992) Media space and communicative asymmetries. Hum Comput Interact 7:315–346

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Hughes J, et al (1992) Faltering from ethnography to design. In: Proceedings of the CSCW 1992, ACM, Toronto, pp 115–122

  26. Hughes J, et al (1994) Perspectives on the social organization of work. In: Field studies and CSCW (COMIC Deliverable 2.2), Lancaster University, pp 129–160

  27. Ishii H, Ullmer B (1997) Tangible bits. In: Proceedings of the CHI 97, ACM, Atlanta, pp 234–241

  28. Koleva B, et al (2000) Traversable interfaces between real and virtual worlds. In: Proceedings of the CHI 2000, ACM, The Hague, pp 233–240

  29. Kirk D, et al (2005) Ways of the hands. In: Proceedings of the ECSCW 2005, Springer, Paris, pp 1–21

  30. Kuzouka H, et al (2004) Mediating dual ecologies. In: Proceedings of the CSCW 2004, ACM, Chicago, pp 477–486

  31. Luff P, et al (2003) Fractured ecologies. Hum Comput Interact 18(1):51–84

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Milgram P, et al (1995) Merging real and virtual worlds. Presented at Imagina 1995, INA, Monte Carlo, 1–3 February

  33. Pettersson M, et al (2002) Ambiguities, awareness and economy. In: Proceedings of the CSCW 2002, ACM, New Orleans, pp 286–295

  34. Rudström Å, et al (2005) Social positioning: designing the seams between social, physical and digital space. In: Proceedings of the HCII 2005, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Las Vegas, pp 24–27

  35. Sawyer P, Mariani J (1995) Database systems: challenges and opportunities for graphical HCI. Interact Comput 7(1):273–303

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Schilit B, et al (1994) Context-aware computing applications. In: Proceedings of the IEEE workshop on mobile computing systems and applications, IEEE, Santa Cruz, CA, pp 85–90

  37. Schmidt K, Bannon L (1992) Taking CSCW seriously: supporting articulation work. J CSCW 1(1):7–40

    Google Scholar 

  38. Schmidt K (2002) The problem with ‘awareness’. J CSCW 11(3):285–298

    Google Scholar 

  39. Steed A, et al (2004) The use of models of space in mixed-reality systems. In: Proceedings of IV 2005, IEEE, London, pp 768–777

  40. Streitz N, et al (2005) Designing smart artefacts for smart environments. IEEE Comput 38(3):41–49

    Google Scholar 

  41. Tolmie P, et al (2002) Unremarkable computing. In: Proceedings of the CHI 2002, ACM, Minneapolis, pp 399–406

  42. Weiser M (1991) The computer for the 21st Century. Sci Am 265(3):94–104

    Article  Google Scholar 

  43. Yoneki E, Bacon J (2005) Unified semantics for event correlation over time and space in hybrid network environments. In: Proceedings of the CoopIS 2005, Springer, Agia Napa, Cyprus, pp 366–384

Download references

Acknowledgements

The research on which this article is based was funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Equator Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration (www.equator.ac.uk), and the UK Economic and Social Research Council’s e-Social Science Research Node DReSS (www.ncess.ac.uk/digitalrecord).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andy Crabtree.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Crabtree, A., Rodden, T. Hybrid ecologies: understanding cooperative interaction in emerging physical-digital environments. Pers Ubiquit Comput 12, 481–493 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-007-0142-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-007-0142-7

Keywords

Navigation