Abstract
The paper examines the concept of the networked home as both a social institution and a technological construction. While the concept of networks is not new to family studies, the new technologies of information and communication are requiring us to look at the home as an intersection point of sociology and technology. Fundamental to our analysis is the concept of home as living space that unfolds into a collection of multiple centers – home as activity center, entertainment center, work center, information center, communication center, learning center and shopping center. In our analysis, the living space is subdivided structurally into social, physical and technological spaces in which the centers are embedded as organic elements. The integration of the centers with the living space model is fundamental to understanding the home as a networked home.
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Notes
The special issue of Personnel Technologies edited by Harper (2000) contains several noteworthy articles on domestic computing. The topics discussed include "patterns of home life and designing for domestic environments" (Hughes et al. 2000), "future of the PC at home" (Brown 2000), "computer mediated communication" (Liechti and Ichikawa 2000), "economics of technology consumption" (Hammill 2000), and "interfaces for music appliances" (Rose 2000).
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Acknowledgements
This paper was written as part of ongoing research under Project NOAH II, at the Center for Research on Technology (CRITO), University of California, Irvine. Project NOAH II was funded by grants from the National Science Foundation in the USA (NSF grant no. IRI 9619695), and in Sweden from Ericsson, Electrolux, and Vattenfall under the sponsorship of the Marketing Technology Center (MTC), Stockholm.
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Venkatesh, A., Kruse, E. & Shih, E.CF. The networked home: an analysis of current developments and future trends. Cogn Tech Work 5, 23–32 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10111-002-0113-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10111-002-0113-8