The perspective of PaPR researchers is unabashedly human-centered. Technology is but one aspect of complex human systems that involve social, emotional, economic, political and physical dimensions, among others. People stand at the center of these interdependent systems. Successful technologies always manage to deliver real value to real people. As Intel expands its global reach, understanding human values in all their geographic diversity thus becomes even more vital to our success and the success of the company.

People and Practices researchers travel the globe to conduct field investigations, using a variety of tools and techniques, from in-depth interviews to observations of people as they go about their daily activities. In the process, they develop valuable insights into potential new strategies, applications and technologies. The group’s ethnographers and designers work closely with Intel researchers and product developers to ensure that the insights gleaned through field work are translated into new technologies that address the needs and desires of people in a variety of global markets.

The research methods of the PaPR team include a wide range of ethnographic techniques, from in-depth personal interviews to participant observation in the field, along with many hours spent analyzing field data for significant patterns and key insights. The researchers actively experiment with new methodologies as well, such as the use of sensors in ethnographic research. They translate their findings into technology implications—strategies, applications, form factors, user experiences— which are often then tested with real people to provide valuable feedback. Such evaluations may include everything from simple prototypes, to extended deployments, to theatrical presentations wherein users get to envision and imagine currently impossible futures. The results of such activities are used to refine the team’s own concepts, and inform the development of technologies in Intel and the industry more generally.

To document their findings, PaPR researchers take notes, make audio and video recordings and take tens of thousands of digital photographs.

We tend to think of the adoption of personal computing as a collection of singular purchase designs by individual users. For many people in affluent communities (the US, for instance) a PC purchase might be an individual or household decision. But this is not the case everywhere. In large enterprises, IT departments increasingly control PC purchases. In many parts of the world, technology decisions involve more complex collaborations among entrepreneurs, civic organizations, governments and others who have a collective stake in improving access to information, solving problems or creating opportunities in the community. Adoption, use, and the associated costs and benefits of technology ownership are distributed among many different people.

Researchers within PaPR examine these issues by looking holistically at patterns of adoption across a wide variety of settings worldwide. Building in part on their research from the Next Ten Percentt project, they are involved in other research initiatives in Chicago, on Native American reservations, and in China, Africa, and India. The researchers also are maintaining contact with projects in a variety of other locations.

Through this research, the PaPR team is striving to understand the benefits, responsibilities and costs associated with technology adoption by various people within a given community. How do individuals calculate costs and benefits when making the decision about whether or not to adopt technology? The cost-benefit calculation is based not just on objective measures but on subjective measures, such as individuals’ knowledge of technology and the level of trust they place in the people bringing the technology to the community. The ultimate goal of the researchers is to understand the individual human needs that technology could fill, educate people about the potential benefits of technology adoption, and overcome the barrier of mistrust.

The PaPR team is interested in emerging technologies in general, but their primary focus is on wireless infrastructure and technology, which provides the lowest-cost connectivity and can be installed in places that are difficult or prohibitively expensive to reach with wires.
Learn more ›;;

Globalization looms large all around us. One key aspect of this has been the flows, mobilities and connections of people, objects and information across the globe. These flows affect cultural understandings of time, space, technology and identity.

The implications of globalization for multinational corporations and for the lives of people in emerging economies remain unclear. Researchers within PaPR are engaged in three interlocking sub-projects that will tackle questions of these cultural mobilities in globalization: transnational migration, networked cities, and professionalization of knowledge. Researchers are especially interested in these areas as they relate to the ways in which cultural practices shape relationships to new information and communication technologies.

The Cultural Mobilities project is a multi-year, multi-sited ethnographic research project that builds on insights about the importance of culture in technology adoption and use. Geographically, the research is focusing primarily on Eastern Europe, Russia, Brazil, the Middle East and Africa. Ethnographic fieldwork in Eastern Europe, Brazil and Russia is expected to take place in 2006, with additional field work planned for Africa in 2007. This research will propose corporate strategy for new ways of mapping a “flat” world, suggest types of new uses of technology that will deliver value in these cultural environments and indicate how conceptions of time, space and identity will drive technological adoption and diffusion.

Projectss

Street Smart Spaces
Researchers are carrying out a study of three cities, in the UK, China, and Brazil, to explore what people do in streets, how they do it, what they use, and how they think about the environment. A section of a street in each city serves as a research site. Researchers foresee at least three types of street participants: pedestrians and others who are passing through; more permanent residents, such as workers and shop owners; and those who frequently interact in the street but don’t dwell there, such as postal workers and delivery people. The goal of the research is to inform the design of street “smart” spaces and mobile technologies enabled people achieve their goals or satisfy unmet needs.

Young Professionals in Global Cities
Researchers conducted an ethnographic study of the everyday lives of young professionals in London, Los Angeles, and Tokyo to understand what items they carried with them and how they used these items to access people, places, and services through various urban interfaces. The goal was to assess the prospects for ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) systems in these environments. Despite major differences in culture and lifestyle, researchers found remarkable similarities across the sites in the practices of urban interfacing and in what participants’ wallets contained and how they were used. The findings suggest that ubicomp systems might be developed to address the range of urban concerns and to unburden and empower urbanites.

Urban Life of Women and Technologyy
Researchers explored how women experience life, what values motivate and shape their worlds, and where technology does or can fit into their experiences. One finding coming out of work in Brazil indicated that safety issues shape the way in which women use technology in large urban areas. In urban Brazil, expensive technology was being disguised when it left the home or office, or more often, wasn’t leaving these locations at all. Carrying a laptop could make women targets of assault and robbery. Cafes with free Wi-Fi access exist, but safety issues prevent women from using them. Even mobile phones, which allow users to call for rescue, are not displayed conspicuously, as that could compromise safety. On the other hand, technologies like game boxes, TVs and desktop computers were being used by women with families to keep their kids indoors and safe. The research on women and technology will be expanded to include cities in Estonia , Russia, South Africa and Dubai to gain a better understanding of the technology needs of women in diverse parts of the world.

Intel’s PaPR researchers are actively experimenting with new research methodologies that will enable them to obtain more accurate information and approach research problems in novel ways. In one study, PaPR researchers created digital street games, a variation on traditional street games that’s designed to explore how people navigate through cities. Three other recent projects were conducted in collaboration with Intel Research Berkeley. One project pioneered the use of sensors in ethnographic research, to capture data about how people interact with portable electronic devices in the home. Another study focused on gaining a better understanding of traditional homes by studying those who live in “extreme” homes—specifically, RVers who make their homes on the road. A third research effort, which focused on teenage girls’ notions of privacy, used weblogs as an ethnographic research tool and approached the concept of creating better technology by asking girls to envision the worst possible technology that could be built for them.

Projectss
Digital Street Game (DSG)
Researchers are conducting novel studies focused on how people navigate through cities. One study, Digital Street Game, is a reinterpretation of traditional street games that uses hybrid digital-physical play to spur exploration of players' relationships to the city and its inhabitants. In effect, the city becomes a game board. By using a game as an open-ended platform for research, the PaPR researchers hope to encourage creative expression and collaborative play.

As part of the game, players generate documentation and commentary that traces their paths through the game—and the city. The game becomes an experiment in producing a rich environment for community engagement and social research to assist in the development of future technologies.

Interacting with Portable Electronic Devices in the Digital Home
Intel researchers are exploring how people interact with the growing number of portable electronic devices in their homes, to inform the designers of devices and the architectural spaces that support them. The initial study focused wireless laptop usage in the home.

The findings suggest home design features to support technology usage, such as moveable walls, to allocate space to favorite places, and electronic foyers equipped with built-in printers and an electronic magazine rack that holds and recharges laptop batteries. Researchers plan to expand the project to focus on a broader range of homes and alternative sensing methods, to track a greater variety of portable devices and device ensembles. They will also analyze the sensor data in more detail and correlate laptop usage with other data such as the weather, which could affect movement patterns within the home.

Teen Girls: Using Technology to Maintain Privacy
Researchers explored the role that technologies play in creating, maintaining and preventing privacy in the lives of older teenage girls in the US and UK who are living at home with their parents. The study introduced weblogs as an ethnographic research tool and approached the issue of privacy and technology in a novel way, by asking teens to imagine the worst possible technology for them. Researchers found that text messaging was not the preferred way to ensure private communication among teens. Instead, it is the mobility of phones (both mobile and cordless) that enables the teens to maintain privacy in their conversations, by moving to a place in the home where are less likely to be overheard. Conversely, in public, the teens studied perceived the cell phone as a direct, private link to their friends, even when talking while surrounded by strangers. The study found that the mobile phone also provides teens with more independence, by allowing them to choose what they reveal about their location when talking to their parents.

Extreme Homes: RVers
Recreational vehicles, or RVs, have grown in popularity in recent years. To understand this alternative notion of home, PaPR researchers spent months on the road in a rented RV, documenting the lives of RVers They explored what mobility means when infrastructure is not a given; what people “can’t live without”; the planning, security and privacy concerns surrounding mobility; how people manage social, financial, professional obligations while mobile; and how people organize travel, daily movements, and meet health needs while mobile for extended periods of time. Among other things, the research revealed the frustrations of maintaining wireless connectivity on the road and identified creative strategies for living in small quarters.