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The Ethnobot: Gathering Ethnographies in the Age of IoT

Authors:

Chris SpeedAuthors Info & Claims

CHI '18: Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Paper No.: 604, Pages 1 - 13

https://doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3174178

Published: 21 April 2018 Publication History

Abstract

Computational systems and objects are becoming increasingly closely integrated with our daily activities. Ubiquitous and pervasive computing first identified the emerging challenges of studying technology used on-the-move and in widely varied contexts. With IoT, previously sporadic experiences are interconnected across time and space in numerous and complex ways. This increasing complexity has multiplied the challenges facing those who study human experience to inform design. This paper describes the results of a study that used a chatbot or 'Ethnobot' to gather ethnographic data, and considers the opportunities and challenges in collecting this data in the absence of a human ethnographer. This study involved 13 participants gathering information about their experiences at the Royal Highland Show. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the Ethnobot in this setting, discuss the benefits and drawbacks of chatbots as a tool for ethnographic data collection, and conclude with recommendations for the design of chatbots for this purpose.

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Index Terms

The Ethnobot: Gathering Ethnographies in the Age of IoT
1. Human-centered computing

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cover image ACM Conferences

CHI '18: Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 2018

8489 pages

ISBN:9781450356206

DOI:10.1145/3173574

General Chairs:
Regan Mandryk
University of Saskatchewan, Canada
,
Mark Hancock
University of Waterloo, Canada
,
Program Chairs:
Mark Perry
Brunel University London, UK
,
Anna Cox
University College London, UK

Copyright © 2018 Owner/Author.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License.

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Association for Computing Machinery

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Published: 21 April 2018

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CHI '18: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 21 - 26, 2018

Montreal QC, Canada

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CHI '18 Paper Acceptance Rate 666 of 2,590 submissions, 26%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 6,199 of 26,314 submissions, 24%

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https://doi.org/10.4018/979-8-3693-1830-0.ch016
Liu TZhao HLiu YWang XPeng Z(2024)ComPeer: A Generative Conversational Agent for Proactive Peer SupportProceedings of the 37th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology10.1145/3654777.3676430(1-22)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3654777.3676430
Xu SChen CLiu ZJin XYuan LYan YQu H(2024)Memory Reviver: Supporting Photo-Collection Reminiscence for People with Visual Impairment via a Proactive ChatbotProceedings of the 37th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology10.1145/3654777.3676336(1-17)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3654777.3676336
Huang SLin YHe ZHuang CHuang T(2024)How Does Conversation Length Impact User’s Satisfaction? A Case Study of Length-Controlled Conversations with LLM-Powered ChatbotsExtended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613905.3650823(1-13)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
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