silvia lindtner - research

Using ethnographic methods such as interviews, participatory observations and technology probes, the research focused on privately-owned gaming clubs and members of grass-roots gaming associations who flexibly navigate a myriad of online and offline networks. The study provides insight into socio-technical practices of members of China's middle and upper middle classes and their usage of both digital and physical resources to develop social connections and gain face in a competitive economic and cultural market.

Online Game Play in China
In collaboration with Bonnie Nardi, Scott Mainwaring, Intel Research and Peking University.

We conducted an ethnographic study on online game play and wang ba (Internet cafe) in urban China focusing on the social, cultural, spatial and economic interplay between the game scene and local contingencies. Resarch was conducted in Internet cafes, student dormitories and appartments where we interviewed and observed Chinese players of the online game World of Warcraft. Findings point to serious aspects of gaming, where game play becomes meaningful in everyday lives of game players, even though the game is understood as exactly that: a game. Serious aspects of gaming involved social networking and presentation of socio-economic status through game play, engagement in political discourse and social discourses around nation building.

mopix: mobile photo sharing in managed appartment communities in Orange County
In collaboration with Judy Chen, Paul Dourish and Julie Rico.

mopix is a mobile phone application that allows location-based photo sharing to take place within the immediate spatial and social contexts of thee photo's origins. Photos taken with mopix are geo-tagged and automatically shared with public displays. We developed mopix on Nokia N95 mobile phones and Nokia N800, which function as public displays and allow interaction through touch screens. The system design was developed concomitantly to ethnographic research in Venice, California, and thus heavily influenced not only by social theory and previous work on photo sharing, but also by findings from the ethnographic research (see description below). Over the last year, we finished the implementation in Python on both devices and conducted a 2 months long user study in a gated appartment community in Orange County. Preliminary findings evidence that the situated photo sharing in the semi-public and managed appartment community constituted a tool that allowd for new interaction and communication opportunities to emerge, while simultaneously being subject of social and spatial boundary making and distinction work.

Venice, California: crafting play spaces in public and places for socio-economic distinction work
In collaboration with Julka Almquist.

Over the last three years, I have been conducting ongoing ethnographic field research on public street culture in Venice, California, focusing in particular on a local vendor and artist community. Last year Julka Almquist joined these efforts and has brought a fantastic new lens to the project from the perspective of planning, policy and design. Built in 1904 on Abbot Kinney's vision for an amusement park along the beach, Venice is famous for its beachfront sport facilities and its skateboard and surf culture. With its art studios, galleries, graffiti, and wall-painted advertisements, it is an internationallu-celebrated tourist spot. Originally, I got intersted in the boardwalk of Venice (a walking/biking/skating strip along the beach that Venice is most well known for) as my field site because of its reputation as a place "where about anything goes" and "freakshow." Although Venice is best known for its carefree and laissez-faire attitude, performing, vendoring and selling art work on the boardwalk is highly regulated. What counts as "art" and who is considered legimitate member of the the Venice community is subject to both formal and informal regulations. Julka and I have been participating in the vendor culture of Venice as participant observers, taking on the role of street vendors ourselves.

Fish'n'Steps: encouraging physical acitivity with a social computing game
In collaboration with James Lin, Lena Mamykina, Hank Strub

A year before I entered graduate school in fall 2006, I began researching and developing computing technologies to stimulate proactive behavior towards a healthier and more active lifestyle. I collaborated on this effort with an international research institute in Princeton, NJ (Siemens Corporate Research), which provided access to national and international health care providers, patient records and existing technical systems in clinics. A sedentary lifestyle is a contributing factor to chronic diseases, and is often correlated with obesity. In recent decades, obesity has become a problem on the scale of a world-wide epidemic. The 1999 National Health and Nutrition survey (NHANES) estimated that 61% of US adults are either overweight or obese. These people suffer from both deleterious health consequences and the corresponding psychological stigma. The most effective approaches to treating people for being overweight or obese usually begin with lifestyle improvements, and continue to more invasive treatments such as pharmaceuticals and even surveys. Through both qualitative and quantitative research, I designed, implemented and tested a software prototype to encourage increase in physical activity and to raise awareness about unhealthy behavior displayed during daily routines and habits. The prototype, called Fish'n'Steps, was implemented as a social computing game, which linked an individual's daily foot step count to the growth and activity of an animated virtual character, a fish in a fish tank.

		\| about me \| research \| teaching \| publications \| CV
		Research Mixed Reality Game Play in China: Expansion of digital culture into traditional entertainment centers, tea houses and high-end game clubs. In collaboration with Ken Anderson and PaPR, Intel Research and Paul Dourish In 2008, we traveled to China to study the role of mixed reality gaming in the lives of young urbanites and their positionings within a changing political and economic landscape.
		Using ethnographic methods such as interviews, participatory observations and technology probes, the research focused on privately-owned gaming clubs and members of grass-roots gaming associations who flexibly navigate a myriad of online and offline networks. The study provides insight into socio-technical practices of members of China's middle and upper middle classes and their usage of both digital and physical resources to develop social connections and gain face in a competitive economic and cultural market. Online Game Play in China In collaboration with Bonnie Nardi, Scott Mainwaring, Intel Research and Peking University. We conducted an ethnographic study on online game play and wang ba (Internet cafe) in urban China focusing on the social, cultural, spatial and economic interplay between the game scene and local contingencies. Resarch was conducted in Internet cafes, student dormitories and appartments where we interviewed and observed Chinese players of the online game World of Warcraft. Findings point to serious aspects of gaming, where game play becomes meaningful in everyday lives of game players, even though the game is understood as exactly that: a game. Serious aspects of gaming involved social networking and presentation of socio-economic status through game play, engagement in political discourse and social discourses around nation building. mopix: mobile photo sharing in managed appartment communities in Orange County In collaboration with Judy Chen, Paul Dourish and Julie Rico. mopix is a mobile phone application that allows location-based photo sharing to take place within the immediate spatial and social contexts of thee photo's origins. Photos taken with mopix are geo-tagged and automatically shared with public displays. We developed mopix on Nokia N95 mobile phones and Nokia N800, which function as public displays and allow interaction through touch screens. The system design was developed concomitantly to ethnographic research in Venice, California, and thus heavily influenced not only by social theory and previous work on photo sharing, but also by findings from the ethnographic research (see description below). Over the last year, we finished the implementation in Python on both devices and conducted a 2 months long user study in a gated appartment community in Orange County. Preliminary findings evidence that the situated photo sharing in the semi-public and managed appartment community constituted a tool that allowd for new interaction and communication opportunities to emerge, while simultaneously being subject of social and spatial boundary making and distinction work. Venice, California: crafting play spaces in public and places for socio-economic distinction work In collaboration with Julka Almquist. Over the last three years, I have been conducting ongoing ethnographic field research on public street culture in Venice, California, focusing in particular on a local vendor and artist community. Last year Julka Almquist joined these efforts and has brought a fantastic new lens to the project from the perspective of planning, policy and design. Built in 1904 on Abbot Kinney's vision for an amusement park along the beach, Venice is famous for its beachfront sport facilities and its skateboard and surf culture. With its art studios, galleries, graffiti, and wall-painted advertisements, it is an internationallu-celebrated tourist spot. Originally, I got intersted in the boardwalk of Venice (a walking/biking/skating strip along the beach that Venice is most well known for) as my field site because of its reputation as a place "where about anything goes" and "freakshow." Although Venice is best known for its carefree and laissez-faire attitude, performing, vendoring and selling art work on the boardwalk is highly regulated. What counts as "art" and who is considered legimitate member of the the Venice community is subject to both formal and informal regulations. Julka and I have been participating in the vendor culture of Venice as participant observers, taking on the role of street vendors ourselves. Fish'n'Steps: encouraging physical acitivity with a social computing game In collaboration with James Lin, Lena Mamykina, Hank Strub A year before I entered graduate school in fall 2006, I began researching and developing computing technologies to stimulate proactive behavior towards a healthier and more active lifestyle. I collaborated on this effort with an international research institute in Princeton, NJ (Siemens Corporate Research), which provided access to national and international health care providers, patient records and existing technical systems in clinics. A sedentary lifestyle is a contributing factor to chronic diseases, and is often correlated with obesity. In recent decades, obesity has become a problem on the scale of a world-wide epidemic. The 1999 National Health and Nutrition survey (NHANES) estimated that 61% of US adults are either overweight or obese. These people suffer from both deleterious health consequences and the corresponding psychological stigma. The most effective approaches to treating people for being overweight or obese usually begin with lifestyle improvements, and continue to more invasive treatments such as pharmaceuticals and even surveys. Through both qualitative and quantitative research, I designed, implemented and tested a software prototype to encourage increase in physical activity and to raise awareness about unhealthy behavior displayed during daily routines and habits. The prototype, called Fish'n'Steps, was implemented as a social computing game, which linked an individual's daily foot step count to the growth and activity of an animated virtual character, a fish in a fish tank.