Workshop Position Paper: Understanding space, place and 'community'

This position paper is concerned with interdisciplinary notions of space and place and their nuanced interaction with ideas about ‘community’ and, in particular, the extent to which ‘communities’ might be supported by different kinds of technological intervention. In this paper we discuss the ongoing CASIDE Project (www.caside.lancs.ac.uk) and the interpolation of situated displays in the places inhabited by a particular community. The central aim of CASIDE is to understand the way in which the physical placement and design of networked displays in semi-wild settings influences and facilitates coordination and community. This understanding will inform the development of suitable guidelines and methods for the design of situated displays both within and beyond the lifetime of the project. This research is important because it is clear that nuanced understanding of place and its relationship to community and social practices is required in order to avoid inappropriate deployments of this ‘situated’ technolog