HCC: Medium: Multi-lifespan Information System Research and Design

University Of Washington, Seattle WA

Investigators

Abstract

This project seeks to identify principles by which information and computer scientists can design solutions for systems that will span periods extending beyond a single human lifespan. The challenge is not simply that hardware, software, and information infrastructure change, but also that culture and social institutions change. Thus the research will develop information systems that can adapt to shifting socio-technical conditions as they unfold; provide a delicate balance among remembering, forgetting, and speaking sensitive to different generations; support public discourse; and link distributed digital heritage across technology, institutions, and time. To achieve these goals, the project will leverage the existing Tribunal Voices testbed within four research strands: (1) multi-lifespan envisioning; (2) tagging and meaning making across generations; (3) supporting public discourse in shifting socio-technical conditions; and (4) constructing multi-lifespan policy and infrastructure. Multi-lifespan systems must be resilient to shifting societal, political, and technological conditions over an extended period of time. A fundamental challenge is to understand what those shifts might be, and how to support such future shifts from a technical perspective in today's designs. This project will explore conceptual, technical, and policy-oriented mechanisms for adapting and supporting such shifts. Another fundamental challenge is determining how to involve the public in interacting with deployed multi-lifespan systems, with sensitivity to multi-generations. This project will develop innovative methods to support public discourse for digital forums and public exhibits with attention to generational perspectives and secure participation. Multi-lifespan systems will need mechanisms for supporting the permanence of data, even as technologies change, as well as the intended impermanence of data. This project will develop integrated technical mechanisms and interaction designs to support a balance among remembering, forgetting, and speaking about difficult topics. This will be the first large-scale research and design investigation from a multi-lifespan design approach. The goals are two-fold: First, achieving technical progress by generating general design knowledge and methods for multi-lifespan information system design. Second, achieving social progress by contributing meaningful information system designs in support of advancing international justice and reconciliation between groups that had been in conflict with each other. In its broadest framing, through the development and refining of the core theory and methods of multi-lifespan information system design, this project seeks to shape the future of human-centered computing such that the next generation of scientists is well positioned to frame and address problems on a longer-term societal level.