Steve Howard

Research: Socially Beneficial Computing

Though much of my work has been in HCI and CSCW, my concerns focus broadly on IT and Society - my students and I think about how to exploit computing to alleviate problems of real social concern (e.g. illness, social marginalisation and isolation, environmental degradation).

Some current or recent projects

• 2008-10, Socially Oriented Requirements Engineering: software engineering meets ethnography. Funded by Australian Research Council (ARC) (#DP0880810). With Sterling and Vetere.
• 2008-10, Cross Community Information Systems: understanding technology-practice fit in healthcare. Funded by Australian Research Council (ARC) (#DP0880699). With Johnston, Sonenberg, Scheepers and Seddon.
• 2006-09, Using New Technology to Facilitate Smoking Cessation. Funded by National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) (#396405). With Borland, Graham and Balmford.
• The ongoing collaboration Customers of the Future
• 2005-07, Intergenerational Play and Communication: grandparents and grandchildren. Funded by Smart Internet Cooperative Research Centre. With Gibbs, Vetere, and Sterling.

With colleagues in the Interaction Design Group (and associated IDEA Lab) we are exploring these and related issues. Supporters and collaborators have included Novell, Sensis, Smart Internet CRC, Aalborg Universitet, Australian Research Council (ARC) and the National Health and Medical Research Council (nhmrc).

We hold Seminars on most Friday afternoons during the teaching semester, and everyone is welcome.

Some forthcoming or recent publications

• Ploderer, B., Howard, S. and Thomas, P. 2008, Being Online, Living Offline: The Influence of Social Ties over the Appropriation of Social Network Sites. Accepted for Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), San Diego
• Vetere, F., Davis, H., Gibbs, M. and Howard, S. 2008, The Magic Box and Collage: Responding to the challenge of distributed intergenerational play. Forthcoming in International Journal Of Human Computer Studies (IJHCS) (download mature draft)
• Leong, T., Howard, S. and Vetere, F. 2008, Choice: abdicating or exercising? In Proceedings of ACM CHI, Florence, Italy. Page 715-724 (download final)
• Leong, T., Howard, S. and Vetere, F. 2008, Take a chance on me. Forthcoming in ACM Journal - Interactions, May-June 2008. ISSN: 1072-5520. (download final)
• Paay, J., Dave, B. and Howard, S. 2007, Understanding and representing the social prospects of hybrid urban spaces. In Journal of Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, volume 34, pages 446-465 (download final)
• S Howard, J Kjeldskov and M Skov (Eds) 2006, Pervasive Computing in the Domestic Space. A special issue of the Journal Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, Pp 329-414 (online version)

See List of ACM Most Frequent Authors for a partial listing, or Publications for a more complete list.

Community Service

I review for most major journals, conferences and funding bodies in my area, but my substantive roles are:

• Editor, Interacting with Computers: The interdisciplinary journal of Human-Computer Interaction
• Editor, Personal and Ubiquitous Computing
• Member, IFIP WG 9.3 HOIT. An IFIP working group within TC 9 Relationship between Computers and Society focussing on domestic technology, smart homes etc

Current and Recent Teaching

Mostly HCI and Interaction Design. A colleague keeps a list of HCI links students might like to browse. Currently I'm involved in:

• 615348 Human Computer Interaction
• 615636 Interaction Design and Usability
• 615672 Pervasive Computing
• ...and in semester 2 2008 we launch the new University Breadth Subject 800150 Internet Meets Society