Ubiquitous Computing at a Crossroads: Art, Science, Politics and Design 

January 6th and 7th 2009
Huxley Building, Imperial College London

Why should I trust the invisible?

Tim Kindberg, Hewlett-Packard Laboratories

Presentation slides may be requested directly from the speaker for IP reasons.

Ubiquitous computing involves interaction with devices and services whose functionality is situated, i.e. embedded in and adapted to the locations and situations that users encounter. Trust is an important issue: users may trust a situated service that turns out to be malicious; conversely, they may distrust and consequently decide not to use a bona fide service that would have been valuable.  While the functionality or reach of such services is related to the physical circumstances of use, their provenance may be more tenuously grounded and indeed may be invisible. Wi-Fi hotspots are a routine present-day example.

Ubiquitous computing is also characterised by the spontaneity of interactions: users are suddenly faced with situated services not encountered before. There may be no trusted third party to help them. How, if at all, do people relate the trustworthiness of a service appearing out of thin air with the evidence in the material world around them? How should they evaluate trustworthiness and how can we facilitate more robust trust decisions? I will describe a programme of research in the Cityware project aimed at these and related questions.