OzCHI publication on backpackers

I'm back from a pleasant week in Canberra, Australia presenting a workshop paper and a short paper on backpackers and research methods for mobile groups. I've audio-recorded both the talks and put up the slides in PDF format, along with links to the papers themselves.

Short Paper:
Augmenting Travel Gossip: Design For Mobile Communities
Paper Pre-Print PDF (.5 MB) | Presentation PDF (1.1 MB) | Presentation MP3 (6.4 MB)

Workshop Paper:
Formative Research Methods For The Extremely Mobile: Supporting Community Interaction Amongst Backpackers
Paper PDF | Presentation PDF (1.34 MB) | Presentation MP3 (10 MB) (questions after talk removed)

Here are a few pictures from the presentations:


This is a hypothetical design for a location-aware mobile travel assistant for backpackers. It shows a map indicating current location, community authored location relevant comments, notifications based on current context, and instant updates of important activity or social network information.



(Click for larger version)
This is a diagram (possibly not in the actual paper) which shows the connection between backpackers via locations. Thicker lines (ties) show stronger social bonds. Some activities result in meeting more people or forming stronger connections.