Using physical-social interactions to support information re-finding

A dominant way in which we organize our world is through social interactions. Much research has made use of social context as a way to support information storage and re-finding. However, they tend to focus only on the virtual side of sociality, and downplay the role of physicality in social interaction. In our research, we investigate how a person's physical-social interactions, in the form of co-presence, can be employed to support digital information management. We designed and implemented a system based on this concept and evaluated it in three two-month long case studies. Our system associates digital information used in social situations with co-present individuals through the use of automatic or manual tagging. Our findings showed that although the three participants varied greatly in their information filing and information use strategies, they all accessed digital information using people or groups of people, thereby supporting our initial premise. However, we found that the need to use digital information during social interactions arises only when there is a shared focus in the form of, for example, a large display, or when there is a social purpose for the information, for instance to share it with other meeting members at a later time. Our observations suggest the need for further research and innovation in technology affordances for real-time information use in physical-social interactions.