Social Issues in Personal Informatics: Design, Data, and Infrastructure

An abundance of digital tools exist for tracking various aspects of one's life, body, health, and activities. These personal informatics (PI) and quantified self (QS) technologies are designed to help users capture, reflect on, and get actionable feedback about personal information. In the past (and still in many cases), the design of such systems emphasized an individual-centric vantage point that focused on supporting an individual's self-tracking, self-knowledge, and self-management activities. Over time, however, a growing number of researchers are recognizing that such practices are socially motivated, collaboratively conducted, and embedded in interpersonal contexts, in ways that extend well beyond single-user use cases and requirements. This is resulting in the appearance of a host of new theories, methods, and frameworks for considering social contexts and practices within PI literature and design spaces. This one-day workshop will bring together researchers interested in better understanding and designing for PI at its intersection with social computing. Activities will provide participants with opportunities to share insights, exchange approaches, foster collaborations, and strengthen our connections.