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Designing for social interaction with mundane technologies: issues of security and trust

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Abstract

This paper documents some of the socio-technical issues involved in developing security measures for wireless mesh networks (WMNs) that are deployed as part of a community network. We are interested in discovering whether (and exactly how) everyday social interaction over the network is affected by security issues, and any consequent design implications. We adopt an interdisciplinary methodological approach to requirements, treating a community as an ‘organization’ and implementing an approach, OCTAVE, originally designed to uncover security elements for organizations. Using a focus group technique we chart some of the assets and security concerns of the community, concerns that need to be addressed in order for WMNs, or indeed any network, to become a truly ‘mundane technology’.

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Acknowledgments

Paul Smith’s research was supported by Telekom Austria AG. The authors are grateful to the members of the Wray village community that took part in this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computing Department, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK

    Sara Bury, Johnathan Ishmael, Nicholas J. P. Race & Paul Smith

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  1. Sara Bury
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  2. Johnathan Ishmael
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  3. Nicholas J. P. Race
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  4. Paul Smith
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Correspondence to Sara Bury.

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Bury, S., Ishmael, J., Race, N.J.P. et al. Designing for social interaction with mundane technologies: issues of security and trust. Pers Ubiquit Comput 14, 227–236 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-009-0257-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-009-0257-0

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