Energy babble: Mixing environmentally-oriented internet content to engage community groups

William Gaver, Mike Michael, Tobie Kerridge, Alex Wilkie, Andy Boucher, Liliana Ovalle, Matthew Plummer-Fernandez

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

47 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The Energy Babble is a kind of automated talk-radio that is obsessed with energy and the environment. We developed it with, and deployed it to, a number of existing 'energy communities' in the UK. The system gathers content from a variety of online sources, including Twitter™ feeds from the communities, from governmental departments, and from the National Grid, and chats about it continually using a number of synthesised voices interspersed with a variety of jingles and sound effects. Designed to playfully reflect and comment on the existing state of discourse and reports of practice in the UK, the Babble can be considered both as a product and as a research tool, in which role it worked to highlight issues, understandings, practices and difficulties in the communities with whom we worked.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationCHI 2015 - Proceedings of the 33rd Annual CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Subtitle of host publicationCrossings
Place of PublicationNew York, NY, United States
PublisherACM
Pages1115-1124
Number of pages10
ISBN (Electronic)9781450331456
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 18 Apr 2015
Externally publishedYes
Event33rd Annual CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA 2015 - Seoul, Korea, Republic of
Duration: 18 Apr 201523 Apr 2015

Publication series

NameConference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings
Volume2015-April

Conference

Conference33rd Annual CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA 2015
Country/TerritoryKorea, Republic of
CitySeoul
Period18/04/1523/04/15

Keywords

  • Energy communities
  • Environmental HCI
  • Ludic design
  • Research through design
  • STS

Research Group keywords

  • Interaction Research Studio

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