Physical, Social, and Experiential Knowledge in Pervasive Computing Environments

BufferWare is a selective archiving application for recording everyday experiences in an informal space. An evaluation of the system's deployment, combined with analysis of existing research on recording technologies and security and privacy, demonstrates that people use three types of knowledge to determine new technologies' relative utility and safety. Physical knowledge includes design elements that inform people about the technology and how to use it. Social knowledge includes a community's embedded knowledge. Experiential knowledge includes users' past interactions with similar technologies and new technologies. This article is part of a special issue on security and privacy.