Collections : adapting the display of personal objects for different audiences

Abstract

Although current networked systems and online applications provide new opportunities for displaying and sharing personal information, they do not account for the underlying social contexts that frame such interactions. Existing categorization and management mechanisms for digital content have been designed to focus on the data they handle without much regard for the social circumstances within which their content is shared. As we share large collections of personal information over mediated environments, our tools need to account for the social scenarios that surround our interactions. This thesis presents Collections: an application for the management of digital pictures according to their intended audiences. The goal is to create a graphical interface that supports the creation of fairly complex privacy decisions concerning the display of digital photographs. Simple graphics are used to enable the collector to create a wide range of audience arrangements for her digital photographs. The system allows users to express their preferences in sharing their personal pictures over a disembodied environment such as the Web. The system also introduces an original approach to the presentation interface of photographic collections on the Web: a viewing application that takes into account the viewing history of the photographs and the integration of text comments to images.