Consumption Experiences in the Research Process

Title of the Paper

Consumption Experiences in the Research Process

Bibliographic Information

• Author: Sandy J.J. Gould
• Institution: Cardiff University, School of Computer Science and Informatics
• Publication Date and Conference: CHI ’22, April 29-May 5, 2022, New Orleans, LA, USA
• Thematic Area: Critical discussions on research methods in Human-Centered Computing (HCC)
• Keywords: research methods, data, commodification, data collection, consumption, craft, crowdsourcing, science and technology studies

Research Background and Issues

• Issues and Challenges:

  • Whether data collection, as a critical component of the research process, has been commodified and transformed into a consumption experience for researchers.
  • Whether commodification affects researchers' ability to generate insights and the value of research practices.
  • Whether HCC research has insufficiently recognized the impact of subjective consumption experiences on method selection and knowledge production.

• Significance:

  • Data collection not only influences research quality but may also have profound implications for academic reflection on method selection and the effectiveness of knowledge production.
  • Understanding the commodification process and its impact on research practices can help academia improve research methodologies.

• Motivation and Related Work:

  • Commodification is pervasive in both academic research and the commercial sector, such as standardized tools and datasets, crowdsourcing platforms, etc.
  • Previous studies have explored the various roles of data in HCC but have rarely analyzed the subjectivity in researchers' method selection processes.
  • This study aims to examine the characteristics of the academic research process through the lens of commodification and consumption experience frameworks.

Proposed Solution

• Theoretical Framework:

  • Consumption Experiences Framework.
  • Data, tools, platforms, etc., are viewed as commodities, and researchers' roles in data collection and analysis often involve being both "producers" and "consumers."

• Key Innovations:

  • This paper introduces the concept of consumption experiences into the academic research process for the first time, exploring the potential impact of commodification on the process of scientific knowledge production.
  • Emphasizes the subjectivity in consumption experiences, including symbolic, hedonic, and aesthetic factors influencing research practices.

• Implementation Steps and Techniques:

  • Theoretical Derivation: Analyzing the manifestations of data and commodification concepts in research.
  • Historical Case Comparisons: Examples like the Incan Quipu and Kelvin's tide-predicting machine to illustrate the impact of commodification on data production.
  • Modern Example Analysis: Examining the use of online crowdsourcing platforms and commodified data analysis tools and their impact on research practices.

Research Outcomes

• Specific Outcomes:

  • Proposed a consumption experiences framework for data collection and analysis.
  • Explained why commodification can be a driving force for research in some cases and why it may hinder the generation of insights in others.
  • Highlighted the opportunities and challenges posed by the use of fast data collection platforms, off-the-shelf standardized tools, and commodified analysis tools.

• Comparative Advantages Over Existing Solutions:

  • By depicting researchers' subjective consumption experiences during data processing, this study offers a new perspective on the relationship between commodification and research practices.
  • Calls for academia to reflect on how to balance "consumption" and "craft" within this framework.

• Experimental and Evaluation Results:

  • Based on literature synthesis and conceptual derivation, no specific experiments were conducted, but the theory supports the notion that data commodification influences the ability to generate new insights.

• Limitations and Future Directions:

  • Limitations:
    • Primarily theoretical discussion, lacking empirical studies to validate the hypotheses.
    • The broad applicability across different disciplines has not been fully demonstrated.
  • Future Directions:
    • Conduct empirical studies to validate the applicability of the consumption experiences framework in HCC research practices.
    • Develop meta-methodological tools based on this framework to assist academia in reflecting on research practices.
    • Explore the implications of commodification on research ethics and the economics of data collection.

Conclusion

Through theoretical exploration, this paper reveals the potential impact of data commodification and consumption experiences on academic research and proposes a methodological framework for academia to critically reflect on this issue. The author encourages researchers to not only reflect on their method choices but also to examine the positive and negative effects of data commodification on knowledge generation capabilities.