Breakout 1 - User Experience (Bruce)

• Networked devices in the home increasingly need to connect to each other and outside of the home, as well as perform their primary functions. Demands on users to manage this connectivity have historically been a lowlight of technology in the home. How can we improve the user experience related to the network?
• Sample questions:
  • Should users think about connecting devices?
  • Or should users think in other terms, e.g., accessing content, declaring intent?
  • How is the problem in the home different from that of mobile/wireless devices?
  • Might we infer what connectivity is needed instead, e.g., with sensing?
  • How much do users need to understand about the network?
  • Can we move functionality elsewhere to help (e.g., cellular, the cloud)?

Breakout 2 - Architecture (Victor)

The connected home brings together many players, from devices to ISPs, vendors, service providers, and users. This allows for the possibility of locating functionality in many different places. Who should do what for the ensemble to work well and promote innovation?

Discussion Points [teasing it apart]

• The Home Network {logical} boundary & whose problem is it?
• Creating an SDK & winning the development community
• Programming abstractions & models(for compostable services?)
• Harmonizingacross players
• Universal classification and control definition for network devices
• Identifying interfaces, services & protocols for standardization while allowing innovation
• Hooks for diagnosis to allow self-management & outsourcing
• Managinglegacy and non-conformantapplications
• Cloud Services and their interaction with Home Networks
• What should the research community build? Tools? Platforms? Extensible UIs?
• Quantifying success –small things included

Breakout 3 - Privacy (Deborah)

More connections and greater information exchange among a larger set of devices, will contribute to a large corpus of passively-captured data in this most private of our contexts. These data will combine with personal data already intentionally-shared through social networking, e-commerce, and Internet search, to further increase concerns over privacy. These issues are already difficult to solve, especially given the tension with usability and that the business model associated with many services is access to the same data that the individual might consider private. What approaches to privacy are likely to be most useful and feasible?

Breakout 4 - Research Agenda (Haym)

• Currently, the research in home networks in splintered across various research areas and non-focused venues, which makes it hard to see what problems are being addressed and which ones need addressing. Can we define a more coherent research agenda around home networks?
• Sample questions:
  • What are the key problems that need to be addressed?
  • What expertise (e.g., systems, HCI, economics) is needed to address them?
  • How can we encourage folks to collaborate across areas? Is there a need for cross-area collaboration?
  • How can we establish a shared terminology and evaluation methods?

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Last updated: 07/31/2009