Abstract The community's work to date has been focused on the so-called 'developed' world ? contexts where there are already well-established technical infrastructures and digital resources. These contexts have users who are relatively highly computer literate, typically have high degrees of textual literacy and have undergone a formal education. Examples include sophisticated 'smart' homes with digital notice boards and even interactive fridge doors (Taylor et al, 2007); embedded technologies for amusement parks (Schn?delbach et al, 2008); and, cities and urban dwellers with time to, "marvel at mundane everyday experiences and objects that evoke mystery, doubt, and uncertainty. How many newspapers has that person sold today? When was that bus last repaired? How far have I walked today? How many people have ever sat on that bench? Does that woman own a cat? Did a child or adult spit that gum onto the sidewalk?" (Paulos & Beckmann 2006).
This workshop is about the billions of people who do not fit these sorts of context. There are hundreds of millions of users, and billions to come in the next 5 years, in places like India, China and Africa, whose first, and perhaps only, experience of computing will be in the form of mobile and other ubicomp technologies. Many of these users will never live in the sorts of home, or work in the types of office, or daydream in the parks, or take a day-off for the sorts of amusement park envisaged by earlier research. Website http://www.cs.swan.ac.uk/globicomp2009/
