Physical, social, and experiential knowledge in pervasive computing environments

BufferWare is a selective-archiving application deployed in an informal space to understand the types of knowledge people use to form impressions of new technologies. Physical knowledge relates to a particular piece of technology's affordances that is the design elements that inform people about the technology. Social knowledge is a community's embedded knowledge and involves the set of social interactions occurring in or around a space housing pervasive computing technologies. Experiential knowledge includes the range of information from past experiences, both in new spaces and with similar spaces and technologies. These experiences let potential users and stakeholders learn about their worlds and build models into which the new experiences fit. Services in pervasive computing environments can perform actions for users without requiring much attention and effort.