The Potential of Hospitable Media
SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULLFILLMENT FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE
HUGO ERNST
10319409
MASTER INFORMATION STUDIES
HUMAN-CENTERED MULTIMEDIA
FACULTY OF SCIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM
August, 2015
1st Supervisor Dr. Mettina VeenstraSaxion University of Applied Sciences
2nd Supervisor
Dr. Frank Nack
The Potential of Hospitable Media
Hugo Ernst
University of Amsterdam Graduate School of InformaticsScience Park 904, Amsterdam
hospitable.media
ABSTRACT
This study’s research objective has been to explore the potential of the conceptual phenomenon ‘hospitable media’; media that contributes to the hospitableness of the environment in which it is expressed. The underlying thought of this study has been that truly ‘new media’ should not be defined as being different from traditional media, but rather as media that has proven to introduce usefulness in people’s lives. Experiences have emerged as the next step in the progression of economic value [27] and providing people with valued experiences is considerably a skill practiced within the field of Hospitality Management. An explorative research study has been undertaken in attempt to develop an in-depth exploration [8] on the potential of the conceptual phenomenon ‘hospitable media’; media that contributes to the hospitableness of the environment in which it is expressed. As a result of the overall exploratory study, five hospitableness success factors have been identified. Inherent, the three media qualities have been identified that arguably incorporate one or more of these hospitableness success factors.
General Terms
Human Factors, Theory, Management
Keywords
Hospitable Media, Hospitality, New Media, Innovation, Service, Context Aware Computing, Ubiquitous Media, Pervasive Media, Ambient Media, Ambient Intelligence, Human Centered Multimedia
1. INTRODUCTION
Innovation generally consists of ideas, practices or artifacts that an adopter perceives as new [37]. Media products and services are changing [33] and it is noticeable how the boundaries between mass media and other forms of communication are blurring [5]. A media innovation does not exclusively involves new ways to produce, distribute, manage or finance media, as it can also involve changes in the roles that the media users have [33]. The underlying thought of this study has been that truly ‘new media’ should not be defined as being different from traditional media, but rather as media that has proven to introduce usefulness in people’s lives. With this in mind, an attempt has been made to envision a new kind of media that would have potential to add usefulness in people’s lives and be adopted within society. Pine & Gilmore [27] have explained how people traditionally valued extracted commodities that they could use themselves to make goods. Over time however, people started valuing pre-made goods and goods have become commoditized. The same has happened when people valued to receive services. Experiences have emerged as the next step in the progression of economic value [27] (see figure 1).
Figure 1: The progression of economic value [27]
It is noticeable how media has become ever more present within people’s lives and has become an economical value in the form of service delivery (see figure 1). For example, media is often traded as a service itself (e.g. an on-demand video membership) or used as an intermediary for the delivery of ‘customer service’. However, the question that raises when looking at the progression of economic value [27] is: to what extend would media be able to
stage experiences?
Pine & Gilmore [27] mention how ‘economists have typically lumped experiences in with services, but experiences are a distinct economic offering, as different from services as services are from goods’. In attempt to envision how media could contribute in the staging of experiences, this paper’s study has considered it relevant to first deeply investigate what staging experiences naturally involves. In attempt to do so, a relation has been identified to the field of Hospitality Management in which the staging of an experience within an environment can be considered essential. ‘Being hospitable’ can been defined as behavior [24, 30] and attitude [30] that contributes in creating a valued guest experience. The value of an experience however, obviously depends on different characteristics that people have, situations or more generally: the context that is involved. Therefore in order for media to be hospitable, and hereby create a valued guest experience, it would need to somehow incorporate traditional hospitality management knowledge. This study’s research objective has been to explore the potential of the conceptual phenomenon ‘hospitable media’; media that contributes to the hospitableness of the environment in which it is expressed.
2. DEFINITIONS
This chapter provides definitions of the concepts hospitality and
media that together have aimed to function as an unambiguous
framework supporting the exploratory study.
2.1 Hospitality
Hospitality can be described as the quality or disposition of receiving and treating guests and strangers in a warm, friendly, generous way [38]. However, the concept is broadly interpretable [4] which has emphasized the need for a more unambiguous definition. Jones [15] argued that hospitality is made up of the provision of overnight accommodation and sustenance for people that are away from home. In this sense, hospitality can be interpreted as the act of providing guests with services. It is therefore not surprising to notice how the term hospitality is often linked to the Hospitality Industry, such as hotels and restaurants. Although the provision of overnight accommodation, food and beverages may be considered hospitable, an ambiguousness is created when the term hospitality actually means: hotel and catering management [20]. Other definitions can be considered more in-depth and mention how hospitality is about behavior [24, 30] and attitude [30].
In preparation of this paper’s exploratory study, it has been attempted to develop an unambiguous definition framework by predefining the following concepts:
- Hospitableness: The quality of a guest experience within an
environment.
- Hospitality: The domain in which guests experiences are
central.
Hospitality can be further categorized into three subdomains that are independent yet overlapping [20] (see figure 2). The private hospitality domain concerns in-home hospitableness. The social domain considers the social settings around hospitableness. The commercial domain views hospitality from the perspective of economic activities.
2.2 Media
In preparation of this paper’s exploratory study, the following two concepts have been predefined:
- Media: A means of communication that consists of one or
more media expressions.
- Multimedia: The overall domain of different kinds of media,
particularly digital and technological supported media.
3. SCOPE
The goal of this study has been to explore what it involves to be hospitable and what the potential of media is to intermediate herein. However, the values that guests have are noticeably very context-specific, e.g. depending on current situations and people’s personal characteristics, which indicates that hospitable media naturally would be the result of context-intelligence. Nevertheless, this study has investigated the potential of hospitable media in a general sense, which excluded any specific media system design.
4. METHODOLOGY
An explorative research study has been undertaken in attempt to develop an in-depth exploration [8] on the potential of the conceptual phenomenon ‘hospitable media’; media that contributes to the hospitableness of the environment in which it is expressed. This study has researched the concept hospitableness from within the Social Science domain and the concept media from within the Information Science domain (see figure 3).
Information Science Social Science Multimedia Hospitality
Figure 3: Research domains of interest
The broadness of the research domain, together with the innovative and conceptual nature of the research phenomenon has emphasized the approach of applying qualitative data gathering. Literature in both research domains have extensively been reviewed and a group of experts have been interviewed to gain a body of knowledge that is conceptual, theoretical and also based on meanings that life experiences hold [9]. The research objective has therefore been formed in a way that a homogenous group of experts can sufficiently contribute their experiences about it [7]. The literature study, the interviewing and the data analyzation have been undertaken in an iterative and exploratory manner.
4.1.1 Literature Study
Literature study has served as a framework towards and during the interview-based qualitative data gathering. Both Social Science and Information Science papers have been reviewed in attempt to demonstrate how existing knowledge could 1) emphasize the study foundation and 2) indicate any potential underlying assumptions or gaps in relation to the study. An arguably challenging aspect of this study has been the merging of knowledge about relatively modern technological concepts with relatively traditional knowledge on natural human behavior. As a result, the variety of papers that have contributed to this study’s literature review have arguably resulted in a harmonious mix of knowledge from different time periods.
4.1.2 User Stories
Due to the different natures of the Social Science and the Information Science research domains; it has been expected that there would be a need for a tool that would support the interviewees in gaining an impression of the research phenomenon, regardless of their specific background in either one of the domains. For this reason, several user-stories have been developed around a specific topic that would allow the research phenomenon to narratively be described. The term ambient intelligence (AmI) generally refers to technologically enhanced physical environments that are context-aware and responsive to the presence of people [2] AmI can be considered a subject of interest within the domain of Information Science due to its human-centered system design focus and the technological nature. On the other hand, in order for AmI to effectively interact with humans, knowledge from within the Social Science domain could also be considered relevant in order for the system to incorporate social intelligence. Four Ambient Intelligence user scenarios have been developed by the IPTS (part of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre) in collaboration with DG Information Society and with the active involvement of 35 experts from across
Private Social
Commercial
Figure 2: Hospitality Activity
Europe [2]. Their aim has been to describe what living with Ambient Intelligence might be like for ordinary people in the year 2010. These four user scenarios have inspired this paper’s study in the development of four user stories (see appendix 1) that functioned as a descriptive framework during the interviews in case unclearness or incompleteness was noticed.
4.1.3 Interviewing
Several professionals that either have an applied or theoretical perspective on the research phenomenon were interviewed. During the explorative data gathering iterations, it has been determined that a total of five interviews would be sufficient with respect to this study’s research objective, its scope and the MSc. thesis size constraints of which this study has been subjective. A face-to-face interview setting has aimed to create a personal and intimate encounter in which open, direct and verbal questions were used to elicit detailed narratives, stories and anecdotes, in order to gain qualitative knowledge on particular individual experiences and perspectives regarding the research phenomenon [9]. Prior to each interview, the interview protocol has been explained and the interviewees have been requested to summarize their field of expertise and experience in their own words. Each interview has taken around sixty to ninety minutes and has been undertaken at different locations, particularly within the interviewee’s physical work-domain. The interviewees have been prepared to depart from the planned itinerary during the interview, as potential digressions have been considered productive when they follow the interviewee’s interest and knowledge [13]. The interviews have been semi-structured and a limited set of predefined open questions have been prepared for each interview that would sufficiently cover the research topics to be discussed. However, the iterative nature of the qualitative research process, in which preliminary data analysis coincides with data collection, has resulted in the adding of questions during the overall study. This can be considered a common approach [9] and is mainly for the reason that new insights can invite towards different perspectives when progressing.
Academic Hospitality & Multimedia Applied Multimedia Applied Hospitality
Figure 4: Interviewee Selection Categories
The selection criteria of the participants (see figure 4) has focused on creating a homogenous group of participants from within the domain of applied multimedia, applied hospitality and the academic domain in which both research fields are involved. The selection of interviewees has also been subjective to the iterative process, which is referred to as purposeful sampling that seeks to maximize the depth and richness of the data [19] and in which the interviewees have critical similarities related to the research phenomenon [23].
5. EXPLORATORY STUDY
This study’s research objective has been to explore the potential of the conceptual phenomenon ‘hospitable media’; media that contributes to the hospitableness of the environment in which it is expressed. This chapter presents the knowledge that has been gathered during this study’s exploration. In attempt to present this knowledge logically and chronologically, six subsections have been constructed that aim on explaining 1) what service delivery involves 2) how service delivery relates to hospitableness, 3) the importance of context-awareness, 4) how to define the context 5) how to design the context, and 6) how the acquired knowledge can potentially create hospitable media.
5.1 Service
Similar to providing products, companies can also provide their customers with services. Media is often provided as a service, for example an on-demand video service. Service generally involves a service transaction that is provided by a company to a customer [1]. However, the term service is dual-interpretable as it can also refer to behavior that supports the quality of the transaction. This kind of service is often referred to as ‘customer service’ and generally focusses on minimizing the burdens that customers endure [1]. Traditionally, customer service was provided face-to-face, e.g. a bank customer that received service from a bank employee at the physical service desk. Over time however, electronic communication tools have noticeably become useful to intermediate herein. For example, customer service is often delivered over the phone by call-center employees and it is noticeable how web-care teams use of Social Media to deliver customer service. Berry et al. [1] have described a set of success factors that influence the quality of service:
Reliability: Delivering the transaction as promised.
Friendliness: Delivering sincere intentions
Responsiveness: Delivering additional help
Assurance: Delivering trust and confidence
Empathy: Delivering attention
Tangibles: Delivering physical facilities
When comparing the quality of a face-to-face customer service with a digitally intermediated customer service, it is noticeable that one of the great benefits of digital intermediated customer service allows customers to be less constrained by time-based and/or spatial conditions. For example, customers can receive service without having to make an appointment or physically be present at the service desk. On the other hand, some of the customer service qualities that Berry et al. [1] have defined, in particular providing emphatic attention, are arguably less delivered because the intermediation creates a certain distance between the service employee and the customer. This distance can be considered even greater when service teams provide their service in an anonymous manner, as e.g. often is the case with call-centers, which eliminates the ability for the customer to establish a longer-term relationship with a specific employee. One of this study’s interviewees mentioned that the traditional one-on-one customer-employee relationship is however becoming a future focus again.
“Traditionally, you would have a one-on-one relation with your insurance or travel agent […] but nowadays, these agencies all consist of call-centers […] New concepts are now focusing again on delivering this traditional one-on-one relation” - Strategic Marketing & Hospitality Consultant
5.2 Hospitableness
This study’s interviewees have emphasized that in hospitality, clients or customers are generally referred to as guest. This reference arguably makes sense as the people that experience the hospitableness exist within an environment that is directly managed by a host.
Being hospitable can be interpreted as treating people in a warm, friendly and generous way [38] which will make them feel comfortable and enjoy themselves. However, this interpretation can be considered rather abstract because the quality definition of warmness, friendliness and generosity are noticeably very personal and depended on a specific context. This paper argues that being hospitable is about creating valued guest journeys. A guest journey consists of guest experiences within environments. Creating a guest experience requires behavior [24, 30] and attitude [30] when providing multiple service transactions.
“Hospitableness is about the experience of the guest, which involves many things in the total journey […] it is about creating expectations […] preparations, first impressions […] wow-experiences […] and how the wow-experiences will be remembered” - Strategic Marketing & Hospitality Consultant
How much a guest experience is valued within the environment indicates the hospitableness of the environment. The hospitableness of an environment is influenced by the value of the services that are provided by the host and received by the guest (see figure 5).
Guest experiences Host
Service Value provides receives
Hospitableness
influences
creates
Figure 5: Hospitableness
As one of the interviewees has mentioned, media has the ability to deliver joy to people within an environment, which indicates at least some potential for media to contribute to the hospitableness of the environment in which it is expressed.
“I am unable to influence how the coffee is served, or the quality of the air conditioning […] however, I am able to make sure that the people in the environment will enjoy themselves by displaying the right content […] or perhaps introduce a gaming element” - Founder/Owner Out Of Home Media Company
5.2.1 The Relationship
Another way to distinguish between the service delivery and being hospitable, is the different relationship that is involved. When delivering service, the transaction can be considered the essence of the customer-company relationship. However, when being hospitable, the guest-host relationship can be considered the essence of delivering service transactions. Guests make use of hospitality services, e.g. dining at a high quality restaurant, not just for consummation purposes, but also to experience their role as guest within the guest-host relationship. When a pattern of service failure develops, this could negatively influence the hospitableness (see figure 5) and guests may conclude that the relationship cannot be counted on. Within commercial hospitality, the guest is arguably less obligated to socially contribute to the relationship due to the financial return that he or she provides and
this creates a certain power of freedom for the guest to end the relationship [17] and establish a relationship with a different host in the future. It is therefore important for a host to recognize that weak links in the overall chain of guest experiences can have great consequences, as has been emphasized by on of this study’s interviewees’.
“Hospitality is a journey […] a chain of many interactions […] and it is thus of importance to recognize that the weakest link in this journey will determine the hospitality experience” - Strategic Marketing & Hospitality Consultant
When investigating relationships in the domain of multimedia; references are often made to terms such as publisher-consumer, user-computer and client-server. It is noticeable how these roles are generally user-centric; in which media refers to something that is consumed or used. This paper argues that these user-centric relationships can be considered similar to the service-centric customer-company relationship. This would indicate that the potential of hospitable media is related to its ability to shift away from the traditional multimedia relationships and establish a guest-host relationship instead.
5.2.2 The Host
The guest-host relationship can be maintained when both parties receive value from it. In commercial hospitality, a host generally values a financial return that would normally not apply in social hospitality [11]. In social hospitality it can be argued that there exists a certain equality in the social value that both parties receive from the relationship [17].
In the domain of multimedia, it is noticeable how media is expressed based on different motivations. For example, media can be expressed in the form of advertisement, which clearly indicates a commercial value for the publisher. For the consumer however, in some cases, the advertisement may not be valued. In the domain of traditional multimedia this may not necessarily be considered an issue, but it would affect the potential of hospitable media because as subsection 5.2.1 has explained; when a pattern of service failure develops, this could negatively influence the hospitableness (see figure 5) and guests may conclude that the relationship cannot be counted on. However, this does not mean that hospitable media is not valuable for commercially motivated hosts. As the following interviewees’ quote indicates, media that contributes to the guest experience within an environment can also indirectly provide the host with financial benefit.
“The retailers naturally want people to stay longer in the shopping mall and that they enjoy themselves. Quite bluntly: if they stay longer and enjoy themselves, they will spend more money” - Founder/Owner Out Of Home Media Company
However, it can be argued that true hospitableness is based on the host’s principle of generosity [17] or sincerity. This raises the question whether true hospitableness could ever be provided within a commercial context [20, 34]. However, none of the interviewees have argued that sincerity and commerce necessarily conflict.
“When the guest experiences as the host has intended, then the underlying motivations do not really matter” - Strategic Marketing & Hospitality Consultant
In commercial hospitality, sincerity and commerce arguably do not conflict when the guest has chosen in advance to take on a particular role in the guest-host relationship in which the
provision of financial return is prearranged. When a guest however has not taken that particular role, a host may aim on persuading the guest to do so during his or her guest journey. As one of this study’s interviewees has emphasized, guiding people in a commercial guest journey requires a certain hosting talent.
“In hospitality [...] sincerity and commerce does not necessarily contradict [...] some people have in ‘their DNA’ to apply both simultaneously [...] Guiding guests in their journey […] can be considered an attitude or skill existing in the host’s ‘DNA’ rather than that it can be taught” - Information & Communication Management Lecturer Hotelschool
5.2.3 The Guest
The guest-host relationship can be maintained when both parties receive value from it. Regardless of any underlying motivations, it can be considered the host’s challenge to identify what the guest values. In commercial hospitality, the guest will be aware of his or her role as ‘paying customer’, and inherent balance the received value with the provided financial return.
“Why would the guest like to spend their money more, over a longer period of time? It is because they receive a product or service experience that is of such high quality that they consider it good value for what they have paid” - Information & Communication Management Lecturer Hotelschool
Different people generally have different values and this is noticeably influenced by their individual characteristics such as personal preferences, cultural backgrounds and previous experiences.
“Certain guests expect a formal and servile attitude of hotel staff [...] others expect a less traditional attitude where the guest has more self-control and is more self-responsible […] these differences are often culture-related” - Information Management Lecturer Hotelschool
Furthermore, these values are often also dynamic to specific situations. For example, a hotel guest on a business-trip presumably has different values than when being on a leisure-trip and as the following quote indicates, this can also affect how guests value media.
“A new market has risen: the mobile citizen, who wants online check-in […] who may even want pictures of his/her family on the wall in the hotel room [...] ‘I am a business-traveler’, I want to create an online profile […] which is linked to the services that I use online […] that, for example, remembers which tv-series I am watching” - Information Management Lecturer Hotelschool
5.2.4 Security
The host’s most important responsibility is securing the safety of the guests and their property [17, 34]. Hotel guests for example, often find themselves in an unfamiliar and alien environment and see the hotel as an important sanctuary [6, 10, 12, 17, 28, 31, 34]. A host can provide safety by physically securing the guests and their property within the environment. However, an arguably more interesting approach, in relation to this study’s research objective, is the provision of psychological safety. Such psychological safety can be considered similar to the service quality of providing assurance [1]. When questioning the how media could provide assurance, a link can arguably made to people’s experience of privacy. In this increasingly networked space, privacy protection is noticeably an ever-present concern and has created numerous possible consequences from our
computer-mediated interactions [26]. This paper argues that there exists a noticeable contradiction in the perception of the concept privacy in the domain of hospitality and the domain of multimedia. In hospitably, privacy is often provided as a service. For example, a hotel guest can request for a more private room in order to enjoy his or her privacy. In the domain of multimedia however, it is noticeable how there exist a stigma on the concept where it is not perceived as a service but generally as a risk that requires protection. In virtual settings, the potential audiences of one’s personal identity are not circumscribed by physical spaces but are large, unknown, distant, and often prevail a certain Big Brother [25] idea of pervasive monitoring and recording [26].
5.2.5 Interaction Design
Service System Design [1] is about designing a service chain in which details make or break the service quality. A clothing store dressing room that only has a single hook, while a minimum of two hooks is required for take-off and try-on clothing, is an example of poor service system design [1] and reduced usability. Interaction Design is a well-known practice within the domain of multimedia. This paper argues that user-centric Interaction Design show similarities to the traditional Service System Design [1] where usability can be considered the design focus. Usability is concerned with the “effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction with which specified users achieve specified goals in particular environments” (ISO 9241-11). Where it used to be considered sufficient to produce a computer system that functions effectively, efficiently and satisfying; over time an adoption towards User Experience Design (UXD) has taken place; designing towards a usefulness in the lives of those using it [22]. UXD is concerned with all aspects of the user’s experience when interacting with the product, service, environment or facility (ISO 9241-210).
“Showing news feeds on our public displays […] we considered that corny […] a lot people are already up to date by using their smartphone” - Founder/Owner Out Of Home Media Company
5.3 Context Awareness
Not only in the domain of hospitality but also in multimedia, context awareness is considerably relevant. Technical devices have largely been blind to a user’s context [15] but the topic of Context Aware Computing has become a hot research domain [29]. As a result of this paper’s exploratory study, a distinction of three context elements has been identified that is arguably applicable in both the domain of hospitality as multimedia. The three context elements are; the actors, the environment and the
spaces.
5.3.1 The Actors
In the domain of multimedia, context-aware devices can use sensors and/or data-sources to define the actors that are part of the context. These actors can be people but they may e.g. also be other devices. A public display for example, that can sense the presence of smartphones in the near environment can be considered a context-aware device. Such technology can also be considered useful for hospitable purposes. For example, a host may use bio-sensing technologies to sense the guest’s heart-rate and hereby assures him or her with physical and psychological safety.
5.3.2 The Environment
Devices can use sensors to define the environment in which they exist. For example, a thermostat can define its environment by measuring the near temperature. Such technology can be
considered useful for hospitable purposes. For example, when a hotel host is aware of high temperatures in the hotel-lobby, it can be assumed that the guests will value air-conditioning to be turned on. Ambient Intelligence (AmI) generally refers to technology enhanced environments that are particularly context-aware of people. In such environments, devices will communicate and interact independently and make decisions based on user preferences and the presence of other users in the near neighborhood [2].
5.3.3 The Spaces
The environment may be the exclusive view that a device has of the ‘world’ in which it exists. This is e.g. the case when a digital thermostat senses its environment but is unaware of anything outside the environment. A display that is implemented within a shop, may use its sensors to define the shop as its environment, but when the display is also connected to a network of other displays within the ‘shopping mall’; it also has a position within the shopping mall space. This paper argues that spaces are not sensed but are predefined by time and/or spatial dimensions. For example, a watch does not sense the current time, instead it has been given a position within a predefined time-zone space. Meaningful data from within an environment can be sensed, but data from within the spaces is gained by the use of external data-sources. Due to the availability of Application Program Interfaces from online services; considerably lots of useful data could be gathered from these spaces. As the following quote indicates, data from these spaces can affect the valuableness of media.
“We once had a campaign in which the content selection of our displays was adaptive to a certain area […] For these displays, we used the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) as a data-source to indicate the temperature within the area […] when the temperature was above twenty degrees Celsius, we displayed a particular ad” - Founder/Owner Out Of Home Media Company
5.4 Context Definition
5.4.1 Mobility versus Attention
Inspired by Bogdanowicz’s et al. [2] contextual model of Ambient Intelligence; this paper argues that the context of hospitality, is definable on a dimension of being task-oriented vs.
social-oriented. For example, guests in an airport boarding lounge are
presumably most focused on making sure they board the right plane at the right time; which indicates a relatively task-oriented context. However, there are also contexts that can be considered more social-oriented. For example, people in a bar or clubhouse, are presumably more focused on experiencing social interaction than on performing tasks.
This paper argues that within task-oriented contexts, providing the guest with mobility can be considered a core-quality. Mobility allows people to be in control and be self-responsible. The quality of mobility can be experienced physically but also cognitively. For example, in a crowded train coupe it may physically be difficult to work on a laptop. Furthermore, it may also cognitively be difficult to work on a laptop when there is much noise around and little privacy. Providing these task-oriented guests with spacious seats, a silent environment and privacy will therefore assumedly be valued.
This paper argues that within social-oriented contexts, providing the guest with attention can be considered a core-quality. The host could directly provide the guest with attention, e.g. by personally welcoming someone or engaging conversation. Another approach
could be introducing the guest within a community of other guests and hereby indirectly provide him or her with social attention. As came forward from this paper’s interviews; media and technology can noticeably create a distracting affect and as a result damage the guest experience. Particularly in higher class hospitality environments, there can exist a certain resistance against digital media and technology in general.
“In an up-market star-restaurant, the waiter will remember the order or write it down on a piece of paper. You will not see the waiter taking the order digitally […] Technology can have a distracting effect […] When I go out for dinner with my partner, and spend much money at the restaurant, than in return I would like to receive attention […] and phones on the table can be considered forbidden” - Information & Communication Management Lecturer Hotelschool
In some contexts, a balance of mobility and attention will be appreciated. However, this paper argues that these two qualities cancel each other out. Consuming attention requires cognitive resource which reduces the cognitive freedom and mobility. On the other hand, being mobile, self-responsible, independent to time and special constraints arguably makes someone more distant and less reachable to provide attention. How to determine the right balance in providing mobility vs. attention, is dependent on the specific context.
“How great would it be for crew-hotels, if the pilot could check-in his crew durcheck-ing shuttle-transfer? These people are not waitcheck-ing for an extensive welcoming. However, if you go on holiday with your family, and you arrive at the hotel for the second time, how great would it be if the duty-manager would welcome you personally and guide you and your family to the room?” - Information & Communication Management Lecturer Hotelschool
In the domain of multimedia, the concept mobility is noticeably often related to mobile technology. Using a mobile device can create mobility when it provides access to resources that are physically distant. However, focusing on a mobile device is arguably individualistic and attention-intensive, particularly because a lot of mobile user interfaces are designed for a single person standing still and paying full attention [18]. People who focus on their handset, in many ways, enter an anti-social space [3]. On top of that, the usability of mobile devices is often influenced by physical and situational impairing factors such as e.g. low lights, physical obstacles or occupied hands [32]. In other words, even though mobile devices may provide access to distant resources, they may still have a limiting effect on the user’s mobility when it creates an obtrusive user experience.
5.4.2 Personalization versus Generalization
Inspired by Bogdanowicz’s et al. [2] contextual model of Ambient Intelligence; this paper argues that the context of hospitality, is definable on a dimension of being private-oriented vs.
public-oriented. A hotel room for example, assumedly concerns a
relatively private context. This paper argues that within such a private-oriented context, providing the guest with personalization can be considered a core-quality. Personalization can also be provided when expressing media. In a hotel room for example, the guest may value that the television preselects the entertainment based on the guest’s profile.
In a relatively public context on the other hand, e.g. a hotel lobby, personalization is arguably much less valued. Instead,
generalization can be considered a core-quality in these contexts.
the value of privacy, as e.g. generalization can also be considered a value of not being framed.
“Personalized suggestions can frame you […] perhaps I do not want to search within my personal profile […] I am in a different city and I want to do something unusual. I want to see something I have not seen before” - Strategic Marketing & Hospitality Consultant
5.5 Context Design
Where a context definition enables the host to locate the guest’s values, a context design on the other hand enables the host to
anticipate on the guest’s values. As one of the interviewees has
emphasized, particularly in commercial hospitality context design is considered relevant.
“I design the environment in a way that you are actually unable to say no to a specific product, even without you knowing that you want it […] location-based-advertising […] I think in the coming three to five years this will evolve extremely” - Information & Communication Management Lecturer Hotelschool
5.5.1 The Actors
The context’s actors could be ‘designed’ in a way that would contribute to the hospitableness of the environment. For example, it is assumable that when people experience hospitableness, this could positively affect the social atmosphere within the environment and therefore indirectly contribute to the hospitableness as a whole. In addition to actors being influenced by an experience, another approach would be to persuade the actors in doing things that will contribute to the hospitableness. For example, a host could request the regular guests in providing attention to new coming guests. Another example would be that the host sets a dress-code when inviting guests, in attempt to unite the guests more or create a certain classy atmosphere. Finally, the host can attempt to persuade actors in believing things that would contribute to the hospitableness. In particular, believes that people have about the future are considerably important in hospitality as it is noticeable how guests often balance their values with their
expectations. In a restaurant for example, guests would assumedly
expect to be treated equally by the host. When guest A notices how guest B is given complementary sweets with the coffee that was ordered; guest A may as a result (consciously or unconsciously) create the expectation that he or she will also receive this when ordering coffee. If this is then not the case, guest A may experience disappointment, even though he or she may originally not have valued it.
“A lot of service is considered normal and you only notice them when they are not delivered or when they are delivered but you did not expect it [...] these expectations are often based on cultural backgrounds” - Chief City Marketing Officer
Because guests balance their values based on their expectations, it is in the interest of the host to create realistic expectations.
“When a hotel advertises rooms in a way that they all seem to have excellent views, however, in reality this only concerns one particular room […] than it would be a better approach to provide more honest expectations” - Information & Communication Management Lecturer Hotelschool
Where reliability is the most important quality to meet a service expectation, other service qualities can contribute in exceeding them [1]. Several of this study’s interviewees have emphasized the importance of exceeding guest’s expectations. In hospitality, exceeding expectations is referred to as the wow-factor.
“It is all about the wow. Why is it so important? Because it affects you. Not because you see or hear something, but because you feel something” - Strategic Marketing & Hospitality Consultant
The wow-factor originally was a service concept defining the surprising effect when people are provided with uncommon swiftness, grace, courtesy, competence, commitment or understanding [1]. However, as one of this study’s interviewees has emphasized; the ability to wow someone is considerably subjective to that person.
“Experience-oriented travelers have relatively high expectations and are therefore harder to wow [...] it is all about the perception of value” - Information Management Lecturer Hotelschool
In the domain of multimedia, actors are not just people but can also be media devices. Media that exists within an environment has potential to contribute to the hospitableness of the environment. For example, implementing a display within an airport lounge that displays boarding information, may be valued by the guests and therefore contribute to the hospitableness of the lounge. When questioning the host’s potential to persuade the devices within the environment, it can be argued that this depends on who has authority over these devices. When a device is controlled by the host, it can be considered relatively easy for the host to persuade the device. However, media devices within the host’s environment that are not directly controlled by the host, are relatively less persuadable.
5.5.2 The Environment
An environment’s design has potential to contribute to its hospitableness. Besides comfortable furniture and recreational facilities, creating a hospitable setting also includes an attractive décor [12].
“It is important that the displays that we have […] are provided with proper techniques to deal with warm and very light weather conditions […] our LED walls should be able to over-shine these sunny conditions […] When implementing new displays, I walk around the environment to indicate the right angles, pixel pitches and resolutions […] The content selection is often based on the duration of contact between the viewer and the display” - Founder/Owner Out Of Home Media Company
In the domain of multimedia, it is noticeable how different forms of media have different ability to affect the ‘design’ of an environment. For example, when a basic display within an environment shows a sequence of images, these images arguably exist within the environment rather than that they are part of the environment. Other kinds of media can be considered the fuse themselves more into the environment, e.g. by the use of audio. Playing audio can noticeably affect the environment’s ‘ambiance’ design and therefore potentially contribute to the hospitableness. For example, the hospitableness in an elevator may be increased when relaxing background music is played. However, because audio is so ‘present’ within an environment, it can also negatively affect the hospitableness. This has been emphasized by one of the interviewee’s who actually has chosen not to use audio whatsoever for their Out-Of-Home media.
“Our displays do not use sound […] people often experience sounds in public spaces as annoying” - Founder/Owner Out Of Home Media Company
The reason why other forms of media are considerably less able to contribute to the hospitableness, is because people perceive it as separate from the physical environment [3]. Ubiquitous
Technology is based on Mark Weiser’s [35, 36] idea of calm or ubiquitous computing, often also referred to as pervasive computing, in which transparent and invisible computational technology is added throughout the natural environment of humans [21]. Because Ubiquitous Technology is invisible to humans, the physical and virtual world can be perceived as one. For this reason Ubiquitous Technology has potential to contribute to the hospitableness of an environment.
5.6 Hospitable Media
Media can be offered as a service, e.g. an on-demand video service. This paper has defined the concept media as a means of communication that consists of one or more transactions. Originally, the hospitableness of an environment is influenced by the value of services that are provided by the host and received by the guest. Media has been defined as a means of communication that consists of one or more media expressions. This paper therefore argues that hospitable media consists of valued media expressed by the host and received by the guest (see figure 6).
Guest experiences Host
Media Value expresses receives
Hospitableness
influences
creates
Figure 6: Hospitable Media
The value of these services will influence the hospitableness of the environment. The value of these media transactions are defined by the guest, based on the hospitableness success factors.
5.6.1 Hospitableness Success Factors
As a result of this paper’s exploratory study, the following hospitableness success factors have been identified:
1. Assure physical and psychological safety 2. Manage service expectations
3. Balance mobility with attention
4. Balance personalization with generalization 5. Create an ambiance
However, in order for media expressions to incorporate these success factors, a certain context-intelligent system design would be required. Because this paper’s study has however focused on the potential of hospitable media in a general sense, excluding system design, three media qualities have instead been identified that arguably each have their own ability to incorporate one or more of the hospitableness success factors.
5.6.2 Representativeness
A guest-host relationship can only function when the guest is aware of who the host is. For this reason, hospitable media should be representative. When hospitable media is representative, the guest will be able continue an earlier established relationship with that particular host. This will provide the guest with more representative service expectations, based on previous experiences with the host, and the guest can feel assured when he or she trusts the host when entering an environment. When the guest enters an unknown environment that is hosted by a known host, this could assure the guest’s physical and psychological safety. In virtual settings, the audiences of one’s personal identity are often
unknown, distant, and can prevail a certain Big Brother [25] idea of pervasive monitoring and recording [26]. Presumably this will be even more the case when virtual and physical environments are merged unobtrusively and the technology is perceived as invisible. This can be expected to negatively impact guests’ sense of privacy and as a result affect their assurance of psychological safety. However, when it is clear for the guest who the host is, it would allow the guest reflect on the host’s privacy policy and decide whether the provided level of privacy is valued or not. If so, the host could provide the guest with personalization within certain contexts. If not, the guest may use his or her power of freedom to leave the environment.
5.6.3 Unobtrusiveness
Hospitable media should be unobtrusive, meaning that it is not undesirably noticeable to the guest, not standing in the way of the guest or forcing itself into the guest’s attention. For this reason, the guest is more mobile as he or she is not distracted by attention-intensive media expressions. However, in order to express media that is not undesirably noticeable but simultaneously valued by the guest, the physical and virtual world need to be perceived as one. For this reason unobtrusive media can be considered part of the environment rather than existing within the environment. Therefore, unobtrusive media has potential to ‘design’ the environment that creates an ambiance.
5.6.4 Accessibility
Where unobtrusive media expressions provide the guest with mobility, accessible media expressions on the other hand allows the guest to fully absorb the media expression if desired. For example, music can be played in low volume to create unobtrusiveness, but the volume should not be as low that it is inaccessible for recognition. When a media transaction is accessible, it allows the guest to fully absorb it when desired.
6. DISCUSSION
This study’s research objective has been to explore the potential of ‘hospitable media’; media that contributes to the hospitableness of the environment in which it is expressed. An arguably interesting point of discussion however would be whether hospitable media would have potential to be adopted within the hospitality domain, such as the Hospitality Industry. For people who have never seen a new system in use and do not know what to expect, a natural resistance may take hold of them [3]. Furthermore, the Hospitality Industry has always traditional been focused on humans that serve other humans and it can be considered a big step to have technology take over these tasks. This has e.g. been emphasized by on of this study’s interviewees’.
"The traditional hotels need to be careful when being too focused on how it's always done, as innovation should be a continuing process […] The hospitality core-business is really about human interaction […] and traditionally, technology then comes second […] I believe technology should function as an enhancement on the human interaction […] I see a future herein” - Information Management Lecturer Hotelschool
However, many of this study’s interviewees have mentioned that technology taking over hospitality operations could actually also contribute to the hospitableness when it creates more ability to focus on the provision of personalized attention.
“When guests check-in themselves, this does not mean you have to fire the front-desk employees as it will actually provide them
time and freedom to interact with the guests that do appreciate personal attention” - Information & Communication Management Lecturer Hotelschool
7. CONCLUSION
The underlying thought of this study has been that truly ‘new media’ should not be defined as being different from traditional media, but rather as media that has proven to introduce usefulness in people’s lives. This study’s research objective has been to explore the potential of the conceptual phenomenon ‘hospitable media’; media that contributes to the hospitableness of the environment in which it is expressed. Media is often traded as a service (e.g. an on-demand video membership) or used as an intermediary for the delivery of ‘customer service’. Intermediated service however can create a certain distance between the company and the customer. Because service delivery is about providing a single customer-company transaction [1], such distance can be considered less of an issue then in the domain of hospitality where the guest-host relationship is considered essential. This paper has argued that being hospitable is about creating valued guest journeys. A guest journey consists of guest experiences within environments. Creating a guest experience requires behavior [24, 30] and attitude [30] when providing multiple service transactions. How much a guest experience is valued within the environment indicates the hospitableness of the environment. The hospitableness of an environment is influenced by the value of the services that are provided by the host and received by the guest. In the domain of multimedia, it is noticeable how relationships are generally user-centric which indicates that the potential of hospitable media is related to its ability to shift away from these traditional relationships and establish a guest-host relationship instead. It can be considered the host’s challenge to identify what the guest values. However, different people generally have different values and this is noticeably influenced by their individual characteristics such as personal preferences, cultural backgrounds and previous experiences. Furthermore, these values are often also dynamic to specific situations. The host’s most important responsibility is securing the safety of the guests and their property [17, 34]. The providing of psychological safety can be considered similar to the service quality of providing assurance [1]. When questioning how media could provide assurance, a link can arguably made to people’s experience of privacy. This paper argues that there exists a noticeable contradiction in the perception of the concept privacy in the domain of hospitality and the domain of multimedia. In hospitably, privacy is often provided as a service where as in the domain of multimedia privacy is generally considered as a risk that requires protection. Where it used to be considered sufficient to produce a computer system that functions effectively, efficiently and satisfying; over time an adoption towards User Experience Design (UXD) has taken place; designing towards a usefulness in the lives of those using it [22]. Not only in the domain of hospitality but also in multimedia, context awareness is considerably relevant. As a result of this paper’s exploratory study, a distinction of three context elements has been identified that is arguably applicable in both the domain of hospitality as multimedia. The three context elements are; the actors, the environment and the spaces. Inspired by Bogdanowicz’s et al. [2] contextual model of Ambient Intelligence; this paper has argued that the context of hospitality, is definable on a dimension of being task-oriented vs. social-oriented and private-oriented vs. public-oriented.
In task-oriented contexts, providing the guest with mobility can be considered a core-quality. In social-oriented contexts on the other hand, providing the guest with attention can be considered a core-quality. A context definition enables the host to locate the guest’s values, but a context design enables the host to anticipate on the guest’s values. Because guests balance their values based on their expectations, it is in the interest of the host to create realistic expectations. This paper describes hospitable media as media expressed by a host and received by a guest and the value that the media delivers influences the hospitableness of the environment in which it is expressed. As a result of the overall exploratory study, five hospitableness success factors have been identified. Inherent, the three media qualities; representativeness, unobtrusiveness and accessibility have been identified that arguably incorporate one or more of these hospitableness success factors.
8. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Special thanks to all the interviewees, the Msc. supervisors: Dr. Mettina Veenstra and Dr. Frank Nack, University of Amsterdam, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Hotelschool The Hague, Saxion University of Applied Sciences Enschede, the Saxion OBSERVE Project.
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10. APPENDICE 1 – USER STORIES
De Gids
Eva moet haar rijbewijs verlengen. Hiervoor moet ze naar het Gemeentehuis. Vroeger moest ze hiervoor een afspraak maken en een brief van de Gemeente meenemen, maar tegenwoordig gaat alles digitaal. Omdat Eva buiten in de regen loopt tussen de middag, en toevallig in de buurt is van het gemeentehuis, besluit ze om even binnen te gaan schuilen, dan kan ze het verlengen van haar rijbewijs direct even regelen.
Wanneer ze het Gemeentehuis inloopt, is er een systeem van de Gemeente dat automatisch haar binnenkomst waarneemt. Het systeem herkent Maria en kan ook authentiseren dat het Eva echt zelf is. Omdat het systeem weet dat Eva haar rijbewijs verlengt moet worden, hoeft ze niet naar de balie. Het systeem heeft doorgegeven aan de medewerkers van het gemeentehuis dat Eva ge-authentiseert is. De medewerkers kunnen dan alvast beginnen met het laten printen van haar nieuwe rijbewijs, terwijl Eva zelf kan wachten in de lounge tussen de andere mensen.
Eva hoeft zich niet bezig te houden met wat er achter de schermen gebeurt. Ze is vrij om te gaan en te staan waar ze wil. Ze weet dat als ze besluit om te vertrekken dat ze haar rijbewijs automatisch thuis zal worden bezorgd, zelfs al voordat ze zelf thuis is gekomen. Omdat Eva zich niet zo druk maakt om haar rijbewijs, heeft ze meer oog en tijd voor de lounge. Ze besluit om van de gelegenheid gebruik te maken en even een broodje te bestellen. Daarnaast begint ze een gesprek met iemand, zo leert ze weer wat nieuwe mensen kennen. De persoon met wie ze praat, komt zich inschrijven in de Gemeente. Eva legt uit hoe het hier allemaal werkt en wat belangrijk is om te regelen.
Het systeem van de Gemeente wil graag dat de burgers een praatje maken met elkaar in de lounge, want dat stimuleert de samenhorigheid binnen de stad. Omdat de gesprekken wat op gang te brengen, wordt er op enkele schermen in de lounge actueel nieuws van de stad weergegeven. Het nieuws dat geselecteerd wordt door het systeem is gekozen op basis van de profielen van de aanwezigen. Ondanks dat het systeem iedereen een beetje kent, is het een erg formeel en beleefd systeem. Het systeem is er tenslotte hoofdzakelijk om de aanwezigen van dienst te zijn.
Tussen het nieuws door wordt er nog wat informatie gegeven over enkele administratieve zaken die de aanwezigen alvast kunnen regelen in het Gemeentehuis. Het systeem doet dit, omdat het weet dat het buiten regent en de mensen daarom naar verwachting toch nog binnen zullen blijven, kunnen ze hun tijd efficiënt gebruiken.
Eva krijgt een berichtje op haar telefoon: “Eva, je nieuwe rijbewijs is klaar, als je wilt kun je hem nu ophalen bij de balie”. Eva heeft alle vertrouwen in het systeem en besluit om eerst haar gesprek af te ronden. Maar de tijd vliegt, en voordat ze het doorheeft, is het weer al opgeklaard en ze besluit om haar rijbewijs toch maar thuis te laten bezorgen, dus loopt ze naar buiten de zon tegemoet. Dat met het rijbewijs komt vast wel goed.
De Host
Vandaag is er een bijzonder gezelligheids evenement in de stad. De gemeente heeft besloten om het evenement te subsidiëren omdat het de stad op de kaart zet en bezoekers van buitenaf aantrekt. Ook dit jaar hebben ze weer een groot netwerk gebaseerd systeem geïmplementeerd bestaande uit publieke schermen, licht en geluidsinstallaties overal in de stad. Het systeem moet er vooral zorgen dat iedereen lekker kan ontspannen en genieten. De mensen uit de stad zelf kennen het systeem, maar Jasper komt uit een andere stad en ervaart het vandaag voor het eerst.
Als Jasper aankomt in de stad, merkt hij dat de sfeer er al goed in zit. Veel mensen hebben plezier en ze verzamelen zich op de plekken waar muziek gedraaid wordt. Het systeem verzorgt de muziek en probeert eerst op enkele plekken verschillende soorten muziek te draaien om zo in te schatten welke muzieksmaak er heerst onder het publiek. De mensen zijn uitbundig, dus bij de goede muziek joelen ze en als ze niet tevreden zijn dan hoor je ze ook. Het systeem kan daar goed mee omgaan want het heeft die sociale capaciteiten ook en daagt de bezoekers uit om hun mening te geven. Maar het moet natuurlijk niet te gek worden, want het systeem wil ook de veiligheid van de bezoekers kunnen blijven garanderen.
Als Jasper zich aansluit bij een groep dansende mensen, verschijnt hij opeens in beeld op een van de schermen in de buurt. De groep feestgangers zien het ook en ze begroeten hem luidkeels. Jasper vraagt zich af waarin hij terecht is gekomen maar tegelijkertijd voelt hij zich wel meteen deel van de groep. Het systeem neemt wel eens vaker mensen in beeld, vooral als mensen uitzinnig beginnen te dansen of de aandacht proberen te trekken op een leuke manier.
De Assistent
Thomas is onlangs bij de dokter geweest en daar heeft hij te horen gekregen dat het niet goed gaat met zijn gezondheid. In het bijzonder moet hij erg letten op zijn cholesterol gehalte en proberen om meer te bewegen om overgewicht tegen te gaan. Thomas vindt het vervelend om dit soort zaken te moeten bespreken met de dokter. De dokter besluit om een systeem te implementeren in het huis van Thomas. Dit systeem is ervoor om hem te assisteren in het bereiken van zijn doelen en voor zijn veiligheid mocht er iets gebeuren. Tegelijkertijd is het systeem goed in het maken van een persoonlijk plan voor Thomas en is het erg discreet. Met dit laatste wordt vooral bedoeld dat het systeem alle informatie heel vertrouwelijk behandeld en alleen communiceert met Thomas zelf.
