Paper short abstract:

We examine the socio-technical design and practices of engineers and users on a bicycle self-tracking device in the city of Santiago. Studying the prototyping process and the daily life of cyclists, this paper problematize the “correctly” and “representative” way of view of digital devices and data.

Paper long abstract:

In order to make the city of Santiago more smart and bicycle-friendly, the project "Stgo 2020" asked to the same cyclists what city they want. To do that they created RUBI, a small device that sticks on the bicycle and allows to tracks automatically the routes of cyclists without a smartphone. With all the maps and animations of routes, they expect that can help to design more bikeways and better policies.

Interested on the socio-technical design of this smart device, we investigate the prototypes of RUBI, the motivations and decisions on it and their differences in front of more popular self-tracking apps. We also pay attention on the self-monitoring practices with RUBI and the social production and interpretation of data, looking on how people were engaged, used and understand this technology.

With a case study methodology and a STS-informed approach, we follow the history of the young engineer behind RUBI, conducted interviews with previous RUBI users and obtained ethnographical material tracing the implementation of the device on new users.

We discover an interesting move from an individualistic human-oriented design to a more bicycle-oriented design that enacts new possibilities and meanings of the project itself. Seeing the practices of users reveals different forms of ignorance, misunderstandings and subversion on how to use RUBI properly, which altered the initial project of the engineer too. In sum, this case problematize what means concepts like "Quantified Self", a "representative sample", "smartness" or "human" and unveils new ways of engagement in a bicycle collective.