Matrix Conference 2024

Carla Griggio

Carla is a tenure-track assistant professor at the Department of Computer Science at Aalborg University in Copenhagen, where she researches and teaches Human-Computer Interaction. Her main research studies how communication technologies, especially messaging apps, affect interpersonal relationships. She conducts empirical studies to understand how people adapt software to fit their communication needs and builds prototypes that explore ways of providing them with richer control over their expression and relationship maintenance. She currently studies interoperability between messaging apps, exploring alternative software models to “apps” for online communication.


Session

09-21
11:30
30min
The Walled Garden Dilemma: Privacy vs. App Choice in Messaging Ecosystems
Carla Griggio

What can messaging interoperability learn from academic research on ecosystems of messaging apps? In this talk, I present my research on how people increasingly use not just one, but multiple parallel apps for messaging. This research shows evidence of how messaging-app walled gardens harm freedom of choice and, at the same time, enable personal, discreet strategies for managing privacy across diverse social circles. I will discuss how this tension can inspire new ideas for designing cross-app messaging functionality. Additionally, I will explore its relevance for designing user-friendly interoperable messaging and its potential impact on the adoption of interoperability on mainstream platforms as mandated by the EU’s Digital Markets Act.

Social Impact
LAB 3