UCT CS Colloquium by Marshini Chetty of the University of Maryland, USA

Abstract: With a shift towards usage-based billing, the questions of how data costs affect mobile Internet use and how users manage mobile data arise. In this talk, I describe a mixed-methods study of mobile phone users’ data usage practices in South Africa, a country where usage-based billing is prevalent and where data costs are high, to answer these questions. For the study, we conducted a large scale survey, in-depth interviews, and collected logs of actual data usage over time. Our findings suggest that unlike in more developed settings, when data is limited or expensive, mobile Internet users are extremely cost-conscious, and employ various strategies to optimize mobile data usage such as actively disconnecting from the mobile Internet to save data. Based on these findings, I suggest how we can better support users that need to carefully manage their data to optimize costs.

Bio: Marshini Chetty is an Assistant Professor in the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland specializing in human computer interaction and ubiquitous computing. Marshini designs, implements, and evaluates technologies to help users manage different aspects of Internet use from security to performance. She often works in resource constrained settings and uses her work to help inform policy. She has a Ph.D. in Human­Centered Computing from Georgia Institute of Technology, USA and a Masters and Bachelors in Computer Science from University of Cape Town, South Africa. Marshini is determined to help make the Internet more efficient, affordable, and secure from the user perspective.