{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,12]],"date-time":"2025-10-12T04:36:20Z","timestamp":1760243780169,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":47,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"10","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,9,30]],"date-time":"2022-09-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1664496000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Future Internet"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Smart city infrastructures enable the routine interleaving and integration of diverse activities, including new ways to play, to be playful, and to participate. We discuss three examples: (1) citizen-based water quality monitoring, which combines outdoor exercise and social interaction with safeguarding public water supplies, (2) a digital scavenger hunt, which combines the experiences of a community arts festival with shared reflections about significant community places and events, and (3) public thanking, which encourages people to acknowledge neighbors and local groups that serve and strengthen the community. Each of these interaction possibilities in itself alters lived experience modestly. We argue that lightweight and playful meaning making activities can be prosocial fun, that is to say, they can simultaneously be playful and fun, but also substantive contributions to the coherence and richness of a community.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/fi14100288","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,8]],"date-time":"2022-10-08T04:04:56Z","timestamp":1665201896000},"page":"288","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Playful Meaning-Making as Prosocial Fun"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"14","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5189-337X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"John M.","family":"Carroll","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Information Sciences and Technology, Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, PA 17033, USA"}]},{"given":"Fanlu","family":"Gui","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Vanguard Corporation, Malvern, PA 19496, USA"}]},{"given":"Srishti","family":"Gupta","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Information Sciences and Technology, Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, PA 17033, USA"}]},{"given":"Tiffany","family":"Knearem","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Information Sciences and Technology, Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, PA 17033, USA"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,9,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"47","DOI":"10.1080\/10630732.2017.1408002","article-title":"The (in) security of smart cities: Vulnerabilities, risks, mitigation, and prevention","volume":"26","author":"Kitchin","year":"2019","journal-title":"J. Urban Technol."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"472","DOI":"10.1016\/j.giq.2016.06.004","article-title":"Privacy concerns in smart cities","volume":"33","year":"2016","journal-title":"Gov. Inf. Q."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1145\/2491500.2491504","article-title":"Wild at home: The neighborhood as a living laboratory for HCI","volume":"20","author":"Carroll","year":"2013","journal-title":"ACM Trans. Comput.-Hum. Interact. (TOCHI)"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"327","DOI":"10.1002\/(SICI)1520-6629(199610)24:4<327::AID-JCOP3>3.0.CO;2-R","article-title":"Some initial considerations in the measurement of community identity","volume":"24","author":"Puddifoot","year":"1996","journal-title":"J. Community Psychol."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"6","DOI":"10.1002\/1520-6629(198601)14:1<6::AID-JCOP2290140103>3.0.CO;2-I","article-title":"Sense of community: A definition and theory","volume":"14","author":"McMillan","year":"1986","journal-title":"J. Community Psychol."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"944","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ijhcs.2008.07.003","article-title":"Theorizing mobility in community networks","volume":"66","author":"Carroll","year":"2008","journal-title":"Int. J. Hum.\u2013Comput. Stud."},{"key":"ref_7","unstructured":"Putnam, R. (2022, September 28). The Prosperous Community: Social Capital and Public Life. Available online: https:\/\/faculty.washington.edu\/matsueda\/courses\/590\/Readings\/Putham%201993%20Am%20Prospect.pdf."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"102","DOI":"10.15353\/joci.v1i2.2046","article-title":"Community informatics and sustainability: Why social capital matters","volume":"1","author":"Simpson","year":"2005","journal-title":"J. Community Inform."},{"key":"ref_9","unstructured":"Han, K., Wirth, R., Hanrahan, B.V., Chen, J., Lee, S., and Carroll, J.M. (2022, September 28). Being Connected to the Local Community through a Festival Mobile Application. Available online: https:\/\/www.ideals.illinois.edu\/items\/91508."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Nam, T., and Pardo, T.A. (2011, January 12\u201315). Conceptualizing smart city with dimensions of technology, people, and institutions. Proceedings of the 12th Annual International Digital Government Research Conference: Digital Government Innovation in Challenging Times, College Park, MD, USA.","DOI":"10.1145\/2037556.2037602"},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"92","DOI":"10.1177\/0008125616683954","article-title":"A smart city is a collaborative community: Lessons from smart Aarhus","volume":"59","author":"Snow","year":"2016","journal-title":"Calif. Manag. Rev."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2053951717718854","DOI":"10.1177\/2053951717718854","article-title":"Toward human-centered algorithm design","volume":"4","author":"Baumer","year":"2017","journal-title":"Big Data Soc."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Blythe, M., and Monk, A. (2018). Funology 2: From Usability to Enjoyment, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-319-68213-6"},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"38","DOI":"10.1145\/1015530.1015547","article-title":"Beyond fun","volume":"11","author":"Carroll","year":"2004","journal-title":"Interactions"},{"key":"ref_15","unstructured":"Gaver, W.W., Bowers, J., Boucher, A., Gellerson, H., Pennington, S., Schmidt, A., Steed, A., Villars, N., and Walker, B. (May, January 29). The drift table: Designing for ludic engagement. Proceedings of the CHI\u201904 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, New Orleans, LA, USA."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"319","DOI":"10.1207\/s15327051hci1904_2","article-title":"The interplay of beauty, goodness, and usability in interactive products","volume":"19","author":"Hassenzahl","year":"2004","journal-title":"Hum.\u2013Comput. Interact."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"141","DOI":"10.1146\/annurev.psych.52.1.141","article-title":"On happiness and human potentials: A review of research on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being","volume":"52","author":"Ryan","year":"2001","journal-title":"Annu. Rev. Psychol."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"467","DOI":"10.1016\/j.tree.2009.03.017","article-title":"A new dawn for citizen science","volume":"24","author":"Silvertown","year":"2009","journal-title":"Trends Ecol. Evol."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1088\/0963-6625\/10\/1\/301","article-title":"Constructing the scientific citizen: Science and democracy in the biosciences","volume":"10","author":"Irwin","year":"2001","journal-title":"Public Underst. Sci."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"5334","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.1805336115","article-title":"Private provision of public goods by environmental groups","volume":"116","author":"Grant","year":"2019","journal-title":"Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA"},{"key":"ref_21","first-page":"331","article-title":"Citizen science: Probing the virtues and contexts of participatory research","volume":"2","author":"Kimura","year":"2016","journal-title":"Engag. Sci. Technol. Soc."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"273","DOI":"10.1007\/s10661-010-1582-5","article-title":"A review of citizen science and community-based environmental monitoring: Issues and opportunities","volume":"176","author":"Conrad","year":"2011","journal-title":"Environ. Monit. Assess."},{"key":"ref_23","unstructured":"Bonney, R., Ballard, H., Jordan, R., McCallie, E., Phillips, T., Shirk, J., and Wilderman, C.C. (2022, September 26). Public Participation in Scientific Research: Defining the Field and Assessing Its Potential for Informal Science Education. A CAISE Inquiry Group Report, Available online: https:\/\/eric.ed.gov\/?id=ED519688."},{"key":"ref_24","unstructured":"Ambrose-Oji, B., van der Jagt, A., and O\u2019Neil, S. (2022, September 28). Citizen Science: Social Media as a Supporting Tool, Available online: https:\/\/cdn.forestresearch.gov.uk\/2022\/02\/social_media_support_citizen_science_april_2014-1.pdf."},{"key":"ref_25","first-page":"1","article-title":"Instagram of Rivers: Facilitating Distributed Collaboration in Hyperlocal Citizen Science","volume":"6","author":"Gupta","year":"2022","journal-title":"Proc. Acm Hum.\u2013Comput. Interact."},{"key":"ref_26","first-page":"1","article-title":"Social media as a platform for a citizen science community of practice","volume":"3","author":"Liberatore","year":"2018","journal-title":"Citiz. Sci. Theory Pract."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"492","DOI":"10.1093\/iwcomp\/iwz032","article-title":"Empowering Community Water Data Stakeholders","volume":"31","author":"Carroll","year":"2019","journal-title":"Interact. Comput."},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"307","DOI":"10.1890\/110280","article-title":"Key issues and new approaches for evaluating citizen-science learning outcomes","volume":"10","author":"Jordan","year":"2012","journal-title":"Front. Ecol. Environ."},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"335","DOI":"10.1177\/0885412205286160","article-title":"Finding common ground: The importance of place attachment to community participation and planning","volume":"20","author":"Manzo","year":"2006","journal-title":"J. Plan. Lit."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Light, A., Howland, K., Hamilton, T., and Harley, D.A. (2017, January 10\u201314). The meaning of place in supporting sociality. Proceedings of the 2017 Conference on Designing Interactive Systems, Edinburgh, UK.","DOI":"10.1145\/3064663.3064728"},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"195","DOI":"10.1111\/ijmr.12093","article-title":"Expanding the domain of festival research: A review and research agenda","volume":"19","author":"Wilson","year":"2017","journal-title":"Int. J. Manag. Rev."},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"49","DOI":"10.3727\/152599503108751694","article-title":"Making sense of how festivals demonstrate a community\u2019s sense of place","volume":"8","author":"Derrett","year":"2003","journal-title":"Event Manag."},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"54","DOI":"10.1191\/030913298672233886","article-title":"Carnivals for elites? The cultural politics of arts festivals","volume":"22","author":"Waterman","year":"1998","journal-title":"Prog. Hum. Geogr."},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"754","DOI":"10.1177\/0047287512437859","article-title":"The mediating effect of place attachment on the relationship between festival satisfaction and loyalty to the festival hosting destination","volume":"51","author":"Lee","year":"2012","journal-title":"J. Travel Res."},{"key":"ref_35","unstructured":"Jacucci, G., Oulasvirta, A., Ilmonen, T., Evans, J., and Salovaara, A. (May, January 28). Comedia: Mobile group media for active spectatorship. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, San Jose, CA, USA."},{"key":"ref_36","unstructured":"Cheverst, K., Coulton, P., Bamford, W., and Taylor, N. (2022, September 28). Supporting (Mobile) User Experience at a Rural Village \u2019Scarecrow Festival\u2019: A Formative Study of a Geolocated Photo Mashup Utilising a Situated Display. Available online: https:\/\/eprints.lancs.ac.uk\/id\/eprint\/41912\/1\/scarecrows_final.pdf."},{"key":"ref_37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Peltonen, P., Salovaara, A., Jacucci, G., Ilmonen, T., Ardito, C., Saarikko, P., and Batra, V. (2007, January 12\u201314). Extending large-scale event participation with user-created mobile media on a public display. Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia, Oulu, Finland.","DOI":"10.1145\/1329469.1329487"},{"key":"ref_38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Wang, X., Knearem, T., Yoon, H.J., Jo, H., Lee, J., Seo, J., and Carroll, J.M. (2019, January 24\u201326). Engaging the Community Through Places: An User Study of People\u2019s Festival Stories. Proceedings of the International Conference on Information, Cairo, Egypt.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-030-15742-5_31"},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Knearem, T., Jo, J., Wang, X., and Carroll, J.M. (2021, January 21\u201325). Seek and Reflect: A Mobile Scavenger Hunt to Develop Community Engagement. Proceedings of the C&T\u201921: 10th International Conference on Communities & Technologies-Wicked Problems in the Age of Tech, Seattle, WA, USA.","DOI":"10.1145\/3461564.3461573"},{"key":"ref_40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2","DOI":"10.5334\/cstp.136","article-title":"Citizen scientists\u2019 preferences for communication of scientific output: A literature review","volume":"4","author":"Smeets","year":"2019","journal-title":"Citiz. Sci. Theory Pract."},{"key":"ref_41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Rotman, D., Preece, J., Hammock, J., Procita, K., Hansen, D., Parr, C., Lewis, D., and Jacobs, D. (2012, January 11\u201315). Dynamic changes in motivation in collaborative citizen-science projects. Proceedings of the ACM 2012 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, Seattle, WA, USA.","DOI":"10.1145\/2145204.2145238"},{"key":"ref_42","first-page":"33","article-title":"The effects of recognition on volunteer activities in Korea: Does it really matter?","volume":"16","author":"Jung","year":"2011","journal-title":"Int. Rev. Public Adm."},{"key":"ref_43","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"262","DOI":"10.1086\/209538","article-title":"The effects of recognition and group need on volunteerism: A social norm perspective","volume":"25","author":"Fisher","year":"1998","journal-title":"J. Consum. Res."},{"key":"ref_44","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"121","DOI":"10.1509\/jm.11.0477","article-title":"When does recognition increase charitable behavior? Toward a moral identity-based model","volume":"77","author":"Winterich","year":"2013","journal-title":"J. Mark."},{"key":"ref_45","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Tan, J., Jin, F., and Dennis, A. (2020, January 7\u201310). Attention or Appreciation? The Impact of Feedback on Online Volunteering. Proceedings of the 53rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Maui, HI, USA.","DOI":"10.24251\/HICSS.2020.733"},{"key":"ref_46","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Thomas, L., Pritchard, G., and Briggs, P. (2019, January 3\u20137). Digital design considerations for volunteer recruitment: Making the implicit promises of volunteering more explicit. Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Communities & Technologies-Transforming Communities, Vienna, Austria.","DOI":"10.1145\/3328320.3328368"},{"key":"ref_47","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1145\/3492839","article-title":"Community Acknowledgment: Engaging Community Members in Volunteer Acknowledgment","volume":"6","author":"Gui","year":"2022","journal-title":"Proc. Acm Hum.\u2013Comput. Interact."}],"container-title":["Future Internet"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1999-5903\/14\/10\/288\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T00:44:50Z","timestamp":1760143490000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1999-5903\/14\/10\/288"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2022,9,30]]},"references-count":47,"journal-issue":{"issue":"10","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,10]]}},"alternative-id":["fi14100288"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/fi14100288","relation":{},"ISSN":["1999-5903"],"issn-type":[{"type":"electronic","value":"1999-5903"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2022,9,30]]}}}