Publications

2026

1. DIS ’26

   Beyond Interaction toward Cooperation and Commoning

   Priyanka Verma, Aarjav Chauhan, Jared Lee Katzman, and 6 more authors

   In Companion Publication of the 2026 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, Singapore, 2026

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   The rich traditions of cooperation and commoning offer many ways to understand our shared relationships to land, ecosystems, and each other, while also providing frameworks for mutual response. This workshop explores how theory and practice regarding cooperatives and the commons can change our relationship to the designed world and address the exploitative systems of technology that surround us. By convening a broad community of HCI scholars and practitioners, we will co-create a zine to explore these themes and identify a prospective research agenda. This workshop brings together a nascent research community to learn about the relationship between cooperative practices and forms of commoning, explore how both can inform design, and map out equitable and community-driven approaches to governance and use of interactive technologies.

2025

1. NeurIPS’25 Workshop

   When AI Democratizes Exploitation: LLM-Assisted Strategic Manipulation of Fair Division Algorithms

   Priyanka Verma and Balagopal Unnikrishnan

   2025

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   Fair division algorithms, like those implemented in the Spliddit platform, have traditionally been considered difficult for the end users to manipulate due to its complexities. This paper demonstrates how Large Language Models (LLMs) dismantle these protective barriers by democratizing access to strategic expertise. Through empirical analysis of rent division scenarios on Spliddit algorithms, we show that users can obtain actionable manipulation strategies via simple conversational queries to AI assistants. We present four distinct manipulation scenarios: exclusionary collusion where majorities exploit minorities, defensive counter-strategies that backfire, benevolent subsidization of specific participants, and cost minimization coalitions. Our experiments reveal that LLMs can explain algorithmic mechanics, identify profitable deviations, and generate specific numerical inputs for coordinated preference misreporting—capabilities previously requiring deep technical knowledge. These findings extend algorithmic collective action theory from classification contexts to resource allocation scenarios, where coordinated preference manipulation replaces feature manipulation. The implications reach beyond rent division to any domain using algorithmic fairness mechanisms for resource division. While AI-enabled manipulation poses risks to system integrity, it also creates opportunities for preferential treatment of equity-deserving groups. We argue that effective responses must combine algorithmic robustness, participatory design, and equitable access to AI capabilities, acknowledging that strategic sophistication is no longer a scarce resource.

   @misc{verma2026AIdemocratizesexploitation,
     title = {When AI Democratizes Exploitation: LLM-Assisted Strategic Manipulation of Fair Division Algorithms},
     author = {Verma, Priyanka and Unnikrishnan, Balagopal},
     year = {2025},
     booktitle = {NeurIPS 2025 Workshop on Algorithmic Collective Action},
     publisher = {arXiv},
     url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.14722},
     archiveprefix = {arXiv},
     primaryclass = {cs.CY},
     keywords = {Fair Division, Large Language Models, Algorithmic Collective Action, Rent Division, Strategic Manipulation},
   }

2. CHI’25

   Maintenance, Operations, and Sustainability: Unpacking the Data Practices of Housing Cooperatives

   Priyanka Verma, Mohammad R. Rifat, and Samar Sabie

   In Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Yokohama, Japan, 2025

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   Despite significant work in HCI on understanding the role of data tools for non-profits and grassroots communities, there has been limited focus on cooperatives. This paper examines the role of financial, social, and building upkeep data in a non-profit cooperative housing organization in Toronto, Canada (alias named NXI). Through a 16-month-long ethnographic study, including 24 interviews, we investigate the role of and tensions in data practices related to NXI’s daily maintenance and operations, cooperation, and sustainability. We find that NXI’s current data practices are functional and meaningful—sometimes requiring team workarounds—in the short term. However, various tensions and deficiencies in data practices hamper NXI’s sustainability. By contextualizing the temporal affordances of data, we propose design implications for data tools to align effectively with the practices of cooperatives and enhance organizational sustainability. Finally, we discuss how data designers and researchers, organizations or grassroots communities, and financial technology designers can benefit from our work, especially with regard to the maintenance and sustainability of small-scale organizations.

   @inproceedings{verma2025coops,
     author = {Verma, Priyanka and Rifat, Mohammad R. and Sabie, Samar},
     title = {Maintenance, Operations, and Sustainability: Unpacking the Data Practices of Housing Cooperatives},
     year = {2025},
     publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
     address = {New York, NY, USA},
     url = {https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3706598.3713121},
     doi = {10.1145/3706598.3713121},
     booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems},
     numpages = {16},
     keywords = {Cooperatives, Housing, Data Practices, Sustainability, Ethnography},
     location = {Yokohama, Japan},
     series = {CHI '25},
   }

3. CSCW’25

   17 Years of Fintech for Financial Inclusion: A Systematic Review and Critical Value Analysis

   Priyanka Verma, Christoph Becker, and Samar Sabie

   Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 2025

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   The use of ICT tools and platforms to support the financial practices of underserved communities has been growing, but on-ground experiences have been mixed and sometimes detrimental. To achieve the potential benefits of technologies for financial inclusion, a deeper understanding of the design of digital financial interventions is essential. We systematically and critically reviewed studies that developed and implemented technological interventions for financial inclusion from 2007 to 2024. Our analysis examines the types of financial technologies developed, the devices and technical channels used, the research methodologies employed, and the target populations. Additionally, we conducted a reflexive thematic analysis to investigate the values underpinning these studies. By analyzing 30 articles, we interpreted a total of 13 value themes—including trust, accessibility, robustness, and compatibility. Our work highlights a complex interplay of values, structural considerations, technical attributes, financial practices, and economic factors that underlie the design of financial technologies.

   @article{verma2025fintechreview,
     author = {Verma, Priyanka and Becker, Christoph and Sabie, Samar},
     title = {17 Years of Fintech for Financial Inclusion: A Systematic Review and Critical Value Analysis},
     year = {2025},
     publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
     address = {New York, NY, USA},
     url = {https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3757539},
     doi = {10.1145/3757539},
     journal = {Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction},
     volume = {9},
     number = {7},
     pages = {1--33},
     numpages = {33},
     keywords = {Financial Inclusion, Fintech, Systematic Review, Values, HCI},
     series = {CSCW 2025},
   }

4. CHI ’25 Workshop

   Designing Social and Collaborative Fintech: Insights from a Housing Cooperative

   Priyanka Verma

   In Future of Money and HCI Workshop at the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Yokohama, Japan, 2025

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   This position paper draws on a 16-month ethnographic study at a housing cooperative in Toronto to explore how financial technologies can better support social and collaborative financial practices. Cooperative communities offer a useful case for studying fintech because of their democratic, participatory, and communal financial practices. We identify limitations of existing financial tools for storing, managing, and communicating cooperative financial data, including tensions between centralized record-keeping and community values of cooperation, openness, and member economic participation. We argue for designing digital financial tools with distributed access to financial records among members to align with cooperative practices and support collaborative decision-making.

   @inproceedings{verma2025designingfintech,
     author = {Verma, Priyanka},
     title = {Designing Social and Collaborative Fintech: Insights from a Housing Cooperative},
     year = {2025},
     publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
     address = {New York, NY, USA},
     url = {https://chi2025-money.github.io/assets/files/7-Verma.pdf},
     booktitle = {Future of Money and HCI Workshop at the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems},
     numpages = {4},
     keywords = {Financial Practices, Cooperative Housing, Financial Data Practices, Data Tools, Fintech},
     location = {Yokohama, Japan},
     series = {CHI '25 Workshop},
   }

5. McMaster

   Digital Transformation and Financial Inclusion

   Priyanka Verma

   In Proceedings of Extended Abstracts, Digital Futures Symposium, DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University, Burlington, Ontario, Canada, 2025

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   Financial inclusion is a process of ensuring access to appropriate financial products and services needed by all sections of a society in general and vulnerable groups in particular, at an affordable cost, in a fair and transparent manner, by regulated, mainstream institutional players. The use of ICT tools and platforms to support the financial inclusion and practices of underserved communities has been growing, yet on-ground experiences remain mixed and sometimes even detrimental. Financial technologies may exclude marginalized communities from the supposed potential benefits if care is not taken in the design process. Consequently, if fintech is to fulfill the envisioned goals of financial inclusion, there is a need to better understand the research and practice ecosystem around digital financial interventions. In response to such a need, I systematically and critically reviewed 30 studies that developed and implemented a functional system or prototype for financial inclusion for use in real environments between 2007 and 2024.

   @inproceedings{verma2025digital,
     author = {Verma, Priyanka},
     title = {Digital Transformation and Financial Inclusion},
     year = {2025},
     publisher = {McMaster Digital Transformation Research Centre},
     address = {Hamilton, Ontario, Canada},
     url = {https://mdtrc.mcmaster.ca/app/uploads/2025/07/Graduate-Research-Showcase-Proceedings-of-Extended-Abstracts.pdf},
     booktitle = {Proceedings of Extended Abstracts, Digital Futures Symposium, DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University},
     volume = {66},
     pages = {81--85},
     numpages = {5},
     keywords = {Financial Inclusion, Digital Transformation, Fintech, Systematic Review},
     location = {Burlington, Ontario, Canada},
   }

2021

1. MobileHCI’21

   Exploring Privacy Aspects of Smartphone Notifications

   Priyanka Verma and Sameer Patil

   In Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Mobile Human-Computer Interaction, 2021

   Abs DOI Bib HTML Code

   Notifications are one of the most important features of mobile devices. Users receive multitudes of notifications every day. These notifications often carry sensitive content such as private messages, financial information, authentication tokens, etc. To understand privacy considerations related to notification content and delivery, we conducted a study in which participants (n = 206) described their preferences and practices regarding smartphone notifications. A majority of the participants (61%) reported at least one negative experience connected to notifications. We report on various privacy violations that arise due to notifications, such as unwanted information disclosure, intimacy breach, and inopportune intrusion. Our work contributes to a better understanding of privacy risks presented by notifications on mobile devices and points to several design suggestions for privacy-sensitive notification delivery mechanisms.

   @inproceedings{verma2021privacy,
     title = {Exploring Privacy Aspects of Smartphone Notifications},
     author = {Verma, Priyanka and Patil, Sameer},
     booktitle = {Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Mobile Human-Computer Interaction},
     year = {2021},
     publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery,},
     doi = {10.1145/3447526.3472065},
     url = {https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3447526.3472065},
   }

2. COMPASS’21

   Demo: A WhatsApp Bot for Citizen Journalism in Rural India

   Priyanka Verma, Ananya Saxena, Alok Sharma, and 2 more authors

   In Proceedings of the 4th ACM SIGCAS Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies, 2021

   Abs DOI Bib HTML Video Code

   Increasing penetration of Internet-enabled smartphones in low-resource areas makes them an attractive platform for engaging emerging users. In this paper, we demonstrate how a voice forum for citizen journalism in rural India– previously accessible via an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system– can be naturally supported and enriched using a chatbot. Implemented using the WhatsApp Business API, the bot enables submission of both audio (with or without image) and video stories. Following review by moderators, stories are published on a website and social media sites, and can also be browsed interactively using the WhatsApp bot. This multi-way, intermediated model of communication expands the scope and functionality of typical WhatsApp groups while offering significant cost savings relative to IVR systems. In the first 9 weeks of a long-term deployment, the bot demonstrated high usability and acceptance and resulted in 218 published stories from 27 users.

   @inproceedings{verma2021whatsapp,
     title = {Demo: A WhatsApp Bot for Citizen Journalism in Rural India},
     author = {Verma, Priyanka and Saxena, Ananya and Sharma, Alok and Thies, Bill and Mehta, Devansh},
     booktitle = {Proceedings of the 4th ACM SIGCAS Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies},
     year = {2021},
     pages = {423--427},
     publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery,},
     doi = {10.1145/3460112.3471981},
     url = {https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3460112.3471981},
   }