[Research] Context/Location in Ubicomp according to Paul Dourish

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Quotes taken from notes about Paul Dourish's lecture (10/25/2004):

Dourish also discussed his work on context, which largely involve pointing out that context is a lot more complicated than “context-aware” application designers seem to think. Definitions of context vary, but they always include location (but how do people describe their location to others?). However, UCLA’s Manny Schegloff notes that everyday definitions of location vary greatly. Depending on who you’re talking to and why they’re asking, there may be many correct answers answers to the question “where are you?”: “In Irvine”, “In my office”, “On my way”, “On page 20.” You choose your answer based on many factors, and others choose how to interpret your answer based on their own context. Context, far from being a static thing, is dynamic and maintained or changed through our actions.

This reminds me that I absolutely need to find this reference: Schlegoff, E. (1972) Notes on a conversational practice: Formulating place. In D. Sudnow (Ed.) Studies in Social Interaction (pp. 75-119). New York: Free Press./

[Research] Paper ideas for CSCL

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I had a short discussion with Pierre about our short paper for CSCL 2005. Since we don't have so much data to propose, we will rather present some concepts and ideas that ground our projects at the lab. Here is the outline:

  1. Introduction: specifying that we are not interested in addressing learning situationsper se but rather by analyzing cognitive processes that occur during collaboration. Our focus is indeed directed towards dynamic and collaborative problem solving. Our interest specifically lies in space: how space/spatial awareness affords collaboration.
  2. Previous studies: in virtual space, we saw that space affords various collaborative processes (narrowing the conversational context, dividing labor, spatial coordination, mutual modeling, improving performance). We found that in collaborative situations people do pay attention to their peers' location.
  3. Roadmap: a nice and smart figure that summarizes both results, lacks and potential issues to investigates.
  4. Our ongoing studies. Back from virtual to real, we know we deal with mobile computing (in which there is an overlap between virtual information on the device and the activity which occur in a more mobile and dynamic context)
    1. Mauro's project: how people infer meaning which is not in the message thanks to spatial information.
    2. CatchBob: how location awareness information impacts mutual modeling in collaboration

It would be great to be innovative in the way I present the roadmap part with a well-designed figure that could summarize our framework. People shoudl grasp our research quickly. Besides, I have a still a program in legitimating why we switch from virtual environment to mobile computing, in terms of consistency (compared to the previous studies that occured in a MOO and a 3D game).

[Research] CatchBob ToDo List

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Here is the todo list for CatchBob!:- catchbob tablet pc interface: design of a proper interface with whiteboard (to write comments) and a zone with: logo, buttons (refresh), player name, time spent. - annotation sent in real time + one color per player - replay tool: should show the annotatiosn (every 10 seconds?) so that I can use it to transcript. - annotation fadeout

[TheWorld] RIP John Peel

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John Peel is dead. Just a quick thought to the guy who made me appreciate the real potential of Napalm Death. As for me, this was the basis that leads me to some other music world like dub (yes napalm death and then scorn and then dub syndicate...) or electro-hip hop (napalm death to godflesh to techno animal to antipop consortium...).

[Research] Science Fiction/Science research group

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There seems to be a work group about science fiction, science and philosophy at the Institut d'histoire et de philosophie des sciences et des techniques (IHPST), and the ENS (a big and renowned french school). The website is in french.Not very common in France where science fiction is often considered as childish and not a true literature area. It appears to be really interesting with regard to the topics they deal with, as well as the methods they use.

1. Un axe didactique : des présentations sur la science-fiction comme genre (œuvres, auteurs, courants, périodes historiques…)
2. Un axe théorique visant à constituer une théorie de la science-fiction :
1. des compte-rendus de lectures de textes sur la science-fiction
2. un travail sur les théories littéraires générales de la fiction (Umberto Eco, …)
3. étude des notions de monde possible, de fiction, de modèle en sciences et en philosophie. Notion d'expérience de pensée (David Lewis, Derek Parfit…)
4. étude de méthodes par « fictions » : prospective, futurologie, scénarios…
3. Un axe « intersections »:
1. Domaines qui rencontrent la science-fiction dans leurs démarches : bioéthique, philosophie de la technique, art numérique, art biotech, cyberculture, mondes virtuels, jeux vidéos et ludologie, pédagogie et vulgarisation scientifique, etc.
2. Les sciences et la science-fiction. Etude des extrapolations science-fictives à partir de telle ou telle science : physique, biologie mais aussi sciences cognitives, mathématiques, sociologie, économie, histoire, ethnologie, métaphysique, etc.

[TheWorld] Correlation between cool cities and blogs

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Via smart mobs, this news:

Cities identified as "cool" or creative by Richard Florida have more bloggers, according to Rob Goodspeed's analysis. These cities also have robust local online communities like Craigslist and Upcoming

Not really suprising but it's nice to read a study about it (here is the pdf).

In fact, the top 10 cities with the most bloggers included the top 8 from Florida’s list of centers of the creative class. My theory: cities with the richest local online culture (measured in number of blogs, and use of a select group of other geographically-bound websites) will reflect those cities with the highest numbers of creative class people. In short, the cities with the most blogs will be the most economically successful in the future.

[Space and Place] Moving forward bookcrossing

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A new trend after bookcrossing (releasing books into the "wild" to be found by other people, often strangers) and geocaching : leaving unique coins for other people at interesting locations.

Over 1,000 coins have been distributed since April of 2000 at various sites in the United States, Canada (British Columbia), Brazil, Britain, Cuba, Israel, Japan, and Palestine. Within the United States, coins have been placed in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington D.C., and Washington state.

[Locative Media] Norwgegian Lab about mobile computing

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re-public is a project that deals with humanistic perspectives on emerging digital communication forms & expressions & their information systems. They have an interesting project about mobile gaming.

What are the dramaturgical and mediational features of commercial mobile games? Do location sensitive, always online, portable gaming terminals change the dramaturgical and mediational features of commercial mobile games? How will such terminals interact with ubiquitous computing in the physical environment to create new forms for hybrid games? How and to what extent are the less pre-scripted qualities of mobile and context-related play realised textually and interpersonally? How can the humanities inform and perform ICTs and vice versa? What can the study of computer games tell us about performance and the obverse? How can performance influence the design of computer games? What kinds of performances emerge in multi-player role-playing games?

[Weird] Fun with microwave oven

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Via the amazing hack a day, a good web resource about things you could do with a microwave oven is provided here. Some examples (safe/unsafe experiment as they say!):

Exploding Egg/Bubbling soap/Flash Boiling Experiment/Sparking CD/Putting Household globes in a microwave oven/Fluorescent tube in a Microwave/Microwaving high-pressure sodium vapor lamps/Neon Globes in a Microwave Oven /Valves in a microwave with video/Pins and Sparks /Putting Kitchen Scourer's in a microwave/A vacuum fluorescent display in a microwave with video /A foil lined chip packet in a microwave with video/Making plasma using a coil of copper wire. Melting Xenon Flash tubes in your microwave oven with video/Putting a LED in a microwave /Putting a pre conditioning lamp in a microwave /Carbon fibers in a microwave /Expanding Marshmallows

[Locative Media] Why geo-annotating location?

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The blog Future Now dealt with the use of geotagging. I have always been amazed by this topic, especially with regard to how people will use it. There are many projects like Urban Tapestries, GeoNotes, Mauro's projects... The author proposes a kind of typology of geotagging uses (listen mauro!): There are 2 types of messages: "I was here" or "You are here".

People will take the time to compose a message and tag that message to a place because they want you to know that they were there, or because they have information that will be relevant to you later when you're in the same location, or some combination of both.

And then, each of those 2 categories could be divided in:

the "I was here" motivation will be largely emotionally driven. Examples: 'This is the place where he proposed'; 'I needed to mark the spot where occurred'; 'I'm a tourist and really having a great time'; even 'I lost a bet, as part of my payoff I have to mark the spot where..'. Ultimately, these types of annotations are still meant for other people -- what is the sound of an unread geo-annotation? -- but the value for the viewer will largely be to participate in someone else's experience and get a sense of the unrecorded history of a place. (...) The "You are here" motivation for leaving physically-tagged messages would seem to offer more utility for both person tagging and person viewing. Examples: geo-personals ('if you're in this location, you might be my type'); geo-classifieds ('if you're here on this bike trail, you might want to buy the bike I'm selling'); announcements ('if you're here, you might want to come to my event'); community organizing ('we're often here...if you are too, join us next time'); tips/assistance/warnings ('if you're here at night, be extra careful', or 'here's what worked for me...'); lost&found ('if you're here, do you see the bracelet I lost?'); temporary notes ('if you're here, we were here...an hour ago! now we're at the party'); gaming and scavenger hunts (even incorporating features of the location -- imagine GeoEverQuest in Central Park); and filling in gaps left by other annotations ('Did you know that this spot will be the site of Starfleet Headquarters? I bet *that* isn't on the official geo-tour!').

I fully agree with the conclusions of the author: there are 2 crux issues: interface and people's adoption. The system is so related to people's use that it needs a critical mass of users (the system itself does nothing, it's just a kind-of shell that allow a new type of interaction).

peterme argues that the author is wrong. He discusses the notion of doing stuff for yourself or for the others. He takes the example of del.icio.us. Why would you want to annotate space for yourself? For whatever reasons you would use del.icio.us. While del.icio.us thrives as a "social bookmark" site, it depends on the me-ness of the activity -- by and large, I'm saving items to del.icio.us that interest me, that I might want to return to later, and the posting-for-others aspect is largely secondary. It's an added benefit, but not the raison d'etre. (...) In fact, I would argue that if people are annotating space only to serve others, it will never, or only rarely, happen. What do I care what some stranger 8 months from now thinks about what I wrote at the corner of New Montgomery and Market in San Francisco? What on earth could I possibly say that's meaningful to them? What benefit do I derive by acting as a tour guide to a stranger?

[Video Games] Moving into serious games

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Smart insights in Getting Serious About New Opportunities: On Game Developers And The 'Serious Gaming' Market", a gamasutra paper about new contents and methods for serious games development.

Let's face it, the games business isn't all fun and games, because sometimes the business of making games isn't as much fun as we'd wish. It's tough out there - business is hard, and publishers don't always want to be your friend. Wouldn't it be great if there were some other markets to prospect, and you could diversify, ignoring the general whims of publishers, cellphone carriers, portals, and the general gaming public at-large? But diversifying in the games business isn't very easy - we can't suddenly shift gears and start a resturant or consumer goods company. However, you can diversify by selling to others who have a need for game developers, besides the usual suspects.

[Research] Workshop about Location Awareness (Technical)

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Loca2005 is an International Workshop about location and context awareness. It will happen in Munich, Germany, May 12-13, 2005 in cooperation with Pervasive 2005

The goal of this workshop is to address and discuss the technical challenges, ideas, views, and research results in sensing, fusing and distributing location information as well as providing location- and context-awareness to applications and services such as navigation in pervasive systems.

The workshop is a platform to propose new positioning algorithms and location sensing techniques, including new techniques and studies into the properties of existing technologies. This includes enhancements of singular systems (e.g. positioning in cellular telephone networks such as GSM; positioning in WLAN environments; etc.) as well as hybrid systems (e.g. integration of Global Navigation Satellite Systems with Inertial Positioning Systems). Improvements in sensor technology, integration and sensor fusion may be addressed either on a theoretical or on an implementation level.