Understanding public spaces: exploring methods

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Convivio Workshop on Understanding public spaces: exploring methods, Limerick, Ireland, 1 & 2 December 2005

The Interaction Design Centre, University of Limerick is organizing a two days workshop to discuss methods of studying and understanding public places with focus on outdoor public places such as urban squares, parks, markets, central business districts, libraries, airports, railway/bus stations etc. The Workshop is being sponsored by CONVIVIO, The Network for People Centered Interactive Design. (...) While the objectives of studying public space are different, we wish to examine the different approaches being used to study public spaces across different disciplines. The workshop aims to bring people from various disciplines (e.g. architects, urban planners, sociologists, artists etc) to discuss different approaches being employed for studying public spaces. (...) Presentations will be followed by group discussions focusing on methods presented. This two days workshop will be limited to 15-20 participants to provide ample opportunity for formal and informal discussions. (...) Please e-mail your abstracts to parag.deshpande@ul.ie Submission Deadline: November 7th 2005. Notification of Acceptance: November 14th 2005. Organising Committee: Prof. Liam Bannon, Luigina Ciolfi, Parag Deshpande

Stanford University to provide access to audio content via iTunes

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According to this news, Stanford University is debuting a project called "Stanford on iTunes", providing Stanford-related audio content via the iTunes Music Store:

Stanford on iTunes will provide alumni—as well as the general public—with a new and versatile way of staying connected to the university through downloads of faculty lectures, campus events, performances, book readings, music recorded by Stanford students and even podcasts of Stanford football games. (...) In addition to content targeted at alumni, the project includes audio related to academic courses exclusively for Stanford faculty and students. Instructors in Stanford's Introduction to the Humanities program began using the tool last spring to distribute course audio such as lectures, music and readings to students. (..) Also starting today, the general public will have free access to the same audio content at http://itunes.stanford.edu.

Dave Winer on invite-only Google Zeitgeist conference.

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A pertinent rant by Dave Winer about invite-only Google Zeitgeist conference. What is interesting here is not the event per se but the 'invite only' thing:

How ironic that a conference called Web 2.0 was invite-only. It's so un-weblike to say who can come and who can't. That's not what the web says. It says anyone can come. (...) Take a step back and ask what the goals of the conference are. How do you know who the right people are? Are you sure you do? Maybe it would be better to let the universe decide who should be at the conference.

Then he reflects on his experience:

My experience with these shows is that if you trust the universe, it will take good care of you. In all three cases, exactly the right number of people showed up. Every seat was filled, a few people had to stand, there were enough lunches, lively discussions, all the goals were achieved. Now we didn't get people who only come when an event is invite-only, but I say that's good! Those people don't come because they love ideas and want to learn and share, they come for other reasons and they change the character of the event, not in a good way, imho.

And this is also interesting:

You come because this is the good stuff. You come because this is totally 1.0. This is why I came to Silicon Valley in 1979, when I was 24 years old. (...) Like an open conference, I needed to give something up to get there. But there was no gatekeeper at the door to Silicon Valley telling me I needed an invite. The door was open because not only is that a value of the web, but it's also a value of Silicon Valley, even if some people usurp that.

Why do I blog this? first because I really believe in (and appreciate) the openness of Silicon Valley, I'm sure that it plays a really positive role in sustaining innovation there. Second, since I'm helping laurent organizing a conference about emerging technologies here in Geneva, I can fairly see that we have to think about those issues.

Extended Playtime

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Extended Playtime is a project of geneva art group Collectif Fact. It's a good reflection of the lack of 'spatial continuity' in cinema (the fact that scenes are shot and shown independently). In this project, they extended the 'Playtime' movie (by Jacques Tati) through an interesting experimentation: they put in a 3D space all the parts shot in the waiting room of Playtime. The point is to show a often neglected space: a place visible on all the scenes.

A video here.

Robotic jacket for rehabilitation

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Via supa-cool blog 3Yen, an amazing robotic jacket aimed at giving stroke victims a hand in rehab. A project cariied out at the Kobe Gakuin University in conjunction with Osaka University and Activelink Co., a subsidiary of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. in Seika, Kyoto Prefecture.

More about this in the Asahi:

The device-essentially a mesh jacket in form-uses sensors to detect the muscle movements in the patient's healthy arm and wrist, then uses artificial muscles to stimulate that same movement on the damaged side of the body. Researchers hope repeated therapy will bring back the regular functioning of the damaged limb.

"If (the use of) this jacket spreads, it will be possible to provide long-term support for patients at home," said Akio Nakagawa, professor of occupational therapy at . He was part of a robotics research team at the university that worked (...) the team hopes to have the product, first developed in 2004, on the market in spring 2008, selling for about 250,000 yen each.

The Economist special issue on patents and technology

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There is a good piece in The Economist's special edition about patents and technology. The article entitled "An open secret" (registration required) in particular; it's about the fact that sharing intellectual property can be more profitable than keeping it to the company:

Why would a firm that cares so much about intellectual property want to give it away? [about IBM which pledged 500 of its existing software patents to the open-source community]

“It isn't because we are nice guys,” explains Mr Kelly, the head of the company's intellectual-property division. The company's motive, he says, is fear that patent rights have swung so far towards protection that they risk undermining innovation. The patent commons is meant to help restore the balance. “If this balance goes too far in one direction or another, this industry will not survive and our company will not survive. It is really that fundamental to us,” Mr Kelly says. Since then, some other companies have taken similar initiatives. (...) The trend towards open software code is an example of a bigger development in the technology industry: a new approach towards collaboration and “open innovation” that at times seems to work around the traditional intellectual-property system, and at times is directly fostered by it. “People think this is all a sort of flaky, radical, pinko strategy not related to the competitive marketplace. Au contraire! This is about how to kill your competitor,” says Don Tapscott, a management expert who studies innovation. “And you kill your competitor these days by identifying the need to innovate yourself, but also opening up that innovation; by owning IP, but also sharing IP.”

I also find that the metaphor used as a conclusion is nice:

Because open-source is non-proprietary, customers are much less locked into the firm supplying the IT systems. Its interfaces are open. Software interfaces are the digital equivalent of plugs and sockets. They require little intellectual endeavour, but are treated as intellectual property to keep rivals out. Opening up an interface means new software can easily be written to plug into it, increasing its value to users.

This open-source phenomenon now interestingly shape the future of big companies like IBM, Nokia or Sun. Like a bottom up phenomenon, blue chip are turning to it after small companies and individual. The next move is for media companies, which are dead reluctant to adopt this model...

John Maeda + Skateboard

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French company Mekanism Skateboards is going to release a model designed by MIT researcher John Maeda. I like this kind of connections:

After its collaboration with the artist Invader, French company MEKANISM skateboards is giving carte blanche to John MAEDA for a limited-edition board. This board is called “thrrrrrrust”, the concept is two thousand little arrows arranged in a collage as a kind of representation of “thrust” as often seen in physics films.

This MEKANISM/John MAEDA board is limited to 100 numbered copies. It will be available in selected stores worldwide and on-line at www.jerevequejedors.com from October 29th 2005. He will have an exhibition from November 19th 2005 to February 19th 2006 
at the Fondation Cartier in Paris, France.

When computer art meets skateboarding!

The usability of MMORPG

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Pertinent study about MMORPG usability: The Usability of Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games: Designing for New Users by Steve Cornett for CHI 2004

This study examines the usability challenges faced by new players of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), one of the fastest-growing segments of the video game industry. Played in completely online worlds, these games allow players to communicate with one another, form groups and communities, and compete in a variety of fantasy environments. Nineteen subjects participated in an exploratory usability study of four games, three MMORPGs and a similar single-player game used for comparison. Results reveal that many people not usually considered as potential players of these games may be interested in them, but a wide variety of usability issues present serious problems for players inexperienced with the genre. Based on an analysis of the usability data and player feedback, specific recommendations are made to improve the experience of these games for new players. These results further demonstrate the applicability and importance of usability testing to video games.

The main result (put in bold in the abstract copied above) is interesting and should be taken into account in the design: usability is a factor in audience development. The article also describes the application of usability principles in the context of the gaming environment, something now more common today that few years back (thanks to Bill Fulton's work at MS, see for instance his very insightful article Beyond psychological theory: Getting data that improve games in Proc. Game Developers' Conference 2002).

DVD with Guy Debord's movies

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Read in the french press today: for Guy Debord and situationists fans, the DVD box with Debord's movie is goind to be released on November 12th (french edition), there is also a cinema release (october 8th).More about it on the french wesbite http://www.guydebordcineaste.com.

Could be bought on Amazon France (Zone 2 unfortunately).

  • Hurlements En Faveur De Sade - 1952
  • Sur Le Passage De Quelques Personnes À Travers Une Assez Courte Unité De Temps - 1959
  • Critique De La Séparation - 1961
  • La Société Du Spectacle - 1973
  • Réfutation De Tous Les Jugements, Tant élogieux Qu'hostiles Qui Ont été Jeté Sur le Fil « LA SOCIÉTÉ DU SPECTACLE » -1975
  • In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni - 1978

I am really looking forward to watch this!

Strategy messages model

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Just wrote crazy annotations for modeling the use of strategy message during the various phases of CatchBob! The point of this is to define the main categories of messages and when they are used in the task process. Research model (1) Research model (1)

The next move is to design specifications for an 'intention-awareness' tool to would allow users to communicate explicitly strategic information. This will then be tested in a second experiment.

From MUD to MMORPG

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It seems that the research agenda sketched out by Alan Schwartz in his "Comments On MUD Research" (Journal of Virtual Environments, Volume 1, Number 1) in 1997 still holds for MMORPG

• Psychological theories of group behavior, altruism, aggression, spatial representation, and attention. Attention may seen surprising, but consider that splitting attention between multiple streams of conversation and game-play is extremely common among MUD players. • Sociological theories of organizational structure, social norms, and exchanges. For example, it's common for experienced adventure-style MUD players to retrieve the items from a more novice player's corpse and return them to the novice. The same was likely done for the experienced player when s/he was a novice, and creates a system of exchange between players. • Organizational behavior work on training, management, leadership, satisfaction, turnover, job characteristics, and organizational citizenship. Under what conditions do MUD administrators "burn out"? What is player satisfaction -- and does it relate to the degree to which players have input on the MUD? • Political science. Aspects of many MUDs can be understood in terms of political structures, coalitions, and mechanisms of governance. • Sociolinguistics, cognitive linguistics, and pragmatics. The language MUD players use has already received some attention (see, for example, Carlstrom, 1994; Cherny, 1994, Serpentelli, 1992) • Anthropological theories of culture, ritual, and folklore. If the players of a MUD constitutes a subculture, with shared beliefs, understandings, rituals, etc., anthropology has much to offer. Clodius (1994) discusses the use of MUDs in ethnographic fieldwork. • Computer science work on distributed databases, graphical interfaces, virtual reality models, and client-server computing.

Why do I blog this? I am working on this question for a project about online communities.

A performance piece using potatoes as power and sound source

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(via) A study of the sonic properties of Genetically Modified (GM) potatoes by Alex Berman, David McCallum and Sue Huang

A performance piece using potatoes as power and sound source in the service of art and science. (...) The potatoes are used as a power source for the performance by supplying conventional potato battery power. Using zinc (galvanized nails) and copper (thick wire), each potato generates .5 to 1 volt. The individual potatoes can be linked together in serial or parallel to increase voltage and/or amperage. The potato batteries power circuits that generate square waves with varying frequency and intensity depending on the voltage and amperage drawn from the potatoes, which is controlled by the performers by manipulating the battery configuration on the fly. Piezo contact mics are used to process physical interaction with potatoes (i.e. slicing potatoes, grinding potatoes, peeling potatoes, boiling and frying potatoes, etc.)

Why do I blog this? I like this kind of project, very 'off-the-wall', hacking vegetable sounds good.

Connected pasta it's close to this idea of creating botanical gameboys.

nethnography!?

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I was not aware of this buzzword: nethnography (which I found in this article: The Field Behind the Screen: Using Netnography for Marketing Research in Online Communities by Robert V. Kozinets):

Netnography is ethnography adapted to the study of online communities. As a method, netnography is faster, simpler, and less expensive than traditional ethnography and more naturalistic and unobtrusive than focus groups or interviews. It provides information on the symbolism, meanings, and consumption patterns of online consumer groups. The author provides guidelines that acknowledge the online environment, respect the inherent flexibility and openness of ethnography, and provide rigor and ethics in the conduct of marketing research. As an illustrative example, the author provides a netnography of an online coffee newsgroup and discusses its marketing implications

Why do I blog this? mmh why using this new buzzword?

Location-based messages: socialight

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socialight is a new location-based service (beta version currently, it actually started out as an academic project at ITP in early 2004):

Socialight is a mobile phone and web based platform that allows users to create and share location-based messages called StickyShadows™. Socialight's mobile and web tools give you access to location-based media on your mobile and on the web.

StickyShadows are virtual multimedia sticky notes that you create using your mobile phone or this web site. A StickyShadow is made up of media, such as text and a picture, and information about who can see it and when and where it's available. The best way to learn about StickyShadows is by creating and using them. Want to to create one now?

An interesting poster about it is available here. The website also provides a good description of what the messages are.

IM names and personal messages displays

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The other day, after reading (and writing about) Stowe Boyd's post about IM rules, I made a quick scanning of the HCI recent literature about IM and found this article: Broadcasting Information via Display Names in Instant Messaging by Stephanie Smale and Saul Greenberg (ACM Group 2005 Conference) It's a good study about why and how people display and change their names + other things in IM. Here are their research questions:

This study investigates how people use the display name feature in IM clients to broadcast information other than one’s name. We do this by capturing changes in each person’s display field as they appear in contact lists over time and over everyday use, by asking people to explain what these changes meant, and by counting, categorizing and analyzing these changes.

1. At what frequency do users change the information in their display field when using an IM client such as MSN Messenger? 2. What are the main communication categories that represent the information held by these display field changes? 3. What is the frequency distribution of these categories? 4. Are changes to the display name related to the demographics of age or sex?

Here are the main results:

1. results show that 58% of our 444 contacts (258 people) never changed the contents of the display field during the three week period. For the remaining 42% of contacts (186 people), we counted a total of 1968 display name changes, or an average of 11 display name changes per person over the three week period, or up to 4 times a week. (...) 2. the new information fell into seventeen different categories of communication supplied to others. Three themes encompass these categories: Identification (“who am I”?), Information About Self (“this is what is going on with me”) and Broadcast Message (“I am directing information to the community”). (...) 3. Younger users may change their display names more frequently than older users; sex does not make a difference.

The figure below shows the different categories they gathered (extracted from the paper):

Another relevant point is that this phenomenon lead to an interface change on MSN:

Some of these capabilities are only now being supplied by a few major IM vendors. For example, the new version of MSN Messenger (v. 7.0), released shortly after our study was performed), includes a dedicated space for adding and editing a personal message.

Why do I blog this? this phenomenon always amazed me (because I tended to do it few years ago and also from an tech observer), so I was pleased to see a study about it. Moreover, it's connected to research projects we conducted in the past at the university of geneva about awareness and communication (The authors also expands their discussion to a 'a community bar' that could display personal messages with presence items, a very greenbergesque topic).

Quick statistics about smart phones

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I was just wondering about the market of smart phones: via Networks Silicon:

Smart phone shipments are continuing to grow steadily, according to research firm Canalys, up from 3.6 million devices shipped in the first half of this year to 9.6 million in the first half of 2005. (...) Canalys is predicting that for the first half of 2006, 13 per cent of all mobile devices will be smart phones. Of those devices sold so far this year in EMEA, the majority are still using the traditional input method. The analysts found that 80 per cent of smart phones are based on Symbian's Series 60 platform and use a normal phone keypad, while Series 80 phones – which tend to use keyboard-type interfaces – make up another 13 per cent. UIQ devices represent four per cent of the market.

Park your car in your appartment's balcony

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Yep that's true, as attested by this article in german newspaper Die Welt: in the Berlin district of Kreuzberg, some folks wants to allow people to drive their car into an elevator and up to the front door of their apartment:

Autofetischisten werden diese Immobilie lieben. Im Berliner Stadtteil Kreuzberg planen die Projektgesellschaft Topos Paul-Lincke Höfe GmbH & Co. KG und der österreichische Projektentwickler Porr Solutions Lofts mit Parkplätzen direkt auf der Wohnetage. Die Bewohner der Appartements sollen also mit ihrem "heiligen Blechle" unten in den Autolift fahren und kommen direkt in ihrer Wohnung an.

The architect who wants do this is Manfred Dick. The point is to have elevators at either end of the apartment to let people drive up their car to their balcony... The crux issue here is to let people feel more "security and convenience."

Tremendous switches, toys and tangible interactions

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While working on a project about kids' joysticks/pads and remote control, few months back, I would have certainly been happy to ran across this switches done by an australian company called Technical Solutions (found on this great blog about 'making toys'). They are amazing! I am a great fan of those, especially the floating pillow (on the left below) and the textured roller switch (on the right):

Why do I blog this? It seems that the toy industry already has good insights to offer for people interested in tangible interactions with crazy devices like those above.

This lead me to find of an article written by Edith Ackerkmann for the IDC 2005 conference: Playthings That Do Things: A Young Kid’s “Incredibles”!. The paper raises relevant issues about kids, toys, autonomy and materials. It's more focused on animated toys but it also addresses ""many no-tech or low-tech toys exist, which afford the thrill of controlling things at a distance". More about this here when I get time to peruse the paper more properly. Just one quote:

In interacting with artificial cyber-creatures, the question of significance is not so much how does it work but rather what does it achieve (on its own), and how should it be treated (manipulated or controlled) so that it responds (to one’s solicitations) in interesting ways. In other words, taking a cyber-creature apart (for the sake of transparency) is an awkward thing to do (unless you are a programmer).