Paper Reading #3

Comments:
Comment #1
Comment #2

Reference:
Title: Multi-lifespan information system design in post-conflict societies: an evolving project in Rwanda
Author: Batya Friedman, Trond T. Nilsen, Lisa P. Nathan, Robert F. Utter, Elizabeth J. Utter, Milli Lake, Mark Ring, Nell Carden Grey, Zoe Kahn
Venue: CHI 2010, Atlanta, Georgia


Summary:
This article discusses the possibility of a multi-lifespan approach to information design. To illustrate this, the group investigated the genocide in Rwanda in 1994.


In 1994, approximately 800,000 Rwandans were massacred in just 100 days. This resulted in approximately 80% of the justice system in place being killed or displaced. The new justice system was not equipped to handle all of the cases, so three separate systems were implemented. These systems greatly limited the freedom of speech of the local populace.

From this, the group tested their multi-lifespan informational design. With this, they could keep document the genocide for future generations as each group grew further and further from the tragedy. Thus, the recollection and history of the event would never stop growing. The group wants to expand this technology to help further peace in other post-conflict situations


Discussion:
This article was very interesting. I have never really read anything about the genocide in Rwanda before, and I think the use of information systems to educate others in the aftermath of these types of situations is pretty awesome. War and conflict are a part of life, but hopefully we can get continually decrease their prevalence in our world. I think the system they propose would work in the long run, but it would be interesting to see if our impatient society will stick with it. Overall, this is a good article and something worth keeping track of in the future.

Book Reading #4 - HCI Remixed

Chapter 24: A Simulated Listening Typewriter: John Gould Plays Wizard of Oz
Author: Chris Schmandt
Venue: MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Summary:
This article discusses speech recognition software.  The system used a "Wizard of Oz" approach, where a human was actually typing in the words behind the scenes.  The naive users disliked the smaller vocabulary  as opposed to discrete speech, while more experienced users disliked both.
Discussion:
This was fairly interesting. The "Wizard of Oz" approach was funny to me, and made me contemplate whether that is used in things I've seen today.

Chapter 25: Seeing the Hole in Space
Author: Steve Harrison
Venue: Virginia Tech
Summary:
This article discussed the origins of video chats.  The author visited with two visual artists working towards telecommunications and watched "The Hole in Space." This gave he and his group the idea for Media Space.
Discussion:
I thought this article was confusing. I found it hard to distinguish what he was trying to say. The fact that the two telecommunications people foresaw internet cafes/coffee houses was the most interesting portion to me. 


Chapter 26: Edward Tufte’s 1 + 1 = 3 
Author: Scott Jenson
Venue: Google, Mountain View, California
Summary:
The author compares how adding a second option can create an unwanted third alternative, similar to Tufte's 1+1=3.  Elevator open and close buttons are the example used, where the third alternative is being wrong.  The author suggests making the buttons more obvious or removing one of the buttons altogether.
Discussion:
I liked this article.  The point how the only people who truly want the extra options are programmers and managers struck home to me.  It emphasizes how as programmers we need to reduce the clutter and more is not always better.


Chapter 27: Typographic Space: A Fusion of Design and Technology
Author: Jodi Forlizzi
Venue: Carnegie Melon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Summary:
This article discusses the origins of kinetic typography.  Words can be manipulated in size, presentation, and style to convey pitch, tempo, and loudness.
Discussion:
Overall this article was ok. Kinetic typography isn't overly interesting to me, but reading about the origins of something that is commonplace today was somewhat interesting.


Chapter 28: Making Sense of Sense Making
Author: Steve Whittaker
Venue: University of Sheffield, UK
Summary:
Whittaker discusses notions from A. Kidd made in 1994 that digital memory is useless and that computers are not good at making sense of the information.  While the first claim is clearly false, there are issues surrounding it such as how we use digital information.  The second is true to a degree, as we do not have ways to make sense of digital information, unless search is adequate.
Discussion:
I thought this one was funny because it tried to justify another person's false claims.  While the claims can be made broad to have some sort of justification, for the most part these claims were not good.  I don't understand how digital information could have been seen as useless at any point in time.


Chapter 34: Revisiting an Ethnocritical Approach to HCI: Verbal Privilege and Translation
Author: Michael J. Muller
Venue: IBM Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Summary:
This article compared HCI with ethnohistorians.  Both must translate between worlds of the less powerful and more powerful, must understand the users' concept of knowledge and how they use it, and understand why users make the decisions that they do.  The author then compares to Krupat's three major principles, multiculturalism, polyvocal polity, and heterogeneity. 
Discussion:
I found this article very boring.  Ethnohistory and ethnography just do not interest me. I understand the comparisons and how understanding others is crucial to HCI, but it just is not entertaining to read about.

Ethnography Ideas

My Ethnography Ideas:

1.  Study what people use tablet computers for, like status, documents, etc.
2.  Compare graduating seniors' work ethic with everyone else. Seems obvious.
3.  Observe the number and type of people that still say "Howdy" on campus. Who responds, who initiates, etc.

Book Reading #3 - HCI Remixed

Chapter 1: My Vision Isn't My Vision: Making a Career Out of Getting Back to Where I Started 
Author: William Burton
Venue: Microsoft Research, Toronto, Canada


Summary:
This article describes one of the first music making software application.  The beauty of it was that it was so simple that any novice could walk up and instantly know how to use the software.  


Discussion:
Overall, this piece was interesting to me.  It was amazing to me that something like this was created so long ago.  The article drives home the importance of usability. 

Chapter 4: Drawing on SketchPad: Reflections on Computer Science and HCI
Author: Joseph A. Konstan
Venue: University of Minnesota, USA


Summary:
The SketchPad, a much more complex application than Chapter 1, is discussed in this article.  The author asserts how designers need to not only think about applications for generic users, but also design more complex applications such as the SketchPad.  


Discussion:
I thought it was interesting reading this entry right after reading how designs should be made more intuitive rather than complex.  Overall I thought it was an ok article. 

Chapter 5: The Mouse, the Demo, and the Big Idea 
Author: Wendy Ju
Venue: Stanford University, CA


Summary:
The author recollects her experiences with the demo of the mouse, "The Mother of All Demos." She explains how that demo was so radical that it was made Engelbart's demo legendary and out of this world. That demo reshaped the entire world of demos. 


Discussion:
I thought this entry was interesting. I've never really thought about how things that seem simple now used to be radical ideas. 

Chapter 18: Observing Collaboration: Group-Centered Design 
Author: Saul Greenberg
Venue: University of Calgary, Canada


Summary:
This article discusses groupware development.  John Tang described observed group behavior and outlined principles that needed to be present in group shared space, such as orientation, proximity, and simultaneous access.  From Tang's observations, Saul Greenberg created several lines of software for group drawing use.


Discussion:
Overall, I thought this was somewhat bland.  It all seemed intuitive.  It reminded me of Microsoft's Surface, which proved to be the most interesting thought I had while reading this.

Chapter 20: Taking Articulation Work Seriously
Author: Geraldine Fitzpatrick
Venue: University of Sussex, Brighton, UK


Summary:
This article discussed computer software cooperative work, or CSCW.  The author discusses how it is still important today even though it can be overlooked.


Discussion:
Dear Lord this was boring.  This seemed little more than a poor explanation of CSCW and how it is still important today. I'm glad to be done reading it.

Chapter 23: Video, Toys, and Beyond Being There 
Author: Brian K. Smith
Venue:Penn State University, USA


Summary:
Brian Smith discusses the concept of "Beyond Being There," a term meant to signify technology that is better than actually being present. Although certain technology, like IM and Basecamp mentioned in this article, can help augment communication, nothing has replaced physically being there yet. The author uses his mother, who began chemotherapy, being able to interact with her granddaughter until the mother passes away.

Discussion:
Sad story but a good story. I realized how much we use technology even in normal communication while reading this article.  I liked this one.

Reading #2: Edits & Credits: Exploring Integration and Attribution in Online Creative Collaboration

Comments:
Comment #1
Comment #2

Reference:
Title: Edits & Credits: Exploring Integration and Attribution in Online Creative Collaboration
Authors: Kurt Luther, Nicholas Diakopoulos, and Amy Bruckman
Venue: CHI 2010; Atlanta, Georgia; April 10-15

Summary:
This article discusses the growing phenomenon of collaborative online work, such as Wikipedia or open source software.  The site discussed in the article is Newgrounds, a website devoted to collaborative Flash animation projects.  On this site, a "leader" submits requests for specific work, and others in turn submit their proposals.  The leader then has the task of choosing the work he/she thinks is the best and puts them into the work.  If a contributor's work is chosen, he/she may be listed as an "author," which increases that person's status.  However, an issue arises because Newgrounds only allows for 10 coauthors per project.  It is rare that a project have more than that, but if it does, it leads to people getting left in the cold despite their contributions.  Also, the leader must edit the submissions to create an acceptable piece, which can upset the other contributors if their work is edited too much or without their permission.  Overall, the objective is to increase standing in the community, and the multi-authorship system (or MAS) allows for that.

Discussion:
I thought this was a fairly interesting article.  I've never heard of the Newgrounds website before.  It sounds like a good way to increase one's reputation should one be interested in Flash development.  I think it sucks that if there's more than 10 "authors" for a work, then you can end up not being credited for your work, but I agree with the article in that it creates more competition and higher quality pieces.  It certainly puts a different spin on public forums and social networking.

Chinese Room

Comments:
http://jngonzales-chi2011.blogspot.com/2011/01/chinese-room-blog.html
http://isthishci.blogspot.com/2011/01/blog-entry-1-minds-brains-and-programs.html


Reference:
Minds, Brains, and Programs
By John Searle
Venue: Behavioral and Brain Sciences journal

Summary:

Searle disputes the level of understanding in this entry.  He acknowledges that a computer program can generate the appropriate responses to a question about a  story, but not that the program actually understands the story.  To demonstrate this, he uses an analogy where he is the program and the story is Chinese symbols slid under a door in the room he is in.  He has no idea what the Chinese symbols mean.  The computer gives him instructions on how to deal with the symbols, and he slides them back under the door with the correct responses.  In this example, he generates responses that will pass a Turing test, but he actually does not understand anything he did.    He views "weak AI" as him generating the correct responses and believes that is in place.  He does not think "strong AI" is plausible, meaning the computer actually understands the answers before outputting them.  Searle uses the term "intentionality" as a simile to understanding.

Discussion:

I must say that I agree with Searle.  The computer doesn't truly intend to answer, it just follows what is programmed to do.  Even with machine learning, we are just giving more "rules" to the program itself.  The program cannot make a mistake and learn from it.  Until a programmer fixes the bug, the program will continue to produce the same results.  I don't think computers will ever possess "common sense," which to me is a key component separating a computer from the cognitive skills of a mind.  One could write a program that would symbolically make the computer willingly commit suicide. I don't think someone could manipulate a human so that they would willingly destroy themselves.  We may be able to create stronger and stronger AI, but I don't think we'll ever reach the level that Searle describes as "strong AI."

Reading #1: Only one Fitts' law formula please!

Comments:
http://aaronkirkes-chi.blogspot.com/2011/01/reading-1-only-one-fitts-law-formula.html
http://wkhciblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/paper-reading-1-only-one-fitts-law.html

Reference:
Only one Fitts' law formula please!
By: Heiko Drewes
Venue: CHI 2010: I Need Your Input, April 10–15, 2010, Atlanta, GA, USA

Summary:
Fitts' law correlates the amount of time it takes a user to click on a target with the distance the cursor is from the target.  However, the HCI community has adapted or modified the original formula to best fit their data without any reasoning for doing so.  Furthermore, Drewes says that the HCI community allows this to happen without ever truly questioning the reasoning behind using different versions of the formula.  He believes the multiple formulas are a contradiction and do not represent proper scientific studies. Some of the versions of the formula try to eliminate the possibility of negative values, but Drewes explains that the only way the formula can return a negative is if the cursor was already on the target, meaning in that position in the past.  He states that because of this the original formula was correct and there was no reason to deviate from the original formula.  Finally, he concludes that the HCI community should either treat Fitts' law as an art, which would allow contradictions, or a science, which would require one formula to be chosen.

Discussion:
This was a pretty confusing article.  Drewes presents a problem without ever truly answering it.  It seemed to me that he mostly wrote this to criticize the works of other people.  The best answer he proposes to the problem he was aiming to answer is that the HCI community should decide whether to treat Fitts' law as an art or a science, but not both.  Basically he's passing off the entire issue to everyone else, when he's the one complaining about it in the first place.  I just didn't see the purpose in this article other than to bash other works and thus pointing a finger in their respective faces.

On Computers

Comments:

http://chriskam436.blogspot.com/2011/01/on-computers.html

http://aaronkirkes-chi.blogspot.com/2011/01/on-computers_20.html

Reference:

Title: The Complete Works of Aristotle
Author: Aristotle

Editor: Jonathan Barnes

Summary:

Aristotle is contrasting animals and plants.  He states that he believes that whatever takes in food, desires food, thus plants have a sensation and pleasure for food.  Also, plants differ in that their shape in indefinite when compared to an animal.  A plant can take the shape which best produces survival, while an animal has innate traits which it cannot change.  Later Aristotle disputes that plants do have conventional gender, the same as animals, because male and female characteristics are not present in a single plant.  He uses this to justify that there must be a combining of male and female plants in some way to produce offspring, or fruit.  Also similar to animals, Aristotle argues that the tree sap or gummy substance is analogous to blood in animals.  The veins in the plants are like veins in an animal, the root is the mouth of the plant, and so on.  Essentially, Aristotle is making the case that plants indeed have souls, as animals do, because plants have a great number of similar traits as animals, although in different fashions.

Discussion:

If plants do indeed have souls, do computers have souls as well? The veins in a plant or animal are similar to the wires in a computer.  Electricity is both the lifeblood and food of a computer.  A computer has a great deal of cognitive thinking as well.  The plug for the computer is the mouth.  The computer has homogeneous parts, as Aristotle argues plants do as well.  The one area a computer may fail is in reproductive ability.  A computer cannot pop out other computers no matter how many other similar computers it may be connected with.  However, certain computers and software are what are used to design the computers we have at home today, so in a way they a computer can indeed "create" another computer.  A computer can have its software or hardware updated, thus it can "adapt" to prolong its survival.  Aristotle makes a very concise and thoughtful argument on the notion that plants have souls.  However, I don't think plants or computers have souls, but similar arguments can be made for each depending on the level of abstractness used.

Microblogs for The Design of Everyday Things

Chapter 1: The Psychopathology of Everyday Things

Reference:

The Design of Everyday Things
By Donald A Norman

Published 1998

Summary:

The author discusses the failures of some designs, such as a door, projector, and telephone.  He states that everyday things are sacrificing good design for complexity.  Dr. Norman explains that the lack of visibility is causing most, if not all, of these problems.

Discussion:

I definitely agree with Dr. Norman.  I have too often gone to a door with a handle and pulled, only to find out it is a push.  If a product cannot be easily used properly, then it is poorly designed in my opinion.

Microblogs for Coming of Age in Samoa

Introduction


Reference Information:

Coming of Age in Samoa: A Psychological Study of Primitive Youth for Western Civilization

By Margaret Mead

Written in Samoa 1926-1928

Summary: 

The introduction discusses the differences in typical scientific experiments and the studies of an anthropologist.  Through this, the author states that anthropological study is the correct way to analyze why adolescents seem to have so much strife.  Finally she explains that she studied a group of about 50 girls in Samoa to determine if they struggled through the same things as American youths or if adolescent struggles are culturally dependent. 

Discussion:

I agree that scientific studies are not the correct way to analyze human problems because there are too many conditions that cannot be controlled.  I think it will be interesting to read about the Samoan culture and see if the youth there had similar problems with youth in America.  I think there will be common problems, but not for the same reasons.

Blog Entry #0

Email: rkerbow3457@tamu.edu

5th year senior

I am taking this class because it sounded interesting and I needed a 3 hour CSCE class to graduate.

Experience: I have had two internships with Lockheed Martin in Grand Prairie, TX, as a computer programmer using C#. Also I have taken Computer Graphics at A&M and primarily used C# for that class as well.

In ten years I expect to be a manager or technical lead for a large defense contractor. I will have a Masters of Science in Computer or Software Engineering and will be almost finished with an MBA.  I will be married for 10 years and have one young child, 2-3 years old.

I think the next biggest technological advancement in computer science will be something combining computers/tablets and TVs. They have begun to do it, but I think eventually the TV could be used for everything.

If I could travel back in time, I would meet Adolf Hitler so I could punch him in face.

My favorite style of mustache is easily the handlebar.  Not everyone can pull it off, and if you can at least you won't look like a cop.

If I could be fluent in any foreign language, I would choose Latin because it sounds so good and everything stems from it.

Some interesting facts about myself are that I have a twin brother, am marrying a Longhorn graduate, and just became an uncle on August 27th, 2010.