PRESENTATIONS
2004
NOVEMBER
Smart Internet sponsors QualIT
The first International Conference on Qualitative Research
in IT & IT in Qualitative Research (QualIT) was held at Griffith
University from November 24-26, attracting 85 local and international
guests from a variety of disciplines. Research presented covered
topics including information technology, information systems, software
engineering, business, social and health informatics, methodological
challenges in qualitative research, innovative research studies
and methods and the use and challenges of using software tools in
qualitative research.
Keynote speakers Professor Michael Myers, Professor Eileen Trauth
and Dr Tom Richards were a major contribution to the success of
the event with interesting presentations on the current state of
information systems research, the challenges in the use of software
tools for qualitative inquiry and understanding the impact that
qualitative software tools can have on qualitative research. Panel
sessions covered topics including: Gender issues in IT – What
are we still doing wrong? Publishing in IS/IT journals, The impact
of IT on qualitative research: What has software done to methods?
and The qualitative researcher role re-examined.
The conference was preceded by informative workshops on the use
of Nvivo (a software tool for qualitative research), which were
conducted by Lyn Richards, the Director of QSR – a Melbourne-based
software development company and one of the major sponsors of QualIT.
Other sponsors included Smart Internet, the Institute of Integrated
& Intelligent Systems (GU), Nokia, ThoughtWare and PivotSoftware.
The conference will happen again in late 2005. For more information,
please contact the Program Chair Jenine Beekhuyzen – jenine@griffith.edu.au
or visit http://www.griffith.edu.au/conference/qualit2004/
SEPTEMBER
Charlotte Scarf Attends CIRN
Charlotte Scarf, a PhD candidate with Smart Internet’s UE
program, recently participated in the doctoral colloquium of the
inaugural conference of the Community Informatics Research Network
(CIRN), which was held at the Monash Centre in Prato Italy from
September 29 to October 1, 2004.
CIRN is an international network of researchers, practitioners and
policy makers concerned with enabling communities through the use
of information and communications technologies. It has members from
over 50 countries with disciplinary backgrounds spanning computer
science, information systems, social science and community development.
The theme of the conference was “Sustainability and Community
Technology.” Mike Gurstein of NJIT, Fiorella De Cindio of
the Milan Civic Network and Tony Salvador of Intel each delivered
a keynote presentation highlighting the issue of sustainability
with regard to community networks and access points. The remainder
of the conference consisted of interactive panel sessions and workshops
focussed on the conference theme.
Charlotte presented at the doctoral colloquium, which was held on
the first day of the conference to give graduate students an opportunity
to present their research proposals and discuss them with international
peers and established community informatics researchers. Charlotte’s
group was chaired by Fiorella de Cindio from Italy and Tom Horan
from the US who both provided her with helpful advice regarding
her proposed research direction and methodological approach.
Charlotte said that the supportive and collegial atmosphere of the
doctoral colloquium provided her with an excellent introduction
to the international conference circuit. While the conference itself
was quite social, providing exceptional networking opportunities
which Charlotte used to seek the advice of both researchers and
practitioners in community informatics, a discipline she intends
to draw on for her research, while taking in the gorgeous surrounds
of the Tuscan countryside.
For further information about CIRN, please visit: http://www.ciresearch.net/
For the 2004 conference program, including links to conference proceedings,
please visit: http://www.ciresearch.net/conferences/schedule.php?cf=4
Annual Smart Internet Conference
The Smart Internet Annual Conference will be held at the
Australian Technology Park in Eveleigh, Sydney from September 21-23,
2004.
There will be two workshops on the first day of the conference:
A NAUI/SPA Workshop organised by Program Manager Wayne Wobcke; and
a workshop on home space research direction organised by SN/IE Program
Manager Farzad Safaei.
On the 22nd of September research papers will be presented. This
year, they will be structured around the central theme of Homes
and Communities and three sub-themes of Health, Banking and Commerce,
and Entertainment.
On the 23rd of September, there will be an Intellectual Property
Management course for program and project leaders. The main theme
of this session will be identifying protectable intellectual property
and working on a case study of how to protect IP.
Craig Chatfield Attends British HCI Conference
In early September Craig Chatfield attended the British HCI conference
at Leeds Metropolitan University. The doctoral consortium was made
up of mostly British PhD students, and had a great atmosphere as
students shared their research and PhD tales (of success and woe).
The conference itself was a great success with most papers being
well received. A highlight was seeing the Smart Internet paper on
Mediating Intimacy (complete with virtual hugs).
The conference keynotes were of particular interest, with Kees Dorst
describing the importance (and emerging roles) of design in HCI
and Thomas Erickson talking about designing socially rich digital
environments. Thomas described the process, and imperative, of designing
social clues into our communication systems, and gave great examples
of how adding these to everyday systems (like online auctions or
group communication tools) can greatly improve their effectiveness.
A fairly social conference, the conference dinner was in a renovated
woollen mill come Art Gallery (devoted to David Hockney's work).
The final reception was held in the Thackray Medical Museum which
described the living conditions of 1840 Leeds, and ultimately had
all involved glad we live in the 21st centaury - complete with cabs
to move us on to the next stop of the evening - The blood and puss
museum, another conference highlight!
The next British HCI conference is in Edinburgh, strategically placed
just after the Fringe Festival. Based upon the quality of submissions
and the enjoyable sense of community at this year’s conference,
it is highly recommended.
Craig Chatfield
C.Chatfield@griffith.edu.au
AUGUST
Report from Architecture Working Group
The architecture demonstrator is coming together! The architecture
project has been composed of two groups - bottom-up and top-down
- and this meeting made it clear that they are likely to meet in
the middle. The bottom-up groups have been working on technologies.
These technologies include environmental sensors, tools to evaluate
rules, Internet telephony and immersive audio. The top down group
has been working on a structure that allows these technologies to
work together and to provide the functionality of the system. The
challenge for the UCD project is now to bring the user view back
to the technologies that have been developed - to make the artefacts
useful to users.
Three technology demonstrators were presented at the meeting:
1) One showed that a phone call could be made between two devices
using the architecture.
2) The second showed a rule system that implements ripple down rules
interfaced with blackboards. Ripple down rules capture the notion
of "do this, except when, then do that, except when, do that".
A blackboard is a mechanism for agents to communicate. An agent
scribbles information on the blackboard and other agents can read
it if they want or understand it.
3) The third consisted of two PDA-based phones with call management.
The users can specify a set of rules in a grid using the time and
caller id to pick the action associated with the rule. Thus they
can tailor the messages sent back to the caller.
These demonstrators essentially show that it is possible to implement
swarm using the technologies available.
The outcome of the meeting was that a Swarm++ phone prototype will
be produced around the time of RAC. The architecture group will
be looking for help in vetting a set of scripts showing how the
phone is used and its technological features. Some of these scripts
will be directed towards showing the technology and others will
be describing typical usage. It will be particularly important for
the UCD project to insure that typical usage scenarios are true
to life and genuinely useful.
Maurice Castro
Maurice.castro@rmit.edu.au
Christine Satchell
Christine.satchel@rmit.edu.au
JULY
Smart Internet 2004 Annual UE Workshop
The User Environment workshop (held at University of Melbourne between
14-16 July 2004) provided a forum for project managers, commercial
partners, researchers and technologists to collectively envision
the Smart Internet Technology CRC’s strategic goals. Participants
were briefed on current CRC projects, saw demonstrations of technology
prototypes, learnt about user centred design and social impacts
perspectives, met old friends, and made some new ones.
The workshop also reviewed the CRC’s research performance,
evaluated commercialization initiatives, and discussed consortium
issues. Trevor Barr’s ‘schools of thought’ and
‘strategic territories’ provided over-arching frameworks
for us to consider the many viewpoints heard over three days. These
activities supported the Smart Internet’s vision: to discover
Internet futures, anticipate new technologies, share its value creation
with multiple stakeholders, and improve Australian society.
Mark Pesce, a senior lecturer with AFTRS Interactive Media, gave
a riveting keynote address regarding Open Source Television on Bastille
Day’s anniversary. Pesce’s talk—liberty, egality
and fraternity—was well-researched and provocative. His analysis
of the Open Source paradigm’s ‘disruptive’ potential
for Internet and television media was debated throughout workshop
sessions. The high-profile site Slashdot featured the talk—which
was read by 30,000 people in the first 24 hours alone.
CRC speakers echoed Pesce’s arguments. Paul Turner warned
that biotechnology and nanotechnology would have ‘disruptive’
effects on Australia’s health industry. Robert Cox asked participants
to be self-reflexive and use critical inquiry tools. Darren Sharp
outlined the critical role of ‘collective’ intelligence
and social networks. Supriya Singh exhorted participants to consider
the community benefits and civilizational implications of their
research—to embrace an ‘emancipatory’ outlook.
The workshop was characterized by a rich dialogue between different
research cultures. Steve Howard, Wayne Wobcke and Farzad Safaei
offered technologist perspectives on the ICT, Smart Networks and
NAUI/SPA programs and why emotional contexts were crucial to the
Smart Internet. Frank Vetere, Martin Gibbs and Floyd Mueller demonstrated
a prototype to send tactile emotional messages at-a-distance. User-centred
design researchers Michael Coburn and Christine Satchell challenged
how we dealt with technology and the ‘hidden assumptions’
we make about new innovations. For Coburn, haptic interfaces provided
an alternative to voice synthesis, whilst Satchell explored how
youth ‘mobile cultures’ were having tsunami-like effects.
Margaret Jackson and John Snare explored why identity and privacy
management were crucial in the current security environment.
A masterful quartet—Robert Morsillo (Telstra), Bill Jolley
(Australian Communications Authority), Julian Thomas (Institute
for Social Research, Swinburne University) and Eliza Collier (Consumer
Law Centre, Victoria)—enlightened participants on the legal,
regulatory and social impacts of technologies on disenfranchised
community groups. Because these were different territories, each
of us gained a deeper sense of how CRC research diffuses into Australian
society. Understanding the ‘precautionary’ principle
and triple bottom line (financial, social and environmental indicators)
was a pivotal breakthrough for many.
Various speakers examined the UE program from different stakeholder
perspectives: government, managerial and industry. These talks,
when combined, gave participants an integrative time-line of the
CRC’s history and preferable ‘near-term’ context.
Peter Gerrand summarized the CRC’s genesis from the Hawke
Government’s bid to create the ‘clever country’.
He also evaluated the 2003 Review Panel’s assessment of the
CRC’s progress and offered guidance to researchers.
Darrell Williamson, our intrepid CEO, summarized the consortium’s
progress; he and Annette Dockerty welcomed new partner Legalco into
the fold. Gautam Tendulkar’s overview of ‘opportunity
evaluation’ strategies, Lisette Cochineas’ thoughts
on intellectual capital, and Khimji Vaghjiani’s experience
with innovation all provided forward-looking insights. Industry
outlooks included Kylie Cassar Bartolo and Stephen Chau on e-health
opportunities, whilst Farzad Safaei and Paul Bousted explained their
‘immersive’ audio project for Massively Multiplayer
Online Games. Collectively, this strategic advice will revitalize
the CRC’s commercial linkages and entrepreneurial culture.
Finally, the UE workshop enabled the Smart Internet to operationalize
a viable ‘forward view’. Alex Burns introduced Australian
Foresight Institute research on strategic foresight. Sonja Pedell
and Martin Gibbs highlighted anthropological lessons of consumer
‘life-worlds’ and ‘lived contexts ’ about
mobile phones. The ACA’s Belinda Lester told of the positive
reception the ‘Vision 20/20’ project has received from
the RAND Institute and other international experts. These sessions
established a common understanding of Futures Studies concepts.
A panel discussion on researcher perspectives led by Supriya Singh,
and break-out groups on Trevor Barr’s ‘strategic territories’
provided forums for debate. We deliberated on different research
‘languages’, norms, values and worldviews. We honed
the CRC’s collective vision, surfaced how to overcome silos,
and considered strategies to enhance university-corporate linkages.
The forums moved this ‘forward view’ from theory to
praxis; from vision to voice; and from intellectual concept to organizational
capability.
Our solution emerged during website usability discussions with John
Craick and Kon Mouzakis. Upgrades to the Smart Internet and intranet
websites will be combined with environmental scanning and informal
networks. This balance of social and technological will span across
the previous limits imposed by projects and institutions.
Interested in our workshop’s results? You’ll know before
2010!
Alex Burns
aburns@swin.edu.a
View
program (.pdf)
View presentations (Members Only)
JUNE
Craig Chatfield Presents at APCHI 04
The Asian Pacific Computer Human Interaction (APCHI) 2004
conference was held in Rotorua, New Zealand from the 29 June –
2 July. Rotorua is a picturesque adventure and nature orientated
tourist destination with beautiful landscapes and thermal baths,
and more adventure activities and cultural attractions than you
could shake a credit card at.
At the conference, Craig Chatfield presented a paper investigating
user perceptions of information sharing within intelligent environments.
This type of paper, investigating user desires, was fairly unique
at the conference with most of the papers seeking to improve existing
interaction methods, and to identify new computer human interaction
tools.
The conference keynotes were particularly interesting, identifying
directions they felt the HCI community must move. The first keynote
speaker, Don Norman, talked about the general principles of user
interaction that should be considered when designing computing devices
and other artefacts. Don described the need to consider both the
cognitive and emotional aspects of a design to ensure the effectiveness
of a product.
The second speaker, Susan Dray, lamented the need for practitioners
and academics to work together to ensure not only the effective
development and design of our products, but to maintain and promote
the reputation and effectiveness of either discipline.
View
paper Members only)
MAY
Leon van Schaik: The Concourse Model for CoPs
The concept of a virtual learning concourse arose out of a desire
to investigate the potentials for a real time ‘virtual university’
on the lines of the virtual stock exchange created for the New York
exchange by architects Asymptote. This soon evolved into an investigation
into new learning environments, and that in turn evolved into an
investigation into communities of practice (CoPs), the contexts
for learning environments.
Much of this thinking has been collected in the paper in progress
“Virtual Concourse 15 08 03.” In 2004 the focus has
been twofold: developing a web-based concourse for LAB 3000, and
creating a real model of the concourse as the armature for the LAB
3000 Digital Design Biennale. This work was presented to the RMIT
UCD symposium early in the year, and it attracted the justifiable
criticism that the work was very strongly located in the visual
imagery sphere. The work has continued in this vein however, because
this iteration is specifically intended fro use by design practitioners.
The theoretical work has been progressed in the writing of my book
“Mastering Architecture: becoming an innovative practitioner”
that will be published by Wiley in November. This contains chapters
on CoP issues such as “Encouraging Mastery” and “Thwarting
Mastery”. The CoP in question is a very specific one, and
issues of ‘self-curation’ within the concourse of a
CoP are discussed.
In the meantime, a paper, now titled “Innovative Architectures:
Building local platforms of mastery that give rise to innovative
architecture” has been developed through two conferences.
It was delivered as a keynote at the International Cities and Town
Centres Society conference in Fremantle in May, and further developed
as the keynote address for the Charles Darwin University Symposium
“Creative Tropical Cities” in early June. The paper
describes different strategies used around the world in the pursuit
of vibrant CoPs.
For further information about the Concourse Model for CoPs, please
view the Detailed Article
or contact Leon van Schaik at: leon.vanschaik@rmit.edu.au
APRIL
Smart Internet 2004 Annual Student Conference
The annual Smart Internet Student Conference was held at
SITCRC’s Technology Park headquarters in Sydney on April 29-30.
It was an excellent opportunity for the 40 odd PhD students in attendance
to meet their peers, mingle with a number of interesting guest speakers,
and share their own research with other participants.
This year’s conference included presentations from Smart Internet
CEO Darrel Williamson, Paul Guba from Melbourne University, patent
attorney Kieran Power, Smart Internet SME Director Bob Mounic, Myretsu
(ex Sausage Software) CEO Rob Cumming, and Telstra Research Laboratories.
A particular highlight was the presentation by Paul Gruba who delighted
students with helpful strategies on how to construct a thesis argument
based on a book by the famous Dr Seuss.
On the second day, students presented their own research in more
intimate program settings chaired by an expert in their field. The
workshops gave students an opportunity to seek feedback from their
peers while allowing Smart Internet to hear how its research students
are progressing. Prizes were awarded for the best presentation in
each program and the UCD Project team would like to congratulate
Michael Coburn for picking up the prize for the UE Program.
Jo Kelder Presents at ISOneWorld 2004
Jo Kelder participated in the Doctoral Consortium at the recent
ISOneWorld 2004 conference, held in Las Vegas from April 12-23,
and gave a presentation on her plans for researching user centred
design methodologies as a PhD candidate with Smart Internet. Commenting
on the experience, Jo said that, "Overall, the trip was very
productive, particularly in that I established relationships with
significant researchers who are now willing to contribute to my
development as a researcher and give me access to their resources
as I need them."
"My conference presentation went very well, with lots of discussion.
Susan Gasson, the Cognitive Science track chair suggested she submit
my paper, along with other papers from that track, for a special
issue of JITTA." Jo said that she established a good relationship
with Susan Gasson, a professor at Drexel College, Philadelphia who
has just received a NSF grant of $500,000 over 5 years for conducting
research. "She has extensive knowledge of user-centred design
approaches and alerted me to issues I need to consider in using
Distributed Cognition theory. She has agreed to have ongoing contact
with me and offered to help in any way she can."
Jo also visited the Distributed Cognition and HCI laboratory, University
of California, San Diego and had separate meetings with the lab
faculty, Profs Edwin Hutchins and Jim Hollan and discussed with
them the research she completed last year and her future plans.
"I showed Prof Hutchins a copy of my thesis. He stated that
he was very excited that someone had applied his approach in the
context of meteorology because he had always thought it would be
an ideal domain. I also showed Dr Christine Johnson who spoke at
the first lab meeting I attended. She commented that it was "very
well structured and thorough." She said she thought I should
distribute it to other researchers, as there were not enough examples
of Distributed Cognition ethnographies. She also commented that
the DC and HCI lab had many projects running but no one had "put
it all together" in the way that I had."
Jo was also given the opportunity to present her research to the
Distributed Cognition and HCI laboratory. The Embodied Cognition
lab was invited to attend her presentation as well. According to
Jo, about fifteen people attended the talk and made some very interesting
comments that applied to how she could extend and develop her research.
At the conclusion of the talk, the co-chairs of the Distributed
Cognition and HCI laboratory offered to arrange mechanisms for continued
collaboration, including giving Jo electronic access to their in-house
files.
For further information about Jo's presentation, please contact
her on jo.kelder@utas.edu.au
MARCH
Christine Satchell Presents the "Swarm Phone"
on “The Buzz”
Christine Satchell, inventor of the "swarm scenario" on
which many of Smart Internet's projects are based, outlined the
concept of the "Swarm Phone" on Radio National, Saturday
March 27, in an interview with Richard Aedy from "The Buzz".
The Swarm Phone uses icons and avatars to tell callers what the
user is doing. Such functionality has enormous potential in the
youth market where users rarely turn off their mobile phones. To
do so would put them out of the loop. However there are situations
when they would rather not be interrupted by a phone call or a text
message.
For further information on Christine's interview, please visit:
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/buzz/stories/s1074785.htm
JANUARY
Assoc Prof Supriya Singh Presents on UCD in India
Supriya had an inspiring visit to Bangalore and Hyderabad
in India in January, hoping to build linkages with international
researchers who are designing technology for users from very different
social and cultural contexts than those whoa re currently the focus
of Smart Internet technologies. She met with people who were designing
not only for the billion people in India, but also for the five
billion throughout the world who do not use computers and the Internet.
Supriya describes the first theme of her visit as "innovation
from the bottom of the pyramid". Work is happening in terms
of voice technologies to overcome the illiteracy barrier; translation
to bring the computer to the speakers of multiple Indian languages;
wireless technologies and the affordable computer. The challenge
is to produce effective technology to service the poorest segments
of the population that is also sustainable in business terms.
The second theme that emerged was the importance of e-governance.
Unlike Australia and other Western countries, the aim of these projects
was to provide transparent and convenient government rather than
aim for cost savings in electronic service delivery. One-stop shops
in India mean consolidated centres in cities and regional towns
where citizens can pay their utility bills, road and property taxes,
obtain birth certificates, and check land titles. The challenge
here is to have government leaders champion the initiative; make
government data available digitally; ensure that services are economically
sustainable; and to provide continuous and efficient service.
Supriya presented on “Designing New Technologies with People
at the Centre” to the Institution of Engineers India (IEI),
the Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (IETE),
and the Centre for Telecom Management and Studies (CTMS) in Hyderabad.
View Presentation
2003
SEPTEMBER
Smart Internet Annual Conference
The annual SITCRC Conference, “Towards Smart Internet
2010” will be held in room 9BC of the Australian Technology
Park in Everleigh, Sydney, this Thursday and Friday (September 18-19,
2003).
JULY
Professor Gitte Lindgaard's International Fellowship Visit
Prof Gitte Lindgaard visited RMIT on an RMIT Foundation
International Visiting Fellowship, with support from the User Environment
program of the SITCRC, in late July.
Gitte has been the Chair in User-Centred Design and Director of
the Human Oriented Technology Lab at Carleton University in Ottawa
since January 2000. In this role she is overseeing a unique teaching
and research program, in a university with one of the longest traditions
of engagement in user-centred design.
With a Ph.D. from Monash University, and professional experience
in the Telstra Research Labs, Gitte has a particular awareness of
the Australian context, and has made substantial contributions to
the study of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) in Australia.
As part of her visit, Gitte gave a public lecture on “Designing
for the Customer and the Bottom Line: Costs and benefits of User-Centred
Design,” which all members of the SITCRC community were invited
to attend. Due to the overwhelming response, Gitte gave a second
lecture on the same topic.
Gitte also conducted a workshop with the SITCRC User Environment
program titled “The User Environment: Research Questions for
the Future.” Interest generated from that discussion led to
another presentation / workshop titled "Aesthetic appeal versus
usability: Implications for user satisfaction."
Gitte also participated in the UCD project's regular teleconference
while she was here and provided researchers with interesting insights
into their own work and the work of the wider research community.
View Presentations
PhD Students take the Access Grid and GrangeNet
for a Spin
PhD students from RMIT and the University of Sydney recently conducted
a videoconference using Access Grid software connected to GrangeNet.
The students were interested in seeing how the increased bandwidth
changed the experience of video conferencing, and in particular
the level of “social presence."
GrangeNet is a high-bandwidth, next-generation, experimental network
that runs between Melbourne and Sydney via Canberra. There is also
a slightly slower link running to Brisbane, with other capital cities
connected via standard AARNET infrastructure. Currently the link
that runs from Melbourne to Sydney is 10 Gigabit, which is 1000
times faster than the average office network. For example, it could
transfer a full DVD movie every 4 seconds...
In terms of system configuration, there are three cameras at the
RMIT end. One is centrally mounted and points straight at participants.
The other two are off to the side, but will eventually be ceiling
mounted, with one in the front corner of the room and one in the
opposite corner in the rear. Although there are three projectors,
students only used the center one.
The result was six tiled video images; the top three of RMIT students,
and the bottom three of Sydney students. The experience wasn't far
short of having 6 NetMeeting windows open at once, where only one
of them was really of interest (the front view of the group at the
other end).
The students found the picture quality to be less than expected
and discovered that this is because the RMIT system is currently
running on the AARNET backbone and uses a previous version of Access
Grid software. The full-bandwidth GrangeNet connection will be in
place by mid- to late- July and by then the new software will also
be installed.
There is a lot of scope for interesting applications in the context
of new high-speed networks, especially when you consider that these
networks might eventually find their way into our homes and offices.
The students have organized with VPAC to trial the Access Grid on
an ongoing basis and will report their experiences and ideas back
to the UE group.
Useful Links:
http://www.vpac.org/
http://www.accessgrid.org/
http://www.grangenet.net/
JUNE
First phase launch of Member's Forum
June 12 marked the first phase of the launch of the new
“Member’s Forum” on the UCD website, which allows
members to communicate, collaborate and share knowledge online via
a blog. All members of the UCD group were issued with a user name
and password which allow them to access the Member’s Forum
and other secure information on the UCD Project website.
Following success of the first phase launch, the “Member’s
Forum” will be opened to the wider Smart Internet community
and all members will be issued with login details within the next
month or so. It is hoped that the forum will help to stimulate and
record current and future discussions firstly within the UCD Group,
and eventually across the entire Smarty Internet community.
Annual Smart Internet Student Conference
The annual Smart Internet PhD conference was held at SITCRC’s
Technology Park headquarters in Sydney on June 5-6. It was an excellent
opportunity for the 30 odd PhD students in attendance to engage
in cross-linking activities with other students participating in
the SITCRC. Old friends were reunited, new contacts established
and many interesting ideas shared.
The workshop gave Smart Internet an opportunity to hear how its
research students are developing as students gave presentations
on their individual research projects. Meanwhile, students received
research direction from the SITCRC and benefited from listening
to those "who have gone before them" explain the finer
details of working a PhD.
This year’s workshop included presentations from various projects
leaders from across different areas of Smart Internet. Coming from
the User Centred Design Group, it was especially good to see that
the user focus was being integrated across projects.
A highlight was a particularly inspiring presentation by UCD Project
leader, Supriya Singh, who included many personal accounts from
her experience in research. She also managed to capture the benefits
that could be got from cross-disciplinary research, providing spot
on quotes such as "when you come to the edge of a discipline
it is time to look further."
Another highlight of a less academic nature was the Thai dinner
on Thursday night and drinks at the Random Bar – thanks to
Lisette for organizing that.
All in all, it was an excellent conference which demonstrated how
one could never feel isolated doing a PhD as part of the SITCRC.
Photo courtesy of David Carmichael
MAY
Discussions re Next Round of Project Funding
User Environment (UE) program leader, Trevor Barr has initiated
a series of discussions within the team about the future of the
UE program in the lead up to the next round of SIRCRC funding.
The Research Advisory Committee (RAC) will consider new proposals
in August of this year and Trevor wants us to be well prepared in
advance. We already have over $1million in UE grants this calendar
year and we want to keep the momentum going.
Trevor met at Swinburne with Supriya Singh, John Burke and Paul
Turner on May 30 to talk specifically about the UCD Project. In
very brief summary we might be heading towards a two-pronged UCD
strategy:
A. Extended development of the user centred design methodology which
underpins the conceptualisation and evolution of SITCRC processes.
B. Focus around at least three project linkages between the User
Environment Program and the technology based programs * i.e., the
Amivox project (UE/ NAUI), Nymity project ( SN/ IE/SN) and the Virtual
Café (SN/UE).
There are a lot of other possible projects in the melting pot. Supriya
and Paul had visited the Griffth team before the Swinburne meeting
and Trevor will be visiting the Adelaide team next week to get a
good handle on their sense of direction for 2004.
UCD Researchers Gather in Brisbane
Supriya Singh and Paul Turner visited the Brisbane group on 28-29
May to discuss joint papers and meet with SITCRC people in Brisbane,
including Liisa Von Hellens, Gunela Astbrink, Abdul Sattar, Rene
Hexel, Sue Nielsen, Jenine Beekhuyzen, plus PhD Sudents Michelle
Morley and Vanessa Love. Project ideas were discussed in along with
how to go about making a successful project proposal. Examples of
project ideas include an investigation of how smart Internet technology
could assist to improve evidence-based medicine amongst hospital
clinicians.
The Griffith UCD group has been involved in a detailed study on
the role of clinical leaders in integrating the vast amount of research
(approximately 5000 new research articles per day) and practice.
This study would provide an excellent basis to develop one or more
user scenarios and personas for the NAUI, SPA and IE researchers
at Griffith University. A proposal 'EviMed' is currently being developed
for the RAC in August.
Other project ideas that were discussed is software development
for Education Queensland which already has 500 teachers involved
in an experimental project aiming to explore how PDA's can enhance
teacher productivity and adding features to Sony iBo robots so that,
in addition to be able to play soccer, the robot dog could serve
as a guide dog for blind people.
Virtual Meeting of Virtual Cafe
Members of the UCD team, involved in developing the Virtual
Café project with members of the SN Program, hosted a voice
over IP meeting on May 29 to discuss the project further. John Burke
led the meeting, which was attended by Peter Burrows, Paul Doornbusch
and Charlotte Scarf from RMIT, Farzad Safei and Paul Boustead from
Wollongong University, and Mike Rumsewicz from the University of
Adelaide.
The meeting was held using CentraOne conferencing software, which
enables up to 250 people to participate in a virtual “Symposium”
and speak to each other via voice over IP point-to-point conferencing
technology. The idea behind the meeting was to test some of the
theory the UCD group had been exploring in relation to acceptable
minimum delay in voice over IP communication.
The next steps are that the UCD team will begin to develop possible
scenarios / contexts for joint consideration and outline the possible
role of user researchers in an ongoing project team. A face-to-face
meeting will be held late June to further develop common scenarios,
and to determine whether an integrated interdisciplinary team is
appropriate for the project proposal which has to be completed by
end-July.
APRIL
Trevor Barr and Paul Turner Present at RAC
Professor Trevor Barr and Dr. Paul Turner presented the
activities, outcomes and achievements of the User Environment (UE)
program and UCD Project respectively to the Research Advisory Committee
on 15-16 April 2003.
Response from both committee members and representatives from the
technology programs in the SITCRC was positive and three UE grants
were successful. These were for the Amivox, Nymity and Multimedia
Messaging Service projects. Well done to the UE/UCD people involved.
May there be lots more in August!
View Presentation
Robert Cox Presents at ICEIS in France
Robert Cox, a PhD scholarship student with the User Environments
Program, attended the fifth International Conference on Enterprise
Information Systems (ICEIS) in Angers, France 14-17 April 2003.
His poster presentation on: What is the Value of Emotion in Communications:
Implications for User-Centred Design, was delivered to an interested
auditorium of some 750 researchers, academics and technicians.
Robert says his presentation was allocated two hours in a cubical-style
arena in the main auditorium, which he shared with about 15 other
researchers. Many of the researchers, including Robert, had cues
of people waiting for an opportunity to question and interview them
regarding their research. It was certainly a new experience for
this recent researcher. There was much discussion on the merits
of his research, together with several offers from technicians who
expressed interest in developing devices for such mediated communications.
According to Rob, many of the presentations appeared to lack depth
or detail. He further commented that this it may be due to one of
two reasons: Either our research standard in Australia is much higher
than previously understood: or the competition, internationally,
is much greater than previously understood thereby requiring most
researchers to “keep their cards close to their chest.”
Robert’s paper was very well received and a lot of interest
has been forthcoming from Brazil, Korea and the UK, particularly
Edinburgh University’s School of Informatics project on Mediated
Communications. He is currently studying at the University of Tasmania
in the Burnie Campus and is in his 2nd year of candidature.
View Presentation
Gunela Astbrink Speaks at “Digital
Disability” Book Launch
Gunela Astbrink was an invited speaker at the combined
seminar and book launch of “Digital Disability,” held
in Brisbane on April 4.
"Digital Disability: The social construction of disability
in new media" by Gerard Goggin and Christopher Newell examines
how people with disabilities are represented as users, consumers,
viewers or listeners of new media by policymakers, corporations,
programmers and disability communities. The book may be considered
controversial by some, but is a useful addition to the literature.
Christopher Newell is a member of the SITCRC's Expert Panel on Disability
and has contributed his knowledge and expertise on this Panel as
well as participating in the March disability workshop hosted by
Paul Turner's team at the University of Tasmania.
View
Website
RMIT Group Discusses Involvement in the Virtual
Café Project
Paul Boustead and Mike Rumsewicz from the SN/IE program met with
members of the UCD Group at RMIT on April 1, 2003, to discuss and
reflect on possible user requirements for the Virtual Café.
The meeting is set to lead to short term testing of acceptable minimal
delay in virtual communication, a long term consideration of literature
on virtual communication by different user groups for a variety
of activities in diverse cultural contexts, and a design workshop.
The meeting followed on from the Wollongong workshop that took place
in February and a meeting between Professor Farzad Safaei and the
RMIT team held shortly after.
MARCH
Links Established with Melbourne University’s UE Group
In a move to develop links with the UE program at Melbourne University,
Christine Satchell presented the initial findings of her research
on young people's use of new digital technology to the Ideas Lab
at the University of Melbourne on March 31, 2003.
The presentation generated vigorous discussion. There was a lot
of interest regarding Christine’s findings about the level
of anxiety young people feel about misrepresentation in virtual
space. Her findings about identity also generated discussion, especially
the concept that young people experience life through multiple identities
and their choice of technology is an expression of those identities.
The propensity of young people to use technology as active content
producers rather than as passive receivers also fuelled discussion.
Christine will present a selection of her findings at the Association
for Qualitative Research Conference in Sydney in July 2003.
Disability and ICT Workshop Held in Hobart
Paul Turner from the University of Tasmania organised a Disability
and ICT workshop in Hobart, March 7, 2003, to encourage higher degree
students to consider disability projects. The impetus for this was
the work done by the UCD project's Expert Panel on Disability, which
has had a considerable impact in increasing awareness within the
CRC of the usage of the Internet and related technologies by people
with disabilities.
The role of the Expert Panel, which was facilitated by Gunela Astbrink,
was to provide advice on the philosophical and ethical basis of
projects and methodological approaches. Panel members gave feedback
on project papers and offered ideas for future directions, especially
with regard to allied projects within the core technology programs,
and the impact on people with disabilities.
Gunela Astbrink chaired the workshop and recommended the other two
speakers. These were Christopher Newell, a member of the Expert
Panel and a Senior Lecturer at the University of Tasmania, and Robin
Wilkinson who founded and leads the organisation Tasmanians with
Disabilities.
The three presentations gave participants an opportunity to gain
further insights into universal design, the use of technology by
people with disabilities, and a range of attitudinal and social
policy issues. The mainstreaming of initially specialised technology
for people with disabilities, such as the scanner and speech recognition,
was highlighted.
The general response to the workshop was positive in sparking people's
interest and awareness and there was vigorous discussion around
many of the issues raised. Tasmanian Group Launches SME
Tasmanian Group Launches SME Alliance Program
UCD Group members from the University of Tasmania were delighted
to launch the Smart Internet SME Alliance Program, which aims to
create and support revenue earning and commercialisation opportunities
in the Smart Internet and ICT related fields, in Hobart on March
6, 2003. Neville Roach officially launched the program, which was
attended by more than sixty people representing a cross section
of SMEs in Tasmania.
Initial response to the launch was favourable. Within the first
week, five SMEs agreed to become priority members and the group
is currently in discussions with several other firms considering
membership.
The following companies have indicated their willingness to join
the SME alliance program in Tasmania and at least two others have
shown strong interest in the program.
|
