UCD Project News Edition 27, July 26, 2004
UCD Project News is a fortnightly e-newsletter devoted to increasing
awareness of user-centred design (UCD) principles and contributing
towards a culture of UCD within the Smart Internet Technology CRC.
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In this issue:
1. Supriya: UE Workshop a Success
2. Smart Internet UE Workshop Wrap
3. Upcoming Conferences & Calls for Papers
4. Useful Links & References
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1. Supriya: UE Workshop a Success
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We met for three days at the annual Smart Internet User Environment
Workshop. There was a lot of serious and scintillating discussion
as Alex Burn’s piece below details. The conference however
centred on getting together with people from our project and program,
and the technology researchers and corporate partners with whom
we are working. Meetings like these are essential for we work at
a distance from each other, and across disciplinary boundaries,
academic and corporate perspectives. Learning how people’s
lives and research interests intersect, gives meaning to the work
we are doing together.
So thanks Trevor for doing all the hard work of putting together
the workshop and making sure everybody had time to meet over good
food and wine.
Supriya
Assoc Prof Supriya Singh,
Project Leader
supriya.singh@rmit.edu.au
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2. Smart Internet UE Workshop Wrap
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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.
Smart Internet 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.au
To view the Smart Internet UE Workshop presentations, please visit:
http://www.ucd.smartinternet.com.au/presentations.html
(UCD Members only)
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3. Upcoming Conferences & Calls for Papers
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*CRF 2004
The Communications Research Forum attracts presentations from academia,
industry and policy. This year it is being held on 29-30 September
2004 at the Old Parliament House Canberra
Sessions include
· · Next generation networks (NGNs)
· · Digital rights management
· · Network bottlenecks and byways
· · Social attitudes and defamation law
· · Snail mail in the information age
· · Issues in telephone numbering
… and much more.
For further information and registration see http://ww.crf.dcita.gov.au
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* AI & Society International Journal Call for Papers
AI & Society: The Journal of Human Centred Systems, is seeking
papers for a Special Issue: "Exploring Civic Intelligence:
Descriptions & Prescriptions" that will be edited by Douglas
Schuler. Papers are invited that explore the connection between
the environment (social, natural, technological, media, etc.) and
civil society. Relevant fields include distributed cognition, new
social movements, community informatics, formal and informal education,
distributed artificial intelligence, network science, management
science, cognitive science, computer supported cooperative work,
library and information science, civic innovation and social learning,
as well as discussions relevant to policy, media, the arts, etc.
Abstracts are due on August 13 and full papers are due on November
22.
For further information, please email Douglas Schuler on: douglas@cpsr.org
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5. Useful Links and References
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* Eric Schaffer (2004) Institutionalization of Usability: A Step
by Step Guide, Addison Wesley
This book shows how to make user-centered design and development
a routine practice within an enterprise. Other excellent books explain
precisely how to make software usable; this book builds on that
foundation, and focuses instead on how to get usability recognized
and incorporated into an organisation's values and culture. Based
on author Eric Schaffer's extensive experience, the book provides
a solid methodology for institutionalising usability, guiding readers
step-by-step with practical advice on topics like organizational
change, milestones, toolsets, infrastructure, and staffing requirements
needed to achieve fully mature usability engineering.
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