Synergistic serendipity
This event took place on Monday 12 December 2005 at 12:30
Dr. Russell Beale Advanced Interaction Group, School of Computer Science, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom
Modern computers have evolved from the beige box under the desk into an integral part of our environment and infrastructure. They are exceptional tools, offering great power and connectivity and allowing us to achieve things previously unimagined. But they remain a frustrating collaborator: pedantic, almost autistic in behaviour, it is hard get them to work with us in tackling ill-defined problems.
In this talk, I'll discuss a synergistic approach to designing and developing systems that try to bridge this gap by maximising the skills of the user through augmenting them with the capabilities of the computer. I'll discuss a number of examples of systems that have been developed from these principles, including a data mining system which understands that we're simple creatures who can't cope with multidimensional data too easily and like to speak in broad generalisations, and an internet browser that peers into the future for you. I'll also discuss how our interactions with systems have been changing, and how we can get systems to support social interaction, dating, and joke-telling - and why it's important.
This event took place on Monday 12 December 2005 at 12:30
Modern computers have evolved from the beige box under the desk into an integral part of our environment and infrastructure. They are exceptional tools, offering great power and connectivity and allowing us to achieve things previously unimagined. But they remain a frustrating collaborator: pedantic, almost autistic in behaviour, it is hard get them to work with us in tackling ill-defined problems.
In this talk, I'll discuss a synergistic approach to designing and developing systems that try to bridge this gap by maximising the skills of the user through augmenting them with the capabilities of the computer. I'll discuss a number of examples of systems that have been developed from these principles, including a data mining system which understands that we're simple creatures who can't cope with multidimensional data too easily and like to speak in broad generalisations, and an internet browser that peers into the future for you. I'll also discuss how our interactions with systems have been changing, and how we can get systems to support social interaction, dating, and joke-telling - and why it's important.
Future Internet
KnowledgeManagementMultimedia &
Information SystemsNarrative
HypermediaNew Media SystemsSemantic Web &
Knowledge ServicesSocial Software
Social Software is...
Interacting with other people not only forms the core of human social and psychological experience, but also lies at the centre of what makes the internet such a rich, powerful and exciting collection of knowledge media. We are especially interested in what happens when such interactions take place on a very large scale -- not only because we work regularly with tens of thousands of distance learners at the Open University, but also because it is evident that being part of a crowd in real life possesses a certain 'buzz' of its own, and poses a natural challenge. Different nuances emerge in different user contexts, so we choose to investigate the contexts of work, learning and play to better understand the trade-offs involved in designing effective large-scale social software for multiple purposes.
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