JOURNAL : FEBRUARY 2007

IMAGE 1 - BUZZ WORDS/TIME LINE




IMAGE 2 - SCATTER DIAGRAMME



IMAGE 2


Researching Web 2.0

The competition Brief has sparked an interest in Web 2.0

From Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2

Web 2.0, a phrase coined by O'Reilly Media in 2004, refers to a perceived or proposed second generation of Web-based services—such as social networking sites, wikis, communication tools, and folksonomies that emphasize online collaboration and sharing among users. O'Reilly Media, in collaboration with MediaLive International, used the phrase as a title for a series of conferences, and since 2004 some developers and marketers have adopted the catch-phrase. Its exact meaning remains open to debate, and some technology experts, notably Tim Berners-Lee, have questioned the meaning of the term.

... advocates suggest that technologies such as weblogs, social bookmarking, wikis, podcasts, RSS feeds (and other forms of many-to-many publishing), social software, Web APIs, Web standards and online Web services imply a significant change in web usage.










http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/

PRODUCTION PROCESSES - JOURNAL

POSTINGS - MOST RECENT ON TOP


_____________________________________________________________________________________
FEBRUARY
____________________________________________________________________________________
Interview: Robin Moore
Write up report

_____________________________________________________________________________________
JANUARY
____________________________________________________________________________________
RESEARCH NOTES:

SOMETHING OF NOTE:
Link: Elaine England and Andy Finney Course, 8 Mar 2007: Product Management Training: Interactive Media
http://www.atsf.co.uk/atsf/pmtrain.html

NB: VERY GOOD WEBSITE - ENABLES USER TO GO THROUGH PRODUCTION CYCLE OF 'VIRTUAL' COMPANY:

http://www.skillset.org/interactive/overview/



_____________________________________________________________________________________
DECEMBER
_____________________________________________________________________________________

13 DECEMBER: PRESENTATION
Feedback - see London & Finney - apply to BBC processes


7 DECEMBER 2006 - INTERVIEW WITH ANDY ROBERTS, PRODUCER WHERE I LIVE (BBC SE WALES)

BBC WHERE I LIVE WEBSITE
BBC WEBSITE GENERAL
bbc.co.uk /news
bbc.co.uk /sport
bbc.co.uk/weather
bbc.co.uk

HISTORY
Information from Andy Roberts, Producer, Where I Live (Southeast Wales) site. Joined in 1996 from Radio 1. (Web design was totally new area for Corporation with decades of experience in radio and TV).
Initially envisaged as educational tool (BBC has huge education division)
Now seen as service site

1997: Limited news site to coincide with election
98: Wales – European Summit of Ministers in Cardiff
Andy included section “Cool Cymru” – unusual, in terms of larger BBC picture.
99: Expansion – World Cup in Wales, National Assembly

2001: Where I Live launched as three-year project initially

FIRST HAND STUDY OF PRODUCTION PROCESSES

Initially hand-coded (HTML) and later Dreamweaver – therefore a centralised IT function – copy handed over to technicians.

Boosted by News website technology – News Content Production System

2000/1: “All Wales” site. WIPS (Wales Interactive Production System) – system of templates set up by technicians to allow non-technical staff to use site – template-based system > led to decentralised production. Wales divided into 5 areas: SE, SW, Mid, NE, NW.
“A lot more people creating a lot more content” (Andy Roberts)

DEFINITION AND PLANNING

Each area has Producer and Researcher; and
Journalist – but s/he reports to news dept in Cardiff

Make day to day decisions and oversee input

Community generated content – mostly by email (also comment boxes)

Clearly, problem for central management/ joint projects – result: weekly telephone conference – producers five regions plus Robin Moore (executive producer New Media (?) and assistant producer

With Agenda.

INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE

Public broadcaster with brief “To inform, educate and entertain”.

INFORMATION AND SERVICE

Travel, entertainment, local history

Wealth of information - challenge is to make it accessible and easy to use. Users all over the world. Template system – simplicity, standardisation, accommodates lots of information, simple and predictable.

DESIGN
Template based and very limited number of designs. Essentially-
Index page (with thumbnail links and index), main page (onemain image with content) and galleries (enables photo galleries)

CONSTRUCTION

Centrally planned but locally constructed.

MARKETING

BBC is public broadcaster and cannot promote itself at expense of other media companies (already in trouble in Midlands – local TV stations). Also not permitted to take advertising. Board is trying to introduce advertising – being opposed by staff. Marketing is through community events, community studios, buses, etc.

TRACKING, EVALUATION AND MAINTENENANCE

Centrally evaluated – every week get rundown (see Agenda) – evaluated in terms of updates.


RECOMMENDATION:
FUTURE: SPECIFIC PROJECT
Abolition of Slavery project
Just launched (end Nov) – will follow this as case study

_____________________________________________________________________________________
NOVEMBER
_____________________________________________________________________________________


SCHEDULE/TIMELINE

http://docs.google.com/View?docID=dcv3fqr6_0dk3kvg&revision=_latest

TECHNICAL PROBLEM POSTING TABLE (SCHEDULE)
While trying to retrieve the URL: http://www2.blogger.com/blog-this.do?

The following error was encountered:

Read Error
The system returned:

(131) Connection reset by peer
An error condition occurred while reading data from the network. Please retry your request.

If retrying doesn't help, try waiting a short while and trying again. And if that doesn't work, your local helpdesk might be able to help.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------





http://docs.google.com/View?docID=dcv3fqr6_0dk3kvg&revision=_latest

_________________________________________________________________________________-

PRODUCTION PROCESS SCHEDULE

Week one: 21st & 22nd Nov (10am)
Briefing
Analysis

Week two: 28th & 29th Nov (10am)
Project Lifecycles
Project Manager’s Responsibilities
Make contacts

Week three: 5th, 6th Dec (10am)
Production Company meetings & preparation for presentation. (5th & 6th Dec)
Consider ‘real life’ brief.
Live Brief workshop (Wednesday 6th Dec) (10am)

Week four: 12th, 13th Dec (10am)
Presentations (group) (12th Dec)
Development

Week five: 16th, 17th Jan (10am)
Development

Week six: 23th, 24th Jan (10am)
Development

Week seven: 30th, 31st Jan (10am)
Development
Deadline Reports 2nd Feb

Week eight: 6th, 7th Feb (10am)
Development
Deadline Practicals 9th Feb

PRODUCTION PROCESSES - WEB REPORT

PRODUCTION PROCESSES
THEORY VS PRACTICE?

An Analysis of the BBC's Production Processes, through The Abolition of Slavery Project

BY VIVIEN VAN DER SANDT
STUDENT NO: 06003781
Email address: viviensandt@yahoo.co.uk

Exercise 1: Analysis of BBC website:

The BBC website contains a wealth of information - apart from TV and radio programme information, it also provides services such as weather and traffic, entertainment information, subject specialities such as history, event-based information (such as Black History month, a regular feature) and so on. The challenge is obviously to make this information accessible and easy to use. Visitors to the site hail from all over the world, therefore the information must be cross-culturally user-friendly. The key elements evident from the site are simplicity and standardisation, presenting similar navigational tools (thumbnails, for instance) for each page. These elements help visitors to easily access the information. There are a small number of templates - essentially an Index page (with thumbnail links and index), Main Page (onemain image with content) and Galleries (photo galleries, often as slide shows) - but the site is still visually intersting, as the wealth of information gives each page a very different appearance.

The Abolition of Slavery Project
Illustration:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/southeast/sites/history/pages/slavery.shtml

(Access this link to see an example of an Abolition of Slavery project page)


The BBC website is, above all, a service and information site, in line with its role as a public service broadcaster. As the sites are funded by public money in the form of a licence fee, they are bound, by the Charter, to ‘educate, inform and entertain’. All these elements are evident in their website. A large part of their brief, of course, is to promote their radio and television schedules. Another part is to serve the community.

The BBC undertakes a range of projects. There are some which are commissioned (by BBC Commissioners), some in which they pitch ideas, and others which are handed to them as part of their day-to day-duties. To narrow down this brief, this report will look at one current project, the Abolition of Slavery (the anniversary celebrations of the end of slavery in 1807).

Within the BBC, this is considered more a ‘theme’ than a project. While the BBC planners are often looking for themes to feature, this one was of course a given – it is already a well-publicised and long-anticipated anniversary and many organisations are making it their project for the year. The theme was considered ideal for the BBC as it embraced history (the website already has a popular and well-developed History section), it would appeal to a wide range of racial/ethnic group and a wealth of material was already available. The programme has already started in October 2006 - when the anniversary was highlighted in a regular series, Black History Month - and will run until November 2007. The main focus will be on March 25, the date the Abolition Act was signed in 1807.

Definition and planning

It was decided that since each region had their own particular stories to run (Hull would obviously highlight William Wilberforce, Wales has chosen to look at the buildings erected with income from slavery) the project would be handled by the regional websites (the Where I Live section). A Project Team was convened - it has a Project Director and Spokesperson and representatives from TV, Radio and Virtual (that is, new media). The Education and Legacy and External Liaison departments are also represented. This Project Team is tasked with co-ordinating the project and distributing all the information and schedule details to the relevant sections. The BBC has an intranet site called Gateway and a large amount of information has been posted on this site by the Project Team – therefore anyone in the corporation can access what they require.

Unusually (since Wales radio and TV usually operate fairly independently from the English operation) on this occasion it was decided that Wales would fall under the British regional programmes for practical reasons (as most of the Where I Live sites are in England). Naturally, all website work is dealt with via the New Media departments (several regions have one, and in Wales it is based in Cardiff). Falling under the New Media department in Wales are five regions – NE, NW, SE, SW and Mid Wales. Each has a producer and a researcher and all would be expected to find the local angle on the slavery theme, and post the material they can find.

The BBC is a bit different to most commercial organisations. A typical production cycle would consist of Planning (scoping), Project sign-off, Asset gathering (pre-production), the Build phase, Quality Assurance, Release sign-off and Launch.

A decision had to be taken on how to deal with the material over the long term. It was decided that it would run on the regional site for the course of the project, and thereafter it would be embedded in the History section (which already has a sub-category, Black History.

Information Architecture, Design and Construction

Where the Information Architecture, Design and Construction are concerned, the BBC is in the position where it is building on an existing website for every project. (There are occasions where it would do a site for payment, for an outside agency, but this is not the case with the Abolition of Slavery project). The BBC website is a well-established site so any new projects obviously build upon/slot into an already well-established information architecture. The design and construction are also usually established. As Robin Moore put it “We don’t think outside the box, we think in the box” (that is, they think how the new content can be produced in current templates – within the organisation this is referred to as ‘traditional builds’). The producers use a template system which makes the pages uniform and predictable for the visitor. In Wales, production staff use the WIPS (Wales Interactive Production System), a template-based system that allows a large number of inputters to produce pages that adhere to the overall style.

The Researcher at regional level would be tasked with sourcing material. The web pages would be built by the WIL producer in each region

Marketing

To a large extent, the BBC IS the marketing exercise, as the websites are marketing their radio and television programmes (and also community events). But they do sometimes get involved in marketing. They run focus groups. They also advertise – not much in print advertising, but mostly billboards. Some user testing is led by external testers. There are also smaller groups convened for in internal testing.

Tracking, evaluation and maintenance

Fifty percent of the BBC website’s traffic comes from search engines and the insertion, at construction stage, of the good, original keywords, is an important task.

The BBC website has a Your Say section which constantly invites comment and contributions regarding any item on their site. The feedback from this interactive facility is a valuable guide on how much interest a particular project has attracted.

The website is already featuring a few stories but the full impact of this theme could be assessed only later in the year.

The BBC website features many themes similar to the Abolition of Slavery issue, as well as other types of projects. All are commissioned, constructed and signed off in steps similar to those described above. The BBC, not aimed primarily at making a profit from its production activities (although there are some income-producing projects) operates in some ways differently from commercial operations. The BBC website is an established institution (started in 1996, it is now a sprawling network of main and mini sites) and therefore each new project builds in existing architecture and practices. The production processes reflect the nature of the work they do, and the nature of the Corporation.

JOURNAL : PRODUCTION PROCESSES

POSTINGS - MOST RECENT ON TOP
This blog contains:
1. Month-by-month research notes (most recent on top)
2. Schedule/timeline/planner

____________________________________________________________________________________
FEBRUARY
____________________________________________________________________________________
Interview: Robin Moore
Write up report
____________________________________________________________________________________
JANUARY
____________________________________________________________________________________
RESEARCH NOTES:

SOMETHING OF NOTE:
Link: Elaine England and Andy Finney Course, 8 Mar 2007: Product Management Training: Interactive Media
http://www.atsf.co.uk/atsf/pmtrain.html

NB: VERY GOOD WEBSITE - ENABLES USER TO GO THROUGH PRODUCTION CYCLE OF 'VIRTUAL' COMPANY:

http://www.skillset.org/interactive/overview/
_____________________________________________________________________________________
DECEMBER
RESEARCH: BBC - STRUCTURE AND PROCESSES:

_____________________________________________________________________________________

13 DECEMBER: PRESENTATION
Feedback - see London & Finney - apply to BBC processes

NOTES: INTERVIEW WITH ANDY ROBERTS, PRODUCER WHERE I LIVE (BBC SE WALES)
(BASIS OF PRESENTATION, 6 DECEMBER '06)

BBC WHERE I LIVE WEBSITE/BBC WEBSITE GENERAL
Different sites:
bbc.co.uk /news
bbc.co.uk /sport
bbc.co.uk/weather
bbc.co.uk

HISTORY
Information from Andy Roberts, Producer, Where I Live (Southeast Wales) site. Joined in 1996 from Radio 1. (Web design was totally new area for Corporation with decades of experience in radio and TV. Initially envisaged as educational tool (BBC has huge education division). Now seen as service site.
1997: Limited news site to coincide with election
98: Wales – European Summit of Ministers in Cardiff
Andy included section “Cool Cymru” – unusual, in terms of larger BBC picture.
99: Expansion – World Cup in Wales, National Assembly
2001: Where I Live launched as three-year project initially
FIRST HAND STUDY OF PRODUCTION PROCESSES
Initially hand-coded (HTML) and later Dreamweaver – therefore a centralised IT function – copy handed over to technicians.
Boosted by News website technology – News Content Production System
2000/1: “All Wales” site. WIPS (Wales Interactive Production System) – system of templates set up by technicians to allow non-technical staff to use site – template-based system > led to decentralised production. Wales divided into 5 areas: SE, SW, Mid, NE, NW.
“A lot more people creating a lot more content” (Andy Roberts)

DEFINITION AND PLANNING
Each area has Producer and Researcher; and Journalist – but s/he reports to news dept in Cardiff
Make day to day decisions and oversee input
Community generated content – mostly by email (also comment boxes)
Clearly, problem for central management/ joint projects – result: weekly telephone conference – producers five regions plus Robin Moore (executive producer New Media (?) and assistant producer
With Agenda.

INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
Public broadcaster with brief “To inform, educate and entertain”.

INFORMATION AND SERVICE
Travel, entertainment, local history
Wealth of information - challenge is to make it accessible and easy to use. Users all over the world. Template system – simplicity, standardisation, accommodates lots of information, simple and predictable.

DESIGN
Template based and very limited number of designs. Essentially-Index page (with thumbnail links and index), main page (onemain image with content) and galleries (enables photo galleries)

CONSTRUCTION
Centrally planned but locally constructed.

MARKETING
BBC is public broadcaster and cannot promote itself at expense of other media companies (already in trouble in Midlands – local TV stations). Also not permitted to take advertising. Board is trying to introduce advertising – being opposed by staff. Marketing is through community events, community studios, buses, etc.

TRACKING, EVALUATION AND MAINTENENANCE
Centrally evaluated – every week get rundown (see Agenda) – evaluated in terms of updates.


RECOMMENDATION/ CONCLUSION:
FUTURE: SPECIFIC PROJECT - As it is an established site, most project are ongoing. For web blog, will pursue specific project to be able to track BBC production process from start to finish, that is,
Abolition of Slavery project
Just launched (end Nov) – will follow this as case study.

_____________________________________________________________________________________
NOVEMBER
_____________________________________________________________________________________
SCHEDULE/TIMELINE

http://docs.google.com/View?docID=dcv3fqr6_0dk3kvg&revision=_latest

Production Process Schedule


TECHNICAL PROBLEM POSTING TABLE (SCHEDULE)

PRODUCTION PROCESS SCHEDULE

Week one: 21st & 22nd Nov (10am)
Briefing
Analysis

Week two: 28th & 29th Nov (10am)
Project Lifecycles
Project Manager’s Responsibilities
Make contacts

Week three: 5th, 6th Dec (10am)
Production Company meetings & preparation for presentation. (5th & 6th Dec)
Consider ‘real life’ brief.
Live Brief workshop (Wednesday 6th Dec) (10am)

Week four: 12th, 13th Dec (10am)
Presentations (group) (12th Dec)
Development

Week five: 16th, 17th Jan (10am)
Development

Week six: 23th, 24th Jan (10am)
Development

Week seven: 30th, 31st Jan (10am)
Development
Deadline Reports 2nd Feb

Week eight: 6th, 7th Feb (10am)
Development
Deadline Practicals 9th Feb

CCS - PART 2 : ICT/ TECHNICAL ISSUES

CONTEMPORARY CONTEXTUAL STUDIES
BY VIVIEN VAN DER SANDT
STUDENT NO: 06003781
Email address: viviensandt@yahoo.co.uk

SECTION 2: TECHNOLOGY/ICT

IN THIS SECTION:

1. VOICE OVER INTERNET PROTOCAL (VoIP)
2. FREE, OPEN WIRELESS NETWORKS
3. PEER-TO-PEER
4. LOCATIVE MEDIA

1. VOICE OVER INTERNET PROTOCAL (VoIP)

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is the routing of voice conversations over the Internet or through any other IP-based network (other terms for this include IP Telephony, Internet telephony, Broadband telephony, Broadband Phone, and Voice-over Broadband). VoIP allows users to call other VoIP users over the internet at no cost (or call at a reduced cost, people with a land line phone).

Companies providing VoIP service are the Providers, and protocols carrying voice signals over the IP network are VoIP Protocols.

BT Broadband Voice, Dock.net www.dock.net, Google Talk, Internet Phone Company, Intervivo, Skype 1.4, Voip Net www.voip.net, Voipcheap VOIP Service, VoIPtalk www.voiptalk.org and Vonage are some of these Providers. These are all listed – and reviewed on the Review Centre website. [http://www.reviewcentre.com/products3907.html]
Another site, VoIP Providers List is a directory of providers all over the world (it also records how many there are in each country – for instance, one provider in Niger and Oman, amongst others, 625 in the USA - the UK has 146). [http://www.voipproviderslist.com/]

VoIP “may be viewed as commercial realisations of the experimental Network Voice Protocol (1973) invented for the US Defense Dept’s Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (or Arpanet) providers” (Wikipedia).

Some cost savings are due to the utilisation of a single network to carry voice and data. VoIP-to-VoIP phone calls are sometimes free, while VoIP to PSTN* may have a cost that’s borne by the VoIP user. Access numbers are usually charged as a local call to the caller and free to the VoIP user while DID usually has a monthly fee. There are also DIDs that are free to the VoIP user but chargeable to the caller. There are two types of PSTN to VoIP services: DID (Direct Inward Dialing) and access numbers. DID will connect the caller directly to the VoIP user while access numbers require the caller to input the extension number of the VoIP user. [From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSTN]. (PSTN=The public switched telephone network – the world’s public circuit-switched telephone networks).

Millions of people globally have signed up to the service. Users can also rent land line telephone numbers to use with VoIP so they can still be contactable by non-VoIP callers using a regular phone.

VoIP is challenging the telecommunications monopolies of the past and making communication technologies freely available to everyone (provided, of course, they have basic equipment such as a PC and handsets/headphones – some laptops have built-in microphones to enable talk without these attachments).

VoIP is a global communication service, which requires an interconnected planet, and is a concrete manifestation of both technological advances and the linked-up, global village which we now inhabit.

2. FREE, OPEN WIRELESS NETWORKS

“Wi-Fi is a brand originally licensed by the Wi-Fi Alliance to describe the underlying technology of wireless local area networks (WLAN) based on the IEEE 802.11 specifications. It was developed to be used for mobile computing devices, such as laptops, in LANs, but is now increasingly used for more services, including Internet and VoIP phone access, gaming, and basic connectivity of consumer electronics such as televisions and DVD players, or digital cameras”.

[Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi]

Initially, there was a problem with compatibility between devices. The Wi-Fi Alliance began as a community to solve this issue and created the branding Wi-Fi Certified to show what products are interoperable.

Anyone with a Wi-Fi-enabled device can connect to the Internet when they are within range of an access point. The area covered by access points is called a hotspot and can range from a single room to many square miles. Arguably, as usage increases, whole cities or suburbs may in the future be hotspots.

Albert Einstein, when asked to describe radio, replied:
“You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat." [http://nocat.net/]

My understanding is that Wi-Fi is an interesting marriage between old radio/broadcast technology and digital technology, since it uses the same spectrum as broadcast systems to deliver information to digital devices. Wi-Fi is a system connecting digital devices via wireless technology. (Wi-Fi uses the spectrum near 2.4 GHz, which is standardized and unlicensed by international agreement, although this varies slightly in different parts of the world). “You send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cable.

Wi-Fi is a great egalitarian, open communication tool. Since a wave by its very nature is not easily cut off at a determined boundary point, the use of Wi-Fi by users other than the subscriber is a given. One drawback: ‘Since Wi-Fi transmits in the air, it has the same properties as a non-switched wired Ethernet network, and therefore collisions can occur’. (Wikipedia).

Wi-Fi is a cheap telecommunications tools as it does away for the need to lay cabling. Wi-Fi has opened up telecommunications, cheaply and easily, to a greater number of people. Groups and individuals have lobbied to keep it this way. The monopolies in the telecommunicating industry – made possible by being able to control access to their product/service - have been seriously challenged by this technology.

“Wireless – in tandem with other technological advances – has changed the way we do business. ‘Employees are no longer reporting to an office every day and logging onto a desktop computer. Companies are now spending their IT dollars on mobile equipment to meet the needs of this highly productive mobile workforce. More employers today are providing workers with cell phones and laptops, and wireless LANs are becoming increasingly common in businesses. ” [http://www.bitpipe.com/detail/RES/1107459255_613.html?psrc=RWI]

Some gaming consoles (for instance, the Nintendo-DS, the PlayStation Portable/ Playstation 3 and the Wii) , the Xox-360 and handhelds make use of Wi-Fi technology to enhance the gaming experience. The Microsoft Zune uses Wi-Fi for trading of music between users in a close radius.

Bluetooth:
Bluetooth is an example of one Wi-Fi system – it allows digital devices to communicate with each other when they are in range. This system is often the preferred choice for clearly demarcated areas with a given community, such as university campuses.
“Bluetooth is an industrial specification for wireless personal area networks (PANs). It connects devices (such as mobile phones, laptops, PCs, printers, digital cameras and video game consoles) via a secure, globally unlicensed short-range radio frequency.
“Bluetooth is a radio standard and communications protocol primarily designed for low power consumption, with a short range (power class dependent: 10 metres, 100 metres) based around low-cost transceiver microchips in each device.’
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth]

The broader campaign to fight for open access to Wi-Fi networks has given us ‘warchalking’ – the drawing of symbols in public spaces to advertise accessible Wi-Fi wireless networks (these was inspired by hobo symbols). Unfortunately, the underlying philosophy was compromised, as the symbols were almost immediately taken over by commercial enterprises which used the symbols as advertising logos.

3. PEER-TO-PEER (P2P)

Wi-Fi also allows connectivity in peer-to-peer (wireless ad-hoc network) mode, which enables devices to connect directly with each other. This connectivity mode is useful in consumer electronics and gaming applications.
Wikipedia offers the following classification of peer-to-peer networks. (It is a classification according to degree of centralisation):
Pure peer-to-peer:
- Peers act as equals, merging the roles of clients and server
- There is no central server managing the network
- There is no central router
Hybrid peer-to-peer:
- Has a central server that keeps information on peers and responds to requests for that information.
- Peers are responsible for hosting available resources (as the central server does not have them), for letting the central server know what resources they want to share, and for making its shareable resources available to peers that request it.
- Route terminals are used addresses, which are referenced by a set of indices to obtain an absolute address.
Some examples of ‘pure’ peer-to-peer application layer networks designed for file sharing are Gnutella and Freenet.
Some scholars may apply different methodologies, to divide P2P network into:
Centralized P2P network such as Napster
Decentralized P2P network such as KaZaA
Structured P2P network such as CAN
Unstructured P2P network such as Gnutella
Or it might be divided into:
1st Generation P2P
2nd Generation P2P

4. LOCATIVE MEDIA

Locative media (a term first coined by Karlis Kalnins) is in essence a form of communication bound to a location. It is digital media applied to real places and able to trigger real social interactions.

“Locative media concentrates on social interaction with a place and with technology. Hence, many locative media projects have a social, critical or personal (memory) background…The technology used in locative media projects is for example. Global Positioning System (GPS), laptop computers, the mobile phone, Geographic Information System (GIS), Google Maps. ” (Wikipedia) [Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locative_Media]

GPS allows a person to detect his/her specific location, mobile devices allow interactive media to be linked to this place. The GIS feeds the data about the location.

Locative media can be applied to a wide range of uses - in tourism, advertising, community projects and art projects. Commercially too, locative technology can be used to track consumer goods through their life cycle from shop to landfill (that is, for marketing data), to track passengers’ luggage, and so on.

Locative Media is a broad term which has broad applications. A few examples where Locative Media technologies have been applied are:

Geographical:
Google Maps
The urge to find your home on a map is, of course, irresistible. Mine is:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=UK+NP26+3BG&sll=55.012934,-3.446869&sspn=14.070173,51.855469&ie=UTF8&z=16&om=1&iwloc=addr
Similarly,
Google Earth
Combines Google Search with satellite imagery, maps, terrain and 3D buildings to deliver geographic information. (Although a friend claims images are up to a year old – he claims the image Google Earth presented of his house was clearly old, as he had sold the cars which were still shown in the driveway!)

Community art projects:
Field Works
http://www.field-works.net/
Launched by artist Masaki Fujihata in 1992, Field-Works is ‘a series of projects which reconstruct collective memories into cyberspace as a kind of video archive by using position data captured by GPS and moving image captured by video’.
Project Mersea Circle (2003-2005) was done with people in Mersea Island (near Colchester, Essex). Visitors are invited to walk on the edge of the island with a video camera and GPS to record data that will be reconstructed in the cyber-archive. The results were put together for a public exhibition. The piece is now permanently installed in the Martello Tower media centre in Jaywick, Essex.

The first locative media narrative:
34 North 188 West
http://www.34n118w.net/
“A generative narrative that relies on outdoor wireless internet connection to tell a story specific to user location. Weather conditions, the physical environment, nearby locales, historic events specific to the current location and time are retrieved from online sources and fed into a scripted story structure. ”

Commercial/RFID
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags – which, as the name suggests, harness radio wave technology - can be incorporated into a product, animal, or person. They store data which can be remotely retrieved. Chip-based RFID tags contain silicon chips and antennae.
It is already used in passports animal identification and product tracking.
Future Store in Japan and Germany (Metro stores) already use the technology to manage, track and market products. In Japan, government and business in late 2004 launched a group called Miraigata Tenpo Saabisuwo Kangaeru Kenkyukai (Research Group to Think about Future Retail Services). Future Store, that is, futuristic retailing and shopping environments, aim to exploit new technologies such as RFID, sensors, ambient displays, and mobile devices.

CONTEMPORARY CONTEXTUAL STUDIES

CONTEMPORARY CONTEXTUAL STUDIES (CCS)
BY VIVIEN VAN DER SANDT
STUDENT NO: 06003781
email: viviensandt@yahoo.co.uk

IN THIS BLOG:
INTRODUCTION TO NEW MEDIA AND CCS
1. SUSTAINABILITY
2. DOUGLAS ENGELBART AND TED NELSON
3. PARTICIPATION

New media is a term that describes traditional forms of media that have been transformed by advancements in digital technology and digital computing…
The term new media gained currency in the early-mid 1990s as part of the marketing pitch for the CD-ROM Revolution...
What is classed as new media?
• Web Sites including Blogs and Wikis
• Email
• CD/DVD
• Electronic kiosks
• Virtual worlds
• Interactive Television
• Internet Telephony
• Mobile
• Podcast
• Hypertext fiction
[From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_media]

The module Contemporary Contextual Studies looks at broad issues around new media/interactive media, discussing new developments, analysing trends and exploring issues. In that, it underpins all/most of the pursuits of students on the Design for Interactive Media course. In format, it comprises lecturers and discussion periods.

The importance of this field of study could be highlighted by my personal story: When I qualified as a journalist in the late '70s, newspapers emerged from the composition of metal type - 'slugs' of type were literally sorted by hand into printers' trays. In the last 30 years, I have seen printing and publishing become the domain of everyman, as the wordprocessor, the personal computer, an inestimable amount of software and - latterly but most importantly - the internet, revolutonised communication and access to information. Keeping up with the technology sometimes seems impossible; analysing the trends/consequences perhaps more so. But I consider it a great privilege to be a witness to this revolution, and to have the opportunity to upgrade my media skills. This module has made a valuable contribution to that. For these reasons, the concerns and contents of the CCS module are of great interest to me. Some of the subjects covered in this module are discussed below.

1. SUSTAINABILITY

“Sustainability is an attempt to provide the best outcomes for the human and natural environments both now and into the indefinite future. It relates to the continuity of economic, social, institutional and environmental aspects of human society, as well as the non-human environment. It is intended to be a means of configuring civilization and human activity so that society, its members and its economies are able to meet their needs and express their greatest potential in the present, while preserving biodiversity and natural ecosystems, and planning and acting for the ability to maintain these ideals in a very long term. Sustainability affects every level of organization, from the local neighborhood to the entire planet”. Wikipedia

Everything that sustains life, everything we use, comes from Mother Earth: The houses we build, the clothes we wear, the food we eat, even the appliances and machines we use … all came from the Earth in the form of natural resources, vegetable and mineral (or animal, also sustained by the earth).
For centuries now, since the Industrial Revolution, the prevailing thought has been that science/technology and economic development would provide all human needs - food, clothing and shelter; jobs, education and healthcare. Little attention was paid to the depletion of resources required to provide increasingly comfortable, even affluent, lifestyles for the world’s burgeoning population.
Although the term sustainability can be traced as far back as in 1712 (first used by the German forester and mining scientist Hans Carl von Carlowitz in his book Sylvicultura Oeconomica) it was only in the 1960s, with the blossoming of the modern environmental movement, that a critical mass of people began to think about their impact on Planet Earth. Unavoidably, the economic/technology model was put under the spotlight.

In 1974, the Club of Rome published Limits to Growth. – a report that predicted dire consequences as a result of humans depleting the Earth's resources. It advocated as one solution the abandonment of economic development – most amazing, bearing in mind that the Club (founded the previous year) comprised a group of economists and scientists (the two disciplines, as is explained above, at the forefront of resource exploitation) Needless to say, they were heavily criticized - not least of all by economists and scientists!

The conventional wisdom has been that the Earth’s resources fall into two categories: renewable and non-renewable. Renewable resources such as forests, crops, fishery, were for a long time considered almost inexhaustible. But now conventional wisdom is changing, and it is accepted that every resource has its limits.

Global consumption now threatens almost every resource on which we depend for our very existence. We are now warned that we will need four/five more planets like ours, to sustain our current levels of consumption. (This finding comes from studies on the ecological footprint - a formula used to determine the amount of land and water area a human population would need to provide the resources required to support itself and to absorb its wastes, given prevailing technology. The term was first coined in 1992 by Canadian ecologist and professor, William Rees).
“Footprinting is now widely used around the globe as an indicator of environmental sustainability. It can be used to measure and manage the use of resources throughout the economy. It is commonly used to explore the sustainability of individual lifestyles, goods and services, organisations, industry sectors, regions and nations.” (Wikipedia)

Many believe that we are now past the point of no return. The measures that need to be taken to reduce consumption and restore natural resources need to be deeply, deeply radical – and there is no sign that any government is prepared to introduce these measures. One wonders if you can blame them when local councils have an uphill struggle getting all households to even recycle – an easy step that makes a big difference to ‘stretching’ resources - a sign of how ignorant and uncaring a large part of the populace remains. (A recycling target of 40% is considered a good result, and only a few councils in the UK achieve that). But another explanation is that government is so locked into big business, that it will not impose the consumption-reducing measures that are urgently needed.

Meanwhile, ountries like China are consuming resources like there is no tomorrow … and, of course, for many there well may not be (more about that later). In addition, corporations/big business are pulling out the stops to drive consumption. Some governments – and here the US government of George Bush is a prime culprit – still propagate the myth that technology will come to our rescue (he repeated this corporate/government propaganda in his State of the Nation speech this month).

I am more inclined to take the view of James Lovelock, a writer and environmentalist whose views I respect. In his latest book, The Revenge of Gaia: Why the Earth Is Fighting Back - and How We Can Still Save Humanity (2006), he takes a grim view of the future. He sees a world devastated by climate change, leaving much of the world's land uninhabitable and unsuitable for farming.

Writing in the Independent in January 2006, he said “we have to keep in mind the awesome pace of change and realise how little time is left to act, and then each community and nation must find the best use of the resources they have to sustain civilisation for as long as they can".

Lovelock has a poor prognosis for mankind’s future and takes the view that small communities of people who have made their way of life sustainable (in terms of goegrahical location, energy sources, food production and so on) may survive.
With all these considerations put together, I have over recent years changed my personal definition of the term 'sustainable'. I do not believe this planet as a whole will be sustainable in the future, but it may be possible for smaller communities of people to create sustainable environments. Ironically in the age of globalisation, that means creating an existence independent of national grids and governmental services. It seems it’s a matter of ‘head for a commune’ for anyone with any common sense/survival instinct. Apparently, the hippies were right all along.



2. DOUGLAS ENGELBART AND TED NELSON

Although it may not seem obvious at first sight, the closing comments in the Sustainability section connect fairly seamlessly to this next topic.

1968. The assassinations of Dr Martin Luther King and Senator Robert Kennedy rock America. Abroad, the Viet Cong launch the Tet offensive, an unexpected attack on 30 cities and US bases. The hippy movement is in full swing; the quintessential 60s novel, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, by Tom Wolfe, is published. But, amid the social upheaval, technological advances march on - it is the year before the moon landing (for those who believe it actually happened, that is): Kodak’s cheap, compact instamatic camera hits the shops and, at a Conference in San Francisco, electrical engineer Douglas Engelbart addresses delegates via a TV set, and announces the beginnings of 'the Online System'.

At academic institutions, these two strands of American life - that is, the social upheavel and the technological developments - co-exist uneasily, as the values of the hippy movement clash with those of the Establishment. (This is to culminate two years later, when the Ohio National Guard opens fire on demonstrating students, killing four and wounding nine. In its wake, hundreds of academic institutions are closed as eight million students strike).

This is the environment that nurtured two very different pioneers in IT development, the aforementioned Englebart and another, Ted Nelson.

Dr Douglas C. Engelbart, best known as co-inventor of the computer mouse (with Bill English) was a pioneer of human-computer interaction whose team developed hypertext, networked computers, and precursors to GUIs; and as a committed and vocal proponent of the development and use of computers and networks to help cope with the world's increasingly more urgent and complex. He and his team at the Augmentation Research Center (the lab he founded) developed computer-interface elements such as bit-mapped screens, groupware, hypertext and precursors to the graphical user interface. ARC was founded to develop and experiment with new tools and techniques for collaboration and information processing. The main product to come out of ARC was the revolutionary oN-Line System, better known by its odd abbreviation, NLS.

Nelson (who had obtained a Bachelor's degree in philosophy from Swarthmore College in 1959 and a Master's degree in sociology from Harvard University in 1963)founded Project Xanadu in 1960 with the goal of creating a computer network with a simple user interface. He envisaged Xanadu as a world-wide electronic publishing system that would create a universal library open to all. He coined the term 'hypertext' in 1963 and published it in 1965. His concrete contributions are harder to quantify and his Xanadu project has been criticised for failing to deliver. He revels in his reputation as a 'contrarian' and probably does make a valuable contribtion to debate. His attempts to keep IT developments open and accessible to all are admirable.

The two men have two very different approaches and philosophies but both have, in their different ways, added to the sum of Information Technology. And the two strands of influence outlined above - broadly, Corporate/Government America vs freedom-loving America, still underpins much of IT development.




3. PARTICIPATION

And, as further proof that all things are connected, that could take us again fairly seamlessly into the subject of participation.

It is a wise adage that 'communication is not what is imparted, communication is what is received'. All communication becomes meaningless without a receptor. To make communication meaningful, the receptor has to participate. This essential requirement for a viewer/audience is summed up by the often-asked question: “If a tree falls, unobserved, in a forest – did it happen? (Alternatively, if a tree falls unobserved in a forest, did it make a sound?)

Until only a few decades ago, the mass media offered only a few opportunities for audiences to participate, such as phone-in talk shows or (for the print press) letters to the editor. Now technology (new media/ electronic media) has made possible participation to a much larger degree than previously, such as:
Press: Readers can vote on editorials
Television: Interactive polls ask for the opinions.
Websites allow immediate electronic responses.

Most of these are driven not only by technological advances but also by the underlying philosophy that humans are not passive receptacles for information, but participants who can add to the medium and the message.

At extreme reach, citizen journalism is a manifestation of participation. In this case, laymen have control over input – previously the realm of only paid professionals.

Participation is also happening on another level. In the past, viewers/listeners had to make an appointment with the programmes they wanted to receive (barring of course, if they recorded them) but now programmes are being presented as downloadable items available to watch as and when we wish. Online news allows us to select only the stories we want to read (as opposed to a newspaper one has to page through, thereby scanning most of it), some digital stations (such as Sky Plus) allow the viewer to pause or fast forward through programmes.

The BBC are developing an Interactive Media Player (iMP) - a broadband service that allows audiences to use the internet to download and watch programmes from BBC TV and Radio. Users can also set iMP to download programmes that they'll miss, which are coming up over the next seven days. iMP is similar to the bbc.co.uk RadioPlayer which allows one to listen to any BBC radio programme from the last seven days. The main difference with iMP is that audiences will be able to access TV programmes as well.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/askbruce/articles/bbc.co.uk/imp_1.shtml

Channel 4 has just launched C4OD (Channel 4 On Demand).

The art world – being essentially media, and quick to exploit new trends and technology, and try to give meaning to them – have integrated the principles of participation and interactivity. The work of Installation artist Claire Bishop and Helio Oiticica's participatory environments are two examples of this.

Technological developments are changing the nature of art, journalism and media journalism by enabling greater participation. It is perhaps too early to quantify and analyse the ultimate impact on society. The current obsession with triviality, celebrity and popular culture does not suggest that new media is automatically going to create more educated and informed individuals.

BRIEF 3: ARCADE GAME

The computer game I have chosen to observe, record and analyse for this assignment is the interactive version of Deal Or No Deal, a spin-off from a current television programme by TM Endemol. The game may be considered metaphorical, as it is taken from another medium and has been redesigned and translated into an arcade game format. For this exercise, a User was observed playing the game. The User had never watched the television programme of the same name.
The game features exclusively touch-screen technology as the interface. It requires the User/Player to select strategies or answer multiple-choice questions to advance in the game. There is no joystick, mouse or other hand-held device, as no navigation is required. Obviously, it is very different to an action game or a war game. Progress is made solely by selecting icons and boxes that are displayed on screen. The opening screen features icons for Menu, Info (that is, the rules) or Start. As is standard for this type of game, it is housed in a lectern-like box at which the User stands.
It is immediately evident that the game designer seemed to assume prior knowledge (that is, that the User has watched the game on television). The rules are not simple; they are a fairly complex interaction between choosing a box (with a corresponding value), eliminating other boxes (again with their corresponding values), answering questions and – at a certain point in the game – considering a banker’s offer. At the start of the game the User can elect to read the rules (by selecting the relevant icon on screen), which flash up on screen, but the list does not stay up long enough for a beginner to read through and understand. The User I observed had to call it up several times.

In terms of visuals, the game draws substantially on the television programme, with a similar setting and featuring the same presenter, Noel Edmunds. He is seen in video image or as a still image at different points of the game. As the game is part quiz show (namely, progress has to be made by correctly answering multiple choice questions), it is also connected to a voice recording (Edmunds’ voice), which responds appropriately “correct” or “wrong” to the answers selected. The screen also features a timer – shaped like a clock, with one hand - that runs for one minute, and can knock out a player that takes too long to answer a question or select a box.

The forms of interaction implemented are therefore instructing (that is, the rules), conversing (video and voice) and icon selection (touch screen technology).

In terms of the target audience, this seems aimed at the television viewers and the lack of action and movement suggest it will be preferred by an older audience. The amount of text that has to be absorbed to play, confirms this.

The translation from TV to arcade game does not seem to have been entirely resolved. In the television version, it is the suspense (as viewers know, often wrung out by the presenter) and the audience participation that ratchets up the emotion. This constitutes a driving force in the television version. That suspense and drive is not evident in the arcade game. Of course, the size of the prize is another downer – hundreds of thousands in the television game, but only a few pounds (or game credits) for the arcade game. The player’s score is displayed, as well as those of the top players (that is, previous players), and presumably that is meant to egg on the User. But all in all, one is left with the feeling that Deal Or No Deal succeeds on television by being a game played in front of a studio audience and backed by big advertising money. The translation into arcade game does not seem to be an entire success, nor does it expand games technology.

BRIEF 2 : REDESIGNING A PRODUCT

NAME: VIVIAN VAN DER SANDT
ST NO 06003781
viviensandt@yahoo.co.uk

16 October 2006

Re-mapping Music:
Redesign suggestions for Techniquest's World Music exhibit

In Assignment 1, I discussed Techniquest's World Music exhibit: how it presented itself, how it worked, how it looked, how it was used, the HCI, and so on. In considering the requirements of Brief 1, it also became clear that the exhibit could be improved if a few changes were made. These are my suggestions for a redesign that would make the exhibit more user-friendly for the target audience.
To recap, the World Music exhibit is a large, flat board (240cm across and 120cm high) featuring a map of the world (oval shaped). The map is flanked by two monitors with buttons, left and right of where the User stands. Two headphones hang from hooks. Text on the monitor indicates what the User should do to activate the display: headphones need to be donned, the puck (akin to a stethoscope, attached to the headphones) needs to be placed anywhere on the map. Then the traditional music of the country touched on may be heard through the headphones. (The music of 63 countries - out of the 190-odd countries of the world - is featured). When the User has activated a recording, explanatory text about the music/country appears on one of the monitors. The monitors have four selection buttons, taking the User into: (Top Left) The introduction/Instructions to the exhibit; (Top Right) language preference - English/Welsh; (Bottom Left) a category labelled Why Science (which explains the science behind the exhibit); and lastly, the Bottom Right button, which takes the User into a category headed Why Music (more information on world music).
Design guru Donald A. Norman exalts the importance of design in our everyday lives, and the consequences of errors caused by bad design. He uses the term "user-centered design" to describe design based on the needs of the user, leaving aside what he considers to be secondary issues like aesthetics. User-centered design involves simplifying the structure of tasks, making things visible, getting the mapping right, exploiting the powers of constraint, and designing for error. (Information from Wikipedia).
The World Music exhibit, I thought, had several problems which suggested it had not entirely thought these principles through.
Some of these have already been referred to in Assignment 1: Because of its dimensions (240cm across, substantially more than a child's arm reach) a child would not be able to read the monitor from all points of the map. This could be corrected by providing swivelling monitors (that is, they could swivel inwards, towards the viewer). Another option would be to place the monitors right ahead of the User, not left and right (that is, on top of the display, rather than to the side). A related problem is that the shape of the button obscured the bottom left of the text. If the shape were changed from an oval to a round, that problem would be solved.
Another problem I raised was that children did not seem particularly drawn to the exhibit (in clear contrast to, for instance, a nearby exhibit featuring a dance routine). A map of the world is not the most exciting thing visually,. The display may attract more children if, for instance, it featured a few ethnic faces/ figures in national dress, to provide a visual hook for passers by. Or possibly a bright, representational (maybe ethnic-art inspired) map would be more attractive. Also, the display does not immediately, in appearance, promise a musical experience. It would probably attract more users if there was some indication that it is a musical exhibit; visual cues such as pictures of musical instruments or musical notes (quavers, etc) - even a well-placed CD or DVD - would indicate this.
The young of today are very au fait with computer games, and these tend to have strong incentives (mainly a ruthless scoring system - even if that in real life, sadly, translates into the number of 'kills' in a game). The Techniquest exhibit gives no indication of progress or score, therefore there is no real incentive for the user to try and find as many of the 63 music snippets as possible. A scoring system, even a bar chart or pie chart showing progress, may be the answer to improving usage and engaging the young.
A technical problem affecting the use of the exhibit was the size of the puck, which measures 5cm across. When placed over the Balkans, for instance, the User could not target one individual country, the puck covered at least six - an area from Italy to Macedonia, in fact. The music of Albania came up while the puck straddled these six countries, which would be confusing for a child. A smaller puck or a puck with a finer point would solve this problem.
For large countries like Russia and Canada, the problem was the opposite - the musical snippet was not always triggered if the puck was placed within the country's boundaries, the User had to find a particular spot in the country to trigger the music. Many a User may have moved on without hearing the musical snippet. To solve this problem, the alternating current needs to be extended to run right across the bigger countries. This is a technical problem, not a design problem, which affects usability.
The volume control between different snippets was uneven, some being loud, others soft and one or two barely audible. In one case, there was no sound at all (the corresponding text came up on the monitor, which was the only indication that it was one of the 63 featured countries). This is surely a recording problem, and could be corrected. As for all displays, the exhibit needs to be constantly tested, maintained and repaired.
It would be possible to make this an exhibit attracting both children and adults, if the dimensions and instructions enabled duel-level use. In the areas visible to children, the information presented could be simpler.
Donald Norman would probably approve of all the above suggestions, except possibly the suggestion to improve the aesthetics (that is, visual appearance); he considered aethetics a secondary issue in user-centred design. However, for children I think appearance can be an attraction or a repellent, and aid or hinder usability. Norman's principles seem devised for mainly adult, functional (work) objects - not play objects aimed at children. Most of my suggestions are aimed at making the design more user-centred. In terms of memory and learning, this is not a complex device. The information displayed on the monitors is the most complex, and that is where the main user problems occur.

BRIEF 1: TECHNIQUEST (edited -approx 900 wds)

ASSIGNMENT 1: TECHNIQUEST
ASSESSMENT: BRIEF 1
TECHNIQUEST

NAME: VIVIEN VAN DER SANDT
ST NO 06003781
viviensandt@yahoo.co.uk

9 October 2006

Mapping Music:
Exploring a ‘touch screen’ that utilises alternating current

Science-discovery centre Techniquest provided a range of Human Computer Interaction devices to choose from. Since the Personal Project I hope to do later this year entails using a world map for an interactive, educational game, I looked at several examples of how Techniquest had used the world map in HCI. Techniquest exhibits of interest in this regard included the Pangaea Puzzle (which demonstrates continental drift and features tectonic plates floating on compressed air); the Geocron (an electric clock that moves a world map slowly across the screen, showing time zones - the countries in the lit-up area are at that moment experiencing daylight); and the World Music exhibit. I explored in depth the World Music exhibit, as it seems closest to what I may want to do with my Project.

At first appearance, the World Music exhibit is a large, flat board (240cm across and 120cm high) featuring a map of the world (oval shaped). The map is flanked by two monitors with buttons, left and right of where the User stands. Two headphones hang from hooks. Text on the monitor indicates what the User should do to activate the display: headphones need to be donned, the puck (akin to a stethoscope, attached to the headphones) needs to be placed anywhere on the map. Then the traditional music of the country touched on may be heard through the headphones. (The music of only 63 countries - out of the 190-odd countries of the world – is featured). When the User has activated a recording, a written, explanatory piece about the music/country appears on one of the monitors.

The monitors have four selection buttons, taking the User into: (Top Left) The introduction/Instructions to the exhibit; (Top Right) language preference – English/Welsh; (Bottom Left) a category labelled Why Science (which explains the science behind the exhibit); and lastly, the Bottom Right button, which takes the User into a category headed Why Music (more information on world music)

The aim of the device is twofold: to provide a cultural and geographic experience/ education regarding traditional music styles from all over the world, and secondly (in line with Techniquest’s raison d’etre) to illustrate a scientific/technological principle. In terms of Techniquest’s aims, it hopes to present these in a fun but at the same time educational way.

In this exhibit, the scientific principle being illustrated is that of transformers and alternating current. (As mentioned earlier, the User can learn about the science by selecting the Why Science button). It is explained that the headphones are connected to a half transformer (or puck). The puck is made up of a coil of wire around a core of silicon steel which can be magnetised and demagnetised. Behind the world map are 63 similar half transformers (as explained, there are 63 music snippets), each with alternating current flowing in the coils. Each alternating current comes from a recording of music. The User gets the alternating current in the coil and hears the music.

I observed several problems which suggested that the target audience and the aims of the exhibit had not been entirely thought through. The first problem is, who was it aimed at? Techniquest (as staff member Sue Cavell explained to the group) is aimed at young children. In addition to being accessible in terms of content, the exhibits’ designers have to consider the proportions of the human body – as exhibits, of course, also have to be physically accessed (reachable buttons, visible screens, and so on). In terms of dimensions, Techniquest hardware is designed with a 12-year-old in mind, taking that as a median size between child and adult. But here the World Music exhibit is problematical, as in terms of placement (37cm above the floor, making the map about torso level for an adult) the display seems aimed at children. However, the dimensions across (240 cm) are unrealistic, as a child would not be able to see the monitors unless s/he is standing at the far right or far left of the map. (Even I, as a shortish adult, could not read the text on the monitors at all times – therefore missing out on reading about the music of countries placed centrally on the map. Bear in mind, one has to keep the puck in place to keep the text displayed on the monitor, so one cannot move left or right to read a monitor).

Is the exhibit trying to be a bit of everything for everyone, for instance a child may be satisfied with hearing a musical snippet, while an adult would like to hear the music AND read the text? My finding is, having watched public interaction, that not many people were drawn to it. (In fact not even my classmates, until I called one over and tested him on it – at which he was so taken by it, that he decided to make it the subject of his assignment!). The only time I saw the exhibit being used (in about five hours of observation, as I was there for two afternoons) was when a mother demonstrated it to her two children. World Music does seem to be rather a ‘Starbucks crowd’ interest (that is metropolitan adults). Is this display aimed at the adults who accompany the children? In that case the dimensions (specifically the height) need to be changed. The exhibit utilises an interesting, fun idea but my feeling was that it could have been so much better presented if a few changes were made. The problems I observed, and my suggestions for redesign, will be discussed in Assignment 2.

ASSIGNMENT 1: TECHNIQUEST

ASSESSMENT: BRIEF 1
TECHNIQUEST

NAME: VIVIEN VAN DER SANDT
ST NO 06003781
viviensandt@yahoo.co.uk

9 October 2006

Mapping Music:
Exploring a ‘touch screen’ that utilises alternating current

Science-discovery centre Techniquest provided a range of HCI devices to choose from. Since the Personal Project I hope to do later this year entails using a world map for an interactive, educational game, I looked at several examples of how Techniquest has used the world map in Human Computer Interaction (HCI). Techniquest exhibits include the Pangaea Puzzle (which demonstrates continental drift and features tectonic plates floating on compressed air); the Geocron (an electric clock that moves a world map slowly across the screen, showing time zones - the countries in the lit-up area are at that moment experiencing daylight); and the World Music exhibit. I explored in depth the World Music exhibit, as it seems closest to what I may want to do with my Project.

At first appearance, the World Music exhibit is a large, flat board (240cm across and 120cm high) featuring a map of the world (oval shaped). The map is flanked by two monitors with buttons, left and right of where the User stands. Two headphones hang from hooks. Text on the monitor indicates what the User should do to activate the display: headphones need to be donned, the puck (akin to a stethoscope, attached to the headphones) needs to be placed anywhere on the map. Then the traditional music of the country touched on may be heard through the headphones. (The music of only 63 countries - out of the 190-odd countries of the world – is featured). When the User has activated a recording, a written, explanatory piece about the music/country appears on one of the monitors.

The monitors have four selection buttons, taking the User into: (Top Left) The introduction/Instructions to the exhibit; (Top Right) language preference – English/Welsh; (Bottom Left) a category labelled Why Science (which explains the science behind the exhibit); and lastly, the Bottom Right button, which takes the User into a category headed Why Music (more information on world music)

When a connected spot on the map is selected and music is heard, text and pictures imparting more information about that country and its music automatically appear on one of the monitors if it is set to the Top Left button.

If the User selects Why Music (by impressing the bottom right button), s/he could find out all about world music generally (the earliest recordings of folk music were done on paper in 1903 by Briton Cecil Sharpe and later by Perry Granger on the Edison phonograph recorder; the portable recorder was only available in 1948). This in itself illustrates how technical advances have enabled us to have accessible records of a cultural heritage, and how easy modern technology makes it to disseminate that knowledge. In short, the perfect marriage of science and culture.

The aim of the device is twofold: to provide a cultural and geographic experience/ education regarding musical styles from all over the world, and secondly (in line with Techniquest’s raison d’etre) to illustrate a scientific/technological principle.

In this exhibit, the scientific principle being illustrated is that of transformers and alternating current. (As mentioned earlier, the User can learn about the science by selecting the Why Science button). It is explained that the headphones are connected to a half transformer (or puck). The puck is made up of a coil of wire around a core of silicon steel which can be magnetised and demagnetised. Behind the world map are 63 similar half transformers (as explained, there are only 63 music snippets), each with alternating current flowing in the coils. Each alternating current comes from a recording of music. The User gets the alternating current in the coil and hears the music.

So far, so good but the exhibit, I thought, had several problems which suggested that it had not been entirely thought through. The first problem is who was it aimed at? Techniquest (as staff member Sue Cavell explained to the group) is aimed at young children. In addition to being accessible in terms of content, the exhibits’ designers have to consider the proportions of the human body – as exhibits, of course, also have to be physically accessed (reachable buttons, visible screens, and so on). In terms of dimensions, Techniquest hardware is designed with a 12-year-old in mind, taking that as a median size between child and adult.

But here the World Music exhibit throws up a real problem, as in terms of placement (37cm above the floor, making the map about torso level for an adult) the display seems aimed at children. However, the dimensions across (240 cm) are unrealistic, as a child will not be able to see the monitors unless s/he is standing at the far right or left of the map. (Even I, as a shortish adult, could not see the monitors at all times – therefore missing out on the corresponding information for countries placed centrally on the map).

Another small problem is that the puck measures 5cm across; when placed over the Balkans, for instance, the User could not target one individual country, the puck covered at least six – an area from Italy to Macedonia, in fact. The music of Albania came up while the puck straddled these six countries, which would be confusing for a child. With large countries like Russia and Canada, the problem was the opposite - the musical snippet was not always triggered if the puck was placed within the country’s boundaries, the User had to find a particular spot in the country to trigger the music. Many a User may have moved on without hearing the musical snippet. One therefore feels that the dimensions of the exhibit, and specifically whom it is aimed at, have not been thoroughly thought through.

Is it trying to be a bit of everything for everyone, for instance a child may be satisfied with hearing a musical snippet, while an adult would like to hear the music and read the text? My finding is, having watched public interaction, that not many people were drawn to it. (In fact not even my classmates, until I called one over and tested him on it – at which he was so taken by it, that he decided to make it the subject of his assignment!). A map of the world is not the most exciting thing visually, and the display may attract more children if, for instance, it featured a few ethnic faces/ figures in national dress, to provide a visual hook for passers by. Or possibly a bright, representational (maybe ethnic-art inspired) map would be more attractive. The only time I saw the exhibit being used (in about five hours of observation, as I was there for two visits) was when a mother demonstrated it to her two children. World Music does seem to be rather a ‘Starbucks crowd’ interest (that is metropolitan adults). Is this display aimed at the adults who accompany the children? In that case the dimensions (specifically the height) need to be changed. And it would be improved if the monitors were placed right ahead of the User, not left and right, as they cannot be read from all points of the map.