"Will NoSQL Rescue the World of Data in the Cloud?"
(The World Is My Interface)
Dec 12, 2009
Dec 11, 2009
Participatory Design Conference 2010 "Participation :: The Challenge" + some thoughts
I really want to go to Australia next year and attend this conference! Below are links to the conference, along with an excerpt from the conference description:
11th Biennial Participatory Design Conference: Participation :: The Challenge (pdf)
PDC2010 Conference Website
PDC2008 Conference Website
"Participation is the complex, contested, changing, creative and celebratory core of participatory design. We invite you to explore what participation can and needs to mean in the design contexts where we are working now and those we are likely to encounter soon. While current ‘best practice’ in many areas of interactive technology design now at least pays lip service to people’s participation, how is this participation being negotiated and defined, and by whom? And if Participatory Design methods developed some 20 years ago are claimed to have become standard design practice, how do we go about developing the methods that will define standard design practice 20 years from now?"
REFLECTION
Judging from what I've experienced as a consumer/user, there are many things that are floating around in the form of electronics, software, and related gadgets that are examples of the absence of participatory design.
My daily pet peeve is the remote control for my entertainment set-up, which includes DVR and a small but growing number of interactive TV channels. Another pet peeve is the usability of productivity software, including the software I must use for work.
At any rate, below are links to some of my thoughts related to usability topics that might be of interest to people who are thinking about or practicing participatory design or user-centered design.
2007 Letter to the Editor, Pervasive Computing
Useful Usability Studies (pdf)
2007 Blog Post
Usability/Interaction Hall of Shame (In a Hospital)
2008 Blog Posts
Interactive Touch-Screen Technology, Participatory Design, and "Getting It"
An Example of Convergence: Interactive TV: uxTV 2008
2009 Blog Posts
Microsoft: Are You Listening? Cool Cat Teacher (Vicki Davis) Tries out Microsoft's Multi-touch Surface Table
Haptic/Tactile Interface: Dynamically Changeable Physical Buttons
The Convergence of TV, the Internet, and Interactivity: Update
UX of ITV: The User Experience and Interactive TV (or Let's Stamp Out Bad Remote Controls)
ElderGadget Blog: Useful Tech and Tools
11th Biennial Participatory Design Conference: Participation :: The Challenge (pdf)
PDC2010 Conference Website
PDC2008 Conference Website
"Participation is the complex, contested, changing, creative and celebratory core of participatory design. We invite you to explore what participation can and needs to mean in the design contexts where we are working now and those we are likely to encounter soon. While current ‘best practice’ in many areas of interactive technology design now at least pays lip service to people’s participation, how is this participation being negotiated and defined, and by whom? And if Participatory Design methods developed some 20 years ago are claimed to have become standard design practice, how do we go about developing the methods that will define standard design practice 20 years from now?"
REFLECTION
Judging from what I've experienced as a consumer/user, there are many things that are floating around in the form of electronics, software, and related gadgets that are examples of the absence of participatory design.
My daily pet peeve is the remote control for my entertainment set-up, which includes DVR and a small but growing number of interactive TV channels. Another pet peeve is the usability of productivity software, including the software I must use for work.
At any rate, below are links to some of my thoughts related to usability topics that might be of interest to people who are thinking about or practicing participatory design or user-centered design.
2007 Letter to the Editor, Pervasive Computing
Useful Usability Studies (pdf)
2007 Blog Post
Usability/Interaction Hall of Shame (In a Hospital)
2008 Blog Posts
Interactive Touch-Screen Technology, Participatory Design, and "Getting It"
An Example of Convergence: Interactive TV: uxTV 2008
2009 Blog Posts
Microsoft: Are You Listening? Cool Cat Teacher (Vicki Davis) Tries out Microsoft's Multi-touch Surface Table
Haptic/Tactile Interface: Dynamically Changeable Physical Buttons
The Convergence of TV, the Internet, and Interactivity: Update
UX of ITV: The User Experience and Interactive TV (or Let's Stamp Out Bad Remote Controls)
ElderGadget Blog: Useful Tech and Tools
Dec 10, 2009
Allgodoo: Engaging Interactive Physics for Interactive Whiteboards
I posted this on the TechPsych blog:
Watch students play with physics on the SMARTboard using Algodoo running on an Intel Classmate PC with a built-in accelerometer
The post includes a video clip as well as links to tutorials, lesson plans for teachers, and more.
Watch students play with physics on the SMARTboard using Algodoo running on an Intel Classmate PC with a built-in accelerometer
The post includes a video clip as well as links to tutorials, lesson plans for teachers, and more.
"Five Rules" for Engaging and Meaningful PowerPoint Presentations, Featuring PPT 2010 Beta
I came across the video of the following "5 Rules" presentation on Long Zheng's "I Started Something" blog. This presentation created by Duarte, a company that focuses on visual stories and corporate branding. The presentation can be found embedded in the public beta version of Microsoft Office 2010 Microsoft Office 2010. The new version of PowerPoint features a DirectX-powered graphics engine, which supports smooth animations.
The concepts shared in the presentation are useful for students, teachers, and anyone else who has the challenge of creating an engaging and meaningful presentation. At the end of the video, the last slides provide more specific "how-to" information regarding the nuts and bolts of putting together a quality presentation. You'll probably need to view the presentation Office 2010 Beta in the PowerPoint format if you have the urge to dig deeper. You can find it in the Sample Templates section.
Duarte's Five Rules for Creating World-Changing Presentations
Office Powerpoint 2010 "Five Rules" sample presentation from Long Zheng on Vimeo.
RELATED
Duarte Blog
The concepts shared in the presentation are useful for students, teachers, and anyone else who has the challenge of creating an engaging and meaningful presentation. At the end of the video, the last slides provide more specific "how-to" information regarding the nuts and bolts of putting together a quality presentation. You'll probably need to view the presentation Office 2010 Beta in the PowerPoint format if you have the urge to dig deeper. You can find it in the Sample Templates section.
Duarte's Five Rules for Creating World-Changing Presentations
Office Powerpoint 2010 "Five Rules" sample presentation from Long Zheng on Vimeo.
RELATED
Duarte Blog
Dec 9, 2009
Choose and Move Your Own POV (point-of-view): Interactive 360-degree video of on-line performances from the MTV-U Woodie Awards
A while ago I blogged about a 360-degree video camera that supports web-based interactivity: Yellowbird 6 lens 360 degree video camera creates interactive 3D videos, thanks to Harry Brignull, a user experience consultant. This technology is spreading.
A recent post by Tracy Swedlow, an owner/author at Interactive TV Today, highlights how it has been used to shoot video of hockey as well as music experiences in her article: Immersive Media Powers 360 Degree Interactive Video for CBC/Radio Canada and MTV Networks (12/8/09) Tracy also mentions that the recent MTV-U Woodie Awards performances were filmed in 360 degree video by Immersive Media, and can be viewed on-line.
It is worth taking a look at the videos, even if you aren't interested in the performers!
At any point in the 360 video, you can pan around to see that moment as it happened, from every direction. You can look at the excited audience, the video art backdrop, the lights bouncing off the drum-set, parts of the ceiling or the floor of the stage. Each time you view the video, you can have a different experience.
Below are a couple of screen shots of the performances, with links to the MTV-U Woodie Awards website, where you can watch the videos. The first screen shot shows is a picture of the lay-out. Viewers can choose their point-of-view by clicking and dragging on the video as it is in motion, or by moving the point-of-view selection box in the panel below the video.
Death Cab for Cutie Meet Me On the Equinox (Live)
Below is a screen shot of the bottom half of the video only
The Dead Winter: Treat Me Like Your Mother (Live)
2009 Woodie Awards Performances (non 360, higher quality)
2009 Woodie Awards Performances in 360
Immersive Media
A recent post by Tracy Swedlow, an owner/author at Interactive TV Today, highlights how it has been used to shoot video of hockey as well as music experiences in her article: Immersive Media Powers 360 Degree Interactive Video for CBC/Radio Canada and MTV Networks (12/8/09) Tracy also mentions that the recent MTV-U Woodie Awards performances were filmed in 360 degree video by Immersive Media, and can be viewed on-line.
It is worth taking a look at the videos, even if you aren't interested in the performers!
At any point in the 360 video, you can pan around to see that moment as it happened, from every direction. You can look at the excited audience, the video art backdrop, the lights bouncing off the drum-set, parts of the ceiling or the floor of the stage. Each time you view the video, you can have a different experience.
Below are a couple of screen shots of the performances, with links to the MTV-U Woodie Awards website, where you can watch the videos. The first screen shot shows is a picture of the lay-out. Viewers can choose their point-of-view by clicking and dragging on the video as it is in motion, or by moving the point-of-view selection box in the panel below the video.
Death Cab for Cutie Meet Me On the Equinox (Live)
Below is a screen shot of the bottom half of the video only
The Dead Winter: Treat Me Like Your Mother (Live)
Note: I stopped the video to look around the 360 panorama as a still picture, but when clicked to view the rest of the performance, the music kept playing, but the video did not continue. This is probably a kink that needs to be worked out. Panning around the video during the action was not a problem.
2009 Woodie Awards Performances (non 360, higher quality)
2009 Woodie Awards Performances in 360
Immersive Media
Dec 5, 2009
Social Music On-the-Go - Stanford Mobile Phone Orchestra; Ge Wang's SMULE apps for the iPhone
In the Charlotte Observer today, I came across an article about the Stanford Mobile Phone Orchestra- via the New York Times:
Musicians push edge of computer music with iPhone
Stanford orchestra turns popular songs into elaborate electronic renditions
I remembered that I'd posted about this previously nearly a year ago: Play a flute by blowing on your iPhone! In that post, I discussed an iPhone app by Smule called "Ocarina". (If you follow the link to the post, you can view a video of some folks playing a version of Stairway to Heaven on their iPhones.)
Stanford Mobile Phone Orchestra (MoPhO)
A bit of background information:
Smule is company started by Ge Wang, an assistant professor of music at Stanford who is the director of the Stanford Mobile Phone Orchestra. He also directs the Stanford Laptop Orchestra (SLOrk), and previously was involved with the Princeton Laptop Orchestra, known as PLOrk. (Perry Cook, the author of Real Sound Synthesis for Interactive Applications, is one of the directors of PLOrk.)
Ge Wang's Ph.D. work was on ChucK, an audio programming language for "real-time synthesis, composition, performance, and analysis, supported on Mac0S X, Windows, and Linux. To celebrate Ge Wang's thesis, Perry Cook wrote Everybody Hack ChucK Tonight (.mp3), to the tune of "Everybody Wang Chung Tonight". The lyrics explain what the ChucK program is all about.
Ge Wang is teaching Mobile Music (Music, Computing, and Design II) at Stanford during the Spring 2010 semester. His department is affiliated with CCRMA, the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics. (CCRMA offers non-credit week-long workshops each summer, open to the public. Maybe there will be a workshop on mobile music next summer!)
Enjoy the videos below:
Someone posted this on YouTube for the holidays last December:
Musicians push edge of computer music with iPhone
Stanford orchestra turns popular songs into elaborate electronic renditions
I remembered that I'd posted about this previously nearly a year ago: Play a flute by blowing on your iPhone! In that post, I discussed an iPhone app by Smule called "Ocarina". (If you follow the link to the post, you can view a video of some folks playing a version of Stairway to Heaven on their iPhones.)
Stanford Mobile Phone Orchestra (MoPhO)
A bit of background information:
Smule is company started by Ge Wang, an assistant professor of music at Stanford who is the director of the Stanford Mobile Phone Orchestra. He also directs the Stanford Laptop Orchestra (SLOrk), and previously was involved with the Princeton Laptop Orchestra, known as PLOrk. (Perry Cook, the author of Real Sound Synthesis for Interactive Applications, is one of the directors of PLOrk.)
Ge Wang's Ph.D. work was on ChucK, an audio programming language for "real-time synthesis, composition, performance, and analysis, supported on Mac0S X, Windows, and Linux. To celebrate Ge Wang's thesis, Perry Cook wrote Everybody Hack ChucK Tonight (.mp3), to the tune of "Everybody Wang Chung Tonight". The lyrics explain what the ChucK program is all about.
Ge Wang is teaching Mobile Music (Music, Computing, and Design II) at Stanford during the Spring 2010 semester. His department is affiliated with CCRMA, the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics. (CCRMA offers non-credit week-long workshops each summer, open to the public. Maybe there will be a workshop on mobile music next summer!)
Enjoy the videos below:
Stanford Report, March 2009
Someone posted this on YouTube for the holidays last December:
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