Kwa Watu - Technology for Humans

Understanding the Engagement Toolkit

2011-03-31T12:00:00.000-07:00

Today, @chachasikes called a meeting of the Pheattle (that's Philly and Seattle combined) team to try to get a clearer idea of one of the projects we're doing with the cities. I thought it was helpful. We ended up with a set of ideas that drive us, and a set of metrics that would lead us to feel that whatever we create is successful (see below).

We have been calling the project The Engagement Toolkit. We knew that the point of it is to be a resource for civic leaders and potential civic leaders to get their initiatives going, but were still fuzzy on the details. Energy throughout the meeting was dragging. There was a sense that peoples passions weren't coming out into the ideas that they were expressing. This was the reason for the meeting in the first place -- we were all having difficulty getting behind the Engagement Toolkit as an idea because we had never agreed as a group why we were working on it. We could have just gone on and created anything, but (as Chach likes to say), that's not why we're in Code for America. We're here to create things that we're passionate about; things that we think will address issues that are near to our hearts. We want to express our love of humanity through our work, and if we're not doing that, then we're not realizing our reason for being here.

After much of the meeting had passed by with our uninspired input, we had an idea to each tell everyone what they were passionate about in regards to what the Engagement Toolkit could be, and what their metrics for success are. Here are the (abbreviated) results:

What’s exciting?

It's a good time. Community organizing is sexy now. Facebook is watered down. There’s not a hub for inspired people to share their successes -- to show off. Excited about putting together a bar that appeals to organizers' narcicism.
Schools in Philly suck, and there are certain groups of super-moms who are teaming up and saying they’ll be involved in their local school, which is horrible, and make it good. There are others who want to do that as well. If we were able to provide a mechanism for sharing those strategies, that would be awesome.
Education about and sharing of experience is exciting. There’s so much good that happens that it just makes sense that there should be an easy way for people to learn about what others do.
Creating civic leaders. Encourage and convince (or con) non-civic leaders to take action. Turning complainers into civic leaders.
Making it exceedingly easy to do something positive in your community.
There are cool things that people are doing to make their city a better place, but they’re really hard to find. There are weird ways that people help, and I would like it to be more easy for people to find what those ways are. If it was more transparent and people could see “recipes” for getting things done.
Would have loved to have a tool like this when doing community organizing so that I could know who it is that’s out there already organizing events, so that I could talk to them; ask to share organizing letters, contacts, etc.
Bringing knowledge from people who know how to get things done to people who don’t know how to get things done. Also, putting the spotlight on people who are doing the right thing.
Excited about imparting practices that good leaders have now onto new leaders.

Metrics of success

Seeing people getting involved/voluneering because of the ET
Seeing people exchanging organizing knowledge through the ET
Seeing people organizing who haven’t organized before
Seeing people taking action who would not otherwise have
Seeing people making an impact on real people in real places
Seeing people contributing their stories of successes through the ET back to the ET, demonstrating investment in the community
Seeing people getting up to speed with community organizing faster than those who came before them, which we may measure by surveying people when they register
Seeing companies wanting to provide plugins for their software to connect with the ET

Showing Dev Love

2010-12-15T10:30:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking recently about how to enhance city institutions using tech skills. I'm still relatively new to really diving into it, but this represents some of my current thinking on the topic.

All I know so far is that this is a two-way street: people need to build up their institutions, and institutions need to support their communities in building them up.

The Gist...

For institutions:

Let your community help you.
(Corollary: Avoid, when possible, legal agreements that restrict you from receiving help from your community)
Empower your community to help you.
Ask your community to help you.
Your community is you.

For developers:

Just do it.
Have patience.
You are your institutions.

Institutions...

Let your community help you. People want to help. Don't push them away (with few exceptions). I love how some of Philly's innovative schools readily accept community support (I'm thinking Science Leadership Academy and Devnuts). Though, the institutions may need to be doing something to inspire community support in the first place.

A corollary here is that institutions need to avoid legal agreements that restrict them from receiving help from their community. Sometimes you just don't know until it's too late that you're involved in such a restrictive agreement, particularly with the pace of new technologies. But at the point of realization, you should from thence treat the restrictive agreement as if it is bad for your institution, because it is.

And giving your community opportunities to express their affection is a good thing. So ask them for help, if you need it. As with any relationship, of course, don't overstep your bounds. And this only works if you have a relationship with your community in the first place. Which you should. If you're really local (not just biding time until you can expand to increasingly larger markets), you need to focus on the relationship between you and your community. For a local institution, your community is you. If your product is not as strong as your competitors', then your community will wise up. And with potentially larger, national competitors with deeper pockets, it may be difficult if not impossible to keep up in perfect step with product quality. But community love (e.g. affective bonds) will keep your patrons with you. Affection is added value.

Developers...

If you have a project that you think would benefit a community institution, go for it. Shoot first, ask questions later. Times that I've taken this approach have sometimes worked out, sometimes not. But I have regretted every instance of not acting. Sometimes this may be bad advice (anyone have stories for the comments?), but if you wait for the institution to back you up, you may be waiting for a long time. Even if you act first, you may be waiting for a long time, but at least you'll have something to do while you wait. You'll have drive to keep going because you can see something happening, and you may be able to pick up supporters because they'll see something happening.

Nothing happens unless someone acts anyway. So it might as well be you. Because, when you get down to it, you are your institutions. They are yours to accept or neglect, shape or destroy.

So if you have the resources, and it doesn't hurt anyone, just get started developing. Legal worries? Worry about it later (of course, comply with any cease and desist orders; but if you get none, then keep going).

OneWebDay Reflections: Tyranny of the Tech Elite

2010-09-22T01:23:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I attended the Supernova Forum at the University of Pennsylvania. It was great — I got to hear from and talk with so-called thought leaders in business, government, education, and media on topics related to the "network age". While there, I was plagued by a feeling that there was some phenomenon absent from the conversation, but I couldn't identify what it was. Since then, I've reflected and named this phenomenon "The tyranny of the tech elite". This tyranny is a reframing of the idea of digital inclusion. It is somewhat in contrast to the idea of the internet as a democratizer. I'm still struggling with this concept, so take this as a work-in-progress.

(I was going to write this post myself, and have been agonizing over how to do it right. After some research, I found that Joshua Breitbart already wrote much of it for me four years ago. So, in summary...)

The future of us...
The Web is a pretty neat technology. With it, people can do and have done some amazing things.
Generally, we (the educated, technologically savvy, modern-day bourgeoisie...yes, probably you too!) think it's so great that we want everyone to take part in it. So, we talk about technology vis-a-vis marginalized groups like "how do we get them to where we are?" We talk about reducing digital division, and increasing digital inclusion. There are a few assumptions in this: (1) Where we are is good (nay, best, at least for now), (2) They will want/need to be where we are.

Joshua Breitbart has this to say about digital inclusion:

[The phrase "digital inclusion"] carries an implication that people who are offline are being brought into a perfect world. That’s clearly not the case.

What we see in the online world is the result of a land rush where English speaking white men had first crack at the virtual real estate. Digital inclusion is like saying poor people, people of color, and non-English speakers are allowed to shop in white neighborhoods.

Digital Inclusion or Digital Expansion?

This maybe gets to the heart of the tyranny. Access to global networks and technology is a real issue, and it's deeply distressing how closely race, class, gender, and other "traditional" forms of marginalization are correlated with access gaps. However, the digital divide these days isn't so much about people having access to global networks and technology. It's about shaping those global networks and technologies in ways relevant to one's own reality. Defining the future of technology. Some have a much larger hand in creating these definitions for themselves, their neighbors, and their children.

It brings to mind danah boyd's tweetable quote regarding privilege and publicness (at about 30:30 in the video): "...[T]he internet is not automatically a great democratizer." Certain voices get heard farther, louder, and more readily than others, and carry more weight in public discourse. When we observe and analyze how technologies are used, what affects they have, and where we (and our children) are taking them, we do so from a certain perspective, bringing in our own selective focus and our own ideas about which voices to privilege. As it happens, the cultural idea of what "the future" — of technology, of the internet, of us — will be is still left by a wide margin to those privileged voices.

Of course, technology is not novel in this regard. The prevalence of privileged perspectives are as old as hierarchical society (or at least as old as forms of mass media/communication). Marginal or alternative perspectives are always late to the popular discourse. We have to remember that the Web may alter structural inequalities, it does not remove them. This formulation of the digital divide isn't something that can be eliminated by distributing computers and high-speed internet access (though, in some way, that helps).

So...what now?
Joshua Breitbart goes on in his article:

We want to do more than just include people in the online world as it currently exists. We want that new involvement to transorm that world. This is what I hope to imply with the phrase digital expansion. It’s also what I want to imply when I talk about “open internet.”

So how do we achieve digital expansion? I'm not really sure. I half-way agree with Jeff Jarvis that time (and demand) will heal some of these wounds. However, we can't wait around and expect structural inequalities to spontaneously disappear. I have some guesses for first steps (some of these are borrowed loosely from Chicago Digital Access Alliance (CDAA)'s 10-Point Plan for Digital Excellence):

Make the internet universally available. This stuff should be a public utility. Or, better yet, a human right. I don't think that access (or lack thereof) to capital should be a determinant in whether one can access the internet or not (capitalism is one of the most frustratingly unacknowledged forms of sanctioned discrimination).
Keep (make?) the internet open/neutral. Though, as Breitbart points out, openness on its own is not enough. "Open does not mean equal, it doesn't mean that usage or usefulness is the same for everyone. Access does not equal justice, but it is necessary for justice. Therein lies our work."
Be aware of and concerned with social justice issues. They don't go away once you move online. In some ways, they're exacerbated.
Invest in people. Digital literacy and fluency are forms of human capital and require public investment. Digital proficiency must be promoted at neighborhood based locations, especially community technology centers, community based organizations and libraries, to strengthen resident understanding of new technologies. And remember that access at an early age is a key factor in raising people who don't just know technology, but are comfortable with it.
Build local infrastructure (social and technological). “Price points are one barrier to entry for the poorest community members' use of a network, but so are software design, literacy levels, and misinterpretation of what a community needs from a network,” says Hannah Sassaman, Program Director of the Prometheus Radio Project. Community networks need to be about more than Internet Service Provision — they need to build community-wide Local Area Networks to house information, services, and multimedia on the network itself. Emphasize being a part of a local community and building relationships within that context. Yup, create divides — but divides that are respectful of one another. These will allow diversity to flourish on the Web.

There's a lot more to this conversation (like about how in/effective legislation might be in addressing the issue), but that's a start.

OneWebDay is a global event aimed at giving all people a chance not only to celebrate the Internet, but also to raise awareness of the importance of maintaining the open-networking principles that have made it the success it is. As OneWebDay 2010 approaches, I'll be posting some of my own and other peoples reflections on One Web.

OneWebDay should be local and global simultaneously. It should highlight the ways that people use the web locally, and acknowledge in a non-trivial way that the web they use is the same web that is used the world over—one web.

OneWebDay Reflections: The Web Ain't Dead, and So What If It Were

2010-09-09T14:53:00.000-07:00

Talk of the death of the web has gotten a fair bit of play since the Wired article on August 17. Notwithstanding its grandiose title, there's actually a fair bit of useful content and food for thought in the article (it's actually two articles—one by Chris Anderson and one by Michael Wolff—explaining the same phenomenon from different perspectives).

Fact of the matter
The Web continues to grow. And so does the internet. The Anderson article says that the web — "largely HTML data delivered via the http protocol on port 80 — accounts for less than a quarter of the traffic on the Internet...and it’s shrinking." However, Internet traffic as a whole is growing exponentially each year (interestingly, United States traffic is only growing roughly linearly — check out Cisco's Visual Network Index forecasting tool).

So, while the Wired articles paints this picture:

It seems a lot more like this:

(Source: Is the web really dead? - Boing Boing)

What is the web? (and what's a browser? and an app? ...)
So, the web isn't dead. But so what? As the Anderson article points out,

The Web is, after all, just one of many applications that exist on the Internet, which uses the IP and TCP protocols to move packets around. This architecture — not the specific applications built on top of it — is the revolution.

Not only is the web but one app built on the Internet, but each website can be thought of as an app unto itself, built on top of the Web. In this sense, the Web is very much like an app market. (There is at least one crucial difference between the Web and the App Store as application marketplaces: no one — or maybe everyone — owns the Web¹. No one can tell anyone else what can and cannot be put on the Web¹.)

Technologies get superseded all the time. Several social networking sites (apps?) have come and gone. A few years down the line, no one really notices. One day, the Web as we know it and access it through web browsers may fall out of favor relative to some other information creation and distribution technology. But probably not any time soon. Unlike the case of the big social networking sites, the Web is not really in competition with the App Store (or any other marketplace). The Web is an open network, benefiting and growing as much as Apple (well, maybe a little less) from the success of the App Stores millions of Internet-aware applications.

Technology, or values?
The danger posed by threats of the death of the Web is not really that we would lose the Web, but rather that whatever takes its place might not be built on the same foundational values as that which gives the Web and the Internet such promise and potential.

So what are the values behind the Internet/Web? I don't know of any comprehensive or authoritative lists, but here are a few around which there seems to be some consensus:

Transport Equality — As far as the Internet is concerned, all nodes and data should be equal. No prioritization based on arbitrary distinctions.
Collaboration and Transparency — Development proceeds under shared global ownership and is based on open standards.
Accessibility and Openness — Anyone should have access the content on the Web, and anyone should be able to create content on the Web.

These are ideals, of course, and there are numerous examples of when they have been violated. However, without these types of principles, the Internet and the Web would be a far cry from what they are today.

If anything right now has the ability to kill the Web, it is our lack of protection of these values. Forgive the drama, but the Web devoid of its principles is dead. This is why this net neutrality stuff is such a big deal. So far, Chile has passed a neutrality bill. Now we're just waiting for everyone else to catch up.

In the mean time, it's on us to protect, express, and spread Web values. At the 2009 Internet Governance Forum, Ian Peter proposed we write 10 Commandments of the Internet. Of course, what these are still need to be determined. His were:

Independence of applications
New applications can be added anytime that’s a core value
Permissionless innovation
Open standards
Accessible and globally inclusive—anyone can use it
User choice—I can choose what applications I use and where I go to with them
Ease of use—I can use it in my language, I can use it in a device I’m familiar with
Freedom of expression
The ability to change rapidly
Trustworthy and reliable is one we have to work on; it’s got to be a core value.

What are your 'net commandments?

Notes:

¹This is debatable. Given sufficient resources, there are few limits to what you could do, but ultimately you are beholden to whoever owns the servers your data lives on, and the wires that connect you to the Internet backbone.

OneWebDay Reflections: The Value of the OneWebDay Brand

2010-08-31T15:52:00.000-07:00

In April 2010, OneWebDay.org announced that it would merge with Drumbeat, "a new initiative of the Mozilla Foundation that shares all of OneWebDay's goals and values." Additionally they say that they "will retire [the OneWebDay] brand and invite all of its people to join forces with Drumbeat’s growing community."

I think the merging with Mozilla Drumbeat is a good thing. It is useful and important to have avenues for people who are willing to get more involved. However, does it justify dissolution of the One Web Day brand? Institutionalized celebratory events can play a useful societal role. Nathanial James, former executive director of OneWebDay, says:

I’ve spent most of my time with OneWebDay listening to as many of you as I can reach. Here’s the number one thing I hear from you: “Our OneWebDay was amazing! Let’s do more! What’s next?

James presents this as a reason for merging with Drumbeat, but how many of those people asking "what's next" would not have gotten involved at all without One Web Day? If anything, I think this is an excellent reason to continue to support and build the One Web Day brand. As the event spreads, more and more people will be exposed to the ideals underlying the open web. Some of those people will choose to become more involved, and others, though not organizing directly, will take values learned and spread them. Spreading the meme of the open web is as important as active organization.

Of course, it is preferable to have the values of one web be celebrated and practiced every day. As James writes, "Unlike OneWebDay, [Drumbeat projects happen] every single day and with some powerful infrastructure behind [them]." This is a great thing. In order for these projects to achieve their maximum impact, though, open web values need to be integrated into the cultural fabric. They need to be presented in a sticky way and embraced by people outside of the circles of the technology elite. That should be the place of events like One Web Day.

OneWebDay Reflections: Worldwide affordability

2010-08-27T11:56:00.000-07:00

Last OneWebDay, Sanjay Patel shared some surprising data comparing "what it costs [him] on a montly basis to get cable speed internet here in the United States along with 3 different quotes [they have] received for installing internet connectivity to a school that is a stone’s throw away from one of Tanzania’s largest cities."

Check out the full post here: OneWebDay | The Epic Change Blog

Philadelphia Public Computer Centers Survey

2010-08-03T08:00:00.000-07:00

I'm designing a survey to administer at recreation centers and libraries to get a sense of what people get out of the city's public computing infrastructure, what people seek to get that isn't available, and what they assume isn't available but would like to see. I would expect the survey to be filled out when a user is done with their session on the computer, so that they'll have a sense of whether they had achieved what they came to achieve on the computers.

I'd probably be violating all sorts of human subject research rules by just going in and asking people to take the survey, but if I can't get explicit permission, that's what'll happen.

The survey is at http://bit.ly/8XwlRn. It is still evolving at this point. Most importantly, I have to get people to look over it so that I can get it into some more normal language.

Update: So, I've gotten a couple of pretty good pieces of feedback since I posted this yesterday. First, from @digitallogic. Noting the fact that people are often unaware of the realities of various available technologies and so are unable to determine certian changes that would provide them with a meaningful impact, he says:

The ideal approach would be to follow someone through their whole usage and observe where improvements could be made, though this may be a better in a business environment due to the nature of tasks be performed and obvious privacy issues.

Barring that, hopefully these might go more in that direction:
Is there anything you would have liked to do on the computer today which you were unable to?
Other than your primary goal (check email, do homework, read websites etc), what did you spend most of your time on? (wording on this is weird, trying to see if there's some major hurdle that could be over come, ie - 5 mins to check email but 15 mins to log in)

The next bit is from @beingpurposeful. She recommends that I stay away from negative questions, as value biases are more easily built into these. To ask something and not its inverse paints that thing as notable (i.e., abnormal). Sure, I have my own value biases, but I'd do well to protect the survey from these as much as I can.

So, I have to build these suggestions into the survey. Thanks!

Geniuses in Community Computer Centers

2010-08-02T08:00:00.000-07:00

I was at the Apple store the other night, and it dawned on me that Philadelphia's computer centers should employ Apple Geniuses. They should be intimate with the inns and outs of the machines in the centers. They should have a thorough knowledge of the city's technology infrastructure, what you can do with it, and how it can solve your problems. At each center the geniuses should report to the community they serve, as well as to the Division of Technology, maybe on alternating weeks.

This wouldn't just be of service to the technically challenged community members, but would also help the DoT keep a pulse on how city residents are trying to use the centers—what they're doing and what they'd like to do that they're not currently able to.

Now, I'm not just saying that you should put tech-savvy people in the centers. I have no idea how Apple trains and prepares their Geniuses, but the patience, warmth, and passion about the technology they're showcasing is what makes Apple's Geniuses work. Good customer service. That's probably the hard part, but it's also the most important. I'd take a passionnate and compassionnate person over an actual tech genius who was cold and impatient any day. Though, of course, I'd prefer a passionate and compassionate bona fide tech genius. Maybe it's something you have to select for in the interview process.

Todo: Do some research into how the city's computer centers are currently staffed/supported.

The Tension between User-centered Design and E-government Services

2010-07-31T23:46:00.000-07:00

Here's an excellent talk by Nalini Kitamraju, assistant professor at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, for Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society on the tension in creating e-government services using user-centered design principles.

This one's highly recommended for anyone interested in how governments can better interact with citizens in the digital age. To be honest, the lessons from the talk are not limited to e-government; they can be applied to government in general. However, as we're fumbling through figuring out how to best use the tools we've developed over the last half-century or so, the video provides some great food for thought.

Nalini Kotamraju on the Tension between User-centered Design and E-government Services

Individuals and institutions are slower to adopt e-government services due to a lack of user centricity in design and development. Work with PortNL, an integrated e-government service for expatriates in the Netherlands, suggests the core of governments' difficulty in creating user-centered services lies in a fundamental tension between the needs of users and those of governments. In this talk, Nalini Kotamraju — an Assistant Professor at the University of Twente in the Netherlands — explains how the purposes of e-government services can be met through a user-centered design approach, and how site builders can put the needs of users ahead of the ideas of governmental clients.

Through most of the talk, Kitamraju is focussed on government (remember: government is just a group of citizens) as a service provider. One of the points that she brought up during Q&A is that participatory democracy is relatively low on citizens' lists of e-government concerns. Granted she was doing her research in the Netherlands, but I would venture that much of it is relatable to the United States and other Western countries, at least most of the time. The popularity of democratic participation ebbs and flows in this country. Many people are looking for ways to use tech to help drive popular participation, and it will really be no small feat to do so. We're not in a situation where the masses are perpetually pounding at the doors of city hall.

At the same time, though, there are novel uses of modern social media and technology for driving engagement. At the Supernova forum this past week, I learned about ThinkUp, an app from Gina Trapani & Co. at Expert Labs. It provides an exceedingly simple way to poll for anecdotal answers to arbitrary questions using Twitter. It's not a government app per se, but certainly one that they could use. Perhaps it's not that citizens aren't interested in talking with the government. Perhaps citizens just feel that it's not worth the effort—government doesn't listen anyway. Perhaps if there were better, more engaging, less bureaucratic ways to communicate with government, people would be more interested in doing so.

In other words, maybe citizens' standards are just lower than what they should/could be. If there are no worthwhile communication channels with government, then no one expects there to be. However, if there were worthwhile channels, then people may raise a fit if you to take them away. This brings to mind Tim O'Rielly's conception of government as a platform (a good definition of a platform, via Scott Heiferman, is something that enables people to empower other people). For now, government is like an IBM/360; you can build on it (well, some people can), but it's cumbersome, expensive, and often over-centralized. When will we get to Django or Ruby on Rails? And what cultural shifts will be necessary?

But I digress.
Watch the video (in one of several formats) here.

(via Putting People First)

My Gigabit Bid

2010-06-29T11:33:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'm submitting my Gigabit bid. If you like it, vote for it on the Gigabit Genius Award Google moderator page. It should be one of the most recent ones. This was adapted from a post a few days ago. For more information on the grant, go here.

Summary:

Set up a system where residents could access their desktop and files over the internet, from any computer. Offer a service that rents out netbooks that come configured to connect to the system. For visitors, it would serve as their portable guide to the city. For residents, it would serve as their city dashboard. And for students, it would enhance their classroom materials.

With a citywide fiber network...

We could set up a cloud desktop service. With high-speed communications infrastructure on the gigabit level, the experience of using a cloud desktop (if well-constructed) shouldn't differ too much from using a native desktop today, assuming a reliable connection.

To take advantage of the desktop, we could have a low-cost netbook rental service. You can get really quality books in the $350 range. These could be paid off for the business if they rent at $1.00/day (plus a bit for insurance/security deposit) in under a year. The price of internet service would have to be factored in as well, but the rental service could obtain a very competitive contract if they buy in bulk. We could offer every resident one personal cloud desktop account for free.

The netbooks could come loaded with some city-branded fork of, say, ChromiumOS, whose opening screen can be configured based on the renter (Resident or Visitor, for example). For visitors, it could be like a VisitPhillyOS. It could be their light, portable guide to the city, incorporating and expanding on all aspects of the new visitphilly.com.

For residents it could serve as a virtual briefcase preconfigured with various useful tools for using their city—a PhillywareOS. With it, residents could locate and have instant streaming access to local community radio and television stations. Notifications for things like 311 reports they've filed or updates on legislative actions they've subscribed to could be integrated into their desktop experience. It could come configured with applications for things like managing utilities, licenses, and taxes, and other things that residents might be interested in doing with the city (however, expanded online presences for these services would have to be created first; see Philadelphia 3.0).

The hardware rental aspect of this idea isn't technically necessary; residents would be just as able to access their personal cloud-desktop from library computers, or from any computer with the appropriate software. However, the rental aspect is exciting because it seems a good way to expand tech access in the city. A pay-as-you-need model might be ideal for many residents. And with all their data online, if they did have to get rid of their computer (e.g., for financial reasons), it wouldn't be AS big a deal.

Perhaps most exciting is that schools could strike up some sort of subscription deal, so that students would all have a netbook and a PhillySchoolOS cloud desktop account, which would come loaded with educational software tools. Look for netbooks that are good for reading and eliminate the need for physical text books. No more beat-up, out-dated texts (even if the computers get a little banged, the information content could be kept up-to-date).

And this wouldn't only be valuable for the technology challenged either. I've actually considered doing something like this myself—keeping a machine up at my house, and just VNCing in from a nice light, portable, netbook with an SSD. The primary thing that stops me is that latency is just too high—I like (and for some development tasks, need) a snappy interface. Gigabit to the rescue!

One more reason I like the idea of netbook rental is that it could work even without gigabit! It would just work so much better with it.

With $10,000...

What could be done with $10,000? That is enough to buy about 20 machines. That's not many. Moreover, gigabit infrastructure does not yet exist in Philadelphia. But we wouldn't need to twiddle our thumbs until it does. One possibility for the grant funds would be to use a limited number of netbooks (starting with 10 or so) to run a pilot program, perhaps in cooperation with one of the Free Library branches in the city. Netbooks could be rented through the library's checkout system to any adult with a library card.

Let's use Clear Wireless as a simple sample price point. From Clear, with a 2-year subscription agreement at 40$+tax ($42.80)/mo, you can get a Dell Inspiron Mini-10 with built-in 4G WiMax for $250+tax ($283.54). If you expect to use a netbook for the full two years, the cost of hardware and internet comes out to $1310.74 (or $54.62/mo). If the library charged something like $0.60/hour ($0.01/min) or $5.00 for overnight, the price of the hardware and internet service could easily be recouped.

Improve this idea!

This is doable! If you have something that you think would make this idea better, leave a comment, or send a message to the Philly Software for Citizens Google group.

My Take on Gigabit City Ideas

2010-06-25T11:29:00.000-07:00

The deadline for submission of ideas to the Gigabit Genius Grant is nearly here (it was extended, at some point, to June 30). I've looked through the submissions (all 158 of them, so far) and there are a few that I like.

Some are good ideas but very vague, some of the ideas are very science fiction, and some have very little to do with high-speed communications at all, but all's good in the name of generating initial ideas.

One thing I notice is that so few of the ideas link to any place where they provide more information, which is a shame; I'd like to see more depth to some of them. So, for some of the ones I liked that didn't have much further explanation, here's my take.

Cloud Computing
So, this was probably my favorite suggestion. Allow for very low-cost computer/netbook rental with "cloud"-based desktops and application access. Actually, there are three or four submissions that propose this in some form. For example:

a truly ONLINE "COMPUTER" where you can access and use all your files and software/application from any connected device. Soft/Apps would be running on the server side.

and

Create a redbox type rental system for netbooks ($1/day) to provide low income areas an affordable computer solution. Operating System processing and software access would happen in the cloud removing the need for the latest and greatest hardware.

and

Utilize thin client computing on a residential level to give low income housing an affordable solution for PC's. Operating System processing and graphics rendering would happen in the cloud, negating a need for the latest and greatest hardware.

So, have a low-cost hardware rental service (does Clear rent out hardware?) with netbooks. You can get really quality books in the $450 range. These could be paid off for the business if they rent at $1.50/day (plus a bit for insurance/security deposit) in under a year. The netbooks could come loaded with some city-branded fork of ChromiumOS or something, whose opening screen can be configured based on the renter (Resident or Visitor, for example). For visitors, it could be like a VisitPhillyOS. Nothing too complicated. For residents it could come configured to, by default, point to applications ("cloud"-based, of course) for things like managing utilities, licenses, and taxes, finding local community media, reporting non-emergency incidents (311 stuff), and other things that residents might be interested in doing with the city (however, expanded online presences for these services would have to be created first; see Philadelphia 3.0).

With high-speed communications infrastructure on the gigabit level, the experience of using cloud applications (if well-constructed) shouldn't differ too much from using native applications today, assuming a reliable connection.

The hardware rental aspect of this idea isn't technically necessary; residents would be just as able to access their personal cloud-desktop from library computers, or from any computer. However, the rental aspect is exciting because it seems a good way to expand tech access in the city. I know people who, over and over, save up, buy a cheap computer and end up pawning it at a later date (at a much lower price) because they need the money for something else. A pay-as-you-need model might be more appropriate for many residents. And with all their data online, if they did have to get rid of their computer, it wouldn't be as big a deal.

Of couse, another dependency here is that network access itself would have to be affordable. Netbooks are much less useful without the net.

Oh man, and schools could strike up some sort of subscription deal, so that students would all have a PhillySchoolOS cloud desktop account, and a netbook. Look for ones that are good for reading and eliminate the need for physical text books. No more beat-up, out-dated texts (even if the computers get a little banged, the information content could be kept up-to-date). I suppose they could even rent out iPads, though without handwriting recognition, or the ability to wrest control from Apple, I'm far less excited about that idea. Go with some other tablet netbook.

And this wouldn't only be valuable for the technology challenged either. I've actually considered doing something like this myself—keeping a machine up at my house, and just VNCing in from a nice light, portable, netbook with an SSD. The primary thing that stops me is that latency is just too high—I like (and for some development tasks, need) a snappy interface. Gigabit to the rescue!

One more reason I like the idea of netbook rental is that it could work even without gigabit! It would just work so much better with it.

So that was my favorite idea. Here are a few others I like for one reason or another:

City Online

I would create a "city online" that means: online where and how much is the article you wanna buy + see traffic online + school clases online + trafic cameras online + etc etc : that means from home you can see ALL that happens in the city services

Also related:

Make every city device a data gathering node. Traffic lights, garbage cans, surveillance cameras, public spaces, metro stations, buses, etc. Then, use statistical analysis on the data to create a better city according to people behavior and needs

More data (yesss!). While we're at it, start applying IPV6 addresses to city locations like mad. Houses, street lamps, trash cans, mail boxes—all of it. Then, give them all little transmitters and let them send status updates over fiber. "I'm a trashcan, and I'm full. Empty me!" Maybe a little far off, but not nearly as sci-fi as it once was.

Remote Music Collaboration

Real Time Music Collaboration with Remote Viewing Parties... Artists throughout the city can participate in a real-time concert from the comfort of their own homes, while listening parties allow friends to listen, cheer and sing along. From home.

I actually know a friend of mine who tried something similar out (a remote DJ tag-team session). It can be done, using current infrastructure, but it's far from ideal. Because the software has to play tricks to synchronize the timing between the two musicians, it's clunky to use for things involving coordinated improvisation.

Libraries

Redesign all of the existing libraries into a multi-sensory experience on all possible topics.

I don't really know what that means, but I think something with the libraries would be great. In order for libraries to stay relevant they've got to do a bit of reimagining of what they are. Libraries aren't just books. Libraries were centers of historical memory. They were places where the encoded information in society went to be maintained and cataloged, so that it could not be forgotten. These days "the internet" is taking on that role. I guess. I'm not really convinced. I mean, sure, the internet doesn't forget, except it does. Things get deleted all the time. Without a concerted effort to maintain information, it's too easy to throw it away. Of course, some organizations have made it their business to cache and catalogue the internet (e.g. Google). But what's the library's role today. Thankfully, I believe there are some smart folks in Philly thinking about this very question on a regular basis.

Philly Software for Citizens Brainstorming Meeting - Thoughts

2010-06-25T00:37:00.000-07:00

So, before I forget what happened, over the next couple of days I have to record my thoughts on the brainstorming session that took place tonight at IndyHall. I'd normally post this kind of stuff on a more personal blog, but this was, after all, a public meeting. Forgive me if the thoughts are a little stream-of-consciousness.

In my final analysis, I think that the meeting was valuable. I think some useful ideas came out of it. However, I think the next one won't be quite like it. The next thing that comes should be more action oriented. Maybe for a project. I have to contact the other people who were present and see what they think, and get some other input too.

#1

Firstly, I have about zero experience in open meeting facilitation. I just want to put that out there. Many issues below were exacerbated, if not caused, by this fact.

A digression: I'm often a little disheartened (though no longer surprised) at the demographics of the community. Though, don't get me wrong; I'm extremely thankful to those that did attend and participate (it is not presence, but absence that I lament). We had a few people come out. They were parts of (though not necessarily representing) various groups—city council, a civic platform, a neighborhood association, Drupal developers, the press. That was great. However, I wish that, more often, an equal showing of women, or a proportionally representative showing of all people were at these things.

So what happened?
Anyways, here's the statement of what I wanted to talk about:

I want to consider what we'd need to create a community that encourages engagement with the wider community, fosters developer and designer innovation around software for citizens, and participates in ensuring that the software can get made and that people—all people, or close to it—can use it.

In reality, we spent a lot of time all over the place (see #1 above). I think for most of the time we were touching on (or at least around) the "ensuring that the software can get made" part, in the form of discussing government data and what strides were being made in opening it up.

We also talked a bit about the question of what [non-government employed] citizens' roles could be in assisting the process of getting the government to a point where their records (our records) were digitally available, even internally to the government. Councilman Green mentioned that part of the problem is the volume of data that the government receives in paper format. For example, for tax return data, they require that six fields are input into an electronic system. However, the tax return forms have 20 fields (e.g., SIC codes are not recorded). Each piece of information that is not transcribed, for whatever reason, into a database is essentially lost (though I'm sure that reams and reams these papers are filed away somewhere). So, the only way we can get to providing electronic data is to require every submission to the city to be electronic. I think the gist is that it is a nearly intractable problem to have completely open electronic data when all the inputs, at the volume of inputs that a municipal government has, are not electronic. It's just too easy for things to be lost in any analog to digital data transformation.

It makes some sense, though I'm not completely sold. I think governments can get hi-fidelity enough, just by doing things like recording all 20 fields on the tax return (why would you record only 6? why ask 20?). However, I do agree that, for the sake of efficiency, data should go in electronically as well, and I believe it should be stored somewhere in a lossless format.

However, it still doesn't really address the question of what citizens can do. I wish we had better answers.

Green did bring up examples of other states that require departments who are going to be doing "this stuff" (by which, I assume, he means improving their information infrastructure) to have an overall RFP, but to also break down each segment of the task so that people can apply for individual parts that they excel at. That way the departments aren't only comparing monolithic proposals, but can also compare more piecemeal. This also allows smaller, local folks a chance to get some of the project money, as opposed to relying on the same large contractors that all cities around our size rely on. Now, to be honest, I wonder whether this works. While departments may be saving money, I would imagine that the coordination of projects like this across contractors costs a significant amount of time and effort. But it's an idea.

It was certainly a mixed blessing to have Bill Green at the meeting. He was able to field a lot of questions about what's going on in the government with data, which is nice. He's a very knowledgeable guy, and seems to be involved with a lot of potentially beneficial efforts in the city government. However, since he was there to answer those questions, much of the conversation revolved around data (of course, I didn't help—see #1).

At some point some discussion on the use of data came up. Who would be the main beneficiary of opened government data and why? Academics (Urban Studies, Political Science, Buisiness, ...) who use it to do comparative analyses and publish papers? Citizen watchdog groups who might keep government honest? Who else uses government data? This is actually one question I've shied away from many times. It's a hard question (particularly in light of the reality of relatively low civic involvement in Philadelphia). It reminds me of a quote I heard from one of the PdF talks this May:

In defense of cities ... I think the responsibility is ours to show the more entrenched factions of the cities that are not letting go of the data where the use is, that there's a huge hacker community right now that's interested in cities. Some subset of them are interested in it because it's just a brand new set of data, not because they're interested in cities per se. And I'm worried that we need to move beyond the sense that just having the data solves the problem. Carol Coletta of CEOs for cities made a comment a couple months ago that "if you listen, you'd think that you could fill a pothole with data. Just pour it in, smooth it out, and fix your problem." Basically, what I'm saying is the tougher nuts to crack in city government, I think, need to see tangible examples of the benefits, savings, efficiency ... So, part of the responsibility is ours.
- John Tolva (at about 1:45)

At the meeting, someone suggested (similar to Tolva in the quote above) that perhaps the best way to discern what data to use and how is to:

Choose a couple of simply defined problems,
Determine what is needed for solutions, and
Go from there

And that may be what needs to happen. Perhaps, in Philly, instead of getting people together to talk about what we can do, I (we) should just get people together to do it (and figure out exactly what it is along the way).

Technical Disconnect
Another thing that was discussed was the communication gap between neighborhood associations (at least the one we had represented) and developers. This actually reminds me of another idea that a friend of mine brought up to me (and I'm sure others have had this idea as well) of some kind of jobs site for local neighborhood organizations looking for technology solutions. Seriously, there are many professionals out there that have jobs and are looking to donate a few hours a week (or at least work for minimal pay). It would be a relatively easy service to set up. The difficulty would be in the rest of the execution.

Would it be like a jobs board? Jobs boards work well when an organization knows what it wants a potential employee to do. With neighborhood associations, it's often the case that they don't have knowledge of what specific technologies could be applied to solve their issues. They just know that they have an issue. So, maybe it should be more like an issue tracker. Where someone from an organization could go and describe their issue, have it discussed, and eventually assigned and resolved. There would have to be good documentation on how to write an effective issue report—include a descriptive title (not "WE NEED HELP!"), methodically structure the report (something like: (1) current process, (2) what goes wrong, (3) what should happen, and (4) maybe a proposed solution), try not to harp on specific technologies for solutions, etc.

E.g.:

Issue: Center City residents don't know about CCRA events
Posted By: The Center City Residents Association
More Information:
Current process -- CCRA plans meetings and events
How it breaks (undesireable outcome) -- neighborhood residents don't know about events
What should happen (desired outcome) -- neighborhood residents should be informed of (and maybe even RSVP for) events
Proposed solution -- A CCRA community calendar online

(I don't know whether this is an actual issue the CCRA has. It's just an example)

I like an issue tracker better than a jobs board because it allows for interactive formation of solutions. With a jobs board, you have "i need this" to which someone replies "ok, i can give that to you", and that's it. With an issue tracker, people can request specific additional pieces of information, propose and comment on potential solutions, etc. That's all appropriate for this instance because it's not just technical skill that the creative community can provide, but also best-practices advice on how to use tech products.

Now, in addition to the site (this is that execution part), I think there should perhaps be a get-together every month or two for people who post issues to the site (general public folks) and developers who address issues on the site. If there's no face-to-face community around this stuff, it's just gonna be that much more difficult to maintain. This wouldn't have to be a formal thing. Maybe part of it could be like a show-and-tell for things that have gotten done through the site. Like at the end of GiveCamp. Except with alcohol, and with fewer seats. And more mingling.

So, how does this help build the community?

Community Engagement: Philadelphia organizations are provided a place to go and discuss technical problems with professionals/volunteers. Also, the happy-hour thing reinforces the connection between tech and the city.
Developer Innovation: It provides a way for developers (be they full-time employed or not) to get involved with community issues. The issue-tracker format allows a structured, but open-ended approach to finding solutions.
Political Advocacy: I'm not sure it necessarily covers any technology advocacy areas. Whether it would require any opening up of technology depends on the nature of the issues presented. It's possible that an issue might require (or benefit from) some as-yet unopened data, or extending tech access to an underserved group, but I don't know. This also doesn't prescribe a way of dealing with those issues if they were to come up. Have to think on that one further.

"North Philly needs Kiva"
One idea that came up that I wish we had returned to (my bad—see #1) was the "North Philly needs Kiva" comment. This is certainly provocative (in that it draws inspiration for a Philadelphia program from a model that is effective primarily in so-called third-world areas...to my knowledge), but nevertheless, it's an idea worth pursuing. Or at least thinking about.

I mean, let's do this for a second. Let's call it "Phiva" (terrible name?).

First of all, there would be a large amount of coordination involved in this: between neighborhood business associations, lending coordination institutions, etc. The creative community should probably not shoulder it all, but should be there as consultants for as much of it as possible.

It would be nice to get input from the Philly community-at-large about the idea, how they might use microfinancing if it were available to them. To get this kind of information we might go to local business centers in the areas that would be most served by these microloans. I'm thinking places like the Enterprise Center in West Philly. I don't know an equivalent in other neighborhoods, but that could be looked into. We could either try to get information on how microfinancing would be used from them, or we could ask them to hook us up with some contacts from the community from whom we could get the info. Again, the creative professionals/volunteers involved shouldn't necessarily have to become experts in microfinance institutions, but they should get a good idea of requirements (technical and social).

So how does Phiva help build community around civic software?

Community Engagement: Hopefully it would prompt interaction between developers/designers and maybe community business associations or something.
Developer Innovation: As a specific project, it would require developer innovation to implement. However, it wouldn't in-and-of-itself foster an increased capacity for developer innovation within the creative community. It would be a hell of a thing at show-and-tell though. It might encourage people to get involved with other projects.
Political Advocacy: Things like Kiva work to shift the power relations in society. I like that. In terms of technology advocacy, however, I'm not sure. I would hope, though, that it would at least further the conversation about how access to technology is often access to opportunity.

Really, Phiva wouldn't be something that I'd look for the developer community to come up with on their own. perhaps it would be something put into the issue tracker.

Issue: Small West Philly businesses are unable to obtain micro loans
Posted By: The Enterprise Center
More Information:
Situation: West Philly businesses look for loans
Undesireable outcome: They cannot qualify for large loans, and don't have access to smaller ones
Desired outcome: They have access to loans in the amount they need
Proposed solution: Phiva

Philly Software for Citizens Brainstorming Meeting

2010-06-22T09:57:00.000-07:00

I'd like to see a community in Philadelphia that is concerned with the effective creation and distribution of software that allows city residents/citizens to better use and affect their city. This partly came out of a report that I put together for a class that I took in the Spring. The report was called "Phillyware: Taking Philadelphia into the 21st Century through Software Developer Civic Involvement".

Anyway, I'd like to get more people in on generating ideas for what this should look like. So, I'm planning a brainstorming session.

The flyer:

The invitation:

Event Page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=124590897575130&ref=mf

Please come and join Philadelphia software developers, designers, and technology advocates in discussion about creating a place for developers to innovate around software tools that can better enable residents to use and affect their city. Let's brainstorm what this could look like, some potential roadblocks, logistical considerations, etc.

Consider three aspects: community engagement + developer innovation + political advocacy = Software for Citizens*.

What: Philly Software for Citizens Brainstorming Session

Where: Independents Hall, 20 North 3rd Street, Philadelphia, PA

When: June 24th, 6:30 PM

Why:
To keep local government and authorities accountable in the data they release and in how they release data
To allow Philadelphians to think ahead of the curve about what their city can be
Because we ARE citizens
Because it'd be fun (you know it would!)

Some possibilities for discussion:
Periodic [un]conferences around those three areas
A community around a project repository (like Gnome.org, but around OpenPlans.org, for example)
Meetings with Philadelphia community groups
Camps/Hackathons (like in Ottawa: http://opendataottawa.ca/)
Bring your own ideas...

* "Citizens" in this case isn't political; it just refers to participating members of society. See the Facebook group (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=131677170182058) for more information.

"The Data-Driven Life"

2010-05-15T23:13:00.000-07:00

I enjoyed reading this article[1] about increasing instances of using computers to help analyze ones own personal life. This is the kind of world I envision eventually, and that I'd hope to help create. Sometimes I wonder what I'm getting myself into.

While I count myself among those the author describes as data-driven, I don't agree with his portrayl. It seems like he's saying, in the data-driven life people let their data explain them -- praise or condem them. If you gain a pound, if you jump around through tasks, if you have too many drinks, the data is all there to prove it. But really, the data does nothing on its own. I would venture to think that few "data-driven" people think of their data (let alone the machines/tools that they use to record it) as separate from themselves. The details are just more of you exposed, and machines put it within easier reach. The tools and the data simply are you formulating ideas about yourself in different ways. They are an extension of you.

At the end of the article the author notes that his own personal tracking experience was only useful to him as a "source of critical perspective." My point exactly.

[1] The Data-Driven Life
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/magazine/02self-measurement-t.html

Cities Selected for "Code For America"

2010-05-10T07:58:00.000-07:00

So, it turns out[1] that five cities have finally been selected to participate in the Code For America[2] program for 2011: Boston, Boulder, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Seattle. Each of these cities will identify the need for some city government project that can leverage modern web technologies, be assigned a group of five developers[3], and will work with them to develop that project over 11 months, starting in January.

I am on pins and needles to see what comes out of this. I'm also curious how the city governments plan to pick the projects.

[1] "Five Cities Get Free Civic Apps Through Code for America". Digital Philadelphia. http://digitalphiladelphia.wordpress.com/2010/05/07/five-cities-get-free-civic-apps-through-code-for-america/

[2] "About". Code For America. http://codeforamerica.org/about/

[3] Developers apply for the opportunity. The application will be available June 1, and the deadline is August 1. "For Developers". Code For America. http://codeforamerica.org/for-developers/

Augmented (Hyper)Reality

2010-03-17T12:00:00.001-07:00

Over on GOOD.is, there's a video posted that demonstrates Keiichi Matsuda's conception of what augmented reality might look like. As we've seen in some previous posts, this type of reality may not be [as] far off [as some would like].

But what's with all the ads? Adds a touch of realism, I suppose.

Augmented (hyper)Reality: Domestic Robocop from Keiichi Matsuda on Vimeo.

What Augmented Reality Could Actually Look Like
http://www.good.is/post/what-augmented-reality-could-actually-look-like/

Recognizr: An Augmented ID Concept

2010-03-10T12:00:00.001-08:00

A few posts ago[1], I referenced the Sixth Sense TED presentation. Here's[2] another technology along the same lines. It's a prototype video for an Android app that retrieves information on a person using facial recognition. They call it Recognizr, an "augmented ID" concept.

Also, for those eye-tracking augmented reality glasses that I mentioned in the other post...the eye-tracker just seems like a slight modification of this[3].

[1] "SixthSense" from MIT Media Lab
http://kwawatu.blogspot.com/2010/02/sixthsense-from-mit-media-lab.html

[2] Recognizr
href="http://www.youtube.com/user/TATMobileUI#p/u/0/5GqJHaNRla

[3] Student learns to control computer with a blink of an eye
http://www.rit.edu/news/?v=46626

And make sure to check out the WSJ video:

Andy Jordan's Tech Diary: EyeTech Quick Glance
http://online.wsj.com/video/andy-jordans-tech-diary-eyetech-quick-glance/6B9D2F61-C8FE-41F8-BA10-4F2DFB85355D.html

Computers shouldn't make people feel like idiots

2010-03-03T12:00:00.000-08:00

For those of us surrounded by the minutiae of computers all day, it’s easy to forget there’s a world of people out there who just don’t get it. And it’s not their fault. It’s ours.
Computers shouldn't make people feel like idiots [1]

Interesting article over on the 37 Signals design and usability blog. Some meta-analysis regarding the iPad. I really like this quote from Fraser Speirs:

The Real Work is not formatting the margins, installing the printer driver, uploading the document, finishing the PowerPoint slides, running the software update or reinstalling the OS.

The Real Work is teaching the child, healing the patient, selling the house, logging the road defects, fixing the car at the roadside, capturing the table’s order, designing the house and organising the party.
Fraser Speirs, Future Shock [2]

[1] http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2132-computers-shouldnt-make-people-feel-like-idiots -- Computers shouldn't make people feel like idiots
[2] http://speirs.org/blog/2010/1/29/future-shock.html -- Future Shock

[Socially] Situating Personal Information Management

2010-02-24T12:00:00.000-08:00

PIM practices become easier if [an] organization provides some infrastructure to alleviate the difficulty of these activities. But a larger value is that the organization can leverage these personal practices to improve the effectiveness of others and to capture that elusive corporate knowledge in an easy way.

Situating Personal Information Management[1]

Thought provoking. Give the video a watch.

[1] Situating Personal Information Management - http://www.youtube.com/user/googletechtalks#p/u/1/eA9NT4b6UNA

OOPSLA is changing. OOPSLA is becoming SPLASH.

2010-02-17T12:04:00.000-08:00

The conference for Object-Oriented Programming, Systems, Languages, and Applications (OOPSLA) has a new name and overall mission. It's now Systems, Programming, Languages, and Applications: Software for Humanity (SPLASH). I'm liking the name.

Seems like they're attempting to reconcile the inclusion of the Onward! track of the OOPSLA conference. I approve.

In 2002, Onward! was created as a special track within OOPSLA to be a venue for bigger ideas than normally are accepted by mainstream computer science conferences, but within the scope of OOPSLA’s focus. "Bigger ideas" included new approaches to programming, software, and software development; new paradigms; and even new ways to present ideas.

Beginning in 2003, Onward! papers were included in the OOPSLA proceedings, and in 2005, Essays and films were added to Onward!. As the track grew, it became clear that there was a need for Onward! in a larger context than object-oriented programming, and in 2009, Onward! spun off from OOPSLA to become a stand-alone conference focusing more broadly on software and programming in all their manifestations, and including not just the pure technology but also processes, methods, and philosophy.

From 2010, we plan that Onward! will be co-located with SPLASH (the evolution of OOPSLA), but in the future, the sky’s the limit.

- Onward! History

For important dates and information, see:
http://splashcon.org/
http://onward-conference.org/

"SixthSense" from MIT Media Lab

2010-02-10T12:00:00.000-08:00

Pattie Maes and one of her students, Pranav Mistry, demonstrated a system they've been working on to "augment" a user's experience of the world by delivering relevant information about certain objects, as well as allowing the user to interact with that information.

Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry demo SixthSense
http://www.ted.com/talks/pattie_maes_demos_the_sixth_sense.html

I've imagined something similar in the form of glasses that record your eye movements and cross-reference that data with recorded images of what's in front of you with to determine points of focus. Then, theoretically, they could display information about whatever you're focusing on onto the glass of the spectacles. Pattie Maes takes it in a slightly different direction when, at around 08:30 in the video, she says, "who knows, maybe in another 10 years we'll be here with the ultimate 6th sense brain implant."

Regardless of the interface (fingers, eyes, brain, etc.), is this something that would be good for humans?

10/GUI

2010-01-22T14:51:00.000-08:00

I thought this was pretty awesome and on-point; check it out:
http://10gui.com/video/

An apropos re-imagining of the way that interaction with the desktop computer should work. At first I thought, while watching, "if you're gonna suggest a change for desktop interaction interfaces, why not just go all out and promote eye trackers or cerebral interfaces." But I realized that Miller's way is a significantly different approach than the one we have now, while still possible in the relatively near future.

I mean, we already have multi-touch; hardware for the input device could be developed cheaper than a multi-touch display (since it doesn't have to display as well). Then it's a matter of writing drivers (easy enough) and adapting software (maybe a little harder). Integration with Gnome 3.0 would be awesome.

Computing in a human context

2009-11-04T08:17:00.000-08:00

The Net is most sluggish in September. ... It makes sense, according to Joe Robinson, who coaches massive corporations like IBM on work-life balance. "I can cite eight studies indicating that performance and productivity go up after vacation," he said. When you return from a long stint at the beach, you're not just recharged, you're more efficient. Even reaction times go up by 30 to 40 percent. It's not surprising then that Internet speeds lag when we're all back from vacay, hustling online, grabbing at that brass ring.

- Burning Question: Does Internet Speed Vary by Season?[1]

I found this through an article on Lifehacker[2]. It reminds me that software (and computing in general) for humans isn't just about software, or about what people do with software. It's also about humans. Human-friendly computing needs to consider the wider context of a person's human needs.

[1] Burning Question: Does Internet Speed Vary by Season?
http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/magazine/17-10/ts_burningquestion

[2] Net Speeds Drop in Autumn, But Productivity Rises
http://lifehacker.com/5376133/net-speeds-drop-in-autumn-but-productivity-rises

Knowing where your [computer] time goes

2009-10-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

Where does the time go? Whether you need to know for billing purposes or just want a better idea of how your work day is split up, you can always answer that question with a good time-tracking application.

- Five Best Time-tracking Applications

I use Ubuntu Linux and I've been using Hamster (http://projecthamster.wordpress.com/) for a couple of weeks now. It sits in a panel on the top of my screen. My favorite feature is that it unobtrusively notifies me every so often about what it thinks I'm doing (i.e. what I told it I'm doing). Now I just need to discipline myself to take 5 seconds and give it accurate information whenever it notifies me.

On socially / environmentally responsible electronics

2009-10-21T09:09:00.000-07:00

I was reading an article about how Apple is smart for not getting into the netbook game, because netbooks are a low-margin market (Apple declares war on the entire PC industry - http://www.betanews.com/joewilcox/article/Apple-declares-war-on-the-entire-PC-industry/1256063102). Instead they focus on higher quality, higher-end hardware, and make it really pretty.

This made me think primarily of environmental responsibility (because software for humans is software on platforms friendly to our environment as well). What is a good model and mindset for developing our electronics responsibly? The netbook approach (of low production cost/low profit margin = low price) seems to lead directly to a disposable-electronics situation. Some producers take back electronics, but more often than not these products are disposed of in an unsafe manner (Who takes back their old products - http://www.computertakeback.com/corporate/who_takes_back.htm)

Apple's approach is appealing because it seems to lead one to view their computer as an investment and not as much disposable. But maybe that's not true; in a consumerist mind where one feels no accountability to ones environment, even investments are disposable. You simply buy at the lowest price possible, regardless of the quality, and then discard when another is available at a low price, like the cavalier manner in which people treat cars--no maintenance or vision of the future. And it's worse with computers and phones, because they're so notoriously unrecycled (because it's not profitable, and everything is driven by monetary profit: E-Waste Problem Overview - http://www.computertakeback.com/problem/problem_index2.htm).

What would be awesome is if there were a company designing electronics that was environmentally conscientious and had Apple's marketing/design sense. A company that designed their products to be able to be recycled. A company that cut down on the hazardous materials used in their products[1]. AND a company that interdependently (not exploitatively) involved itself in the nations from which it acquired its raw materials. And then--and only then--marketed their products as responsible.

Even then though, maybe it's not enough. There are self-proclaimed "green" electronics (i.e. Samsung's Reclaim, Apple's MacBook Air and other products), but if the products are still massively consumed and discarded by a public that's not interested in the conditions under which the materials for their electronics were gathered, or in whether their stuff is gonna end up poisoning people in a landfill, then we're only marginally better off. Is a qualitative change in the relationship of people (note: i consciously said "people" as opposed to "consumers") to their electronics necessary? How would such a change come about?

It's not enough to show environmental and human effects of mineral extraction from economically poor, mineral rich countries?
It's not enough to show environmental and human effects of using other economically poor countries as dumping grounds for hazardous electronic waste?

[1] Kudos to Apple for making steps in the first two directions (Apple - Environment - http://www.apple.com/environment/). We'll see how it turns out...

iKidNY — "An App That Embraces Change"

2009-09-23T08:14:00.000-07:00

...The $2.99 iPhone/iPod Touch app combines Google Maps with a database of 2000 playgrounds, libraries, restaurants, changing tables and subway elevators in New York.

So, say you’re in the Financial District when your diaper disaster strikes. Touch "find closest to me" in the changing-table category, and then follow the path to the Borders at 100 Broadway...

...Since the app went live, she's been collecting more child-friendly locations from the app's users, making iKidNY a community effort.

"For New York Parents, an App That Embraces Change." The New York Times.
http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/17/for-new-york-parents-an-app-that-embraces-change/