The Media Equation
Politeness is discussed in this chapter of the book. The author is saying that politeness is inherent in our society and it is remarkable how early we are introduced to it as children. Even teachers use politeness as a bench mark of how educated a child was. From the mayor example where he asks "how am I doing?" he is more likely to receive polite responses. On the contrary, if you asked some random citizen, they will have an honest opinion. Humans are even polite to computers and in fact, are probably more truthful towards them.
How can we design computers and media to be polite as humans? We use Grace's Maxims.Conversations should be guided by four basic principles. Quality- Speakers should speak about things that are true. Quantity- each speaker should interact only in the way that the conversation demands. Relevance- speakers should only speak about topics related to the conversation at hand. Clarity- the ideas should come off as unhindered and clear. There are other rules of etiquette that the author speaks about such as it is impolite to reject, its polite to say hello and goodbye, its polite to look at people while they are speaking, and it is polite to respond to people in the method that they contacted you. These are some of the things that we can design media and computers with in the future. We have to keep these in mind if we want to design more friendly interactions on computers.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Extra Credit: Why We Make Mistakes
Why We Make Mistakes
The chapter I read was about multitasking and people becoming so engrossed in the current task that they lose the oversight of other tasks. The author relates it to CFIT (controlled flight into terrain) in that plane pilots focus so hard on one task, they forget to fly the plane and they crash into some terrain. The myth of multitasking comes from computers and their ability to "multitask" between programs. They cannot however multitask, they just switch between processes extremely fast. The human brain works the same way and often when we switch between tasks, we forget what we were going to do when we come back to the original tasks. Our brain has a to-do list sort of like RAM or cache in the computer, except in our case, we can pop an activity from the stack and forget to complete it altogether.
One of the examples the book gives for this was a bus driver who slammed into a bridge. He was talking to his sister on the phone and was not paying attention to his surrounding. He slammed his twelve-foot bus into a ten-foot bridge and it ripped off the top. This is called inattentional blindness. Car manufacturers and the government are at odd with car distractions. The car makers keep wanting to add new features in order to charge the consumer more and make more of a profit. The government wants to reduce deaths by completely blocking some of these features altogether. Multitasking becomes more and more of a problem in today's world and accidents will continue to occur unless new measures are taken to prevent people from interacting concurrently with multiple processes at a time.
The chapter I read was about multitasking and people becoming so engrossed in the current task that they lose the oversight of other tasks. The author relates it to CFIT (controlled flight into terrain) in that plane pilots focus so hard on one task, they forget to fly the plane and they crash into some terrain. The myth of multitasking comes from computers and their ability to "multitask" between programs. They cannot however multitask, they just switch between processes extremely fast. The human brain works the same way and often when we switch between tasks, we forget what we were going to do when we come back to the original tasks. Our brain has a to-do list sort of like RAM or cache in the computer, except in our case, we can pop an activity from the stack and forget to complete it altogether.
One of the examples the book gives for this was a bus driver who slammed into a bridge. He was talking to his sister on the phone and was not paying attention to his surrounding. He slammed his twelve-foot bus into a ten-foot bridge and it ripped off the top. This is called inattentional blindness. Car manufacturers and the government are at odd with car distractions. The car makers keep wanting to add new features in order to charge the consumer more and make more of a profit. The government wants to reduce deaths by completely blocking some of these features altogether. Multitasking becomes more and more of a problem in today's world and accidents will continue to occur unless new measures are taken to prevent people from interacting concurrently with multiple processes at a time.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Assignment 10: Opening Skinner's Box
Chapter 1
Lauren
Slater opens with an introduction about herself and how she raised a raccoon.
She actually learned as much from the raccoon as it did her. Now in my opinion,
this was the first red flag on this author’s writing style. Its very intimate…too
intimate. Some will love it and others won’t so much. But in the first chapter,
she mentions B.F. Skinner and his behavioral Psychology. Skinner was somewhat
notorious for doing some experiments with his babies in an air crib and trying
to positively reinforce certain behaviors. Despite these criticisms, he made
some great strides in psychology that are still even used to this day.
I
wanted to touch on the author’s meeting with his daughter, Julie Skinner. I
believe that Skinner made some advancements, but his daughter just seemed
brainwashed. She preserved the room he studied in town to the chocolate he was
eating before he died. (which in fact, the author bit into before she left.) Julie
seemed to love her father a little too much which my point to his experiments
as being a success? Anyways, I still appreciate the positive reinforcement
experiment that has made the lives of many types of people more fulfilling and
easy. I think I remember the book mentioning that it improved individuals with
autism by helping them achieve tasks.
Chapter 2
On
chapter 2, Slater opens with providing a back story on Stanley Milgram’s
Obedience to Authority Experiments. She places the reader in the shoes of a
participant of the experiment, and walks them through what they might be
feeling. I felt this dragged on a little too long and was not necessary to
understanding empathy for people in the experiment. It eventually got to fan
fiction levels and I did not really enjoy it. The interviews were a different
story… well one of them for me.
When
she eventually details Milgram’s life after the experiment is when I really
started to enjoy the chapter. I knew this experiment shook the psychological
world and indeed, Milgram’s world but not to this extent. It effectively ruined
his career and he could not become a fellow at Harvard and he lost his tenure.
Despite the inhumane nature of this experiment, I believe it was extremely
interesting and perhaps even necessary. I was perplexed by Slater’s interview
of Joshua, the military man who took part in the experiment. He was disobedient
despite his obedient background in the military. Even though he was disobedient
and stopped at 150 volts in the experiment, he stormed into Milgram’s office
and demanded an explanation and even thought about ratting him out. He ended up
not doing that for reasons unexplained. I look forward to the rest of the book
not really for her fan fiction writing style, but for the material background
of the experimenters like Milgram and Skinner.
Chapter 3
On chapter 3, David Rosenhan wanted to disprove psychology and faked his way into a mental institution. His point was that this should not be considered a science really. David was a stanford professor. He published "On being sane in Insane Places" and it was published in Science magazine. The author Lauren Slater imitated this experiment in her own life and she claims to have gotten into a mental institution. My first thought was that I think she was actually crazy.
Chapter 4
On chapter 4, Darley and Latane's wrote a training manual about their experiments. Their manual dealt with the Genovese murder and why no one came to help her for thirty minutes even though she was screaming at the top of her lungs. This has to deal with diffusion of responsibility and everyone thinking everyone else will handle the problem. The training manual consisted of 5 steps. The potential helper must notice an event is occuring, the potential helper must interpret the event as one in which help is needed, the potential helper must assume personal responsibility, the potential helper must take action.
Chapter 5
On chapter 5, Lauren Slater talks about Leon Festinger and his theory on cognitive dissonance. This theory clashes with Skinner's behavioralism theory through a prime example I remembered: Fraternity members who are hazed harder are more likely to have more devotion to the frat. The author then reads about a case of some Sanada belief where the world where a god was supposedly going to come and pick up all of its followers. It never happened and then the believers tried to rationalize it through cognitive dissonance. The author closes by following around Linda Santo and her brain-dead daughter. Linda also justifies her parental shortcomings through saying her daughter, Audrey, is a blessing from God.
Chapter 6
On chapter 6, the author follows Henry Harlow and his experiments with macaques. She details that his experiments were trying to prove that close contact rather than physical needs was the main bond. He set up a wired monkey with a plastic nipple and a cloth monkey that felt soft to the touch. The monkey would drink when he was thirsty from the wired monkey and then immediately go back to the cloth monkey for close contact comfort. Henry was accused of being abusive towards animals... probably for good reasons. Most of the monkeys he tested on eventually were psychotic or bit off their own limbs. The author ends with saying perhaps some of the contact needs that Harlow was testing for somehow mirrored his own lonely life from adolescence till after his wife died.
Chapter 7
On chapter 7, Dr. Alexander is an assistant of the famous Henry Harlow and his macaque experiments. Dr. Alexander went to learn about love and instead learned more about addiction due to the nature of the experiments he was assigned to in the lab. Dr. Alexander then starts his own experiments on rats and addiction. His most famous experiment (well a cult classic) is one where he designs a rat park and a rat cage and then offers them the option of normal water or heroin water with sugar in it. The rats in the rage cage opted to get high all day while the rats in the rat park needed some semblance or society or so it seemed, and chose the regular water. Even when trained to be addicted, the rats in the rat park chose to go back to water even despite withdrawal symptoms. This experiment never really took off in the psychological world as well as Alexander might have liked, but the results were important.
Chapter 8
On chapter 8, Elizabeth Loftus tests implanting memories. Her first real inspiration to pursue this project was the George Franklin trial in which he denied raping his daughters but after interrogation, he described it in vivid detail. Loftus thought this was fishy and decided to devote her time to being at trials and defending these people. People hated Loftus in the psychological community but she was very staunch in her beliefs and wanted to get them out there. I was actually lost in a mall when I was very little (or so I believe) and it makes me question if this was an implanted idea at a very early age or if it actually happened and these are just mind games. This chapter made me rethink the idea of implanted memories and made me think of Inception.
Chapter 9
On chapter 9, the author talks about removing memories. The author follows Eric Kandel and how he disproves that memory is dispersed throughout the brain but rather is located in particular parts. They talk about when he removes a piece of his patient's brain, he loses all sense of short term memory save for long term about his mom and family members. He went in for epilepsy treatment initially. A huge discovery was that of CREB or a cAMP retaining element binding protein which is the cause of long-term memory. Long-term memory uses these proteins to join neurons in the brain. The author elaborates more on memory in the final chapter of the book.
Chapter 10
On the final chapter of the book, Slater talks about Antonio Moniz and lobotomy. While widely considered a taboo subject at the time, Moniz pushed ahead and offered it to his patients. He had many failures due to some excrutiating causes such as broken pieces of scalpel in the brain, etc. He eventually won the nobel prize and inspired a generation of scientists who perfected what he started. The perfected version of lobotomy is much more precise and has a higher rate of success than its ancestor. I think it was fitting to end on this chapter since memory regards with how we perceive the past, present, and how we will perceive the future.
The author's writing definitely grew on me during the end of the book when she stopped doing insane experiments herself and turned it more into an inside look of each scientist. I have to keep in mind that she is writing this book in order to move units and make it interesting for the masses, so in that regard, it was a success.
Chapter 3
On chapter 3, David Rosenhan wanted to disprove psychology and faked his way into a mental institution. His point was that this should not be considered a science really. David was a stanford professor. He published "On being sane in Insane Places" and it was published in Science magazine. The author Lauren Slater imitated this experiment in her own life and she claims to have gotten into a mental institution. My first thought was that I think she was actually crazy.
Chapter 4
On chapter 4, Darley and Latane's wrote a training manual about their experiments. Their manual dealt with the Genovese murder and why no one came to help her for thirty minutes even though she was screaming at the top of her lungs. This has to deal with diffusion of responsibility and everyone thinking everyone else will handle the problem. The training manual consisted of 5 steps. The potential helper must notice an event is occuring, the potential helper must interpret the event as one in which help is needed, the potential helper must assume personal responsibility, the potential helper must take action.
Chapter 5
On chapter 5, Lauren Slater talks about Leon Festinger and his theory on cognitive dissonance. This theory clashes with Skinner's behavioralism theory through a prime example I remembered: Fraternity members who are hazed harder are more likely to have more devotion to the frat. The author then reads about a case of some Sanada belief where the world where a god was supposedly going to come and pick up all of its followers. It never happened and then the believers tried to rationalize it through cognitive dissonance. The author closes by following around Linda Santo and her brain-dead daughter. Linda also justifies her parental shortcomings through saying her daughter, Audrey, is a blessing from God.
Chapter 6
On chapter 6, the author follows Henry Harlow and his experiments with macaques. She details that his experiments were trying to prove that close contact rather than physical needs was the main bond. He set up a wired monkey with a plastic nipple and a cloth monkey that felt soft to the touch. The monkey would drink when he was thirsty from the wired monkey and then immediately go back to the cloth monkey for close contact comfort. Henry was accused of being abusive towards animals... probably for good reasons. Most of the monkeys he tested on eventually were psychotic or bit off their own limbs. The author ends with saying perhaps some of the contact needs that Harlow was testing for somehow mirrored his own lonely life from adolescence till after his wife died.
Chapter 7
On chapter 7, Dr. Alexander is an assistant of the famous Henry Harlow and his macaque experiments. Dr. Alexander went to learn about love and instead learned more about addiction due to the nature of the experiments he was assigned to in the lab. Dr. Alexander then starts his own experiments on rats and addiction. His most famous experiment (well a cult classic) is one where he designs a rat park and a rat cage and then offers them the option of normal water or heroin water with sugar in it. The rats in the rage cage opted to get high all day while the rats in the rat park needed some semblance or society or so it seemed, and chose the regular water. Even when trained to be addicted, the rats in the rat park chose to go back to water even despite withdrawal symptoms. This experiment never really took off in the psychological world as well as Alexander might have liked, but the results were important.
Chapter 8
On chapter 8, Elizabeth Loftus tests implanting memories. Her first real inspiration to pursue this project was the George Franklin trial in which he denied raping his daughters but after interrogation, he described it in vivid detail. Loftus thought this was fishy and decided to devote her time to being at trials and defending these people. People hated Loftus in the psychological community but she was very staunch in her beliefs and wanted to get them out there. I was actually lost in a mall when I was very little (or so I believe) and it makes me question if this was an implanted idea at a very early age or if it actually happened and these are just mind games. This chapter made me rethink the idea of implanted memories and made me think of Inception.
Chapter 9
On chapter 9, the author talks about removing memories. The author follows Eric Kandel and how he disproves that memory is dispersed throughout the brain but rather is located in particular parts. They talk about when he removes a piece of his patient's brain, he loses all sense of short term memory save for long term about his mom and family members. He went in for epilepsy treatment initially. A huge discovery was that of CREB or a cAMP retaining element binding protein which is the cause of long-term memory. Long-term memory uses these proteins to join neurons in the brain. The author elaborates more on memory in the final chapter of the book.
Chapter 10
On the final chapter of the book, Slater talks about Antonio Moniz and lobotomy. While widely considered a taboo subject at the time, Moniz pushed ahead and offered it to his patients. He had many failures due to some excrutiating causes such as broken pieces of scalpel in the brain, etc. He eventually won the nobel prize and inspired a generation of scientists who perfected what he started. The perfected version of lobotomy is much more precise and has a higher rate of success than its ancestor. I think it was fitting to end on this chapter since memory regards with how we perceive the past, present, and how we will perceive the future.
The author's writing definitely grew on me during the end of the book when she stopped doing insane experiments herself and turned it more into an inside look of each scientist. I have to keep in mind that she is writing this book in order to move units and make it interesting for the masses, so in that regard, it was a success.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Assignment 9: Obedience to Authority
'Obedience to Authority' - Stanley Milgram
Chapter 1- Milgram introduces his experiment in the first chapter. He mentions that he is trying to figure out if people have changed since WWII. He wants to find out if the human race has learned anything or is still capable of committing the same atrocities the Nazis did. Milgram also discusses what it means to be obedient.
Chapter 2- This chapter was on Method of Inquiry. Milgram explains how he recruited each of the participants for the experiment. None of the participants were students from Yale because he wanted to go outside of the bubble and get 'normal' responses from everyday people. He then told the reader how he went about recruiting these people through ads and the like.
Chapter 3- This chapter was on the Expected Behavior of the learners. Stanley Milgram took a survey on his projected experiment and polled how many people they thought would go through with the full experiment or where they would stop. Milgram did not tell the people that the experiment had a fixed learner though.
Chapter 4- This chapter was on Closeness of the Victim. Milgram explains how the proximity of the learner to the participant affected their obedience. If the learner was in a different room where the participant could only hear them, they would not be as inclined to disobey a scientist who was giving orders. If the learner was in the room and they could physically see them, they would be more likely to disobey.
Chapter 5- This chapter was on Confronting Authority. Milgram relates to the reader several different subjects and their testimonials. One of the participants was an electrical engineer who refused to administer that kind of voltage to a human because he knew what would cause them pain. He was also very interested in their work. Depending on the psyche of the individual, they would be more likely to go on with the experiment.
Chapter 6- This chapter was on adding different kinds of spins to the experiment. For instance, the learner or actor would let the participant know that they have a heart condition to try and get inside their head. If the scientist was a female or if the personality of the scientist was mean or passive also was introduced.
Chapter 7- Milgram recaps again the different experiments he has performed. He explains a few individual cases and how they reacted. Some of the people stopped abruptly in the middle of the experiment others went through all the way.
Chapter 8- Milgram teased different roles in this chapter. He had the scientists take orders from the participant instead of vice versa. This lead to more disobedience because the participants would not trust the authority if they were not giving the orders.
Chapter 9- This chapter details the effects of groups. We see the conformity of groups when there are multiple participants. If the majority of participants agree on a decision, the last participant will not want to be the last one out, so he will be more likely to conform.
Chapter 10- Milgram goes more into theory in this chapter. Milgram discusses in minute detail why he believes people obey orders. He also talks about how the setting influences their decision and the proximity of the authority.
Chapter 11- Milgram discusses how the participants past would determine their obedience. He mentions family, background, education, income etc. He lists some binding factors which also keep the participants in check.
Chapter 12- Milgram lists some examples of strains and disobedience in this chapter. He defines different types of strains and how they cause participants to crack under pressure aka disobey or obey. If they disobey that means they broke the binding factor.
Chapter 13- Milgram lists aggression in this chapter and how it affects disobedience. If the experimenter wanted to hurt the learner, he explains how aggression might increase the chances of them shocking the learner. Milgram lets the reader know that its not the aggression, but still the relationship between the experimenter and the participant.
Chapter 14- Milgram just responds to some other arguments in this chapter. Others had other theories that he refuted and stood by his original experiment. These arguments were varying and attacked different points of the experiment.
Chapter 15- Milgram just recaps the experiment in this chapter. He mentions that obedience to authority can be extremely dangerous. Given the right conditions and circumstances, anyone can be put on the spot and obey some extraordinary, horrendous, requests.
Summary:
Chapter 11- Milgram discusses how the participants past would determine their obedience. He mentions family, background, education, income etc. He lists some binding factors which also keep the participants in check.
Chapter 12- Milgram lists some examples of strains and disobedience in this chapter. He defines different types of strains and how they cause participants to crack under pressure aka disobey or obey. If they disobey that means they broke the binding factor.
Chapter 13- Milgram lists aggression in this chapter and how it affects disobedience. If the experimenter wanted to hurt the learner, he explains how aggression might increase the chances of them shocking the learner. Milgram lets the reader know that its not the aggression, but still the relationship between the experimenter and the participant.
Chapter 14- Milgram just responds to some other arguments in this chapter. Others had other theories that he refuted and stood by his original experiment. These arguments were varying and attacked different points of the experiment.
Chapter 15- Milgram just recaps the experiment in this chapter. He mentions that obedience to authority can be extremely dangerous. Given the right conditions and circumstances, anyone can be put on the spot and obey some extraordinary, horrendous, requests.
Summary:
I
enjoyed the majority of this book. The testimonials from the participants
proved to be the most interesting for me as I wanted to delve into their
backgrounds and see what would make them obey or not disobey. The spots where
Milgram starts to drag (at least for me) was the theory behind the experiment.
He really started to lose me with the in depth analysis, but I can see why he
thought it was necessary.
In
terms of preparing for the experiment, I was interested to see how Milgram
chose his test pool. He excised the possibility of university associates or
students to be in this experiment and only tested adults. It made it that much
more fascinating to see the predictions versus the actual results. I think the
predictions were something like 1/4 of the people thought the test subjects
would go through with the extreme voltage but in reality, 26/40 went all the
way in the voltage.
The
next fact that I want to touch on is the different types of experiments setup.
The proximity of the experimenter to the learner to the participant played a
huge factor in the overall obedience. If the participant was in close proximity
to the learner, he would be more likely to disobey. Likewise, if the
experimenter was not in the room, the participant's disobedience factor would
rise exponentially. Aggression did not really factor into this experiment
according to Milgram. It was more of the relationship between the participant
and the experimenter. If the participant believed that the experimenter was in
the one who held all the power, he or she would be more likely to obey.
The
morality of this experiment is a whole different ball-game. Back in the 70's
when he performed this experiment, there existed little regulation on this
area. He sure changed that didn't he? But personally, I don't think it was
super ethical because people might not want to know that they are capable of
shocking another human being to death or will obey authority under extreme
circumstances. I know I would not want to go through with it.
In
conclusion, this book was a pretty easy read. I enjoyed seeing the different
outcomes with the different scenarios. The different focus groups that he
established predicted differently how each experiment would end, but none of
them were quite correct in their assessment. While nothing like this will ever
be experimented with again due to the new restrictions that this experiment
brought on, I still believe it was very interesting and maybe even necessary
for the advancement of the field.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Book Reading: Gang Leader for a Day
Chapter 1- Sudhir is introduced to J.T. through his sociology assignment. Quickly Sudhir realizes that conventional ethnographic techniques are not going to work in this environment after he asks them "what is it like to be poor and black?" It intrigued me to see someone from a middle class suburbian environment submerged in such a culture shock. Although he was a bit naive at times, (or likes to write as if he was naive) I like to think what I would have done in his shoes.
Chapter 2- This chapter made me realize that even the educated can get involved in drug trafficking. Sudhir learns that J.T. is college educated and this probably attributes to why others look up to him as a leader. I was also surprised that he chose this line of work himself- its not as if he was forced into it from being poor. He gives the excuse that other white men were being promoted over him, but I still believe he wanted to lead part of this gang regardless.
Chapter 3- This chapter really highlights Sudhir's ignorance for me. He was hanging out with a gang but is supposedly surprised when he witnesses J.T. beating up C-Note. I just think anyone in their right mind would associate at least some violence with an organized game. Sudhir also learns the in and outs of the community. Since the police do not help them, they rely on gangs and do-it-yourself style justice. This also highlights the violence of this community.
Chapter 4- Sudhir tells J.T. that his job cannot be that hard and takes up being gang leader for a day. He quickly learns that its harder than it looks when trying to mediate disputes within the community such as the stolen money problem between Otis and Billy. I thought parts of this were pretty hilarious such as when Sudhir tries to mimic J.T.'s speech and calls a gang member a n*****. Sudhir is obviously in way over his head and learns that there is a ton of business that goes on behind the scenes. I found it interesting that Sudhir expected to not dish out any punishment to gang members like J.T. does, but that's how gang leaders earn respect.
Chapter 5- Sudhir trails Ms. Bailey to see the inner-workings of the apartment complex. I believe that despite Ms. Bailey's neutral stance, she obviously depends on the gang and even makes some money off of them policing the department. I found it strange that J.T. wouldn't just give information to Sudhir about Ms. Bailey, but rather he had to tail her himself. This shows that even J.T., one of the main leaders of the Black Kings, is afraid of Ms. Bailey to some only.
Chapter 6- Sudhir falls out of graces with the Robert Taylor community in this chapter. He gives away some financial information to Ms. Bailey and tries to rectify that by opening a writing workshop. This then backfires because the tenants think he is having sex with the all-women class. In my opinion, I believe Sudhir was in a rut. This chapter highlighted his broad range of study with a wide variety of people and this eventually turns sour. He has a good heart, well relative to what hes trying to achieve, but he still is stuck in semi-bad graces.
Chapter 7- J.T. throws a party in this chapter in which a drive by happens and two people end up being shot. J.T. was then promoted from his handling of the events. Sudhir also meets with the cops and realizes they are just as corrupt as the gang. I believe this chapter highlights how similar the group of cops that deal with Robert Taylor are to the actually gangs who inhabit it. This proves at least the gang statements about how they are corrupt and cannot be trusted.
Chapter 8- The book ends with Sudhir being invited to a party by J.T. It turns out the Robert Taylor building is being torn down so the gang is disbanding. Meanwhile, J.T. is trying to keep it all together by recruiting new members but it does not work out. Sudhir further widens the gap by saying his research is basically done. I felt bad for Sudhir that he basically had to leave the community but at the same time, he was getting too entrenched in the conflict. This highlights that everything rises and falls and even the "tight-knit" community wasn't safe from this.
Chapter 2- This chapter made me realize that even the educated can get involved in drug trafficking. Sudhir learns that J.T. is college educated and this probably attributes to why others look up to him as a leader. I was also surprised that he chose this line of work himself- its not as if he was forced into it from being poor. He gives the excuse that other white men were being promoted over him, but I still believe he wanted to lead part of this gang regardless.
Chapter 3- This chapter really highlights Sudhir's ignorance for me. He was hanging out with a gang but is supposedly surprised when he witnesses J.T. beating up C-Note. I just think anyone in their right mind would associate at least some violence with an organized game. Sudhir also learns the in and outs of the community. Since the police do not help them, they rely on gangs and do-it-yourself style justice. This also highlights the violence of this community.
Chapter 4- Sudhir tells J.T. that his job cannot be that hard and takes up being gang leader for a day. He quickly learns that its harder than it looks when trying to mediate disputes within the community such as the stolen money problem between Otis and Billy. I thought parts of this were pretty hilarious such as when Sudhir tries to mimic J.T.'s speech and calls a gang member a n*****. Sudhir is obviously in way over his head and learns that there is a ton of business that goes on behind the scenes. I found it interesting that Sudhir expected to not dish out any punishment to gang members like J.T. does, but that's how gang leaders earn respect.
Chapter 5- Sudhir trails Ms. Bailey to see the inner-workings of the apartment complex. I believe that despite Ms. Bailey's neutral stance, she obviously depends on the gang and even makes some money off of them policing the department. I found it strange that J.T. wouldn't just give information to Sudhir about Ms. Bailey, but rather he had to tail her himself. This shows that even J.T., one of the main leaders of the Black Kings, is afraid of Ms. Bailey to some only.
Chapter 6- Sudhir falls out of graces with the Robert Taylor community in this chapter. He gives away some financial information to Ms. Bailey and tries to rectify that by opening a writing workshop. This then backfires because the tenants think he is having sex with the all-women class. In my opinion, I believe Sudhir was in a rut. This chapter highlighted his broad range of study with a wide variety of people and this eventually turns sour. He has a good heart, well relative to what hes trying to achieve, but he still is stuck in semi-bad graces.
Chapter 7- J.T. throws a party in this chapter in which a drive by happens and two people end up being shot. J.T. was then promoted from his handling of the events. Sudhir also meets with the cops and realizes they are just as corrupt as the gang. I believe this chapter highlights how similar the group of cops that deal with Robert Taylor are to the actually gangs who inhabit it. This proves at least the gang statements about how they are corrupt and cannot be trusted.
Chapter 8- The book ends with Sudhir being invited to a party by J.T. It turns out the Robert Taylor building is being torn down so the gang is disbanding. Meanwhile, J.T. is trying to keep it all together by recruiting new members but it does not work out. Sudhir further widens the gap by saying his research is basically done. I felt bad for Sudhir that he basically had to leave the community but at the same time, he was getting too entrenched in the conflict. This highlights that everything rises and falls and even the "tight-knit" community wasn't safe from this.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Ethnography Ideas
On the concept of Ethnography ideas, I have a few that I am interested in. The first and foremost is the BAMF club for bronies. A brony is a fan of the show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic who is typically an adult male way outside of the intended demographic. I am very interested to see how they conduct their discussions on this form of entertainment and what subjects they converse about. The second ethnographic topic that I can see myself studying would be Aggie-sama or a sorority in Greek life. Aggie-sama would be interesting in the same way that BAMF would: I would want to see how and what they talked about. For a sorority, I would want to see what kind of community service they do outside of social events and how they initiate new members. I will pick one of these in the days to come, but I need to discuss it with my group first.
Monday, October 8, 2012
Assignment 7: Blog About Nonobvious Observation
The videos we created involved observing the behavior of normal patrons while going to check out a movie from the 4th floor at Evans. We agreed upon the end objective, but how we got there and the end result was strictly unique to our walkthroughs. I can't speak for my teammates, but I received mixed glances and or questions when I went to go check out the movie. The first thing I noticed (well a non-obvious observation) about the people at the front desk when I walked in, was they all stared directly at my forehead. I figured they were wondering why this strange man walked into the annex wearing this piece of headgear, but none of them asked me about it... or did not get the opportunity too. In addition to facial expression and tone in conversation, there were a few passive non-obvious behaviors I noticed in simply walking by some people.
Some non-obvious things I can account for to determine more about their expression is their tone of voice. This tone can have a large impact on what we perceive through conversation. For instance, the tone could be that of disinterest where they sound monotonous and uncaring. Another example would be loud, signifying anger perhaps. Along with tone, a little more obvious point would be the facial expression. Accompanying the disinterested tone could be wandering eyes or even a moving head. This can point out that the person is not truly focused on the conversation at hand. Correlating to the other example of anger, the person could have wide eyes with a blaring expression.
Besides expression and tone, we can look at the non-obvious body language. When I walked past someone with my camera on my head, they would sometimes look down or look straight at me. I would bet there is some fundamental personality trait being displayed in their behavior when they look down or look at me. It could maybe should that they are more or less outgoing. This could either happen when I walk past them or when I am in the elevator and eye contact is met. Along with this behavior, I also noticed headphones and how people sometimes use them as a crutch to shield themselves from the outside world. Usually when we have our headphones in, it is a sign to the general public around us that we do not wish to be bothered. These examples are some addition non-obvious observations that in my experience, a wide array of people display.
In conclusion, I look forward to incorporating more non-obvious observations in my ethnographic studies. Having blogged about my video experiences combined with non-obvious observations really pinpointed the grey areas that I need to be focusing on. When I highlight these grey areas in my ethnographic studies, I can conclude why people act that certain way or why a vast majority do and this will help in areas other than philosophical study.
Some non-obvious things I can account for to determine more about their expression is their tone of voice. This tone can have a large impact on what we perceive through conversation. For instance, the tone could be that of disinterest where they sound monotonous and uncaring. Another example would be loud, signifying anger perhaps. Along with tone, a little more obvious point would be the facial expression. Accompanying the disinterested tone could be wandering eyes or even a moving head. This can point out that the person is not truly focused on the conversation at hand. Correlating to the other example of anger, the person could have wide eyes with a blaring expression.
Besides expression and tone, we can look at the non-obvious body language. When I walked past someone with my camera on my head, they would sometimes look down or look straight at me. I would bet there is some fundamental personality trait being displayed in their behavior when they look down or look at me. It could maybe should that they are more or less outgoing. This could either happen when I walk past them or when I am in the elevator and eye contact is met. Along with this behavior, I also noticed headphones and how people sometimes use them as a crutch to shield themselves from the outside world. Usually when we have our headphones in, it is a sign to the general public around us that we do not wish to be bothered. These examples are some addition non-obvious observations that in my experience, a wide array of people display.
In conclusion, I look forward to incorporating more non-obvious observations in my ethnographic studies. Having blogged about my video experiences combined with non-obvious observations really pinpointed the grey areas that I need to be focusing on. When I highlight these grey areas in my ethnographic studies, I can conclude why people act that certain way or why a vast majority do and this will help in areas other than philosophical study.
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Assignment 5: Ethnography Readings
The first article was very interesting because I only thought that anthropologists only wrote reports about their fieldwork. I learned that there were many different tools they can learn such as interviewing, critical analysis, and video to aid their reports. They also have to establish rapports in the community in order to gain useful information. In addition to some of the many things I learned that anthropologists do, I wanted to talk about my previous experience with this subject to clarify my background and hopefully indicate that it will prep me for my future assignment.
I've done an ethnography study once before and I remember only barely interacting with the community there. I went to an orchestra and listened to the music while taking notes and recording some audio. These notes helped me revisit the thoughts I had that night and evaluate what the community really thought of the orchestra and why they valued it so much. I had the amazing opportunity of talking to a patron there who frequented these events and I gained valuable insight in that regard too. The second article about the origins of ethnography resonated with me in this regard because I remember doing research on the topic before hand in order to be prepared to interact with the community that I was going to witness. Not only did I observe the performance, but I also witnessed the habitat that I was present in, the manner that people acted while the orchestra was playing, and how they reacted after the performance. The reason I mention this is that I believe it gives me valuable insight and experience in the anthropology field and that it will aid me and my group on our future assignment.
Another point that I thought was very interesting was biases. The observer must try to incorporate as little bias as possible in their report. Today however, that is a hard rule to abide as most writings cannot be free from bias. We as anthropologists must find a non-biased informant who is a part of the community and screen them with questions. Ethnography also used to be different and not so ethos based. Ethos means its based more on the intangible values and morals that permeate the community rather than just the physical aspects such as language and tools. The five criteria for ethnography are: Substantive contribution, Aesthetic merit, Reflexivity, Impact, and Expresses a Reality.
The last thing I wanted to talk about was "Coming of Age and Samoa". This wikipedia article gave me the summary of what this book was about but I found what I read very interesting. From what I understand, it set some of the earliest precedents for anthropological research. What was truly fascinating was that she contrasted the Samoan values with that of American values at the time. She concluded that most of the anxiety of aging girls was not from growing up, but from the cultural facets surrounding them. In conclusion, I learned much more about Ethnography than I know before, and I can say I'm ready to perform another experiment of my own.
I've done an ethnography study once before and I remember only barely interacting with the community there. I went to an orchestra and listened to the music while taking notes and recording some audio. These notes helped me revisit the thoughts I had that night and evaluate what the community really thought of the orchestra and why they valued it so much. I had the amazing opportunity of talking to a patron there who frequented these events and I gained valuable insight in that regard too. The second article about the origins of ethnography resonated with me in this regard because I remember doing research on the topic before hand in order to be prepared to interact with the community that I was going to witness. Not only did I observe the performance, but I also witnessed the habitat that I was present in, the manner that people acted while the orchestra was playing, and how they reacted after the performance. The reason I mention this is that I believe it gives me valuable insight and experience in the anthropology field and that it will aid me and my group on our future assignment.
Another point that I thought was very interesting was biases. The observer must try to incorporate as little bias as possible in their report. Today however, that is a hard rule to abide as most writings cannot be free from bias. We as anthropologists must find a non-biased informant who is a part of the community and screen them with questions. Ethnography also used to be different and not so ethos based. Ethos means its based more on the intangible values and morals that permeate the community rather than just the physical aspects such as language and tools. The five criteria for ethnography are: Substantive contribution, Aesthetic merit, Reflexivity, Impact, and Expresses a Reality.
The last thing I wanted to talk about was "Coming of Age and Samoa". This wikipedia article gave me the summary of what this book was about but I found what I read very interesting. From what I understand, it set some of the earliest precedents for anthropological research. What was truly fascinating was that she contrasted the Samoan values with that of American values at the time. She concluded that most of the anxiety of aging girls was not from growing up, but from the cultural facets surrounding them. In conclusion, I learned much more about Ethnography than I know before, and I can say I'm ready to perform another experiment of my own.
Monday, October 1, 2012
Assignment 4: Chapter 1 of Emotion Design
"Emotion Design" opens with similar discoveries that the "Design of Everyday Things" had. A researcher put unique action-oriented design choices on an ATM in the Israeli culture and he was surprised to find that this increased usability of the machine by a large margin. In Japan, where the design originated, they favored a more simplistic design. The "Design of Everyday Things" mainly focused on good design choices with ease of use as a main factor and this paper talks about emotional design and how our emotions can appeal to our designs. While originally thought to be leftover from our animal instincts, emotions are not viewed as being strongest in humans and weakest in animals.
Emotions can help in designs primary through incentives. In "Emotion Design", the author first touches on incentives for the user. If there is some positive item awarded to the user, they brainstorm more and are more likely to use the machine or solve the problem. On the contrary, these can also be used to frustrate the user which also conflicts with their emotions thus making them more likely to do the right thing. Humans have evolved over millions of years to solve more complex problems and develop more intense emotions.With emotions, humans can judge what is safe, dangerous, good, or bad. This affective system can also control our muscles physically with the different kind of chemicals being released and neurotransmitters being controlled.
Humans possess three levels of processing: reflective, behavioral, and visceral. These three levels of processing interact with each other in a basic level. Animals primarily use visceral processing as they lack higher intelligence. Too much focus on one level of processing is a bad thing and can lead to poor designs. For instance, when humans are in danger, such as there being a fire in a building, they all rush to escape. The first thing they do to the door push it. They are so blindly focused on the visceral act of escaping, that they don't think to pull the door. In "Emotion Design", Designers have to take into account emotional design for all types of situations or there can be grave consequences. In "Design of Everyday Things", the primary objective was ease of use and simplicity of mapping and functions.
Contrasting this from "Design of Everyday Things", the designs may or may not be the easiest design to use. They might use big embroidered letters and attractive designs that appeal to the users emotions that help them understand the product better. The designs in the first book mainly talked about images in the users' minds and how they formulated how to use it but in this book, the designs have to appeal to the senses first and make the user feel good in order to get objectives done. In conclusion, I really enjoyed the first chapter and can't wait to find out what the rest of the book holds. The ideas contrast very interesting with that of Donald Norman's first book.
Contrasting this from "Design of Everyday Things", the designs may or may not be the easiest design to use. They might use big embroidered letters and attractive designs that appeal to the users emotions that help them understand the product better. The designs in the first book mainly talked about images in the users' minds and how they formulated how to use it but in this book, the designs have to appeal to the senses first and make the user feel good in order to get objectives done. In conclusion, I really enjoyed the first chapter and can't wait to find out what the rest of the book holds. The ideas contrast very interesting with that of Donald Norman's first book.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Assignment #2: The Design of Everyday Things
The Design of Everyday Things
By: Donald Norman
I thought this book overall was very interesting. Some people complain about how dated this book is since it came out in 1988, but I think its amazing to see him wish for some things such as phones that act like computers appear today. It also adds some nostalgic charm like when he tells the reader how to put a NES cartridge in the system. In terms of the content, this book gave me new perspectives. I had never critically evaluated everyday designs as much as this book did. I will never look at a refrigerator or faucet the same again. I knew many of the things he was talking about in the book but I never gave them concrete names. For instance, the way he describes short term memory vs long term memory and all of the different ways we can recall memories.
Some of the things that I loved about the book were the different views he gave me on some ideas. I've heard the term taught helplessness but I never quite thought it afflicted many people. I realized that this probably affects everyone at college especially on our message boards when we discuss homework. Other students in the class do not want to post on these boards because they are afraid of looking stupid to their peers. In reality, each and every one of us needs to seek help and not just think we cannot do a particular subject such as math.
My favorite chapter was the one where he talked about how to simplify design and not get too aesthetic or too technical. This means that we should find a nice balance for our ideas to reach the biggest market of customer possible. He also mentioned that the programmers should not be the U.I. designers. This makes sense to me as even though the programmer knows all of the functions behind their code, they may not know how to best arrange them. For instance, the designers of Microsoft Excel know where everything is, so they might put functions in sub menus that they think are optimal but in reality, the common man would have no chance of finding it.
In conclusion, The Design of Everyday Things was a good book. Even despite being horrendously dated, most if not all of his ideas hold up in this day and age. The examples he gives for bad designs in our everyday life has made me do a double-take on every object I come across to make sure its a good design. In the future, I hope that I can incorporate some of the fundamental ideas that Donald Norman wrote about in all of my future designs.
By: Donald Norman
I thought this book overall was very interesting. Some people complain about how dated this book is since it came out in 1988, but I think its amazing to see him wish for some things such as phones that act like computers appear today. It also adds some nostalgic charm like when he tells the reader how to put a NES cartridge in the system. In terms of the content, this book gave me new perspectives. I had never critically evaluated everyday designs as much as this book did. I will never look at a refrigerator or faucet the same again. I knew many of the things he was talking about in the book but I never gave them concrete names. For instance, the way he describes short term memory vs long term memory and all of the different ways we can recall memories.
Some of the things that I loved about the book were the different views he gave me on some ideas. I've heard the term taught helplessness but I never quite thought it afflicted many people. I realized that this probably affects everyone at college especially on our message boards when we discuss homework. Other students in the class do not want to post on these boards because they are afraid of looking stupid to their peers. In reality, each and every one of us needs to seek help and not just think we cannot do a particular subject such as math.
My favorite chapter was the one where he talked about how to simplify design and not get too aesthetic or too technical. This means that we should find a nice balance for our ideas to reach the biggest market of customer possible. He also mentioned that the programmers should not be the U.I. designers. This makes sense to me as even though the programmer knows all of the functions behind their code, they may not know how to best arrange them. For instance, the designers of Microsoft Excel know where everything is, so they might put functions in sub menus that they think are optimal but in reality, the common man would have no chance of finding it.
In conclusion, The Design of Everyday Things was a good book. Even despite being horrendously dated, most if not all of his ideas hold up in this day and age. The examples he gives for bad designs in our everyday life has made me do a double-take on every object I come across to make sure its a good design. In the future, I hope that I can incorporate some of the fundamental ideas that Donald Norman wrote about in all of my future designs.
Assignment #2 Design of Everyday Things Chapter Thoughts
Chapter 1
This chapter made me realize how important design is on a product's welfare. If the product has a bad design, it will be befuddled by terrible controls and a bad U.I.. It also made me rethink all of the items I take for granted every day. For instance, the smart phone that I use. Thought and consideration went into every placement of every button to make it easier for the end user. I would not think that you would need an engineering degree to design such a slick U.I., but it would definitely help in understanding where to place certain things.
Chapter 2
This chapter reminded me of my time at college and whether or not to ask teachers questions. Taught helplessness is pretty much exactly what I thought of my math class. When I first took calculus 2, I thought it was the hardest thing I have ever taken. Eventually, once I got further behind in my school work and did poorly on a test or two, I figured it was impossible to come back. Luckily, I got over this hump but it still is a serious problem for a large amount of students. We also use forums a lot to ask questions in classes. I also think that most students do not ask in the blog because they are scared of sounding stupid to their peers.
Chapter 3
This chapter was very straight forward so I don't have many strong thoughts on it. It was interesting to index the different kinds of memory. Having signs and reminders in real life is a good way to jog our memory. He said in the book that the person will automatically remember really important events but I find in my life that I can only remember 1 really important thing at a time. This is why I have to use a planner instead of just counting on myself to remember. Now if only I could get myself to check it everyday.
Chapter 4
This chapter talks about constraints and how they very in different categories and even in different cultures. I found cultural constraints the most interesting because they differ from country to country or even from workplace to workplace. Building a lego motorcycle truly was the perfect example for this chapter because it calls for all different kinds of restraints. The police sign is face-up only in countries where text is read that way. Logical constraints in that all pieces must be used. Semantic restraints in how we all know how a motorcycle works and that the rider faces forward. Physical based on the shape of the motorcycle. In order to have good restraints, you need good visibility and feedback.
Chapter 5
Chapter 5 talks about the different types of slips a human can make. I have experienced each and everyone of these but my favorite personally is the loss-of-activation error. I cannot count how many times I've walked into a room only to forge why I was there. As for as design goes, hopefully most of them tailor more towards human error. Back in the day, if you entered a command wrong, you had to go through the whole process again. Now there are warning signs for say when we are deleting something. An instance when the design goes to far in protecting the user is in Windows Vista. Vista's UAC had to ask the user every time he or she wanted to do something which is terrible design.
Chapter 6
Chapter 6 states that design is a constant battle between usability and aesthetics but problems occur when one controls too much. This makes me think of designs that are so simple, its not intuitive on what functions they can perform. On the contrary, designs that are so complicated, you don't even know how to start using the device. My smartphone has had some creeping featurism problems. What started out slick and easy to use, is starting to look convoluted and complicated. Designers must consider both ends of the spectrum and try to not focus too much on one.
Chapter 7
While chapter 6 focused on broad design principles, chapter 7 goes into the specific designs. I never thought about some of these design facts, but making a design easy to evaluate is imperative. This means trying to make it similar to real world examples and give the user feedback on what state its in. The most important aspect is to keep in mind humans will be using this design. Humans make mistakes and need an easy way to escape those mistakes. Designs should be planned for errors in mind and they should not just crash when the human makes an error.
This chapter made me realize how important design is on a product's welfare. If the product has a bad design, it will be befuddled by terrible controls and a bad U.I.. It also made me rethink all of the items I take for granted every day. For instance, the smart phone that I use. Thought and consideration went into every placement of every button to make it easier for the end user. I would not think that you would need an engineering degree to design such a slick U.I., but it would definitely help in understanding where to place certain things.
Chapter 2
This chapter reminded me of my time at college and whether or not to ask teachers questions. Taught helplessness is pretty much exactly what I thought of my math class. When I first took calculus 2, I thought it was the hardest thing I have ever taken. Eventually, once I got further behind in my school work and did poorly on a test or two, I figured it was impossible to come back. Luckily, I got over this hump but it still is a serious problem for a large amount of students. We also use forums a lot to ask questions in classes. I also think that most students do not ask in the blog because they are scared of sounding stupid to their peers.
Chapter 3
This chapter was very straight forward so I don't have many strong thoughts on it. It was interesting to index the different kinds of memory. Having signs and reminders in real life is a good way to jog our memory. He said in the book that the person will automatically remember really important events but I find in my life that I can only remember 1 really important thing at a time. This is why I have to use a planner instead of just counting on myself to remember. Now if only I could get myself to check it everyday.
Chapter 4
This chapter talks about constraints and how they very in different categories and even in different cultures. I found cultural constraints the most interesting because they differ from country to country or even from workplace to workplace. Building a lego motorcycle truly was the perfect example for this chapter because it calls for all different kinds of restraints. The police sign is face-up only in countries where text is read that way. Logical constraints in that all pieces must be used. Semantic restraints in how we all know how a motorcycle works and that the rider faces forward. Physical based on the shape of the motorcycle. In order to have good restraints, you need good visibility and feedback.
Chapter 5
Chapter 5 talks about the different types of slips a human can make. I have experienced each and everyone of these but my favorite personally is the loss-of-activation error. I cannot count how many times I've walked into a room only to forge why I was there. As for as design goes, hopefully most of them tailor more towards human error. Back in the day, if you entered a command wrong, you had to go through the whole process again. Now there are warning signs for say when we are deleting something. An instance when the design goes to far in protecting the user is in Windows Vista. Vista's UAC had to ask the user every time he or she wanted to do something which is terrible design.
Chapter 6
Chapter 6 states that design is a constant battle between usability and aesthetics but problems occur when one controls too much. This makes me think of designs that are so simple, its not intuitive on what functions they can perform. On the contrary, designs that are so complicated, you don't even know how to start using the device. My smartphone has had some creeping featurism problems. What started out slick and easy to use, is starting to look convoluted and complicated. Designers must consider both ends of the spectrum and try to not focus too much on one.
Chapter 7
While chapter 6 focused on broad design principles, chapter 7 goes into the specific designs. I never thought about some of these design facts, but making a design easy to evaluate is imperative. This means trying to make it similar to real world examples and give the user feedback on what state its in. The most important aspect is to keep in mind humans will be using this design. Humans make mistakes and need an easy way to escape those mistakes. Designs should be planned for errors in mind and they should not just crash when the human makes an error.
Assignment #2 5 Examples of Bad Design
1) iPod Car Connector
Bad Reception:
The inherent flaw in these radio connectors for the iPod is they give terrible reception. They transmit the sound through radio channels and if stations are already broadcasting, they overlap each other and award the user with terrible quality. This also happens if other people are using the same device on the same channel.
Conceptual Image:
The image is pretty easy to understand. The user chooses a channel and the connector transmits the sound through the channel.
Mapping:
The buttons map to changing the channel and this brings up another problem because the end user does not know channel will have the clearest quality. Usually the station with the least stations going on has the best reception but it could vary.
Feedback:The feedback is the music that comes through the sound system or even some kind of distorted sound of the radio station. Its hard to say since it gets terrible reception.
2) Logitech Dual-Action Controller
Unset States:
Since single knob faucets lack a second knob, its always hard to tell if they are in the on or off position. Personally, my single knob at my apartment never shuts off- its always dispensing some amount of droplets of water. My main problem is that you cannot tell when it is off; one just has to push it down and assume its off.
Conceptual Image:
The conceptual image is not great either. The user cannot inherently tell which direction the the faucet goes to turn on, dispense hot or cold water, or turn off. This leads to one bad conceptual image.
Mapping:
One knob is mapping to all of the aforementioned functions. Like I said before, This can be a huge problem when trying to differentiate.
Feedback:
The feedback the faucet gets is either dispensing water or not. Another feedback set is through sensing if its cold or hot water.
4) Earbuds
Barely Fit in Ears:
These earbuds offer nice noise cancellation for such a small set. Of course its not going to be on par with those bigger headphones that cover entire ears, but good noise cancellation nonetheless. The part that really irks me is that these things fall out all the time especially when jogging. Its a shame that such a portable addition breaks the design that much.
Conceptual Model:
Most everyone knows how headphones work. They transfer sound through wire and magnets to the ear. If the user plus them into a jack, they will pick up the music.
Mapping:
If one is using an iPod with these headphones, all of the buttons on screen are mapped to changing the song or turning up the volume. The earbuds themselves are not mapped to any buttons but only the sound they transmit to the ear.
Feedback:
The feedback that these earbuds give is the sound of the music playing from the iPod. Like I mentioned, the quality, especially the bass is good for such a small pair, but overall its not a very good set and I recommend a better pair.
5) Dell XPS 1530
Short Battery Life
The battery life on my Dell XPS is only around 2 hours. This is not enough to do much of any work especially if I'm on the internet looking up homework. The battery is also bulky as in it sticks out of my computer and propels it off of the table. This makes the laptop heavier and even puts it at an angle relative to the surface it is on.
Conceptual Model:
No user should be too confused on how the conceptual model works. If they have ever used a laptop, they should know how to operate this machine and how in general it works.
Hard to Remove Keyboard / Mapping:
The keyboard mounted on this machine is extremely hard to remove. To make matters worse, I find it easy to get food stuck under the keyboard. I either have to live with the dust and or crumbs under the keyboard, or painstakingly remove each key. The mapping of each key to their respective letter or function is satisfactory. There really are not any frills here in terms of function keys.
Feedback:
There is a good amount of feedback on the screen especially when the user is typing. Obviously the keystrokes that were hit appear on the screen. The computer also makes some indescribable mechanical sounds to let the user know when it has been turned on.
Bad Reception:
The inherent flaw in these radio connectors for the iPod is they give terrible reception. They transmit the sound through radio channels and if stations are already broadcasting, they overlap each other and award the user with terrible quality. This also happens if other people are using the same device on the same channel.
Conceptual Image:
The image is pretty easy to understand. The user chooses a channel and the connector transmits the sound through the channel.
Mapping:
The buttons map to changing the channel and this brings up another problem because the end user does not know channel will have the clearest quality. Usually the station with the least stations going on has the best reception but it could vary.
Feedback:The feedback is the music that comes through the sound system or even some kind of distorted sound of the radio station. Its hard to say since it gets terrible reception.
2) Logitech Dual-Action Controller
Cheap Joystick/D-pad:
The Logitech Dual-Action has a poorly designed joystick which is a problem for all games where you have to move in a 3d environment. The main issue is that instead of a smooth circular casing, the joystick sits in a square. Trying to go from left to top-left to top is a big nuisance since the joystick can get stuck in the corners. I believe the reason they designed it this way was because of pre-existing patents which make sense. I cannot excuse bad design though.
Conceptual Image:
Everyone knows how to use a video game controller. The user should have the image that the joysticks are primary for movement and the buttons are mapped to various functions.
Mapping:
The buttons are each mapped to a different command. It is up to the user to map each of the buttons though. That's pretty much all there is to say about mapping since it can be so dynamic and vary from person to person.
Feedback:When plugged into the computer, it gives an audio feedback to let the user know the drivers are installing. Sometimes the drivers do not install automatically though. When setting the buttons, an indicator on the screen will give visual feedback to let the user know the buttons are set.
3) Single Knob Faucet
Since single knob faucets lack a second knob, its always hard to tell if they are in the on or off position. Personally, my single knob at my apartment never shuts off- its always dispensing some amount of droplets of water. My main problem is that you cannot tell when it is off; one just has to push it down and assume its off.
Conceptual Image:
The conceptual image is not great either. The user cannot inherently tell which direction the the faucet goes to turn on, dispense hot or cold water, or turn off. This leads to one bad conceptual image.
Mapping:
One knob is mapping to all of the aforementioned functions. Like I said before, This can be a huge problem when trying to differentiate.
Feedback:
The feedback the faucet gets is either dispensing water or not. Another feedback set is through sensing if its cold or hot water.
4) Earbuds
These earbuds offer nice noise cancellation for such a small set. Of course its not going to be on par with those bigger headphones that cover entire ears, but good noise cancellation nonetheless. The part that really irks me is that these things fall out all the time especially when jogging. Its a shame that such a portable addition breaks the design that much.
Conceptual Model:
Most everyone knows how headphones work. They transfer sound through wire and magnets to the ear. If the user plus them into a jack, they will pick up the music.
Mapping:
If one is using an iPod with these headphones, all of the buttons on screen are mapped to changing the song or turning up the volume. The earbuds themselves are not mapped to any buttons but only the sound they transmit to the ear.
Feedback:
The feedback that these earbuds give is the sound of the music playing from the iPod. Like I mentioned, the quality, especially the bass is good for such a small pair, but overall its not a very good set and I recommend a better pair.
5) Dell XPS 1530
Short Battery Life
The battery life on my Dell XPS is only around 2 hours. This is not enough to do much of any work especially if I'm on the internet looking up homework. The battery is also bulky as in it sticks out of my computer and propels it off of the table. This makes the laptop heavier and even puts it at an angle relative to the surface it is on.
Conceptual Model:
No user should be too confused on how the conceptual model works. If they have ever used a laptop, they should know how to operate this machine and how in general it works.
Hard to Remove Keyboard / Mapping:
The keyboard mounted on this machine is extremely hard to remove. To make matters worse, I find it easy to get food stuck under the keyboard. I either have to live with the dust and or crumbs under the keyboard, or painstakingly remove each key. The mapping of each key to their respective letter or function is satisfactory. There really are not any frills here in terms of function keys.
Feedback:
There is a good amount of feedback on the screen especially when the user is typing. Obviously the keystrokes that were hit appear on the screen. The computer also makes some indescribable mechanical sounds to let the user know when it has been turned on.
Assignment #2 5 Examples of Good Design
1) Samsung Galaxy S3
Minimalist Design:
The S3 was designed simplistically
with very few buttons. Samsung went ahead and gave their long line of
phones a tangible central home button and removed 2 of the touch
sensitive buttons. The buttons they did leave were the back, setting,
volume, and power buttons. This allows for a sleek, novel design that is
also easy to look at.
Conceptual Model:
Smart phones are common these days and the s3 follows closely the design of the iPhone. Users will have no trouble picking up this device and learning the ins and outs of the operating system.
Mapping:
The mapping of the keys to the functions they perform is pretty standard fare for smart phones. The big button at the bottom can turn the phone on or return to the home screen while there are side buttons for easy access to volume. The only gripe I have is the power button which is on the side and might cause the user to have an awkward holding position.
Feedback:
The feedback is what distinguishes this phone from its competition. When texting or pressing buttons, a tiny vibration surges through the phone as to let the user know that they have clicked a button. This is highly valuable feedback for touch screens as the user does not know if they are actually hitting a button otherwise.
2) Smoothie King Blender Bottle
All-In-One Design:
The Smoothie King Blender Bottle combines a cup and a blender in one so that the user can save time. This design was created in order to eliminate the blender stage of making a powder drink. This allows the user to blend their shakes on the go.
Conceptual Model:
The design is fairly intuitive. There are a wide array of similar mixers on the market, so the customer base should not have a problem adapting. The design is simply a metal ball in a cup, and when it is shaken, it mixes the drink.
Mapping:
The user just has to shake the cup with the contents and mixer ball to mix the drink.There is not much technical mapping, just the physical action of shaking.
Feedback:
The Feedback is the sound of the metal ball mixing the drink. It is a good indicator on whether the drink is mixed or not. Also, the bottle is clear which also gives a good hint as to if the drink is done.
3) Snark Clip-on Chromatic Guitar Tuner
Portable:
The Snark Clip-On Chromatic guitar tuner sports a dynamic design that is highly portable. There are some designs of tuners that resemble a glasses case. This smartly designed tuner can easily fit in a guitar bag even when it is attached to a guitar.
Conceptual Model:
The customer base should have a good idea on how to work this tuner. It has a clip that looks like it is to be attached to a guitar and one button that turns it on. Even without advanced advanced knowledge of the tuner, its automatically set on the tuning function.
Mapping:
The Snark Tuner has a few buttons on it. One on the front for power and two on the back for volume and function choosing. There is also a metronome on this tuner and it can tune into a wide array of tunings.
Feedback:
There is good visual feedback when tuning a guitar. The tuner senses vibrations when it is attached to the guitar and gives instantaneous feedback on how the guitar needs to be tuned. There is no audio feedback except for the metronome function.
4) Pen Drive
Small:
The generic pen drive is so small that it can be attached to a key chain. It also has a ton of memory by today's standards and can handle plenty of school of office work.
Conceptual Model:
There really is not much else to do besides plug it into a computer and wait for the drivers to automatically install. Its pretty hard for the normal person to visualize how it works conceptually.
Mapping:
There is only a sliding part of the USB which ejects the stick to plug into a computer. There are no physical buttons mapped on the stick, so I suppose the functions are mapped on the desktop or laptop when the drivers are installed.
Feedback:
The only feedback that the user gets is a sound from the computer when the USB stick gets plugged in. When they unplug it, they also receive audio feedback.
5) Apple Monitor
Automatic Turn-On/Off:
This monitor stands out for me because it has no buttons. When the desktop is powered on, the monitor automatically powers on. This is great for people like me who use desktops a lot and have to worry about powering on the monitor every time. This also means it saves power for when I forget to turn the power off.
Conceptual Model:
The user does not need to know anything about the monitor except how to plug it in. Once plugged in, the monitor will turn on and off automatically.
Mapping:
There are no buttons on the monitor to map but the monitor is mapping to the power when it turns on and that's about it.
Feedback:There is amazing feedback when the monitor is turns on since it obviously lights up. This queues the user into knowing that the monitor is on.
Minimalist Design:
Conceptual Model:
Smart phones are common these days and the s3 follows closely the design of the iPhone. Users will have no trouble picking up this device and learning the ins and outs of the operating system.
Mapping:
The mapping of the keys to the functions they perform is pretty standard fare for smart phones. The big button at the bottom can turn the phone on or return to the home screen while there are side buttons for easy access to volume. The only gripe I have is the power button which is on the side and might cause the user to have an awkward holding position.
Feedback:
The feedback is what distinguishes this phone from its competition. When texting or pressing buttons, a tiny vibration surges through the phone as to let the user know that they have clicked a button. This is highly valuable feedback for touch screens as the user does not know if they are actually hitting a button otherwise.
2) Smoothie King Blender Bottle
All-In-One Design:
The Smoothie King Blender Bottle combines a cup and a blender in one so that the user can save time. This design was created in order to eliminate the blender stage of making a powder drink. This allows the user to blend their shakes on the go.
Conceptual Model:
The design is fairly intuitive. There are a wide array of similar mixers on the market, so the customer base should not have a problem adapting. The design is simply a metal ball in a cup, and when it is shaken, it mixes the drink.
Mapping:
The user just has to shake the cup with the contents and mixer ball to mix the drink.There is not much technical mapping, just the physical action of shaking.
Feedback:
The Feedback is the sound of the metal ball mixing the drink. It is a good indicator on whether the drink is mixed or not. Also, the bottle is clear which also gives a good hint as to if the drink is done.
3) Snark Clip-on Chromatic Guitar Tuner
Portable:
The Snark Clip-On Chromatic guitar tuner sports a dynamic design that is highly portable. There are some designs of tuners that resemble a glasses case. This smartly designed tuner can easily fit in a guitar bag even when it is attached to a guitar.
Conceptual Model:
The customer base should have a good idea on how to work this tuner. It has a clip that looks like it is to be attached to a guitar and one button that turns it on. Even without advanced advanced knowledge of the tuner, its automatically set on the tuning function.
Mapping:
The Snark Tuner has a few buttons on it. One on the front for power and two on the back for volume and function choosing. There is also a metronome on this tuner and it can tune into a wide array of tunings.
Feedback:
There is good visual feedback when tuning a guitar. The tuner senses vibrations when it is attached to the guitar and gives instantaneous feedback on how the guitar needs to be tuned. There is no audio feedback except for the metronome function.
4) Pen Drive
The generic pen drive is so small that it can be attached to a key chain. It also has a ton of memory by today's standards and can handle plenty of school of office work.
Conceptual Model:
There really is not much else to do besides plug it into a computer and wait for the drivers to automatically install. Its pretty hard for the normal person to visualize how it works conceptually.
Mapping:
There is only a sliding part of the USB which ejects the stick to plug into a computer. There are no physical buttons mapped on the stick, so I suppose the functions are mapped on the desktop or laptop when the drivers are installed.
Feedback:
The only feedback that the user gets is a sound from the computer when the USB stick gets plugged in. When they unplug it, they also receive audio feedback.
5) Apple Monitor
This monitor stands out for me because it has no buttons. When the desktop is powered on, the monitor automatically powers on. This is great for people like me who use desktops a lot and have to worry about powering on the monitor every time. This also means it saves power for when I forget to turn the power off.
Conceptual Model:
The user does not need to know anything about the monitor except how to plug it in. Once plugged in, the monitor will turn on and off automatically.
Mapping:
There are no buttons on the monitor to map but the monitor is mapping to the power when it turns on and that's about it.
Feedback:There is amazing feedback when the monitor is turns on since it obviously lights up. This queues the user into knowing that the monitor is on.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Paper Reading #7 Chinese Room
sMinds, Brains, and Programs
by John R. Searle
John R. Searle brings up some interesting points in his paper. On strong A.I., I thought it was unique that he thought all processes in the human mind can be described by systems. In my mind, I do not believe that all the nuances of human thinking can be coded into a machine. For instance, the story example he used, humans take unique hints from stories and generate thought-provoking questions about them. I don't think machines can generate questions such as these because they would have to pick up on the nuances of the question. It is very insightful then to view strong ai with a functionalism or computationalism. It is true that there are states that the human mind goes through like a Turing machine. That would be a serious proponent of artificial intelligence if this system was perfected.
The biological naturalism approach to strong A.I. was very unique. I likened the consciousness Searle was talking about to a soul. Computers would have to have some amazing algorithm for them to act like humans do. Searle mentioned that a special piece of machinery would have to be developed to give them some sort of consciousness. That would be truly amazing if in the future, mankind developed something akin to this.
I wanted to discuss Searle's main example of the Chinese room. I agree with him that if we developed a computer to fully "understand" chinese and be able to converse with other chinese speakers, this would have the same effect if we just gave the instruction list to an english speaker and asked him to do it by hand. The computer will never actually understand chinese, its just preset characters that the programmers put into the computer. The subjective part of this story is that some people view the human brain as a processor which just processes what has already been learned. The computer doesn't actually learn chinese in the same sense, but it does use a processor or a brain.This argument segues into the turing machine argument where the computer is just a set of instructions and states however.
Some people argue that there is no need for perfect A.I., only A.I. that is good enough. This made me think of video games where the A.I. is far from perfect, but if its at least somewhat believable, it gets the job done. This also made me think of the uncanny valley. How perfect can we get A.I. so it seems believable albeit fake before we start hating it.
One side note I wanted to add was what truly is consciousness? Aren't there different levels so no one person can pin down what it means to understand or be conscious. I feel as if we as a species need to understand what this foundation truly means before we start judging inanimate boxes of circuit boards that can make our lives easier with 1's and 0's.
In conclusion, did not really enjoy this paper. The idea was interesting, but I felt the paper was poorly written and very opinionated. He seemed as if he got agitated when he was answering the questions that did not agree with his post. I felt this paper was an essential read because every computer scientist knows about this theory and has been discussing about it for 30 years. I will enjoy seeing if this paper is as controversial and discussed about in the next 30 years.
by John R. Searle
John R. Searle brings up some interesting points in his paper. On strong A.I., I thought it was unique that he thought all processes in the human mind can be described by systems. In my mind, I do not believe that all the nuances of human thinking can be coded into a machine. For instance, the story example he used, humans take unique hints from stories and generate thought-provoking questions about them. I don't think machines can generate questions such as these because they would have to pick up on the nuances of the question. It is very insightful then to view strong ai with a functionalism or computationalism. It is true that there are states that the human mind goes through like a Turing machine. That would be a serious proponent of artificial intelligence if this system was perfected.
The biological naturalism approach to strong A.I. was very unique. I likened the consciousness Searle was talking about to a soul. Computers would have to have some amazing algorithm for them to act like humans do. Searle mentioned that a special piece of machinery would have to be developed to give them some sort of consciousness. That would be truly amazing if in the future, mankind developed something akin to this.
I wanted to discuss Searle's main example of the Chinese room. I agree with him that if we developed a computer to fully "understand" chinese and be able to converse with other chinese speakers, this would have the same effect if we just gave the instruction list to an english speaker and asked him to do it by hand. The computer will never actually understand chinese, its just preset characters that the programmers put into the computer. The subjective part of this story is that some people view the human brain as a processor which just processes what has already been learned. The computer doesn't actually learn chinese in the same sense, but it does use a processor or a brain.This argument segues into the turing machine argument where the computer is just a set of instructions and states however.
Some people argue that there is no need for perfect A.I., only A.I. that is good enough. This made me think of video games where the A.I. is far from perfect, but if its at least somewhat believable, it gets the job done. This also made me think of the uncanny valley. How perfect can we get A.I. so it seems believable albeit fake before we start hating it.
One side note I wanted to add was what truly is consciousness? Aren't there different levels so no one person can pin down what it means to understand or be conscious. I feel as if we as a species need to understand what this foundation truly means before we start judging inanimate boxes of circuit boards that can make our lives easier with 1's and 0's.
In conclusion, did not really enjoy this paper. The idea was interesting, but I felt the paper was poorly written and very opinionated. He seemed as if he got agitated when he was answering the questions that did not agree with his post. I felt this paper was an essential read because every computer scientist knows about this theory and has been discussing about it for 30 years. I will enjoy seeing if this paper is as controversial and discussed about in the next 30 years.
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Paper Reading #6 Profanity use in online communities
Intro:
Profanity use in online communities
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2208610
Authors:
Sara Sood- Pomona College, Claremont, CA, USA, Professor at Pomona College. Research includes understanding the expression and impact of emotion in online communication.
Judd Antin- Yahoo! Research, Santa Clara, California, United States, research includes influence of information about competence on contributions in online social dilemmas.
Elizabeth Churchill- Yahoo! Research, Santa Clara, California, United States, research includes social media, computer-mediated communication, mobile and personal technologies, and ubiquitous computing.
Profanity use in online communities
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2208610
Authors:
Sara Sood- Pomona College, Claremont, CA, USA, Professor at Pomona College. Research includes understanding the expression and impact of emotion in online communication.
Judd Antin- Yahoo! Research, Santa Clara, California, United States, research includes influence of information about competence on contributions in online social dilemmas.
Elizabeth Churchill- Yahoo! Research, Santa Clara, California, United States, research includes social media, computer-mediated communication, mobile and personal technologies, and ubiquitous computing.
Summary:
Profanity is a major problem in most online communities. Any site developer who wants to maintain and grow their community tries to create a profanity filter to erase these words from being used. If they do not have filters, it sends a message to the community that profanity is acceptable and might drive away users. Antin, Churchill, and Sood are researching three questions: current profanity filter systems on websites, does profanity occur more often in some communities than others, and the social context of profanity in some communities. These three gathered data from Yahoo Buzz! which included comments and other meta data. They then employed Amazon Mechanical Turk to gather workers to check each comment for profanity. Once the workers reached a consensus, the authors tried different profanity filter machines to see which ones worked the best. They determined list-based approaches perform poorly because of misspellings, quickly shifting systems, and context-specific nature of the profanity.
They decided to further explore the disguised profanity part by specifically looking at the @ character. The @ character is used for emails, twitter-like conversations, and disguising profanity. They developed an algorithm to categorize the @ character into these differing categories. They came to the conclusion that 40% of all @ signs were being used inappropriately. The authors then checked which topic that the profanity was most likely to be used in and they determined it was politics. Out of the profanity used to politics, 27.14% was used as an insult, 4.83 was used as a non-insult, 31.12 as a directed insult, and 5.79 as a non-directed insult.
The next step to this study once they stemmed where and how often the profanity occurs is it check in what context are these words occur. Nearly all of the profanity used related to negative rants. They concluded that current profanity filter systems do not perform nearly a satisfactory enough job. This goes back to the fact that there exist so many different ways a user can bypass them. This means @ can be used to easily fool systems in unique ways. The second point they concluded was that profanity systems were not custom-tailored to communities. Profanity is used within different areas of interest such as politics. These words are almost always used in negative rants or insults which concludes they barely add anything to the context. There needs to be new innovations on this front to fix the negative effects profanity has on communities.
Related Papers:
My paper is not very novel as many of the related works that I gathered delve into the same topic. The first paper linked, Designing for improved social responsibility, user participation and content in on-line communities, discusses how websites design specific systems to facilitate communal growth. The second paper discusses satire detection on websites and if it is detectable or not. They are researching the same area in way since they are checking whatever is posted on a site and determining if it is one thing or another. Filtering objectionable internet content talks about just what the title describes.
Evaluation:
Sood, Antin, and Churchill evaluated this project averagely. They gathered mostly subjective quantitative data throughout their test. It was mainly quantitative because they gathered a bunch of comment data and produced graphs and numbers on what Yahoo Buzz! indicated. I believe that the data was subjective because they only had data from one site. The profanity comments might have been made differently on different sites. The study did not really have much room to be objective because of the nature of the research paper. There was some qualitative because of how the Amazon Mechanical Turk workers came to a consensus on if comments possessed profanity.
Discussion:
I enjoyed this paper because I am interested in the microcosms of varying websites. I do highly believe though that there needed to be more testing to conclude what they have concluded. Politics can have some heated discussions, but certain websites are build around that fact. This means the data will be skewed. In the future, I think there may be some truly amazing algorithms to filter out any time of combination of profanity slang in comments but it will be different. The more specific we make it, the more we might infringe on words that were not meant to have profanity.
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Paper Reading #5 Digging in the crates: an ethnographic study of DJS' work
Intro:
Digging in the crates: an ethnographic study of DJS' work
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2208314
Authors:
Ahmed Y. Ahmed - University of Nottingham, England
Steve Benford - University of Nottingham, England - Professor of Collaborative Computing and Head of the School of Computer Science at The University of Nottingham. He is also a member of the Mixed Reality Laboratory and of Horizon.
http://www.mrl.nott.ac.uk/~sdb/
Andy Crabtree - University of Nottingham, England - Associate Professor who's work includes the relationship between computing systems and social interaction.
http://www.andy-crabtree.com/ethnography/work.html
Summary:
Ahmed, Benford, and Crabtree decided to perform a study on electronic music DJ's to decipher their impact on venues, dancers, and events while also highlighting the individual leaps they have to hurdle through to be competitive in this occupation. They adopted an ethnomethodological approach and followed some DJ's around the UK for a while. They would follow the DJ's into clubs on a day-to-day basis and take pictures, notes, and videos.
In order for DJ's to begin their job, they need to amass a music collection. There are 4 key steps to gathering such a collection and these steps are: buying new releases, crate-digging, gift-giving, and making beats. For buying new releases, the DJ's strictly adhere to the vinyl and digital download formats. Digital downloads can be cheaper and have some instant gratification but the vinyls are important for rediscovering tracks in ones own collection.
The second step to amassing a collection is crate-digging. Crate-digging involves going to old record stores, garage sales, online venues, or any other place that might sell old records and buy them. The object here is to find tracks that not many people know about and make them your own. This can distinguish one DJ from another and give him a unique style. Gift-giving is sharing tracks between DJ's. Usually this happens between DJ's who can somehow promote each other mutually through podcasts or FM channels. They will not just give out their tracks to some individual who mixes as a hobby. The final step is making beats. This allows individual artists to transform and come out onto a plain of their own. They then need to book venues and if they get popular, can charge more on the prices.
The authors picked out some broader implications from this study. They mentioned value of tangible media is important because it is harder to get than digital media that everyone has access too. It also allows for physical control on a turn table. The importance of the crate is also important. The crate is their bag of vinyls that they can customize for each show to make them stand out. Sharing and hiding one's music is vital since there needs to be some rapport within the community but not enough to reveal all of one's secrets. Finally, performance etiquette plays a big role within the DJ world. For instance, it is bad to ask a fellow DJ to borrow a record. The authors conclude there is room for heavy technological change within the field.
Related Papers:
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1056808.1056850&coll=DL&dl=ACM&CFID=152552719&CFTOKEN=58424707
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1690388.1690411&coll=DL&dl=ACM&CFID=152552719&CFTOKEN=58424707
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=965400.965556&coll=DL&dl=ACM&CFID=152552719&CFTOKEN=58424707
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1291233.1291413&coll=DL&dl=ACM&CFID=152552719&CFTOKEN=58424707
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=604045.604089&coll=DL&dl=ACM&CFID=152552719&CFTOKEN=58424707
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1291233.1291343&coll=DL&dl=ACM&CFID=152552719&CFTOKEN=58424707
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=846222.847728&coll=DL&dl=ACM&CFID=152552719&CFTOKEN=58424707
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=371920.371921&coll=DL&dl=ACM&CFID=152552719&CFTOKEN=58424707
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1142405.1142418&coll=DL&dl=ACM&CFID=152552719&CFTOKEN=58424707
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=985692.985734&coll=DL&dl=ACM&CFID=152552719&CFTOKEN=58424707
This study was not that novel, but that's not to say it lacked depth. The first paper I linked mentions a new technology for DJ's. The mixxx technology automatically syncs the tracks for the DJ so his hands can be free for other tasks. It looks like the authors had some foresight as this field will most likely change drastically over the next decade if it already hasn't been. The second article, Wearable DJ system: a new motion-controlled DJ system, talks about a wearable DJ system so that the artist can move around more when he or she performs. One of the main problems was that DJ's were rooted place when they were mixing and hopefully this will alleviate that problem.
Evaluation:
Ahmed, Benford, and Crabtree evaluated this project rather poorly. Due to the nature of the study, this is understandable. There was a ton of qualitative data from a few DJ's that they followed which were mostly opinionated on how they ran things individually. This means not much quantitative data existed for this project besides maybe a consensus on how each DJ they interviewed did things. The interviews were highly subjective once again since they were opinionated and did not represent the views or practices of all DJ's. There was not much objective data either besides detailing the few musical formats they use.
Discussion:
Being into music and interested in the DJ scene, I found this paper to be very interesting. I do not however find it very novel. There have been plenty of other studies on DJ's. One comment by the authors that I particularly found interesting was that they said there was a lot of room for change in the near future, yet some of the inherent needs of DJing keep it somewhat retro. One example is that they require vinyls that not many people know about which is at odds with technology or digital formats. I am most curious about the changes that might happen in the days to come. Some of the papers I linked detailed new DJ equipment that could change the occupation altogether.
Digging in the crates: an ethnographic study of DJS' work
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2208314
Authors:
Ahmed Y. Ahmed - University of Nottingham, England
Steve Benford - University of Nottingham, England - Professor of Collaborative Computing and Head of the School of Computer Science at The University of Nottingham. He is also a member of the Mixed Reality Laboratory and of Horizon.
http://www.mrl.nott.ac.uk/~sdb/
Andy Crabtree - University of Nottingham, England - Associate Professor who's work includes the relationship between computing systems and social interaction.
http://www.andy-crabtree.com/ethnography/work.html
Summary:
Ahmed, Benford, and Crabtree decided to perform a study on electronic music DJ's to decipher their impact on venues, dancers, and events while also highlighting the individual leaps they have to hurdle through to be competitive in this occupation. They adopted an ethnomethodological approach and followed some DJ's around the UK for a while. They would follow the DJ's into clubs on a day-to-day basis and take pictures, notes, and videos.
In order for DJ's to begin their job, they need to amass a music collection. There are 4 key steps to gathering such a collection and these steps are: buying new releases, crate-digging, gift-giving, and making beats. For buying new releases, the DJ's strictly adhere to the vinyl and digital download formats. Digital downloads can be cheaper and have some instant gratification but the vinyls are important for rediscovering tracks in ones own collection.
The second step to amassing a collection is crate-digging. Crate-digging involves going to old record stores, garage sales, online venues, or any other place that might sell old records and buy them. The object here is to find tracks that not many people know about and make them your own. This can distinguish one DJ from another and give him a unique style. Gift-giving is sharing tracks between DJ's. Usually this happens between DJ's who can somehow promote each other mutually through podcasts or FM channels. They will not just give out their tracks to some individual who mixes as a hobby. The final step is making beats. This allows individual artists to transform and come out onto a plain of their own. They then need to book venues and if they get popular, can charge more on the prices.
The authors picked out some broader implications from this study. They mentioned value of tangible media is important because it is harder to get than digital media that everyone has access too. It also allows for physical control on a turn table. The importance of the crate is also important. The crate is their bag of vinyls that they can customize for each show to make them stand out. Sharing and hiding one's music is vital since there needs to be some rapport within the community but not enough to reveal all of one's secrets. Finally, performance etiquette plays a big role within the DJ world. For instance, it is bad to ask a fellow DJ to borrow a record. The authors conclude there is room for heavy technological change within the field.
Related Papers:
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1056808.1056850&coll=DL&dl=ACM&CFID=152552719&CFTOKEN=58424707
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1690388.1690411&coll=DL&dl=ACM&CFID=152552719&CFTOKEN=58424707
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=965400.965556&coll=DL&dl=ACM&CFID=152552719&CFTOKEN=58424707
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1291233.1291413&coll=DL&dl=ACM&CFID=152552719&CFTOKEN=58424707
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=604045.604089&coll=DL&dl=ACM&CFID=152552719&CFTOKEN=58424707
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1291233.1291343&coll=DL&dl=ACM&CFID=152552719&CFTOKEN=58424707
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=846222.847728&coll=DL&dl=ACM&CFID=152552719&CFTOKEN=58424707
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=371920.371921&coll=DL&dl=ACM&CFID=152552719&CFTOKEN=58424707
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1142405.1142418&coll=DL&dl=ACM&CFID=152552719&CFTOKEN=58424707
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=985692.985734&coll=DL&dl=ACM&CFID=152552719&CFTOKEN=58424707
This study was not that novel, but that's not to say it lacked depth. The first paper I linked mentions a new technology for DJ's. The mixxx technology automatically syncs the tracks for the DJ so his hands can be free for other tasks. It looks like the authors had some foresight as this field will most likely change drastically over the next decade if it already hasn't been. The second article, Wearable DJ system: a new motion-controlled DJ system, talks about a wearable DJ system so that the artist can move around more when he or she performs. One of the main problems was that DJ's were rooted place when they were mixing and hopefully this will alleviate that problem.
Evaluation:
Ahmed, Benford, and Crabtree evaluated this project rather poorly. Due to the nature of the study, this is understandable. There was a ton of qualitative data from a few DJ's that they followed which were mostly opinionated on how they ran things individually. This means not much quantitative data existed for this project besides maybe a consensus on how each DJ they interviewed did things. The interviews were highly subjective once again since they were opinionated and did not represent the views or practices of all DJ's. There was not much objective data either besides detailing the few musical formats they use.
Discussion:
Being into music and interested in the DJ scene, I found this paper to be very interesting. I do not however find it very novel. There have been plenty of other studies on DJ's. One comment by the authors that I particularly found interesting was that they said there was a lot of room for change in the near future, yet some of the inherent needs of DJing keep it somewhat retro. One example is that they require vinyls that not many people know about which is at odds with technology or digital formats. I am most curious about the changes that might happen in the days to come. Some of the papers I linked detailed new DJ equipment that could change the occupation altogether.
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