Applications of Universal Computing

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Human-Centered Computing Retreat Summer 2000
John Canny 7/5/2000
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Consequences of Ubiquitous Computing and Calm
Technology

• As computing becomes ubiquitous and invisible, it
  also ceases to be the focus of activity.

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Consequences of Ubiquitous Computing and Calm
Technology

• Instead we have a constellation of devices, none
  of which should monopolize our attention.

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Consequences of Ubiquitous Computing and Calm
Technology

• The focus shifts instead to people and the tasks
  they are working on.

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Human-Centered Computing

• We focus on learning, design, collaboration,
  knowledge creation... as human-activities, and
  how we can adapt the computing infrastructure to
  them.

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Human-Centered Computing

• On the flip side, computing is becoming a
  universal mediator of human activity. Its
  intrinsically interesting for social scientists.
• E-commerce
• E-romance
• E-pets
• Distance learning
• Digital Divide...
• Newsgroups, portals, servers, speech recognition,
  computer vision provide new tools for social
  scientists to study human behavior.

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Human-Centered Computing

• is collaborative research across the great
  divide between engineering and social sciences.
• Engineers benefit from understanding of the
  context their systems work in e.g. who is
  talking... what is understood by the group... who
  is influential... how does the medium influence
  the interaction...?
• Social scientists benefit from an understanding
  of emerging technologies and their anticipated
  use. And they can use computer tools for new
  kinds of studies.

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HCC

• is an interdisciplinary umbrella project
  designed to incubate focussed research projects.
• Activities
• Seminar www.cs.berkeley.edu/jfc/hcc/seminar.html
• Retreats Summer 99, Spring 2000, Summer 2000,
  July 5-7 (this one).
• HCC Lab and lounge in Soda Hall
• A formal space and an informal one designed for
  different styles of collaboration.

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HCC sample topics

• Design contextethnography, process and
  improvisation, design tools, info. appliances.
• Education and collaboration Enhancing student
  participation, team learning, computer as
  learning partner/mentor/guide.
• Multimodal Interfaces Natural language, vision,
  speech, physical interfaces
• Context-Aware Computing Context implies a rich
  understanding of social processes
• Social Sciences and Engineering Sociometric
  analyses newsgroups, email. Impact of
  information technology on recreation, health,
  work...

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Opportunities at this retreat

• Identify challenges in use of computing today
• What tasks are hard when computer-mediated?
• Where can computing provide value to users?
• What are the important social processes that will
  benefit from use of IT.
• How do technological and social systems interact?
  (sociotechnical systems) e.g. collaborative
  filtering...
• Understand social/psychological forces using IT
• Portal data and other logs provide a sharp
  microscope to study behavior at small or large
  scale.
• CMC provides a rich space of media to study
  interpersonal communication - the medium can be
  dissected.
• Appropriation - technology routinized and made
  part of normal daily practice.

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Agenda Weds

• Lightning Overviews Interaction
• Multimodal Interfaces James Landay
• Natural Language and Speech Jerry Feldman
• Designing Info-Rich Web Sites Melody Ivory
• Context-Aware Computing John Canny
• Lightning Overviews Education and Collaboration
• Inscription-rich learning tools Bernard Gifford
• Computers and Design? Alice Agogino
• Teaching English using NLP Jerry Feldman
• Nomadic and Problem-Based Learning James Landay
• Enhancing learning in lecture classrooms John
  Canny
• Very large-scale conversations Warren Sack
• Poster session 1

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Agenda Thurs AM

• Panel Education and Collaboration
• Alice Agogino, James Landay, Ken Goldberg, Warren
  Sack
• Panel Multi-modal and Context-Aware Computing
• James Landay, Christine Halverson, Ken Fishkin,
  John Canny
• Panel Digital Divide and Social Issues
• Ilkka Tuomi, John Canny, Shannon Lawrence, Aaron
  Marcus

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Agenda Thurs PM

• 4-6 pm Breakout Learning, Collaboration
• Alice Agogino moderator
• 4-6pm Breakout Interaction Design
• Bill Verplank moderator
• 4-6pm Breakout Digital Divide and Social Issues
• John Canny moderator
• 4-6pm Breakout Context-aware/multi-modal
• James Landay moderator
• 730pm Poster session 2

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Agenda Friday AM

• 830-10am Breakouts continued (chance to switch)
• Reports from Breakout groups
• Feedback from Industry Visitors

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HCC Core group
From Computer Science John Canny Jerry
Feldman James Landay
From Psychology Jerry Mendelsohn Charlan
Nemeth Dacher Keltner
Education Bernard Gifford Marcia Linn

• From Electrical Engineering
• Nelson Morgan

From Mechanical Engineering Alice Agogino
IEOR Industrial Engineering and Operations
Research Ken Goldberg
SIMS School of information Management and
Systems Marti Hearst Warren Sack Nancy Van House
Sociology Manuel Castells Claude Fischer