Invisible Yet Necessary

A workshop at CHI 2006 in Montreal that matches my research topics. Submission deadline of position papers has been extended to Jan 16th.

IT@Home: Unraveling Complexities of Networked Devices in the Home
CHI 2006 Workshop

Call for Participation

The home is becoming a complex and hard to manage collection of
computers and digital lifestyle devices. The work to setup and
maintain a network of digital living devices in the home is similar
to the work of IT professionals. Indeed the growing complexity of
interconnected digital devices results in more and more time spent
solving problems with those devices and their configurations, an
important part of computer use that we call “IT@Home”. The workshop
will be structured to consider four areas of focus:

• Perspectives – How should we consider IT@Home? What theories
  apply to IT@Home?
• Problem Framing – What are critical problems in IT@Home?
• Empirical Study – Case studies and examples of effectively
  studying home IT.
• Design – What are some critical design issues for IT@Home?

Contributions to these conceptual areas that are illustrated through
data and case studies will be valued by researchers, designers,
product teams and market analysts through the coming years.

Individuals interested in participating in this full-day workshop
should submit a position paper on IT@Home that addresses one of the
four areas listed above. Position papers should be limited to 4
pages. Submissions in PDF or Word should be sent to David McDonald
dwmc at u.washington.edu by Monday, January 16, 2006. Notifications of
acceptance to the workshop will be made in early February 2006.

For more information on the workshop please visit:
IT@Home: Unraveling Complexities of Networked Devices in the Home
CHI 2006 Workshop

Today is World Usability Day. So we should think harder today (and every other day too) on how we can make things, systems, services … more useful and enjoyable to use.
For my part, I am:

• researching on how to make wireless networking more easy and natural to use
• searching and accessing information more efficient (especially multimedia)

What are you doing?

From Dana Spiegel, Executive Director of NYCwireless, a New York City based non-profit organization that advocates for and enables the growth of public wireless networks.

Wi-Fi Thank You

Wi-Fi Thank You is a place where you can send a thank you message to anyone who provides a free Wi-Fi hotspot.
We believe in free wireless and appreciate the people who provide it!

This is a great idea on how to augment wireless network to provide more user interaction.

Dana also wrote an interesting post Free American Broadband about the state of broadband connections in the US compared to other countries.

Related Posts:

Ubicomp 2005 video: Yellow chairs (video of public interaction with an open WiFi hotspot)
Spanish company, Fon, wants to let wireless internet users share their connection

The Yellow chair stories presented at Ubicomp related the interaction between people passing by and a wireless network connectivity materialized by a yellow chair placed in front of a house in london, UK.

For more details, see the Yellow Chair Stories – a live service design intervention and watch the Yellow Chair Stories video

See also:
Ubicomp 2005 demo: u-texture
Ubicomp 2005, Tokyo

I had the opportunity to test the u-texture system that was on demo at Ubicomp 2005 conference in Tokyo.

Basically, u-texture is a home computing / entertainment system developed at Keio University, Japan. It is based on the concept of active furniture where the components are “blocks”. Each block has its own touch screen display and connectivity. Based on its relative and absolute position in regard to the rest of the system. It can perform different tasks, run different applications.

u-texture blocks can be setup in 2 modes: standalone and system. Blocks can be connected together through u-joints to provide interactions. Here is a description of a block:

More info is available at u-texture project page at Keio University

Here is a picture I took of the interaction between a music CD and a music player/ computer (a Sharp Zaurus I believe)
More