Nice work surface team!! I have to admit that I have been very very skeptical about this project. I am still skeptical of the expensive and massive artifact but the group is starting to think about what is really important about a surface - what you can put on it and how what you put on it changes when you do!!
The New York Times has published this interactive map portraying homicides around the city from 2003 through 2009. Being interactive, you can click on the locations and get some information detailing the crime. This map got me thinking about what this kind of medium provokes and how does it change our notion of journalism, news media, and the way we see ourselves and our city. I also thought about what the role of the interaction designer could be in this, digitally intensive, approach to journalism?
Personally, I find that this is a really valuable *example* of the way that large journalism organizations can transform themselves and once again become the providers of information that the public is not necessarily aware of - but I would like to see information about how many 'non-incidents' that police responded to or how many times the police responded to incidents where they saved a life (regardless of the incident). Maybe just a map showing how much reporting that the police department (or any other agency) actually has to report and how well they do it. I want more information about my city, and this map makes it clear that there is more information to be had, but if news journalism organizations are going to get into the visualization game then they've got to appreciate that visualization reporting is fundamentally different from written and spoken reporting that pushes information into a relatively tiny channel so that it can be digested.
My concern is that Information visualization is too powerful to limit to 'the most hard-hitting' and it seems that news organizations still don't get this. If they only provide one graphic visualization about murder - the way we look at our city might change - and not for the better. Its fairly obvious that some (perhaps all) 'news' organizations actually do get this but it doesn't raise my hopes for the future of objective journalism so I try to keep an idealist perspective here.
Information visualization and its interactive kin are rich and deep ways to navigate typically complex sets of data. The best examples allow the reader to glean some information at a glance and typically provides access to a rabbit hole's worth of information as the reader explores a visualization. For a good example see Marumushi's seminal newsmap. A simple tree-hierarchy that gives a particularly balanced look at how much attention is given to 'news-worthy' events across a spectrum of reporting bureaus, but that also gives you access to the article - hyperlinking is alive and well. By comparison "gritty, investigative reporting" has been on a downhill slide towards highly subjective and personal takes on 'scandals' that I think are more suitable for enquiring minds than constituencies.
This map and its article suggests that contemporary investigative journalism has a chance to regain prominence by finding, analyzing, and sharing information with its audience. In the era of the petabyte the source material might publicly available but it is often so massive or so difficult to aggregate that it is beyond the capabilities of your average citizen - the exact person who should have access to this information - PUBLICLY available - right?
The sea-change in technology that we are in the midst of has changed our expectations. But explosive access to broadband data and shrinking costs of devices will not change our need to understand information, it just gives us more ways to find it. Most of us still need experts to help us makes sense of the things we find in the WorldWideWasteland. I still see doctors whom I trust, and I am not about to trade a them for WebMD... but I will ask them about what I read there because I want them to know I read it, and I want to know what they think. In this way I expand my knowledge base but I don't trade it.
Take a glance at the amount of people who got their news on paper in 1998 and compare it to the most recent data. Its a big shift and as a result the news industry has changed, but not enough. My predication is that journalism is about to make a big swing and the successful journalists will be the ones who can find, analyze, and visualize data effectively - if information is king then opinion is the court jester.
Its an interactive wall that spreads apart like fish gills based on sensor input. The authors' original intention was to use CO2 sensors to control the modulation but their prototype uses infra-red sensors instead. I originally thought that the CO2 sensors were for an ecological purpose but I now think that they were actually intending a completely different purpose... breathing on them. It makes sense to me that when a person's face was close enough, their breath would read on the sensors, which would then actuate the wall.
The construction is pretty interesting. The author's decided to use shape memory wire that is molded into silicone panels. The result has a nice effect. I also appreciate their documentation and the use of sequential "decks" to explain their process as well as the simple and clear research objectives that they use to present the project.
KET's EncycloMedia is an interesting venture. I heard about it on a BBC News report and from the interviews and sound bytes, it seems to be a productive methodology for increasing active engagement. I saw something similar in classrooms in Seoul, Korea when I visited.
The thing that I appreciate about it, is that it doesn't seem to have false expectations that the media (content) can more effectively teach than an actual teacher. That said, it gives the teachers the material that they need to teach without undermining their capacity to do so. I think that this is critical not only because it keeps teachers part of the equation of learning in schools, but because it gives teachers the thing that they need MOST.
Taking a hint from the past 50 years of television programming... BETTER CONTENT! But wait... there's more... it's free (via streaming) for public school teachers in Kentucky through a collaboration with KET.
I think that this is just the tip of the iceberg regarding what is possible with educational content. This is a good start, I'd say.
The "holodeck" is really just a bunch of large displays hooked up to gaming systems. But the Wired author's description of the sphere and halfpipe seem very intriguing (albeit nauseating).
I think that seeing something like this actually built and in business is a very interesting step. I would have liked to see a real halfpipe or bowl though...
