Moreover, there are now many more people who interact with information. Between 1990 and 2005 more than 1 billion people worldwide entered the middle class. As they get richer they become more literate, which fuels information growth, notes Mr Cortada. The results are showing up in politics, economics and the law as well. “Revolutions in science have often been preceded by revolutions in measurement,” says Sinan Aral, a business professor at New York University. Just as the microscope transformed biology by exposing germs, and the electron microscope changed physics, all these data are turning the social sciences upside down, he explains. Researchers are now able to understand human behaviour at the population level rather than the individual level.
This time next year, I’ll (hopefully) be in the process of writing my Master’s Thesis at CBS. I’ve already started looking into potential subjects of research but they all circle around the same basic premise; the amount of data collected about human behavior is exploding.
I received a bachelor’s degree in Information Management last year, but perhaps it should have focused more on data management? It’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg discussion, because what is more interesting – the raw data or the story told after combining the elements of data into information?
The story will help us understand – and change – our behavior based on patterns that are undesirable (“turn off the light”, “avoid driving down a congested Main Road”, “water this plant” etc.), and this is what could be interesting to examine further: What can make us change behavior? We all know candy is bad, but we keep eating it. Alcohol is terrible, but we keep drinking it. Burning fossil fuel is bad, but we keep doing it.
Is it only insight that makes us think twice about how we act and consume, or when we are directly punished?
If you have anything to share, don’t hesitate to share the links in the comment section. I’m collecting a lot of this already, but always need more:
Links tagged with data, information, sensors, everyware, ubicomp, patterns and behavior to name a few.
Besides the fact that this is very well made, it’s mostly useless; not sure I’d like my tv to dissolve and float around the room like this. However, getting more information on the elements of my room (“here’s your lost keys”, “water your dying plant”) are definitely something I’d like to see at some point soon.
And no, making a Twitterbot with an Arduino-board doesn’t count as being easy enough for me to have at go at.
Curious Displays from Julia Tsao on Vimeo.
/via Timo Arnall
Today I attended a talk by Adam Greenfield at MEDEA in Malmö. Ever since we wrote our bachelor’s project on Digital Patina, the ideas surrounding the networked city, everyware and ubicomp have struck a cord with me. I find it immensely interesting, but there is so much to read and understand in these disciplines that it’s hard to find the time when I already waste so much attending lectures I don’t care about, and writing papers I don’t want to spend time writing.
(Is it clear that currently I’m a bit tired of attending school because “I have to” after doing it for so many years?)
NB: These notes are written by me and are mainly intended for myself, but feel free to be inspired. They are not necessarily correctly worded all the way through, but it’s as I remember them and shall hopefully use them in the future.
Title: Elements of networked urbanism
Diagnosis <-> Manifesto
Background in UX
Watch normal human beings interact
People ≠ Stupid
80-90% does not go beyond the surface of the device’s functions
Tired of processual web development
PC = 1:1. No assumptions on non-specialist people.
“Encalming” computing.
Effortless mastery.
Colonization of everyday life by computing.
Victor Hugo: “This will kill that: The press will kill the church, printing will kill architecture.”
Humanity = urban species
Affordances <-> Strengths
12/2012: 20% of non-video internet traffic will be networked sensors (“Non-human computer interaction” I would call it)
The internet will predominantly be about non-human interaction – it will be about data.
Cities ≠ mute components. They will be scriptable resources.
IPv6 can give every grain of sand a node.
What is now a constant will be a variable (Harry Potter-stairs)
Architecture = HTML
Things become explicit. Can be dangerous to know too much about your neighborhood. Always include a utility.
We don’t browse in urbanism anymore – we search.
Post queries to the City.
Cities should be about people negotiating.
It will become possible to be superuser of a city.
It will become easier to share knowledge than to hold on to it.
Expiring -> Persistent (Digital Patina)
Real-time makes the city actionable like never before.
Wayfinding conventions will be disrupted – Wayshowing is the future, but it is negative. What happens when our augmented reality contact lenses crash?
Being lost is a wonderful thing. It forces us to pay attention.
There is an expense in everything.
McLuhan: “Every extension is also an amputation.”
When things become networked, they change form object to service.
The physical object goes from ownership to use. They become sociable.
Physical custody is removed.
Urban environments are about friction.
We need to be careful about superimposing social network principles to the city. We need discovery and differences.
The map is never neutral.
What happens when we reach cognitive resource limitations?
Be aware of giving feelings to technology. They are not personalities, but functions.
There’s a difference in behavior between physical systems and psychological.
Things I need to look up and have probably misheard:
Anne Halloway (?)
Mark Weiser, Xerox
“Coming age of calming technology”
Technological Determinism
The Fun Palace, London.
Archigram, 1960s
Living Glass
Goffmann?
Site: superfuture
The Media Equation
Philip K. Dick – Ubik.