A4TeamMandJ

A4TeamMandJ

To-Do

1. selection process: choose one of the design methodologies (not yet taken by another group) from the list (and mark it as chosen by editing the wiki page with the list of options — “first come / first served”)
2. do research (read papers, interview software designers, analyze existing systems—hint: the abovementioned wiki site contains references to resources) and answer the following specific questions for your chosen design methodology:

Define your chosen design methodology.

Collaborative design seeks to empower all stakeholders in software design (stakeholders – all people who are affected by the design artifact). This more evenly distributed approach to design is entrenched in distributed cognition. Collaborative design can take place in several ways: spatial, temporal, technological and social embraces a number of key positive elements: A diverse frame of approach/lens in the design; A crowd-sourced determination of the most important aspects of the design; a sense of user ownership of the resulting design (which in turn would support adoption).

Characterize your chosen design methodology.

Collaborative design provides an opportunity for different types of people to come together and work on something that affects all of them. They all share a common goal – to make the most efficient, and useful software or system possible. It is this focus that strives to produce the most effective tool. The essence of collaboration relies on each stakeholder being willing and actually seeking input from others on what they are producing. There is no ‘ownership’ in a truly collaborative model.

What are the strengths of your selected methodology?

The best relationship of collaborators is strong and not transient. There is mutual interest in success, and mutual support. While collaboration could be an informal relationship, the strength of commitment is not. Examples of these strengths can be found in open source software, which is free for developers and users, and particularly the One Laptop Per Child initiative which is using Linux-based OS and interface to eliminate the costs associated with commercial software (http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/20788/?a=f). Additionally, time and cost constraints of commercial software are overcome. For example, if the programs licensed under GNU were developed using proprietary methods, it would have cost over $1 billion, and taken over 8000 person-years of development time (http://www.dwheeler.com/sloc/)

What are the weaknesses of your selected methodology?

Weaknesses of collaborative design appear when some sectors become subject to attack. Digital Rights Management (DRM) is easily worked around in Linux (although the system is not subject to the myriad viruses developed to attack commercial OS like Windows). Additionally, a wide variety of network security testing applications could be used maliciously, intentionally or out of curiosity, due to their easy availability in software repositories. As a collaborative space scales, so other security risks may emerge, dealing with issues such as privacy. Finally, it has been seen that user-contributed workspaces often contain a variety of copywritten material, or material that is classified – there are both legal and ethical boundaries, etc, that become problematic in a collaborative design frame.

For what domains or problems is your selected design methodology appropriate?

We believe it is appropriate for any domains/problems where the ethical and legal boundaries do not present barriers, or can be overcome. Linux in particular has already developed applications/projects for most of the topics covered in class so far. education: http://edubuntu.org/ &others smart house: http://www.linuxha.com/ &others development: tons of specialized and generalized distros to support a variety of different leveled users (slackware vs ubuntu) ) all with open source and well documented manuals (see linux distro timeline) open source hardware http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_hardware brain computer interfaces http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/FreeMind_on_Linux

For what domains or problems is your selected design methodology inappropriate?

It is inappropriate for any domain/problem where ethics/legal issues are highly sensitive and require a depth of control not attainable in open source or openly collaborative environments.

Why is design methodology important (suited) or not important (suited) for human-centered computing?

Design methodology is important (suited) for human-centered computing as it is the best way of understanding the needs of a wider range of users. In particular, Collaborative Design also invites the best format and code to rise to the top as while people are collaborating, they may also become competitive in developing the best quality tool they can. It is interesting to note that the Collaborative Design methodology and ideal is even interesting to commercial entities. Google fully supports a variety of Linux platforms and has a Linux-based operating system in development.