A9GrahamRobertsJoeMcCabeBenjaminGoldenNickHughes

A9GrahamRobertsJoeMcCabeBenjaminGoldenNickHughes

To-Do

please discuss / address the following issues:

1. enumerate, analyze, and discusses different "distances"
2. describe technologies for all the distances (existing ones, envisioned ones) which you identified in (1) which help to overcome and reduce these distances
3. does distance matter?
   1. yes? (under which circumstances)
   2. no? (under which circumstances)
4. describe one example based on your personal experience where distance and diversity was
   1. a positive experience
   2. a negative experience

Group Members

Graham Roberts, Joe McCabe, Benjamin Golden, and Nick Huges

enumerate, analyze, and discusses different "distances"

Ben

Spatial Distance- These can range from a few feet to hundreds of miles, for example spatial distances that affects design can exist between offices in a building of team members, or even across continents, as design teams span many nations now. Spatial distances can also even separate a design team from the object of their design, as in the case of the space station, for which several designers have surely never been anywhere near the station. Additionally distances can exist between designers and resources, i.e. between a designer and a library.

Temporal Distance- Temporal distance can exist between one phase of design and another, as pointed out in the article. Many designs are never truly complete and undergo redesign throughout the life of the artifact, as a result there is a temporal distance between one phase of design and another. For example the needs of an artifact at one phase may be yet to be discovered during an earlier phase of the design.

Social/Cultural Distances- In some situations when designers are from different cultures there can be conflicts and inabilities to communicate as a result of cultural differences. Many of these distances may be harder to observe than other distances because of their subtle nature.

Language Distances- If members of a design team do not speak the same language this creates a distance that must be crossed.

describe technologies for all the distances (existing ones, envisioned ones) which you identified in (1) which help to overcome and reduce these distances

Graham

Over the past few years difficulties from spatial distances have decreased significantly with the improvement with internet speeds and difficulty. What might have taken a week to deliver by mail, now happens almost instantaneously, allowing multiple people to collaborate as if they were in the same place. One such tool that has helped with this collaboration, is Google Docs, which allows any number of people to access a common file and make changes simultaneously. Another tool is Skype which allows free video conferencing for people around the world.

The internet has also helped with difficulties from temporal distance, because web pages and documentation can be found from when the project was started. It also allows people to get in contact with the original creators of these projects without having to find their personal information, set up a meeting time, and do other tasks which are difficult across different time boundaries. It also can speed up the evolution phase of a (SER) because it can be used in many areas around the world, not just in one office environment. One example of this is with Google, frequently the developers work on code and submit it for bug fixing at night when they leave work. While they are not at work, there are testers in other countries around the world doing the testing and leaving feedback for the developers when the arrive the next morning, greatly improving the turn around in the software development process.

There are some new technologies that are aimed at attacking the technology distance. One example is with spell checking and syntax checking in development environments. These basic tools allow a system to give feedback to a user before submitting or compiling any code, allowing them to catch many simple failures in a system without any testing. Other tools that have been added to development environments are code generation and basic GUI tools for creating and displaying forms and controls without much coding by the developer.

Wikipedia is a great example of a tool that helps reduce difficulties with conceptual distance. For example, it has millions of pages that have been translated into all different languages by users. This allows two people from different cultures access to the same information without extra effort in first understanding the other culture completely. It also has many pages on different cultures, which may not be the most substantial of information sources, but still give a high level overview and a starting place to gathering further information about other cultures.

does distance matter?

Joe

Part 1. Distance does matter if you need to explain your idea in a physical manner, for instance the taste of a cake you just made. While you could describe the taste of your creation in words, you can't necessarily relate the taste of your cake to someone in Russia or in the future. I think it depends on the type of challenge and creation that you are working with whether distance matters or not.

Part 2. For instance, many computer scientist work on code bases that are distributed around the world and these code bases could be over 15 years old. But through documentation and the knowledge shared between the developers, the project and design can live on and be extended as the future developers see fit. Using the proper tools and design methodologies helps this distributed process.

describe one example (per group member) based on your personal experience where distance and diversity was

Nick

Part 1. It's hard for me to think of these concepts without relating them to art.. Distance has been a positive experience in my life in my art process. By combining elements of graphic design into my working process as a painter, I have been able to capitalize on my knowledge of two very distant conceptual standpoints. I started college as a graphic design major, but at a school that required drawing courses for the degree. That drawing course acted as a bridge between the two disciplines for me. I also agree with what the paper said about temporal distance, in how knowing what had happened before allows one to transcend conventions more easily, rather than repeat the same mistakes and revisit unnecessary problems. The same is true in art. One must know the rules before one can break them. Also, diversity in art school critiques are a great way to make better work. A range of opinions gives the artist a more complete picture of what their work is doing well and what needs improvement.

Part 2. I've had negative experiences with distance in my art practice. Last semester, a new teacher was so bothered by how different my art was from her expectations that she made repeated prejudice remarks toward me until the point where I had to be removed from the class and evaluated by someone else. It was our conceptual distance which limited our ability to communicate and ended in an unnecessary amount of drama.