A8MakeshiftCrew

A8MakeshiftCrew

To-Do

Create a response as a group to the following questions:

1. how and to which extent does the EDC support individual and/or social creativity?
2. which features of the EDC (if any) did you find interesting / impressive?
3. which features are missing from the EDC?

how and to which extent does the EDC support individual and/or social creativity?

The Envisionment and Discovery Collaboratory (EDC) supports individual and social creativity by shifting the focus away from computers and concentrating more on understanding the human, social, and cultural system. This is done by "creating shared understanding among various stakeholders, contextualizing information to the task at hand, and creating objects-to-think-with in collaborative design activities." In other words, EDC uses distributed cognition to share knowledge about information among those that are involved in the project, focusing only on certain parts of information that are relevant at the moment as opposed to large information repositories, and utilizing the kinesthetic style of learning by having a person actively manipulate objects in collaboration with others to form artifacts that can be worked with in the future.

To be specific, the EDC promotes individual creativity by enriching the creative experience for each individual. This is done by giving the individuals the power to create artifacts to record their ideas as opposed to storing them vaguely in their memory, and having other individuals respond to the resulting artifacts. With respect to the EDC, each person's ideas are evolving in ways that would not be possible without learning from the responses seen in the reflective area. For example, the environmentalist who wanted to have everyone ride buses found out that she could accomplish her goal by creating more bus routes, but she then saw that this would triple the cost of the system. Therefore, instead of getting more entrenched in the idea that everyone must ride the bus, she is able to evolve and form more mature and informed opinions. This facilitates open systems among peers in a way that is difficult to create without such visual and tactile interaction. This experience backs the theory that humans learn best through the "breakdown" method. By using a system that allows breakdowns to occur, people can move beyond theorizing and arrive at more peaceful conclusions in complex design problems, since they are able to actively participate in exploring alternatives and focusing important facts.

The EDC supports social creativity by the collaboration among others on the project because there is a symmetry of ignorance. Therefore, everyone should have the ability to contribute to the the design of the artifact because different viewpoints help to sift out alternative solutions in a complex design problem. An efficient transportation route for the bus should arise from the collaboration of transportation planners, city officials, and the participants of the local neighborhood. EDC uses boundary objects (ie. the Urban-Planning application made up of the action and reflection space) to support social creativity so that those in collaboration can have a medium to talk about and think with as soon as the artifact is created.

which features of the EDC (if any) did you find interesting / impressive?

It was impressive that the EDC could run a simulation of a bus route, taking into account price, waiting times, and the points at which people would start driving their cars. Getting real-time feedback based on a proposed solution is incredibly valuable. Without this feedback, discussions often degenerate into people trying to prove a point without any substance or real data. The EDC construct could be very useful in so many other situations. For instance, many departments within companies often do not see eye-to-eye due to the differences in goals and knowledge. The engineers often feel superior to the other departments, the R&D groups may not work well with finance, the lower level workers feel that management is not giving them enough resources or money, etc. There is usually a reason for some discretion in sharing between departments, but there could be real value in being able to demonstrate the effects of raises, increasing or decreasing available resources, or showing the workers what needs to happen for the company to remain financially viable. This could make the workers feel more connected to the company and more involved and valued, thus making them more effective, which would create a better situation for all. Also, high level people could get feedback about what is really going on in the trenches in order to better organize things. The insight created when users create a potential solution themselves and are able to see real-time feedback based on transparent calculations is probably the best way to arrive at a mutually beneficial solution. If the workers can see why the company cannot afford to give raises this year, and can see a demo of what happens when they move the money around, perhaps they will feel less unappreciated when the company goes through a hard time. This is speculation, however, and since finance is incredibly complicated, perhaps transparency is impossible. People should carefully consider what is disclosed.

It was also interesting how stakeholders planning the routes within the prototype application were able to communicate within the action and reflection space. In the action space, participants were able to create artifacts by placing objects and drawing roads using the touch-sensitive tablet and records what they are trying to convey from their individual minds. The reflection space is pretty nifty since participants are able to review these artifacts and possibly create a better, more efficient, alternative route from the initial design.

Our Questions
We are interested in finding out how the EDC is being promoted and distributed among a wider audience. How is this being commercialized, and how can we ensure that people are able to start making use of these types of technologies as soon as possible? What is the typical life cycle of an academic project like this? Do you communicate with companies about creating products like this? Do companies utilize what is being discovered here? Or is industry relatively isolated from academic HCI pursuits? What new ideas using the EDC technology have been brought up to you? Can the action and reflection spaces be simultaneously used in real time or must the artifact be created first before using the reflection space? How likely is it that these type of systems will eventually be commonplace?

which features are missing from the EDC?

Professor Eden mentioned in class that it was really not a problem that the system was not back-lit. We have not experienced it first hand, of course, but we still think it will be nice once it is a multi-touch, back-lit screen. It would be interesting if the EDC could be applied to iPads with an application similar to Google Wave, or perhaps a similar but larger multi-touch screen. This way, it would not require a projector, the room can be brighter, the colors can be richer, and participants can simultaneously manipulate an artifact in real time to arrive at a solution faster. Another advantage of the multi-touch screen would be the lack of shadows that are created by the projector. This would prevent any loss of part of the image, that may be needed for certain accuracy. It would also be cool if the EDC was somehow more portable so that it could be carried to any location.

It will be interesting to see how this system can be opened further for evolution and use by wider audiences for more purposes. Since it is mostly used for urban planning and transportation development, it will be exciting to see what else it can be used for and if the system is capable of being applied to other domains. It will also be great when the system evolves far enough to allow multiple people to sketch on the surface at a time with the precision allowed by Wacom tablets, for engineering, architectural, artistic, and other applications.

While it is true that people benefit from being able to physically manipulate objects, it seems that the physical objects may eventually be a hindrance to the system. Users could not easily switch between application domains if they need a whole new set of objects for each. If it indeed becomes as versatile as personal computers are, its capabilities could not be limited by what physical objects you had. That is, unless a universal set of objects can be made that would allow users to easily switch between application domains.

It will be great when this system can be extended to a 3D version, and people can touch, throw, and model things in 3D, Iron Man style.

Works Cited

Arias, E. G., Eden, H., Fischer, G., Gorman, A., & Scharff, E. (2000) "Transcending the Individual Human Mind — Creating Shared Understanding through Collaborative Design," ACM Transactions on Computer Human-Interaction, 7(1), pp 84-113. http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/~gerhard/papers/tochi2000.pdf .

i09. Iron Man 2 Trailer. http://io9.com/5488486/iron-man-2-trailer.

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Authors of this document are the Makeshift Crew:

Alberto Aranda
Andy Truman
Anne Gatchell
Ho Yun "Bobby" Chan
Kyla Maletsky