1992265

The Robot in the Garden: Telerobotics and Telepistemology in the Age of the Internet (Leonardo Books)

by Ken Goldberg (Editor)

“Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

It may be trite to say that new technology changes the way we see ourselves and the world, but it’s crucial that we explore those changes fully. In The Robot in the Garden, computer scientist Ken Goldberg curates a collection of essays on telerobotics by critics, philosophers, and engineers, addressing questions as fundamental as, “How does mediation affect the knowledge we acquire?”

1879415

washingtonpost.com: Bearing Gifts, They Come From Afar

“A gift economy is indeed an economy — you can rationally expect that if you tender a gift, sooner or later you will receive some kind of return.

“But the return is indirect. And expectation of a return can be idealistic, even mystical.”

One of the two articles mentioned by Aldon in Psyber-l

1743364

Slashdot | Rethinking The Virtual Community: Part One

Posted by JonKatz on Thursday December 21, @10:45AM

from the –dreaming-of-cyberville- dept.

Less than a decade ago, the Virtual Community was one of the most powerful ideas emanating from the Net, and BBS’s and the nascent Internet were already providing glimpses of a better world to come. Proponents are a lot wiser — and sadder — now. Can the Virtual Community survive adolescent flamers and the dotcom era? Yes, but it will have to be dramatically reconceived. (First of a series).

1739495

Internet, discourse and interaction potential

Keynote to appear at First Asia Pacific Conference on Human-Computer Interaction.

Harold Thimbleby

Middlesex University

LONDON, N11 2NQ, GB

Email: harold@mdx.ac.uk

Abstract

The conventions of drama present the planned as spontaneous, stimulating the imagination of greater interaction potential than there is. This paper argues for a distinction between design for demonstration and design for interaction. The distinction is needed on the Internet, which supports the greatest range of discourse — spontaneous to planned — and therefore wide scope for confusing dramatic presentation for effective interaction.

Keywords

Design, discourse, drama, human-computer interaction, hypertext, scenarios

Collaborative Design

The Road to Natural Digital Collaboration
By Elliott Masie, The MASIE Center

Just as there is a process of Instructional Design for developing instructional experiences, we believe that there is a parallel process of Collaborative Design to create the best uses of digital collaboration technology. We need to learn how to assess the needs of the groups involved and select media that is appropriate to the outcome objectives. And, we envision the development of collaboration templates that will embody a design for ideal use of tools in a given situation (e.g. A template that walks the group through a highly interactive video conference for an employment interview, including application sharing of resume and job description documents.)

Finally, there are new roles that we must invent and perfect to make Digital Collaboration really soar. Facilitators, community builders, virtual coaches and other roles will evolve that will make Digital Collaboration work effectively and naturally.

This is a great time to start the experimentation process. We should find teams within our organizations to lead pilots for leveraging existing and new technologies for effective collaboration. It would be great if the “owners” of collaboration technology were not techies but rather process-oriented folks in the HR, Training or Business areas.

Books of the Month: December 2002

Books of the Month — Index

December 2000

Janet Abbate, Inventing the Internet. MIT Press, 1999. Reviewed by Linda Baughman.

Peter Lunenfeld, Snap to Grid: A User’s Guide to Digital Arts, Media, and Cultures. MIT Press, 2000. Reviewed by Bryan Alexander.

Review Essay: Anthony Wilhelm, Democracy in a Digital Age: Challenges to Political Life in Cyberspace (Routledge, 2000); Elaine Kamarck and Joseph Nye, Democracy.com? Governance in a Networked World (Hollis Publishing, 1999); and Richard Davis, The Web of Politics: The Internet’s Impact on the American Political System (Oxford University Press, 1999). Reviewed by Philip Howard.

Three reviews, as regular as clockwork. Well maintained site. I get notified every time – see the spyonit link on the left.