Toward Hybrid Computing:Mediating among People, Places and Things,

Online and Offline

Joe McCarthy

Outline

• A brief history of Joe• Hybrid computing

– Definition– Examples

• Future / ongoing challenges

http://www.slideshare.net/gumption

A Brief History of Joe (part 1)

B.A. Philosophy

M.S. Computer Science

Asst. Professor of Computer Science

Independent Consultant

Ph.D. Computer Science

1983

1985

1989

1996

A Brief History of Joe (part 2)1996

2002

2004

2006

2008

A Brief History of Joe (part 3)

Conference Co-Chair

General Chair

Program Co-Chair

Posters (36)Invited Performance

Demos (40)Short papers / Notes

Most papers (42; 19%)Reviews: 2 PC + 2 ext.

Steering Committee Chair UbiComp, 2003-2009International rotationACM sponsorship

Toward Hybrid Computing

• Two dimensions– Online + Offline– People + Places + Things

• Three common themes– Situatedness– Democratization– Serendipity

• Three examples

Opening Up Portalsin Hybrid Spaces

@

Workout places Work placesConferences

MusicFX

MusicFX: An Arbiter of Group Preferences for Computer-Supported Cooperative WorkoutsJoseph F. McCarthy and Theodore Anagnost1998 ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW ‘98)

A Multi-Agent System for Meting Out Influence in an Intelligent EnvironmentM. V. Nagendra Prasad and Joseph F. McCarthyEleventh Innovative Applications in Artificial Intelligence Conference (IAAI ‘99)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLgXLl4uGYk

promoting harmony, diversity and democracy in a fitness center

MusicFX: Problems & Goals• Problems

– Music is a common complaint• 25% of “feedback” focused on music

– RSI: Repetitive Song Injury • 3 stations played, 91 available (DMX)

– Squeaky Wheels• Vocal minority prevails over silent majority

• Goals– Democratize the music selection process– Increase the variety of music played– Unburden fitness center staff

• Database of musical preferences– 91 genres, 5-point scale

• Group Preference Arbitration algorithm– Group Preference Calculation– Candidate Identification (sort, filter)– Weighted Random Selection operator

• Environmental Events (algorithm triggers)– Entrance, exit, expiration,

preference / parameter update

The MusicFX System

Evaluation of MusicFX• Daily operation Nov 1997 – Dec 2001• Evaluation (after 6 weeks)• Staff interviews

– Complaints: 5-10 / week 3 in 6 weeks• Log analysis

– Variety: 3 stations 66 stations– Satisfaction index: 170 users, all but 8 >= 0

• Survey results:– MusicFX vs. Staff selection:

• 71% better, 8% same, 7% worse, 14% N/A– Positive:

• increased variety, having some influence– Negative:

• abrupt changes, occasional “bad” music

MusicFX: Other results

• Charts– Top 10, Bottom 13

• Human Nature– Average individual musical preferences– Individual Preference Filter: NOT– Interesting anecdotes

• Veto power & IPF• Uncommon variety• The Polka incident• The Chinese Music incident

AutoSpeakerID, Ticket2Talk,Neighborhood Window

Augmenting the Social Space of an Academic ConferenceJoseph F. McCarthy, David W. McDonald, Suzanne Soroczak, David H. Nguyen and Al M. RashidACM 2004 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW 2004)

Proactive Displays: Supporting Awareness in Fluid Social EnvironmentsDavid W. McDonald, Joseph F. McCarthy, Suzanne Soroczak, David H. Nguyen and Al M. RashidACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interactions (TOCHI), Vol. 14, No. 4, January 2008

promoting community at a conference

Proactive Displays: Problems & Goals

• Problems (variability in approachability):– Stature: senior faculty, grad students– History: veterans, newcomers– Selectivity: presenters, audience

• Goals:– Enhance the sense of community among attendees– Mesh with existing practices (calm technology)– Protect the privacy of participants … & non-

participants

15

Setting & Data Collection

• Conference deployment: UbiComp 2003– Medium-sized, single-track, conference– 500 attendees (50% from USA)– Explicit online opt-in, RFID– Three proactive displays:

• AutoSpeakerID (ASID) • Ticket2Talk (T2T)• NeighborhoodWindow (NW)

• Systematic Observation– Observations + opportunistic interviews

• Post-conference Survey– Multiple choice + open-ended response– 94 respondents (19% response rate)

Evaluation• Simple descriptive statistics• Open ended responses

– New vs. old– Provocation– Saving face– Gaming

• Mixed results– Enhance community: yes– Mesh with existing practices: no– Preserve privacy: mostly

The Context, Content & Community (C3) Collage

promoting community in the workplace

The Context, Content & Community Collage: Sharing Personal Digital Media in the Physical WorkplaceJoseph F. McCarthy, Ben Congleton, F. Maxwell HarperACM 2008 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW 2008) [best paper nominee]

C3 Collage• Goals

– Increase sense of community in a new lab with multidimensional diversity– Increase social media use and “hacking” of web apps

• Approach– Open interactive windows in shared physical spaces into online social media

• Hypotheses– Adding a physical dimension of audience will promote greater social media

usage– Social media sharing in the workplace will enhance personal relationships– Enhanced personal relationships will lead to more productive professional

relationships• Challenges

– Privacy / benefit tradeoff (usability vs. security)– Sustainable engagement (after novelty factor has worn off) – How to measure the impact? (measuring community, relationships)

C3 Collage

• Profile– Username – Flickr account(s), include / exclude tags– Bluetooth phone name(s)

• Proactive– Add photos of nearby people[’s phones]

• Interactive– Move, close, vote, flag

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5rU9cAiYsY

C3 Collage Evaluation• Context

– 8 displays, evaluated after 4 weeks– 75 full-time / part-time residents – 44 accounts (34 partial, 27 full)– Perpetual alpha (location sensing,

new modules, new features)• Web-based Survey

– Mix of multiple choice and open text questions– 32 responses (43%)

• Semi-structured Interviews– 5 subjects, representing different groups and levels of

seniority

C3 Collage Results• Enhance community

– Personal relationships: yes– Professional relationships: no (?)

• Increase social media use– 5 users created Flickr accounts for C3C– 13 users posted photos for C3C

• Issues– Leaving phone(s) in office– Disconnect: online / offline– Serendipity: good and bad– Power law of participation

vs. the org chart

Open Challenges• The Internet of People, Places & Things

– Privacy / benefit tradeoff– Control of / access to data

• Living Laboratories– Evaluation “in the wild”– Situated serendipity

• Computer-Supported Whatever– Cooperative / competitive– Work / play– Game mechanics– Incentives, evaluation

As we may relate …

• As we may think – Vannevar Bush, Memex– Connect [with] knowledge, information

• As we may relate– Connect [with] people, places, things IRL– Challenges:

• What do we want to reveal, to whom, where?• What do we want to find out?• On what criteria should connections be based?• What connection devices do we want to use?

Any sufficiently large signal is indistinguishable from noise

As we may relate• What do we want to reveal, to whom, where?

– Online content (my homepage) vs. offline content (where I live/work)– Online “friends”, “real” friends, consequential strangers– Home, office, school, third places, other– Usability issues; gender, age, relationship status

• What do we want to find out?– Information, entertainment– People to meet, places to go, things to do– Mobile, personalized, place-based bazaar; Craigslist++

• On what criteria should connections be based?– Proximity– Common vs. complementary interests– Search vs. discovery, serendipity

• What connection devices do we want to use?– Smartcard, smartphone, laptop, public display, head-mounted display, other– Proactive connections vs. explicit “check-ins”

OpenGov: Platform Thinking• OpenGov is an HCC opportunity• Technology-Mediated Social Participation• “Government as a Platform”: Tim O’Reilly

– Intro to “Open Government: Transparency, Collaboration and Participation in Practice”

• http://opengovernment.labs.oreilly.com/– Apple iPhone: control + generativity

• Design principles, interoperability rules, developer ecosystem– Google AdWords for Medicare

• Dynamic pricing, tying outcomes to reimbursements– 10 practical steps for government agencies

• See also: 8 Open Government Data Principles

[see also: http://radar.oreilly.com/2010/03/how-do-we-measure-innovation.html]

Discussion

http://interrelativity.com/joe

Thanks!• For more information:

– joe AT interrelativity DOT com– http://interrelativity.com/joe– http://gumption.typepad.com– http://twitter.com/gumption– http://www.slideshare.net/gumption