The Leaves are Goldenputting the periphery at the heart of information design

Alan DixTalis and University of Birmingham

http://alandix.com/academic/talks/HCI2016-the-leaves-are-golden/

my first HCI paper

@ First British HCI Conference 1985

Tiree

Tiree Tech Wave8–12 Oct2016

University ofBirmingham

detailed interactionwidgets

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_engineerhttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Subway_Station_Digital_Advertising_Screens_(13251201894).jpg

CSCW, socialinformation systems

ethical, political

HCIpeople and technology

HCI

CSCW, socialinformation systems

ethical, political

dataHuman-DataInteraction

datapeople and information

Aside: Data Journal for HCI?

first paper on privacy in HCI

@ Interact’90 (with British HCI) Cambridge 1990

REFanalysis

concertdata

island & community

data

Waleswalk data

datapeople andinformation

learninganalytics

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainframe_computer#/media/File:Front_Z9_2094.jpghttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/da/Gnome-utilities-terminal.svg/240px-Gnome-utilities-terminal.svg.pnghttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a7/Phone-blackberry-bold.svg/240px-Phone-blackberry-bold.svg.png

tradition information systemsthe centre is golden

edges are viewsof centre

core values:

integrity

consistencycontrolsingle defined

schema / ontology

… but …

‘parallel systems’

local spreadsheets, paper systems, etc.

hated by central IT

often ‘get the job done’

… the cloud …

wonderful sometimes long-lost friends on FB access everywheresharing data, photosmaps everywhere

but with cost …privacy, hyper-targeted ads, loss of community content and controleven semantic web often ingest-based

traditional issues (but still current) efficiency and currency

“ownership” and organisational knowledge

newer issues (although not totally new)personal data and privacy

empowermentcore issue:central controlnot central storage

so what can we do about it?

design thatvalues the periphery

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Unity-Mail-Screenshot.jpghttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Woman_using_computer.jpg

office information systems

some heuristics

don’t enforce consistencyinstead highlight inconsistency

don’t impose ontologiesinfer semantics through

interaction

meaning is use

semantics through interaction

respect user’ssemantics

data beforesemantics

externalsemantics

academia

learning analytics

over half of UK universitiescloud storage but individual

control

challenges:individual ‘ownership’students & academics

network synergies respectingdistributed ownership

In Concert

with Huddersfield, Goldsmiths, Illinois, British Library

Concert ephemera1750–1800 Calendar of London Concerts1815–1895 Concert Life in London1894–1944 Concert Programme Exchange (BL)

In Concert

central academic value:authority and quality

so …protect original spreadsheets and databasescentral portal is cache/view of thesewrappers and external semanticsthen query, visualise, augment, anotate

communities

Open Data

everyone is doing it

Governments, Cities, local gov.

In C21 Data is Power

why not an island?

island data flows

Community

groups and individuals

rest ofthe world

othercommunities

12

3

4

island data flowsfrom community to world

Community

groups and individuals

rest ofthe world

1• visibility and

control• identity and

empowerment• level of detail• local knowledge

island data flowsfrom world to community

Community

groups and individuals

rest ofthe world

2 • making the mostof open data• local decision

making• lobbying and

negotiation

island data flowswithin the community

Community

groups and individuals

3

• gossip is not enough!• sparse, dispersed population• social cohesion and economic benefits

island data flowsbetween communities

Community

groups and individuals

othercommunities

4

• sharing best practice• brand presence• interlinked data

benefits to …

the communityempowerment and controlavailability of informationcommunication within and between communities

the worldimproved quality of datalevel of detail of datalocal knowledge and understanding

Fusion …

researchheterogeneity, semantics through interaction,the cloud – network benefits without centralisation?

teachingsensitivity to existing practice – make the computer workdon’t just reach for the database!

practicereal problems for real users

value the periphery

the leaves are golden