Aldo de Moor

Apr

2008

Digital storytelling tools

I am currently attending an interesting session at the E-Campaigning Forum on digital storytelling. Stories are very powerful ways of motivating people to take action, to reflect on the implications of policies, to make abstract concepts concrete and so on.

In this age of Web 2.0 and user-created multimedia content, the old linear textual technologies for supporting storytelling like discussion forums are being complemented by a multitude of innovtive tools supporting new forms of content, interactivity and user involvement. Here are some telling examples of this new wave of tools. They still need to find their niche in the Internet landscape, but it is already becoming very clear that they provide powerful incentives for people to become more (inter)active and engaged.… Read more...

Apr

2008

ALOIS 2008 conference

On May 5-6, I will be attending, as an invited speaker, the ALOIS (Action in Language, Organisations, and Information Systems) conference in Venice. Apart from the wonderful venue, it is going be a very interesting conference, in the best tradition of the Language/Action Perspective and Pragmatic Web conferences.

Here is the abstract of my talk and paper:

Activating Online Collaborative Communities

Collaborative communities often make use of complex tool systems. In these systems, work gets fragmented over many tools, often halting communication. We discuss online community activation in terms of the Language/Action Perspective, and its more recent offshoot, the Pragmatic Web. We propose collaboration patterns for defining high-level socio-technical design solutions for activation problems. We illustrate the approach using examples from a digital tutorial case.

Apr

2008

Semi-mobile technology

Mobile technology is great, but it’s very hard to find _the_ right mobile tool. I now have two mobile phones, an HP Ipaq PDA, my Asus EEE 7″ subnotebook, a Dell X200 12.1″ (sub)notebook, an Acer Aspire 3610 15.4 ” notebook, and counting. Frankly, this is getting ridiculous. None of these tools suits even close to all my needs, and by now I would need a suitcase to lug them all around!

Of course, I could always try to choose one of these tools, and stick to it. Well, this is what happens then: here I am, using Skype on my Asus to call my good friend Mark Aakhus in the US via the Tilburg University wifi campus network. It works, but somehow it doesn’t quite seem the optimal mobile solution 🙂

Funnily enough, Mark who just happened to be online when I demonstrated my Asus, co-edited this book: Perpetual Contact: Mobile Communication, Private Talk, Public Performance.… Read more...

Mar

2008

eCampaigning Forum 2008

I have just received confirmation that I can participate in eCampaigning Forum 2008, to be held at St. Anne’s College, Oxford, on April 10-11. Last year, I attended their social dinner while visiting a friend, and was struck by the nice mix of expertise and friendliness of the participants. I am really excited about being part of that crowd myself this year!

What it is?

“The 2008 eCampaigning Forum brings together e-campaigning practitioners, managers, freelancers, entrepreneurs and bloggers to share the essential and emerging trends and practices in campaigning (advocacy) using interactive media. The experts are the participants and this event ensures those who attend get to spend most of their time engaging with their peers on topics that concern them most.”

Mar

2008

Understanding Design: 150 Reflections on Being a Designer

I recently finished reading “Understanding Design: 150 Reflections on Being a Designer“, by Kees Dorst. It’s a delightful book with 150 single page stories that you can’t stop reading. The stories have been organized in four main themes (Inside Design, About Design, Being a Designer, Around Design), and cover everything from the philosophy and morality of design to very practical guidelines on how to do and teach design. A must for everybody remotely interested in this complex but so intriguing field.

Mar

2008

Design for development

Richard Heeks and Bill McIver sent useful references in response to my post on the Another Perspective on Design-symposium.

[Richard Heeks]

Just to follow Aldo’s original point, the whole area of “design for development” seems to be a growing one. Examples are the work of The Cardiff Group: http://www.thecardiffgroup.org.uk/ (which helps organise the Development Studies Association’s Design and Development group: http://www.devstud.org.uk/studygroups/design.htm), and Design for Development: http://www.designfordevelopment.org/. Up-and-coming are the outputs from the BGDD project – http://www.bgdd.org/Wiki.jsp – which is approaching the issue from a computing/interface design-for-development perspective.There are also a lot of organisations working more to help multinationals understand and design for emerging markets, e.g. CKS in Bangalore – http://www.cks.in/They, in turn, have been involved in one of the main design-and-development functions, the Doors of Perception events: http://www.doorsofperception.com/

Mar

2008

Another Perspective on Design – Symposium

Yesterday, an interesting symposium was organised in Breda by COLIN (Creative Organisations Linked in Networks) , named “Another Perspective on Design“. Here are some notes I took during the presentations. They are not comprehensive, but should capture some of the highlights.

Speaker: Mary-Ann Schreurs, chairwoman of the working group Design of the Eindhoven city council

Design has enormous economic potential
- One reason DAF trucks has become so succcessful is because of their truck cabins having been optimally designed for their human users.
Designers bring together ideas from all disciplines, combine them into a form. Design is leading.
Governments need to create the necessary conditions for design to have its effect.
- For example, never enough workspaces for starting entrepreneurs!

Mar

2008

Installing a VPN client on the ASUS EEE

I have to work a lot on Tilburg University campus, and continuously need to access the Internet, which is one main reason I bought my ASUS EEE laptop. However, to get access on campus one needs a VPN connection. On Windows machines, it is no problem to install the Cisco VPN client, but, alas, not so for Linux machines like mine. Raymond Mul, ICT manager at the Faculty of Law, and avid Linux enthusiast, has been so kind to write a short manual (in Dutch) explaining how to make the university network open up for Linux lovers as well:

VPN installation Howto for Asus EEE PC series

Enjoy!

Mar

2008

Second Life: Beyond the Hype

The hype is over. Whereas only a year ago, Second Life was everywhere in the mainstream media, the mad rush seems over. Then, every major organization seemed to try to establish a presence “in world”, and the virtual sky seemed the limit. Now, the number of active users seems to have stabilized, and many initially over-enthusiasts are disappointed, because their unrealistic expectations have not been met.

However, the dot com bust around the turn of the century did not kill the development of worthwhile applications of the Internet, on the contrary. Similarly, the current stage in the evolution of Second Life from mere vision to serious business, educational, and many other applications is a natural one. Consolidation and reflection on where to go from here is healthy and necessary.… Read more...

Mar

2008

Virtual Teams and Collaborative Environments – book

CALL FOR CHAPTERS

Proposals Submission Deadline: 3/31/2008

Full Chapters Due: 7/31/2008

Virtual Teams and Collaborative Environments:
Knowledge-Driven Creativity

A book edited by A book edited by Aggelos Liapis, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium
Julian Malins, The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland UK
Stijn Christiaens, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium
Pieter De Leenheer, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium

http://www.igi-pub.com/requests/details.asp?ID=371

OBJECTIVES
One of the principal objectives of this new book is to suggest improved tools and methodologies for CSCW which can be applied in a variety of disciplines and professional contexts. The book will explore the nature of creativity and how this relates to CSCW. In particular this book will identify the factors that limit creativity in virtual teams when using online collaborative environments.… Read more...

Aldo de Moor

Digital storytelling tools

ALOIS 2008 conference

Semi-mobile technology

eCampaigning Forum 2008

Understanding Design: 150 Reflections on Being a Designer

Design for development

Another Perspective on Design – Symposium

Installing a VPN client on the ASUS EEE

Second Life: Beyond the Hype

Virtual Teams and Collaborative Environments – book

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