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NASA’s Autonomous Sciencecraft Experiment

In Artificial Intelligence, Science by Fredy Ore

Autonomous Sciencecraft Experiment

Since the dawn of the space age, unmanned spacecraft have flown blind with little or no ability to make autonomous decisions based on the content of the data they collect.

The Autonomous Sciencecraft Experiment (ASE) will fly onboard the Earth Observing-1 mission in 2003. The ASE software uses onboard continuous planning, robust task and goal-based execution, and onboard machine learning and pattern recognition to radically increase science return by enabling intelligent downlink selection and autonomous retargeting.

This software will demonstrate the potential for space missions to use onboard decision-making to detect, analyze, and respond to science events, and to downlink only the highest value science data.

A BBC news article on ASE.

Recordings from the IA Summit Redux in Washington, DC

In Archive by Fredy Ore

Livia Labate has uploaded recording from the discussions in last weeks IA Summit 2006 Redux sessions. Here are a few recordings with the discussions:

1. IA Summit Redux Part 1 (70 MB) – Intro and Summit overview with Dan Brown, tag discussion with James Melzer.
2. IA Summit Redux Part 2 (40 MB) – Wireframes and Deliverables with Nathan Curtis (and many interruptions by Livia, ha).
3. IA Summit Redux Part 3 (65 MB) – Web 2.0 with Shelley Price, Theory with Olga Howard, International IA (brief) with Stacy Surla, final wrap up with Dan Brown.

Other recordings from the 2006 IA Summit:
http://livialabate.com/says/ia-summit-2006-recordings

Referential & Experiential blog users

In Archive by Fredy Ore

An interesting discussion and blog post about two identified types of blog users.

  1. Referential
  2. Experiential

It’s interesting because when building blog and personalisation areas to websites, we can now identify these user types, their use of a blog and design the User Experience in a particular way that enhances Community Building.

Here’s a quote from the discussions:

The referential blogger uses the link as his fundamental unit of currency, building posts around ideas and experiences spawned elsewhere: Look at this. Referential bloggers are reporters, delivering pointers to and snippets of information, insight or entertainment happening out there, on the Intraweb. They can, and do, add their own information, insight and entertainment to the links they unearth — extrapolations, juxtapositions, even lengthy and personal anecdotes — but the outward direction of their focus remains their distinguishing feature.

The experiential blogger is inwardly directed, drawing entries from personal experience and opinion: How about this. They are storytellers (and/or bores), drawing whatever they have to offer from their own perspective. They can, and do, add links to supporting or explanatory information, even unique and undercited external sources. But their motivation, their impetus, comes from a desire to supply narrative, not reference it.

The success of YouTube & MySpace

In Archive by Fredy Ore

The secret to success is to make everything one-button easy, then get out of the way. If you think collaborative architecture matters more, Flickr, Digg and del.icio.us have plateaued with audiences
… Photos, news, and other people’s bookmarks just aren’t as interesting as bootleg TV…
The easier it gets to use, the less geeky the Net becomes, and the more it starts to look like real life.

An excerpt from an interesting article by Paul Boutin, on the success of YouTube and MySpace.

IA Summit 06 Redux

In Best Practice, Design, Experience Strategy, Technology by Fredy Ore

According to recent academic and business research, there is an enormous wave of people on its way to adulthood that may very well take us by surprise. And while many designers may be aware of this, we still face the challenge of making it clear to our clients and stake-holders.

This afternoon (5pm London local time) I attended the online presentation by Andrew Hinton here in the offices at work at Grand Union. It was a very engaging and topical presentation which was a repeat to a session presented at the IA-Summit in Vancouver in March earlier this year.

Andrew Hinton delivered his presentation using screen sharing software and a call line.

An excerpt from his IA Summit presentation:
Clues to the Future: What the users of tomorrow are teaching us today

Andrew Hinton

Beyond the hype and more obvious implications of the “net generation” are key questions that affect how business and design plan for the future. For example: the shift from hierarchical to nodal paradigms; the rise of new kinds of literacy (and authority); “virtual” vs. “real” money; the splintering of identity (the multiple user-id paradigm); and users who, frankly, expect your web environment to be as well designed as the best games on their X-Boxes.

Sorting Things Out: Classification and its Consequences

In Archive, Experience Design by Fredy Ore

Peter Merholz posted an interesting dicussion the other day on the classification of systems becoming invisible through use.

Bowker and Star showed that classification systems become invisible through use, but are in fact the product of explicit (and sometimes political) decisions. Proponents of these algorithmic system tend to claim “it’s just the technology,” but these tools are designed by people, and doubtless carry unspoken assumptions in their design.

A summary of Geoffrey C. Bowker and Susan Leigh Star’s Sorting Things Out.