Opening Skinners Box : Chapters 9 & 10

Chapter 9: Memory Inc.

    Chapter 9 is about human memory and various nuances and studies revolving around human memory. It looks into research into enzymes in the brain, various memory centers around the brain. The most interesting part of the study is a man named Henry. He has his hippocampus literally sucked out of his head. Afterwards he cannot develop new memories. He remembers memories from before the surgery though. Henry is really interesting, otherwise the chapter was pretty boring.

Chapter 10: Chipped

     Chapter 10 is a chapter about the history of psycho surgery and psycho pharmacological drugs. The chapters main subject is a Dr. Mortiz, a Portuguese scientist who basically invented psycho surgery by going around the world and cutting people up. There's ethical stipulations that come from his actions are mentioned but not gone into detail. It then later goes up to modern history and the current process of psycho medical procedures. This chapter is real cool, the stories and processes described are really interesting. I'm surprised that the author didn't attempt brain surgery on herself at the end of this chapter

Opening Skinner's Box: Chapters 7 & 8

Chapter 7

Chapter 7 is all about addiction. It follows an interesting experiment in which a young Bruce Alexander believes that substance addiction is more of a social construct and not a biological one. He tests this theory with the 'Rat Park'. In the rat park Alexander creates an ideal environment for rats and then just a cage. In both environments he feeds the rats morphine water and in the ideal environment the rats resist it, preferring normal water instead. He does several variations of this and shows that addiction is more a social construct, as the caged rats always prefer the morphine water and the rat park rats always prefer normal water. I thought this was interesting, but the rats weren't in just a good environment  they were in a ideal one. So its really kind of hard to equate this to human beings. Also there's a bit at the end where the author experiments on herself....it's so stupid! Dear god, if she removed the last page of every chapter, they'd be alot better.

Chapter 8

Chapter 8 is all about memory. Basically this chapter is about a psychologist who thinks that repressed memories are bullshit and that memory is fleeting and unreliable by nature. She proves this by inserting false memories into subjects via only suggestion and watches as the subjects begin describing the false memories more vividly as time goes on. This chapter actually scared me because I don't want people inserting false memories into me, it makes me not take my memories for granted.

Opening Skinners Box: Chapters 5 & 6

Chapter 5: Quieting the Mind

     Chapter 5 explores the science of cognitive dissonance. It begins with it's history and describes a small cult back in 1954 that was stationed in Minneapolis. They believed (sincerely) that the world was going to end  in December. Obviously they were wrong, but what's interesting is they very quickly and firmly reshaped their beliefs to match the fact that the world had not in fact ended. This leads to the theory of cognitive dissonance, which is basically that we restructure our world view to fit our already held beliefs. This chapter was very interesting, especially the christian family at the end. But I was upset at how cruel, insensitive, and stupid the author seemed  at times. I don't quite believe everything she wrote but the chapter was very interesting.

Chapter 6: Monkey Love

     This part of the book is basically the story of Harry Harlow, who is renowned for his experiments with baby rhesus monkeys. The chapter basically goes in chronological order starting with his childhood, going through his early adult and successful years and eventually to his late death. The history seems to mostly focus on his relationships with others as well as his scientific contributions. The life of Dr. Harlow comes of as a tragedy in this chapter and again, I'm not sure how much I believe it. Dr. Harlows work is fascinating and I'm glad she included this chapter because he did some landmark work. Toward the end she has a section about animal rights, which while important, don't really feel like they belong in the framework of the chapter.

Opening Skinner's Box Chapter 3 & 4

Chapter 3 - Of Sane People in Insane Places

This chapter is very interesting. The author describes the research of Dr. Rosenthal where he fakes his way into a psychiatric ward, and then begins acting normal the very second he is admitted. When he is in the ward he us treated badly, forced to take medicine, and doesn't get released for 19 days. He has 8 of his friends do  the same thing in different wards and they all get the same results. Afterwards Dr. Rosenthal published his findings in Science  and lit the world of psychiatric analysis on fire. He basically debunked a science and met alot of opposition.  The author reenacted the experiment and didn't meet the same results. In my opinion, the original study by Rosenthal is incredibly interesting. I can't believe that there would be such inherent wrongness in psychology. It's scary almost, I don't think I want to ever see a psychologist because I think I'd get diagnosed with something, regardless of what mental condition I'm in.

Chapter 4 - In the unlikely event of a water landing

This chapter is about a murder that took place in downtown New York that took place over 45 minutes. A lady got stabbed several times and raped right in the middle of the street. People turned on their lights and told them to quiet down, but no one came and helped. A few weeks later the NY Times publish an article about the unusual behavior of the witnesses and this set of some experiments. This eventually leads to the idea of diffusion of responsibility. Which is, the discovery that people seem to be less likely to take action or help someone when surrounded by other people. This chapter, which inherently cool, bored me. Which is mostly because I've already learned about this experiment in detail in previous years. But it does make sense and I've seen it happen before.

Obedience to Authority Book Review

     I actually knew about Stanley Milgrams experiment well before this class or reading this book. I've always thought that its crazy the extent someone will go when responding to authority. Its unsettling because it takes people whom we would think are monsters, such as guards of concentration camps and military torturers and takes them from the 'Monster' pedestal and puts them on our level. It's disturbing for people to have to confront the fact that the actions of people who have been considered evil are not committed by monsters, but by humans like you or me. The experiment also raised alot of ethical issues, is it right to tell someone that they would do such a thing? I don't know but it certainly is interesting.
     On another note, the book itself is an awful, awful, just awful read. Like, this book is the World Heavy Weight Champion of beating a dead horse. We get a chapter looking at social issues. And then 13 chapters of experiments. It's basically a.) we did the obedience experiment b.) we did it again, there was a chipmunk in the room, we can conclude chipmunks don't effect the outcome. The writing is good and straightforward, and I understand that after doing so many experiments, Dr. Milgram would want to publish them. But holy mother of god, I would not read that again. I found it really difficult to remain interested. It's like when you're watching a movie and you can tell what the ending is going to be halfway through, but then you have to watch it several more times. So, let me make this clear, the experiment is awesome. I've always thought this experiment is a phenomenal idea and I'm glad they've done it. The book though, isn't quite so great.

Obedience to Authority

Chapter 1
Chapter 1 describes the background and sets up the framework for the rest of the book. It's put in the book to define social issues that persist today in society.

Chapter 2
Chapter 2 describes the experiment in explicit detail. It goes over locations, details, and how they legitimize the experiment. Interestingly enough, Milgram goes through several iterations of his experiment to find out how to get people to stand up to authority and its already a stark indicator of how much people obey authority.

Chapter 3 
Chapter 3 is basically results as predicted by the common man. Almost everyone thought that the experiment would stop sooner than later.

Chapter 4
Chapter 4 focuses mostly on how user proximity effects the experiment and it's results. Basically, if someone is real close to you, you'll probably stop sooner. On the other side of the coin, if someone if insanely far away, you probably won't start.

Chapter 5
This chapter about peoples responses to the experiments. The standout example is the guy who laughed. We talked about him in class.

Chapter 6
Chapter 6 opens up alot of different variables in the experiments. Location, validity, experimenters, distances from experimenters, it all changed. I personally think it's crazy how almost none of these changed variables did anything.

Chapter 7
Chapter 7 is about the personalities and actions of the teachers in the experiment. It focuses on how they addressed the experimenter regardless of what was going on.

Chapter 8
Chapter 8 shows several variations on the roles in the experiments. As always in this book, the results are largely the same.

Chapter 9
Chapter 9  focuses on the effects of peers in the experiment. Even though they might have rebellious peers people still seemed meek in front of authority.

Chapter 10
Chapter 10 is straight philosophical! Milgram goes on and on about how obedience in society is a evolutionary trait of ours. It makes alot of sense!

Chapter 11
This chapter further explores the role of obidience in society and how it effects the subject in his experiments. He also talks about the relationship between the experimenter and the subject.

Chapter 12
Twelve revolves around the emotional impact the experiment has the on subjects. It goes in depth into the mental hurdles that a man goes through when he makes these descisions.

Chapter 13
Here, Milgram establishes that people aren't just gigantic assholes and are just conforming to authority.

Chapter 14
Chapter 14 addressed the 3 primes criticisms of his experiments.

Chapter 15
Chapter 15, the epilogue, basically goes into dark philosophy. It evaluates the results and how they effect our perception on our past. And also what it means is possible in the future.

Book Response: Gang Leader for a Day

Gang Leader for a Day

    So, of all the readings we've done in class, this is by far the most interesting. Gang Leader for a Day is written by a young Sudhir Venkatesh in the early 90's as he discovers and follows a gang leader in urban Chicago and learns about the different lifestyles there. The book is a New York Times best seller and is written in much of the same style as what's found in 'Freakanomics'.

    The book follows Sudhir as he befriends J.T. a gang leader of the Black Kings and follows J.T. as he shows him a filtered view of gang life in Chicago. Sudhir becomes enthralled with the culture, spending the next six years with the black kings, taking time to learn not only of J.T. but the workers, the squatters, the residents, the cops, and Ms. Bailey.

Gangster for a Day: Chapter Response

Chapter Responses

Chapter 1:

      Chapter one basically sets the ground work for the rest of the book. It really does a good job of providing insight into Sudhirs personality, how ignorant he is of gang culture, and how dangerous the study might be. It also gives us a glimpse of J.T. and does a good job of making the reader curious and engaging them into the book.

Chapter 2:

      Chapter two basically introduces the setting which is central to the rest of the book. It begins by establishing J.T.s relationship with Sudhir and the weird dynamic between the two. This is very important because it is often a brought up through the book. It also introduces Robert Taylor, it's back story, and Sudhirs impression of it. The whole entire rest of the book revolves around these two things, so this is a good establishment for the rest of the book.

Chapter 3:

    Chapter 3 serves to give us more insight on J.T. I find J.T. to be the most interesting character, besides maybe T-Bone or Officer Reggie, in the book. So i really liked this chapter.

Chapter 4:

      This chapter, while being the namesake of the book, is very uneventful. Basically, Sudhir tells J.T. he doesn't see why his job is difficult and J.T. makes him a "Gang Leader for a Day". Unfortunately, this means that Sudhirs input matters for about two trivial things and then the rest of the day he just followed J.T. around like an obedient puppy. This chapter bored me, I think it's silly that this is what he names the whole book after.

Chapter 5:

   Chapter 5 is all about Ms. Bailey, the queen of Robert Taylor. Ms. Bailey is a really interesting, hard to figure out character. This chapter is weird to me, because Sudhir portrays her as 'not so bad' for most of it, then at the very end writes that she is power hungry and bad. Through the rest of the book, he also continues to portray her as bad, even though he learned ALOT from her.

Chapter 6:

     This chapter is about Sudhirs attempts to expand his research to the common folk. He begins the chapter by studying "hustlers". Various men and women who have a particular skill set which they solicit to the others in the community. He then tells his findings to J.T. and Ms. Bailey and gets them in trouble, which he attempts to make up for with things like a writing club. This chapter was interesting because it helped you see the everyday happenings in Robert Taylor. 

Chapter 7:

    Chapter 7 seven is an interesting chapter which starts strong with a shoot out at Robert Taylor which hits Price in the leg. Sudhir actually helps out by dragging Price inside and loaning the gang his car. Later, he hangs out with cops! This chapter makes me hate Chicago cops. I hope they all go to prison.

Chapter 8:

     Chapter Eight finished the book on a solemn note. Robert Taylor is being torn down and many people are being forced out of their homes and have no choice but to change and move on. Ms. Bailey and J.T. are cut from their prime. They both struggle to adapt and ultimately fail to regain their old life. T-Bone dies...which sucks, why did T-Bone have to die?! Sudhir moves on to bigger and better things in the world of academia. It's a good, albiet sad ending.

Ethnography Idea

    For my Ethnography, I would like to study the Bonfire culture at A&M. I use to hang out with some bonfire kids when I was a sophomore and so I  know a little about them. They're called "Student Bonfire" and they re-emerged a few years after campus bonfire fell. They inherited all the old traditions and symbols from people who were the bonfire leaders during the year it fell. The people who actively participate in student bonfire make most of their friends there, have scheduled dinner schedules, and usually do alot of other things with each other ( sports, going to the bars, etc. ). From what I could tell, it's not so much as an activity, but a culture. I still keep in contact with my friends, and I know I could join them as a guest on my ethnography.

http://www.studentbonfire.com/

Ethnography reaction

     Ok, so I may have a biased reaction / viewpoint, as reading Wikipedia is boring and frustrating.... but here it goes. I think it's cool that there's a science out there that studies how people perceive the world. It's very thought provoking. I mean, when someone is interesting or does interesting things, you can't help but wonder if their world view is different from your own. This is an oversimplification though, Ethnographies seem more focused towards groups or cultures of people. They're designed to learn how THAT specific culture effects a small group of individuals within that culture. I like Ethnographies because they create serious empathy toward other cultures of groups. It really mediates a higher understanding.

     On an other note, "Coming of Age in Samoa" by Margaret Mead. This is cool because by studying a group of young Samoa girls Margaret not only see's how culture affects the process of growing up for girls in Samoa, but also see's more clearly how American culture effects girls in America. She concludes that American girls struggle with several contradicting messages and that in Samoa, girls have one clear role model and because of this adolescence isn't as difficult for them as it is in the states. Afterwards alot of controversy ensued ( naturally ).
     In my opinion "Coming of Age in Samoa" is cool book and makes alot of sense. I'm a little disappointed in all the controversy mostly because, to me, it seems steeped from ideological differences and not genuine scientific query. And the results show!

Book 2: Emotional Design Chapter 1

     I just read the first chapter of Emotional Design by Donald Norman, which describes how the human mind works. In it Mr. Norman describes how the emotional state we're in effects how we interact with objects and solve problems. He describes how when in a good mood someone is more likely to look at the picture as a whole but when you're in a bad mood, you focus and look at details before the whole. He also goes into detail about the brain and describes the three levels of thought. There's Reflective, Visceral, and Behavioral and they behave independently but every thought and action you take is affected by all three.
     I think the points Mr. Norman makes complement the points he makes in "Design of Everyday Things". The chapter we read focused more on the brain and the human thought process than the writing in his other book but I can see how the chapters line up. For example, he talks about memory in Everyday Things and certain ways our brain organizes memories. One of the methods is our brain creates relationships, and in Emotional Design he talks about how across the world there are similarities in peoples vernacular. He says 'ssss' noise in a word is typically used of 'harsher' words and that we subconsciously associate it as harsh because it's like the hiss of a snake. He also mentions in Design how sometimes people will get things wrong then they get frustrated, and they try again but harder. This example is also used in Emotional Design when he describes a Fire Exit at a movie theater. In Everyday Things, Mr. Norman would describe how the door is poorly designed  and how it could be designed so people can use it, and also how the design effects the user. In Emotional he talks more about the state a person is in when using the door and it restricts them from opening their mind solving their problem.
     

Good and Bad Examples of Design

Bad Design

1.)  Door at Mugwalls

This is a door at Mugwalls, that from here, you pull to open. It has a bar which tapers out. This is culturally, a given symbol FOR PUSH. Studying outside this door for about two hours, at least 6 kids pushed this and hit the door. This is a example of bad mapping, and this door is the end all, be all of bad door design.

2.) Giant Mac

    The computer science department at TAMU has decided to replace the perfectly good cavalcade of windows computers in the Bright labs with a handful of gigantic macs. I hate these 22 inch monstrosities. The problem with them is that they're so aesthetically designed that they fail to meet the basic expectations I have in a desktop computer. For example, the power button is behind the monitor on the bottom right. It's black and blends in with everything else, there's no ridges or grooves to indicate where it is, and it's tiny, it's no bigger than the pad of my pinky finger. What good is a computer that you can't even turn on? This breaks the aesthetic over design rule.

3.)  Playstation 3

     I think the Playstation 3 is a good example of poor design. The problem with the ps3 is that it has some inherently bad design choices and that after 5-6 re releases they haven't changed any of them. /my least favorite design choice is it's shape. It's some weird ellipsoid. You can't lay it on it's side, and you can't rest your controllers on it. Also it has a power button hidden on the back, which has to be turned on seperatly from the rest of the system. It's unneccesary and inconvinient. 

4.)  Keyboard Remote

This is how I have to operate my TV. TV remotes have be one of the most standardized devices of all times but every now and then you get a bombshell which has to break all the rules. Half of the keys aren't even used. Devices like this only lead to frustration and a an example of bad design.

5.) My Corner Shelf

 

 My corner shelf sucks because if you put any weight on the edge of a shelf, the whole entire thing tips over. It's almost beyond usability! All they'd need to fix this is a fourth leg, such a obvious fix, such an obvious flaw.

Good Design

1.) Newspaper dispenser

I like the simple design choices here. It's shaped like a house so rain slides off. And the door only goes outward, so Wind cannot open it and mess everything up.

2.) Recycling Bins

I like the good example of physical constraints in this recycling bin. The bin on the left has a round hole, so only bottles fit in. The bin on the right is designed for paper, so it has a very thin and wide slot. The trash bin in the middle has a pull slot, so if your about to throw away a recyclable product, you have time to look at the bin and reconsider. By opening the lid, it breaks your actions.

3.) Coffee Bean Grinder

This has a nice physical constraint, the button that you press to use it is attached to the lid. So the only way you can use it is with the lid on, so it's impossible for someone to blend their fingers off.

4.) The Nintendo 64

 The design of the Nintendo 64 is awesome! All the ports are completely different size and shapes, there's no memorization involved in it's setup. And it's difficult to forget to turn off the machine before you take out the cartridge because the power switch is directly in front of the cartridge. This always is true because the Nintendo always faces a certain way towards you because of the controller ports.

5.) My Triax Fury Watch

All the buttons are labeled, the interface on this is fantastic! The watched has been designed such that it constantly gives me cues on how to use it. For example, when using the stopwatch mode, it'll flash at the start/stop button so that I know how to stop the count.

Design of Everyday Things: Chapters 4 - 7

Chapter 4 Reactions

    To me,  Chapter 4 is about how design and become knowledge for a user. It goes about explaining the concepts of Physical, Semantic, and Cultural constraints. And it explains them with a nice lego example, explaining that even without instructions, most people can assemble a lego police motorcycle because it's good design and how constraints lead us to building it correctly. It then moves on to doors. Not necessary about any concept involving doors, but just doors. He explains common mistakes found in door designs and how they should be fixed, and how they relate to what we have learned thus far. Afterwards he does the same thing with switches. I like this chapter, but mostly for the beginning, reading on just about doors is silly and is an example of how he goes on and on, which I explained in my overall reaction.

Chapter 5 Reactions

     Chapter 5 is probably my favorite chapter. I was actually laughing out loud as I was reading the list of slips. And this is because I've done almost every single one. It's nice to know that I'm not the only one who makes mistakes. Or, in this books case, makes slips. He explains the difference between a slip and a mistake, one being automatic and unnoticeable. The other being something you manually have to correct. The latter half of the chapter describes how design can prevent mistakes. It was sometimes fun, sometimes boring, an average second half.

Chapter 6 Reactions

     Chapter 6 is more about the process of design. It goes and explains how generations of products can be released and how design can evolve or it can not progress at all. In this chapter he used several real world examples like the faucet or the typewriter. He explained why a design can go wrong or get worse, he explained how a designer can see something as good but actually take a step backwards in design. This chapter didn't hold me like some of the others, I think it's a very good point, and I would re read if I were to ever want to improve upon someone else's design.

Chapter 7 Reactions

     The final chapter! Chapter 7 revolves around the Seven Principles for transforming a difficult task into an everyday one. This final chapter brings everything to a full circle by teaching you the process of design and encouraging you to apply what you have learned in previous chapters to create good design. He really makes it to where you connect all his points and create an overall image of design in your head.

Design of Everyday Things: Chapters 1-3 reactions + overall reaction

My reaction to the Book in General

     After reading the entirety of Donald A. Normand's "Design of Everyday Things" I have a whole new perspective on design and just how much it influences my day to day activities. It's a great book because he constantly assaults the reader with relate-able examples such as the NES, phones, microwaves, doors, etcs. The book really entered my mind, it almost has a psychological approach to design. I'm afraid I won't be able to look at doors and phones the same way again.

     Another thing I really liked is the amount of personality Mr. Normand put into the book. He says his opinions, you can tell of his clear distaste for telephones. He also tells most of the stories in first person. I can't tell if they're all true but the way it's presented makes it a lot more relate-able.

     If I had any complaints about the book they would be that the examples are very outdated. I imagine that by now a lot of the inherent design flaws he mentions have been fixed. But the concepts ring very true, and the examples make his points very clear. I also think that sometimes he goes on and on. Sometimes I get bored of the point he's trying to make when he's explaining his third example of said point. Considering this can happen several times in a row, the book can become tedious to read. ]

     Overall it's a great book, I would recommend it.

Chapter 1 Reaction

     Chapter 1 begins the book by going through several examples of obvious bad design. The author doesn't describe things in detail, nor does he say what makes good design. What he does is show pictures and describes things we have all seen before. He explains why the design is bad and how it will cause troubles. He goes on to explain a conceptual model ( a mental of image of the parts and workings of a device ) and then later visibility which he describes using a very good refrigerator example. He then introduces Mapping and Feedback which are two of the takeaways in the book. If you remember anything, it's mapping and feedback. The chapter concludes with feedback.

     This is a great opening chapter mostly because it sets the tone for the rest of the book. By the end of the first chapter you realize the effect design has on us. You don't necessarily understand why yet or how, but it gives you enough to make you want more. The examples are really powerful and I'm glad he stresses the ideas of Mapping and Feedback earlier in the book because I notice it continuously for the rest of it.

Chapter 2 Reaction

     To understand the importance of design it's also important to understand the psychology behind people and how they interact with everyday things. He begins to explain and give examples of how bad design can lead to blame and helplessness and then goes on to explain how people do things. Mr. Norman gives 7 steps in which people go through when they act.

1. Forming the goal
2. Forming the intention
3. Specifying an action
4. Executing the action
5. Perceiving the state of the world
6. Interpreting the 

And he concludes with the Gulfs of Execution and Evaluation.

    I actually thought this was perhaps the weakest of all the chapters. I think it's because it's the least relate-able of them all.

Chapter 3 Reaction

    Chapter 3 is really cool because it explains how you use memory. It explains why we remember things and how we organize them. To me, this is the opposite of chapter 2, Everything I read in this chapter I could think of how I remember things and it makes sense to me. It's like I've always been aware of what goes on in my head, but it's never been put in words like this before. He explains how information can in the world or in our heads and how we try and put meaningful relationships together to help organize our memory. This chapter also explains how design needs to work with our brains to create a great product.

To be continued following blog post...

   

Homework 3 : The Chinese Room

    So, I just read the Chinese Room argument and several papers that argue/support/explain it and the concept it refers. The argument it implies is intriguing because it explains, using a very simple metaphor how a computer cannot function like the mind, but instead just convincingly mimic one at best. His argument ( according to Wikipedia and other articles ) rocked the Artificial Intelligence world and remains very controversial.
    To begin, I'd like to explain the metaphor, I find the metaphor poorly explained in alot of the papers and even though I'm fairly certain that the only people who will read this already understand it ( *ahem* Manoj *ahem* ), I'd like to explain for those who don't. Basically, Imagine that you're in a room with a few buckets of Chinese character symbols written on paper, you have a GIGANTIC rule book written in English, You don't understand Chinese, and in the room there's a slot where papers with various Chinese symbols come through. On the other side of the slot is a man who speaks fluent Chinese and is trying to have a written conversation with you. Now, he passes a slip through to you and it translates into "Hello, How are you?", you use the GIGANTIC rule book which says when they give you x y z, respond with a b c. You respond with a paper that reads " I'm fine, and yourself?" Now, to the fluent speaking man on the other side, you are responding intelligently, like a fluent speaking man would. But in reality, inside the room, you don't know what he said to you, nor what you responded with. You only followed the rules in the book. In this metaphor, the room is the Robot, and you with the rule book is the processor/programming. The man who speaks fluently is himself. And with this metaphor you realize that even though a robot can perfectly simulate intelligent conversation, it does so without actual intelligence, the man in the room does not know what he is saying.

        If you understand the metaphor then you can easily see what this implies about artificial intelligence. You cannot create the perfect rule book, insert it into a robot and think it's an actual mind. The robot has no actual understanding, it's just convincing you it does. I think this a really cool argument because it's so simple but yet so powerful. It's irrefutably similar to what goes on within a robot and it makes you wonder How could you make a mind? What would be the metaphorical equivalent to it? At face value this doesn't directly effect me but I'm glad I've read this, I'd strongly recommend this to others. There's a little more to it such as weak AI vs Strong AI or arguments against it, but once you've understood the metaphor you've gained what the paper has to really offer.

     Anyways, my reaction? good writing, good point! But bad attitude, and it could be more clearly written

    8/10

Paper #6: Talking in Circles: Selective Sharing in Google+

Summary

Sanjay Kairam, Michael J. Brozowski, and David Huffaker take a look at social networking, Google+ specifically, to analyze how users choose to share and organize information. They conducted studies using both computers and people and found that social networking actively engage in selective social networking and create and manage inter-personal relationships with varying levels of strength which have differing levels of social conduct.

Related Works Not Referenced Paper

• Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media
• Predicting tie strength with social media
• Community structure in social and biological networks
• Information flow through strong and weak ties in intraorganizational social networks
• Cognitive social structures
• Social Networks and Status Attainment
• Role-based access control models
• Role-Based Access Controls: Status, Dissemination, and Prospects for Generic Security Mechanisms
• logit models for social networks
• Centrality  in Social Networks:II. Experimental  Results*

I'd imagine that Social Networks are a trending topic right now, that being said, the studies and ideas in my paper have been done before and my paper therefore, isn't very novel. They do however study exclusivity and how people categorize their friends, which was unique.

Evaluation

The whole paper is basically a large evaluation, and they approach their studies from several different angles. To begin they gather a large set of data from Google ( users remain anonymous) and sort it ways to objectively and quantitatively look at organizational habits of social media users. The paper is covered in charts so I don't want to go into specifics, but they used this quantitative / objective data and analyzed. And from that they drew subject/Qualitative conclusions on peoples habits.

Discussion

So, I try to put a positive spin on all my blog entry's, even the one's i didn't like ( there's 3 total! ) but this was really uninteresting to me. I feel like they used math to reach a conclusion that can be considered common sense aka " People don't want their boss to have complete access to their personal life". So, I'm a little disappointed. I think the evaluation was appropriate though, it may be useful to have these numbers on hand for other studies.

Paper #5: Tales from the Front Lines of a Large-Scale Serious Game Project

Summary

    Dr. Khaled and Dr. Ingram have done research into the process of game design.  The report begins by explaining the history of game design and game success. It then goes on to briefly explain various types of experts and team compositions.

    They also explain the five active team perspectives : project organization, technology, domain knowledge, user research, and game design.  They had people whom are experts in said fields work together during the process in creating a video game. They observed the visible and invisible forces behind a successful video game. They determined that there's a certain hidden force behind all successful video games and using a rigid strategy isn't how you achieve it.

Related Works not Referenced in Paper

    

• Serious Games: Games That Educate, Train, and Inform
• Serious Games for Language Learning: 
  How Much Game, How Much AI? 
• Serious Games – An Overview
• Game Design as 
  Narrative 
  Architecture
• Game Design : Theory and Practice
• MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research
• A Generic Model for Reflective Design
• Reflective Design Patterns to Implement Fault Tolerance
• What Video Games Have to Teach Us 
  About Learning and Literacy 
• Authentic Learning Experiences Through Play: Games, Simulations and the Construction of Knowledge

There's alot of new information relevant to video games, learning games, and reflective design. I think this paper is novel because of it's unique approach to learning about game design. 

Evaluation

   The paper rated it's success very subjectively and quanitatively. Basically they decided to create a video game and when it wasn't very successful, they didn't use measurements or numbers.

Discussion

    Honestly, after I read the article I didn't feel like they had accomplished much. It was a summary of a unsuccessful experience and we didn't really learn anything that wasn't already known.

Paper #4: Summarizing Sporting Events Using Twitter

Summary

    The Almaden IBM research group is researching into ways of using algorithms to track tweets during sports games so the collected tweets can be used to quickly create a news document faster than a reporter can by themselves.  They look at Twitter statistics and determine which tweets to mine by using Keywords and activity spikes.
 

        They use activity spikes to find appropriate tweets based on the logic that when something important happens people feel that they should comment on it. Afterwards they use Heuristics to filter out alot of the tweets, including tweets in other languages, tweets with URLS, and tweets that are replies to other tweets. The researchers used several heuristics and eventually created an algorithm which created game summaries based off tweets. Afterwards , They used People to read and evaluate said reports

Related Work Not Referenced in Paper

• Using  Lexical  Chains  for Text  Summarization 
• AUTOMATED  TEXT  SUMMARIZATION AND  THE SUMMARIST  SYSTEM 
• Generic Text Summarization Using Relevance Measure and 
  Latent Semantic Analysis
• Seeing the Whole in Parts: Text Summarization for 
  Web Browsing on Handheld Devices
• T h e   T I P S T E R   S U M M A C   T e x t   S u m m a r i z a t i o n   E v a l u a t i o n  
• What is Twitter, a Social Network or a News Media?
• Social networks that matter: Twitter under 
  the microscope
• Twitter Power: Tweets as Electronic Word of Mouth
• Twitter and status updating
• Using Twitter to recommend real-time topical news

I looked up both Text generation and Twitter related articles on the internet. Twitter seems to be a hot topic, there was no shortage of reports of Twitter and how it can be used as a news source.    

Evaluation

    In the report they evaluate both the important moment detection and the summarized reports. They evaluated the moment detection subjectively and quantitatively by comparing the moments the twitter algorithm outputted with news articles from various news sources such as ABC.com, ESPN.com, etc. They found the certain events were less likely to be tweeted ( such as yellow cards ) meaning games that had alot of these events, we're summarized less accurately.
   They also evaluated the summarizes both objectively and subjectively by using software and humans to evaluate the summaries. The summaries did a good job recapping important events but didn't quite pack in small details like a human made news article does.
 
Discussion

I think this will be a cool technology which could really make news reporting for sports very fast and up to date. I think the evaluation is appropriate because news is something that is enjoyed by humans, and therefore needs to be evaluated objectively.

Paper #3 : Not Doing But Thinking: The Role of Challenge in the Gaming Experience

Summary
    In this paper, various doctorates from around England ( York and London ) study Gaming Experiences and what factors make them. They study Immersion which has several layers, but the one they are most interested in is "Total Immersion". They study challenge, in which they believe the most immersive games challenge a player both cognitively and physically. Expertise, trying to find the level of challenge appropriate for the players skill level.  When considering these factors the researchers divided a series of experiments with varying levels and types of challenge.

   They set up a tower defense game in which players either played a "High Effort" or "Low Effort" version of the game. They then measured several objective and subjective quantitative measures. They also then ran another experiment which measured the effect of time pressures on the player. 

Related Work not Referenced in Paper

For related works I found papers which focused on Video Games and Challenge or Immersion I got results such as

• Sex Differences in Video Game Play: A Communication-Based Explanation

• Mortal Kombat (tm): The Effects of Violent Videogame Play on Males’ Hostility and Cardiovascular Responding

• VIDEO GAME PLAYERS: PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS AND DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES

• Flow in Games (and Everything Else)

• Method of encouraging attention by correlating video game difficulty with attention level

• Immersion, Engagement, and Presence 

•  The development of the Game Engagement Questionnaire: A measure of engagement in video game-playing 

• VIDEO GAMES: PERSPECTIVE, POINT-OF-VIEW, AND IMMERSION

• A Motivational Model of Video Game Engagement

• Behaviour, Realism and Immersion in Games

For the most part I find alot of the video game studies revolve on the effect of the users in a non-video game related manner. For example The Mortal Kombat one focused on Male aggresion levels that result from Immersion within a video game. They don't seem to approach video games the same way this paper does.

Evaluation

    They took alot of quantitative data such as immersion levels, time survived, etc. The paper is loaded with graphs and numbers. Some of it was taken based on the players surveys and alot of it is recorded by the game. 

Discussion

    I think it's cool that they're studying what makes video games fun and immersive. It's a cool idea that there could be numerical guidelines that a game maker could follow to improve the quality of their game.

Paper #2 : The User as a Sensor : Navigating Users With Visual Impairments in Indoor Spaces Using Tactile Landmarks

Summary
    The Computer Science department at the University of Nevada have developed a system called Navatar for assisting the visually impaired in indoor spaces which focuses on being cheaper and more easier to install by using cheap technology such as the technology used in most phones. The technology guides the visually impaired by having the user confirm landmarks such as doors and hallways. For example, the user will hold their phone to their ears and it will tell them "follow the left wall until you find a hallway". The user confirms when they've reached the hallway and then it'll proceed to " Follow the right door of the hallway until you've reached the second door". Examples like this will help the visually impaired navigate indoor spaces which have a confining infrastructure and therefore makes this a very good system for the impaired.



Related Work Not Referenced in the Paper

• RFID in Robot-Assisted Indoor Navigation for the Visually Impaired
• Drishti: An Integrated Navigation System for Visually Impaired and Disabled 
• RoboCart: toward robot-assisted navigation of grocery stores by the visually impaired
• Text Detection from Natural Scene Images: Towards a System for Visually Impaired Persons
• Independent Living for the Visually Impaired
• HAPTIC REPRESENTATION OF SCIENTIFIC DATA FOR VISUALLY IMPAIRED OR BLIND PERSONS
• Robot-assisted wayfinding for the visually impaired in structured indoor environments
• NavBelt and the Guide-Cane [obstacle-avoidance systems for the blind and visually impaired]
• Design and Implementation of Haptic Virtual Environments for the Training of the Visually Impaired
• The people sensor: a mobility aid for the visually impaired

All the papers listed are about assisting the visually impaired. I found that there was two completely different approaches that each of these ten papers are a variant of. Either they wanted to make robot and make sensors and robot vision work to guide the impaired around indoor spaces, or they'd use depth cameras and other specialized technologies to create interfaces which allow the inspired to use the sense of touch to see what was in front of them. They all seemed to revolve around expensive technologies

Evaluation

The researchers used Qualitative research. They had 11 subjects all of whom used the Navatar for 3 paths. If they could find the destination then it was written down as a pass, if they couldn't then it's a fail. It's objectively done. It's pretty systemic, They also looked at other variables and specific tests. So from the results they recorded they have created a myriad of data.

Discussion

I think this is a genuinely good idea. All the other Visual Impairment aids I've read about have been expensive and probably won't have the opportunity to be implemented in very many places. This system however uses lightweight sensors and is easy to install and is very accessible. All it requires is a smartphone from the user. If they can master the art, then this will be a very good technology indeed.

Paper #1: MirageTable : Freehand Interaction on a Projected Augmented Reality Tabletop

Summary

Hrvoje Benko, Ricardo Jota, and Andrew D. Wilson have created a new tabletop technology which uses powerful Graphics processing and current generation depth measuring camers in order to create a small environment in which a user can interact with virtual objects and not need the assistance of any tools or apparatuses.

                The best way I like to look at it, is it’s extremely similar to the fictional computer technology seen in the Iron man movies. Users can create and move and interact with virtual objects and they’ll react as they would in real life. The technology revolves around 3d capture, head tracking, and real time depth camera processing. It uses a variety of techniques to address most issues individually and combines them to create this new technology. The current implementation, whilst not perfect, serves its purpose and proves that this approach works.

                The MirageTable is successful but not complete. They want the camera’s to have more resolution and to scan the whole geometry of an objecy. They also make a point of how users cannot interact with an object from above, which for the most part is realistic.

Related work not referenced in paper

I looked at 'Augmented Reality' on Google as my keyword. Because I didn't want results that were just the MirageTable.

I mostly got results on 'How it works' more than anything on a specific project like Funiture of the Future. The works I got had a fair view of Augmented Reality but it was mostly the kind that's accessible on the iPhone. So I looked up 'Augmented Reality Tabletop' and got more relevant results.

Evaluation

                The writers of the article judged their work both quanitatively and subjectively. They measure their success mostly by how well it works. Because success is measured by how well a user can interact with the technology it’s difficult to judge quantitatively. I feel like that they have a working product under given limits and they simply consider that a measurable success.

Discussion

                I think the work is really cool and interesting. I can’t be sure why, but I think it’s growing up, I watched movies and read books where, in the future, this type of technology exists. Whether it is holograms in star wars or cool watches in Spy Kids, I just think this is cool. Another thing that I like is that they mention the future approach to the science. It’s nice that it’s evaluated as a prototype more so than a finished product.