Spring 2002
MAS.890 (H) 2-0-7
Special Projects in Media Arts and Sciences:
Workshop in Community-Maintainable Collaborative Online
Spaces
Thursdays
10am - 12n Boston time (Garden Conference Room)
3 - 5pm Dublin time (2nd Floor Meeting Room)
V. Michael Bove, Jr. (MIT Media
Lab)
and
Stefan Agamanolis (Media Lab
Europe)
Course participants
This seminar will explore concepts of spatial and temporal remoteness,
and how they relate to computationally-mediated collaborative
activities, especially expressive and creative activities beyond the
scope of traditional ``cooperative work'' research. We will focus on
community issues including anonymity, privacy, presence, and
togetherness, as well as the design of environments that can evolve
with the users' needs. Particular emphasis will be given to time and
the impact of time zones and network latencies. The course will also
delve into technical issues ranging from the construction and
operation of modern communication networks to the limitations of
popular input and output devices as interfaces between the physical
and virtual environments. The course itself will be an experiment in
its own subject matter as it will be held simultaneously at both the
MIT Media Lab and Media Lab Europe and will involve assignments and
class projects in which students in both locations must collaborate.
TENTATIVE SCHEDULE
February 7
Overview of course. What is it about? What is it not about? Why
are we doing it? Introductions of instructors and
students. Introduction to the technology supporting this class (email,
web, iCom, Isis).
Reading:
Sara A Bly, Steve R. Harrison, and Susan Irwin, "Media spaces:
Bringing people together in a video, audio, and computing
environment", CACM, vol 36, no 1, January 1993.
Mark Weiser, "The Computer for the 21st Century", Scientific American,
vol 265, no 3, pp 94-104, 1991. Draft version online: http://www.ubiq.com/hypertext/weiser/SciAmDraft3.html
William Buxton. "Telepresence: integrating shared task and person
spaces." Proceedings of Graphics Interface 1992, 123-129. http://www.dgp.toronto.edu/OTP/papers/bill.buxton/shared_space.html
Jonathan Grudin, "Why CSCW applications fail: Problems in the design
and evaluation of organizational interfaces", Proc. CSCW 1988,
pp. 85-93, September 1988.
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Assignment 1: Getting acquainted
Pick one person you don't know from the close end and one person from
the far end. Schedule a "date" and get to know those persons through
whatever means you wish. Keep notes -- you will need them for
discussion and for the next assignment. Write one page or so on each
of the people you meet. Write these in the form of a letter or email
to the other person, describing your meeting with them and what you
think you found out about them as a person, even beyond what you
discussed in your interaction. You will be sending these "letters" at
the conclusion of the assignment.
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February 14
Historical context on Media Spaces. History and evolution.
Case studies.
Minutes of the meeting
Reading:
V. Michael Bove, Jr., "Connected by Media", IEEE Multimedia, 8:4,
Oct.-Dec. 2001. http://www.media.mit.edu/~vmb/papers/00959094.pdf
V. Michael Bove, Jr., "Will Anyone Really Need a Web Browser in Five
Years?", Proc. 2000 Montreux World Television Forum, 2000. http://www.media.mit.edu/~vmb/papers/Bove-Montreux2000.pdf
Amy Bruckman, MOOSE Crossing: Construction, Community, and Learning in
a Networked Virtual World for Kids, PhD Dissertation, MIT, 1997 http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~asb/thesis/
Henry Jenkins, "Interactive Audiences?: The 'Collective Intelligence'
of Media Fans" to appear in Dan Harries (ed.), The New Media Book,
(London: British Film Institute, forthcoming) http://web.mit.edu/21fms/www/faculty/henry3/collective%20intelligence.html
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Assignment 2: Technology skews our perceptions in sneaky ways
Send the "letters" you wrote last assignment to each of the people you
met. Obtain and read the letters sent to you in return. Collect your
own notes as well, and write a few paragraphs on the experience.
Focus on and compare the technologies and the interfaces involved in
each interaction. What did the other person get right about you and
what did they get wrong? Why? Expound upon 1-2 key points that came
out of the experience for you. Submit these via email before class
next week.
Electronic submissions are preferred. PDF or HTML are best. Feel
free to embed/attach any other media, such as photos, in these
submissions.
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Assignment 2 submissions:
February 21
Presentation and discussion of Assignments 1 and 2
Minutes of the meeting
Reading:
Tom Standage, The Victorian Internet, Berkley Publishing Group, 1999.
Clifford Geertz, "Thick Description: Toward an Interpretative Theory
of Culture," in The Interpretation of Cultures, New York: Basic Books,
1973.
Alphonse Chapanis, "Interactive Human Communication", Scientific
American, v232, pp. 36-42, 1975.
Joel Stein, "Will Cybersex be Better than Real Sex?", Time, June 19,
2000. http://www.time.com/time/reports/v21/tech/mag_sex.html
Stefan Agamanolis, et al., Isis Web site:
http://www.media.mit.edu/isis
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Assignment 3: Study the intricacies of human to human encounters
Pick a collaborative activity that common wisdom dictates is necessary
to perform face to face or in close proximity to the other persons
involved. This activity may be as odd or unusual as you wish, and you
may wish to make it relevant in some way to your research outside of
the course, though this is not a necessity. Arrange and engage in
this activity with the counterparts of your choice, or observe others
engaging in this activity (be sure not to invade privacy).
Create a photo essay, a short video, or another type of media to
describe the activity. What kinds of interactions happen between the
humans? Work to discover and capture the subtle things that aren't
perhaps immediately noticable. What kinds of things enhance or
detract from the experience? Then, envision how the activity might be
accomplished "at a distance" -- make drawings or use other media to
illustrate your ideas, and complement these with some written remarks.
Prepare a ~3 minute class presentation as well as an electronic
version that can be posted on the course web site. We will send
information about video/audio/image formats that will work for
presenting over the iCom in class.
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Assignment 3 submissions:
February 28
Enabling technologies for collaboration spaces. History of the
Internet, interfaces, protocols and layers.
Minutes of the meeting
Reading:
Barry M. Leiner, et. al. "A Brief History of the Internet". http://www.isoc.org/internet/history/brief.shtml
Continue working on assignment 3
March 7
Presentations and discussion of assignment 3
Minutes of the meeting
Reading:
Ellen Isaacs and John C. Tang, "What Video Can and Cannot Do for
Collaboration: A Case Study", Multimedia Systems, v2, pp. 63-73, 1994.
Jim Hollan and Scott Stornetta, "Beyond Being There", Proc. CHI 1992,
pp. 119-125.
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Assignment 4: The little things are sometimes the most important
Pick a single human behavior, or a behavior displayed in the
environment perhaps not caused by a human. It can be as subtle a
behavior as you wish, and it can be related to something you
discovered through the previous assignment or a completely new idea.
Focus tightly on this behavior and describe it in extreme detail.
Where and when is it exhibited? What causes it? How is it displayed?
How is it noticed? What purpose does it serve, if any? What effect
does it have on other people or on the environment? Use more than
words to describe your investigation -- drawings, photos, video,
audio...
Then, design a system (or systems) to convey this behavior to a far
away place. Don't let shortcomings in current technologies limit your
imagination. Describe some of the technical details you envision, and
again, use more than just words to express these designs. For "extra
credit" build a prototype or implement part of your idea.
We encourage you to work with at least one but not more than two other
people. We also strongly encourage working with someone from the far
side and/or someone who you have not worked with before. Use the
contacts you have made on the other side to scope out partners.
Prepare a ~3 minute class presentation as well as an electronic
version that can be posted on the course web site. Preferred formats
for submission are PDF, HTML (with all images/media files collected
together), Quicktime or MPEG movies, and most audio formats. Please
do not submit raw Microsoft Word or Powerpoint files.
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Assignment 4 submissions:
March 14
Presence, awareness, and togetherness. What does it mean to be
"present"? Why is it important? Philosophical and theoretical views
of presence.
Minutes of the meeting
Reading:
William Mitchell, e-topia, MIT Press, 2000.
Continue working on Assignment 4
March 21
Presentations and discussion of Assignment 4
Minutes of the meeting
Reading:
Alan Lightman, Einstein's Dreams, Warner Books, 1993.
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Assignment 5: Time changes everything
Pick a collaborative activity that common wisdom dictates is necessary
to perform synchronously (that is, at the same time) with the other
persons involved. Observe the activity or engage in it yourself, and
describe it in detail in the media of your choice.
Then, envision how the activity might be performed in an asynchronous
manner, and design a system to support this new form of the activity.
Express your ideas in drawings, photos, or a video, as well as in
writing. How does the asynchrounous activity differ from its
synchronous counterpart? Why might it be valuable in its altered
form? For "extra credit" build a prototype or implement part of your
idea.
As in the previous assignment, we encourage you to work with at least
one but not more than two other people. We also strongly encourage
working with someone from the far side and/or someone who you have not
worked with before. Use the contacts you have made on the other side
to scope out partners.
Prepare a ~3 minute class presentation as well as an electronic
version that can be posted on the course web site. Preferred formats
for submission are PDF, HTML (with all images/media files collected
together), Quicktime or MPEG movies, and most audio formats. Please
do not submit raw Microsoft Word or Powerpoint files.
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Assignment 5 submissions:
March 28
MIT Spring Break, no class
April 4
Temporal remoteness. Issues of time zones, network
latencies. Concepts of time in different cultures.
Reading:
Italo Calvino (William Weaver, translator), Invisible Cities,
Harvest/HBJ, 1986. (selected portions)
Continue working on Assignment 5
April 11
Presentations and discussion of assignment 5
Reading:
Massachusetts law on hidden cameras and microphones,
http://www.rtnda.org/resources/hiddencamera/massachusetts.html
April 18
Surveillance, privacy, anonymity. How does the technology change the
interaction? What kinds of trouble can one get in?
Reading:
Hiroshi Ishii, Minoru Kobayashi, and Kazuho Arita, "Iterative Design
of Seamless Collaboration Media," CACM, vol 37, no 8, August 1994.
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Assignment: Final project proposals.
Form a group of 2-3 people, where there should be a mix of people from
both sides if possible. Pick or invent a collaborative activity, or a
component of an activity, that you would like to design and build a
system to support. The system may use components of or be an expansion
of a previous assignment.
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April 25
CHI in Minneapolis, no class
Complete negotiations on final projects by today and begin work.
May 2
Guest lecture: Design and Collaboration Media
May 9
TBA, activity possibly connected with Digital Life meeting in
Cambridge
May 16
Final project presentations and demos
Final project submissions:
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