alleshannes.

Here comes the all new and sparkling abstract of my Thesis (old stuff). You might want to have a look at it and give it some comments!

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In my thesis I propose the idea of a socially aware computer. In order to get to know the user‘s circles of friends, it will mine and analyse the data that is left as traces by her communication, mainly phone call logs and email archives. As a result, a value for personal or subjective importance can be computed for each person in the user‘s network.

This allows for a new arrangement of the personal address book so that more relevant persons can be found more easily – an important feature regarding our ever expanding and globalized personal networks.
Moreover, tasks that require knowledge about the user‘s personal relations can be handled automatically: One is turning the user‘s attention towards old friends that tend to be neglected when he is burried in work or because he is always on the run due to our mobile and flexible times. Another one is managing access to her personal data that she stores online, like photos, travel plans or her activity stream that gets created by recent software like Jaiku or Twitter.

Handling friends and acquaintances in such an environment opens up new challenges that are explored by means of a visual prototype. Different types of displaying, managing, and enriching information about related persons are developped. Results from a user testing will be provided.
As a preliminary study, the data sets of several people have been analysed and plotted into an interactive diagramm in order to investigate the potentials of the communication data given. It also offers the possibility to look for the relevant parameters that determine different types of relations (e.g. best friend or old friend).

To provide a conceptual background, existing social network theories are explored and related to personal, ego-centric ones. I take a closer look onto the whole process of operationalisation, i.e. turning human behaviour into quantifiable data by statistical methods. Finally, implications and problematic consequences of both, the software itself and the concept of the „network society“ in general, are discussed. The felt need to turn our friendships into „social capital“ is one of the most remarkable shifts in the functioning of our societies. Others can make draw profits from this capital if they collect detailed data to establish profiles of us and our relationships. Thus, the whole field of privacy is entangled.
And across all these dynamics, computers become so inseparably intermingeld into our daily social life that borders between our (extended) self and the machine is often hard to determine.

A proposal for a new law faces a lot of controversy at the moment: The TKÜ (Law for the Surveillance of Telecommunication). Unfortunately, a lot of people are completely unaware and uninformed about the problems at hand — especially if they are not reading a lot of things online. I think, this is very problematic for two main reasons (a lot more can be found easily via the link in the corner of this site): the relation data stored is more sensitve than we might think and our believe that state authorities are good guys is not necessarily true.

Isn’t it all a minor problem as they are just storing the relational data (who with whom when and where) and don’t record e.g. the voice (they do but via another law)? Acutally, content is completely irrelevant: The whole field of Social Network Analysis strives to map entire social networks (you and your friends and their friends…) based on communication (one very good example is MIT’s Reality Mining Project). They can even estimate your general happiness: spending time with their friends usually makes people more content. As the analysis produces very concrete and specific patterns it is suited ideally for a pattern based search for criminals/terrorists. Especially “home grown terrorists” will have very sharp disruptions in their social life. All data sets should not only be stored but scanned carefully for suspicious behaviour if we want to take prevention seriously!

Still no problem because we don’t have to hide anything! We even stopped downloading files from dubious sources, so the copyright industry’s desires behind the law can’t harm us, either. But what if your friend becomes a suspect? Remember that you are linked with pretty much people with only six in between? I’m pretty sure you will find a true terrorist much closer in your “network”. And you can get a lock-in from prosecution authorities yourself, too! Visiting Afghanistan for whatever reason (relatives? NGO project?) is not a good idea, clearly, but probably not very likely for most of us, either. So Guantanamo is away far enough (you could get “extracted“, still) but serves as a first example why naively believing in the good state is a bad idea: While the U.S.A. can still be regareded a democracy and a constitutional state, all you know about that becomes irrelevant once you find yourself in “the camp”. No civil rights as you are outside the U.S. and of course Europe (if you consider yourself a civilian) and no rights from the Geneva Convention(if you consider yourself a soldier). No perspective to get heard by a lawyer, either.
For all Germans, there is a very recent example from at home: A sociologist working for Humboldt University, on cities in particular, got arrested for being part of a “terrorist community” (it’s all about communities…). It’s not that he really did something but that he was providing the “intellectual basis” for others — via his scientific research. Once you are suspected of terrorism you lose a lot of rights, e.g. talking to your attorney privately. It’s the attorney you need to get you out of prison, unfortunately.

While it is certainly necessary to provide security for the people, there are some limits that should be respected in order not to lose our freedom in tight situations.
On Nov, 6th, we can give our concerns a voice!

When I was on the way of looking for a film I saw at this years ars electronica, I got quite a good result via Google: http://www.thearkfilm.com/

But instead of the website I got a smart advise by Google as you can see below:

(you can right-click “view image” for the better readable version, untill I have better skripts for that)

[edit]
I had my doubts with the Google warning but the ars-link was exactly the same, so I took it and found a very nice page, describing the film, trailer, and several articles linking to all the awards the film has won so far (siggraph et al.!) – as expected.
Did that site become “badware” by Google-algorithms? and
Why did Google/stopbadware not provide any “no badware” button as we know it from spam and everything?
[/edit]

Has anyone ever experienced something similiar?

In the context of my mini-exhibition of spam art at the FHP, I had a very inspiring conversation with Christopher and Martin (who study at the FHP as well). It started off from the exhibits themselves and that spam might be the Basis for the Pop-Art of our time as it is more typical than a Coke Bottle.

On the other hand, it is a radical interference with our communication needs and intentions, which should be one of the reasons for the strong emotions (fierce hatred?) towards it. That relation builds the link to my master thesis, which is focused on the organisation of our addressbook according to our communication behaviour.

At the moment, it seems as if we face a heavy communication overlaod: Twitter, Skype, ICQ, Blogs (with shoutboxes and comments), SMS-connectivity, Plazes, Facebook/StudiVZ, messages even via last.fm. Is there a goal everything is converging to, one “integrated commuication application”? How intense and instantaneous do we want our communication to become? Sometimes it looks as if we try to connect our brains. Or at least, we make publicly listenable what we usually would mutter to ourselves at best. Is it all about being afraid of feeling “un-connected” and alone when anyone else is excited about the new possibilities for interpersonal conncections? …

Today, Prof. Dan Smith who is engaged with the development of Service Design at the Glasgow School of Art visited Reto Wettach at the FH Potsdam. The topics of our talk made me have a closer look on Livework in London, a company focused on Service Design.

While this field of design can be considered emergent itself it deals a lot with new technologies and possibilities as well. In a kind of hands-on-research, Livework developed the loome (edit: original page vanished, but some info is left here) service that lets you sell your private data like bank transfer and grocery shopping histories to the highest paying company (one of the involved designers sold a personal record of 800 pages for 150 GBP on ebay as a proof of concept). …

My previous storyboard has advanced: A little more compact in the beginning and a focus onto the essential statement about Design for Debate in the end. And the pictures, stiff and still, became a real movie already!

To everyone who wants to know a little bit more about Russia, its political disposition, and the daily life there, I strongly recommend Ben Bidders Russenblog. He tries to work as a journalist, for sure one of the most exciting and often enough uneasy occupations to find there at the moment. How the press, independent press in particular, and all kinds of critical citzienship is handled by official representatives is a pure scandal.

A link in one of his posts led me to the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, which published some photos (with frightening content). It was not on purpose, most probably, but at the time of my visit (07-05-26) the fotos got accompanied by a large ad, almost the size of the pictures themselves. While this is questionable enough, the picture’s caption establishes another link, describing the scenes as raw violence (“rohe Gewalt”). At least for me, raw is somehow associated with meat (> cat food).

That really made me think.

While science did and still does struggle to explain some basic relations in our physical environment, several man-made layers were added on top from global economies over finely balanced political treaties to magic-like technologies.

From an everyday perspective, Quantum Mechanics and Magic are more or less equivalent.

as Terry Pratchett once put it (in an 2002 Interview by Die Zeit). The same holds true for our personal environment, where we clutter our harddisks with images, bookmarks, music — and addressbook entries. …

In the course of developing my ideas to present the “Design for Debate” position in a short (30″-60″) movie clip I tried to mix future developments in technology with well-known situations of today. Three very short “glimpses” introduce some hot topics that can be found in current discussions. To raise the level of alert a voiceover will present the scenarios not as if the can possibly happen but as if they become reality inevitably. Each character in the movie — representing the audience — seems to listen to the voiceover and (consequently) has some questions about the presentation. While he starts with “But…” he is left behind by the imaginary presenter who moves on to the next clip.

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Das Schnitzel der Zukunft wird nicht mehr einer toten Kuh entstammen, sondern direkt als Zellkultur wachsen – ganz nach unseren Vorstellungen!

Wir gehen davon aus, dass der Mensch in zukünftigen Energieszenarien auf sich selbst zurückgreift. Als Biogasquelle.

Die Bio- und Medizintechnologie von morgen kann lebensnotwendige Ersatzteile direkt im menschlichen Körper wachsen lassen. Und schafft damit ganz neue Erwerbsmöglichkeiten.

[black]

Die Welt von morgen in der Diskussion.
Design for Debate.

—

The examples illustrating the movies were developed
by
James King and
Michael Burton at the RCA.
Stelarc gave himself a third ear as an implant in his arm.

[update 070615]

Producing energy from our excrements was regarded as too little provocative — it seems as if it is on the edge of becoming reality already. So, here are two new scenarios as replacements:

voice-over: “Die Bio- und Medizintechnologie von morgen kann lebensnotwendige Ersatzteile direkt im menschlichen Körper wachsen lassen. Werden Menschen ihren Körper als Bio-Substrat vermieten?”
(to understand the drawings it might be helpful to watch the featured project by michael burton, nanotopia, at the RCA)

voice-over: “Winzige Nanomaschinen werden in Zukunft unseren Körper viel gründlicher und effizienter reinigen als die Dusche von heute. Nicht nur außen, sondern auch innen.”
(this clip builds on Johanna Sim’s nanocleaner idea)

Bsp. Fleisch essen
ohne Sprache, ca. 50 secs

heute:

[Kuh? die nehmen wir ja schon nicht mehr wahr]
Supermarkt, Griff in die Tiefkühltruhe (alternative Drehorte: Mensa-TK, Metzger — ohne TK)

vision: Fragen suchen

Fragen stellen nach dem Essen: Was könnte es noch sein?
Mensa-Essen wir kritisch beäugt.
Alternative, neue Formen werden vorgestellt: Die displayTorte (wenn es Filmaterial von Martí Guixé dazu gibt)
Kultivierung eines “künstlichen” Fleisches (Filmmaterial vom RCA oder aus dem med. Bereich)

Erfahrung, Ausprobieren: Zukunft darstellen

Mehrere Studenten beim Essen (mit besonderen, “klinisch” wirkenden Tabletts), einer im Fokus. Er isst sein (grünes?violettes?) Steak und kaut etwas nachdenklich/aufmerksam darauf herum.

Diskussion: Richtung entscheiden

Durch das/beim Essen entspinnt sich eine ernsthafte, “akademische” Diskussion. Eine “Testesser” Atmosphäre wird dadurch deutlich, dass nicht einfach alle in sich hineinschaufeln, sondern auch die anderen aufmerksam essen und viel debattieren.

Alternative

Die Studenten brechen das Essen ab und man sieht einen davon sich ein “richtiges” Steak holen.

Storyboard als automatische Präsentation (openOffice Impress, 769 kb)
Storyboard als flash-export (240 kb), leider nur zum selber klicken.
[Nachtrag - 2007-05-08]

ein neues, ausführlicheres Storyboard

Arbeitsplan

Zum geplanten Arbeitsaufwand/Materialeinsatz
Drehort ist im Wesentlichen eine Kantine/resp. unsere Mensa. Hier wäre zu klären, ob das (zu viel) Lichtaufbauten nach sich zieht.

Schauspieler können alle dem Personal und unserem Kurs entspringen, Sprech-Text ist derzeit keiner vorgesehen.

Die Requisiten sollten einfach zu besorgen sein (Tabletts) bzw. herzustellen (esstechnisch unbedenklich gefärbte Steaks).

Die Drehgenehmigung für die Supermarkt-Tiefkühltruhe könnte (erfahrungsgemäß) schwierig, vor allem langwierig werden, daher wäre die TK der Mensa oder ein Metzger vielleicht eine bessere Lösung.