alleshannes.

Finally, my studies at FH Potsdam come to an end. I will give the presentation of my Master’s Thesis and projects on

Tuesday, March 25th, 2008 at 15 h
in the FH Potsdam Casino.

It has been a tough time untill my book went into press and I’m still quite busy preparing a decent show for you. But, hopefully, you will enjoy it and I will succeed in gaining a proud and honourful Master’s degree.

Buddyguard is helping me with making up a proper guestlist. But you are invited now already, as a reader of my blog!

The paper Larissa and me wrote a couple of months ago got finally accepted at the NGMAST conference in Wales this September! This is pretty exciting news, it’s my/our first step into the serious (official?) world of science.

The full title reads
Social Button – Mobile Technology Supporting Social Interaction.
Our project is about a small wearable display with a pin, that can be attached to your clothes. It gets your address book from your mobile phone and checks for matching entries on other SocialButtons that might be in the area. The Buttons indicate a match by displaying each participants personal symbol – a twist, that makes it much easier to find others and protect your privacy at the same time. Larissa’s animation explanes it far better:

So we went to the wonderful city of Cardiff (Wales, UK) some weeks ago to present our work. We got very encouraging feedback and some helpful critique there , and had some interesting face-to-face talks in the City Hall where conference took place. (Our slides come in at 8MB)

NGMAST was the first conference on “Next Generation Mobile Applications, Services, and Technologies”, so it was rather tiny (compared to the very well known ones), but also quite personal, with a very warm chair, and easy to get in contact with the other participants.

With this event it became clear that our idea is promising yet only partially finished – so we are open for your comments!

(There is also a corresponding workspace at our University’s site for internal communication, incom)

For the further development of our Social Display prototype we were in need for a transceiver, a display and some computing power. All of this can be found nicly bundled into a state-of-the-art mobile phone. I had heard of a mobile version of processing and after a quick view (when I found a cool example-code for some bluetooth-tricks by Francis Li), we decided to give it a try.
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[edit 080223] There is a new and English abstract![/edit]
[edit 071129]With my thesis I want to explore what role machines can play in our interaction with extended social networks.[/edit]

here comes the latest version of my proposal that will be the basis for my master thesis at FH Potsdam.

Please do comment as much as you can and like, everything is appreciated!

Get proposal pdf 230 kb, text in German only

Abstract …

For getting a grip on my master thesis I made up a collection of fields of interest. There are a couple of buzz-words that I want to unfold in order to make them fructous for further investigations. This is one of the first steps and I hope to be able to add some details soon.

simulation/virtual
simulation depends and constructs reality (WoWarcraft, Second Life)
machines simulate an interface in order to get usable for humans

thoughts and theses?
opposite (according to Baudrillard): Illusion

is simulation linked to virtuality?
is operationalization the basis for simulation?

authenticity
unique, personal experience <> reproductive society, sampling

what role plays the “I” and how do we define it? >emotions

truth
democracy (many) <> experts (peers)
poetry and truth (>Goethe)

emotion
human control system, adding salience(“weight”) to information
subconscious

Links to authenticity and maybe truth?

games
a way to liberty/freedom (>Schiller)?
some things can not be described directly but rather circumscribed
storytelling, truth in poetry

immersion
which truth(s) might be created, available or perceived by being immersed into some medium, computer games in particular?

emergence
can truth come from (super)complex systems? What do emergent structures show?
are evolutionary systems useful?

massive systems can no longer be calculated but must be estimated statistically and are often simulated in advance > simulation

The sheer abundance of data that Google continues to collect makes the corporation and its activities subjects to intense investigations in several disciplines, including arts and aesthetics. With the subtitle “games without limits” the HU Berlin launched a class in its Asthetics Department led by Gerald Wildgruber. It turned out to be very exciting, offering not only deep insights into a society with a search engine in its center but also unconventional cross-references to Aristotle, Averroes, and Borges.

I want to develop playful approaches to the topic that might shed light on some backgrounds or even show some subversive character. My first concept is now online as a flash-presentation. …

There are a couple of new video prototypes available that show various devices and applications. All of them are looking for friends that you share with people around you.

Larissa has three new videos about concepts of social mobile devices, three more can be found directly here!

Waiting for the bus is quite a boring task, especially in winter. Some entertainment is usually highly apreciated, even more when there seems to be a personal link with common friends. The person next to me will no longer be a stranger but a friend of a friend.

mov: 3.7 mb

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I just returned from a great play with the title MOBIL at the Hans-Otto-Theater Potsdam about our mobile life and mobile devices. Almost all dialogues had been replaced by talks on the phone or even messages left on mailboxes. That revealed a society permanently on the move, compensating that lack of physical proximity by an excess in mobile communication. A vivid and intense performance of the actors gave these topics a touching expression. …

A more general overview over things happening and that happend in the field of ambient displays. The more mobile aspects will be further explored.

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As my phone might collect quite a lot of IDs (though the option to switch it off should exist), for the simple reason that I meet a lot of people, it could easily become a large database with no meaning. So some more contextual information will help to determine the kind of contact: …