Interrelativity

Interrelativity: musings about interrelatedness

  • Socialbots 2: Artificial Intelligence, Social Intelligence and Twitter

    The students in my artificial intelligence course recently participated in a competition in which they formed 10 teams to design, develop and deploy "social robots" (socialbots) on Twitter [the Twitter profile images for the teams' socialbots are shown on the right]. 500 Twitter accounts were semi-randomly selected as a target user population, and the measurable…

  • Airborne telepresence robots: 1995 & 2011

    In introducing a short Marketplace Tech Report story about a floating blimp telepresence avatar this morning, host John Moe somewhat sarcastically said "Oh, no: not another floating blimp telepresence avatar story!", highlighting the rather unusual nature of a story about a "blimp-based boss". The story, reported by producer Larissa Anderson starting at the 3:08 mark,…

  • Health, science, knowledge, access and elitism: Lawrence Lessig and science as remix culture

    I have been an admirer and supporter of Lawrence Lessig's crusade for copyright reform and promotion of remix culture for many years. In a recent talk at CERN, Lessig applied his arguments for a fairer interpretation of fair use in the arts world to opening up the architectures for knowledge access in the world of…

  • Irritation Based Innovation

    If necessity is the mother of invention, irritation is the father. People can be motivated to make changes based on so-called positive emotions, but I would argue that anger is more often the spark for fueling innovation. Some people live by the credo Don't get mad, get even. But as Mohandas Gandhi so adroitly observed,…

  • Social Media and Computer Supported Cooperative Health Care

    I've become increasingly aware of – and inspired by – the ways that social media is enabling platform thinking, de-bureaucratization and a redistribution of agency in the realm of health care. Blogs, Twitter and other online forums are helping a growing number of patients – who have traditionally suffered in silence – find their voices,…

  • Is Reality Broken? Is Virtuality Broken? The Costs and Benefits of Online vs. Offline

    Two of the most interesting and provocative books I’ve encountered recently are Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other, by Sherry Turkle, and Reality is Broken: How Games Can Make Us Better and How They Are Changing the World, by Jane McGonigal. I have not finished reading either book,…

  • Civic Hacktivism at Data Camp Seattle

    The Code for America Seattle fellows organized Data Camp Seattle, a day-long unconference / hackathon in collaboration with Socrata and the City of Seattle on Saturday. The event brought together city leaders, neighborhood leaders, technologists and [other] civic-minded individuals and groups to share ideas, data and tools, and to build or improve applications to promote…

  • Innovation, Research & Reviewing: Revise & Resubmit vs. Rebut for CSCW 2012

    Research is about innovation, and yet many aspects of the research process often seem steeped in tradition. Many conference program committees and journal editorial boards – the traditional gatekeepers in research communities – are composed primarily of people with a long history of contributions and/or other well-established credentials, who typically share a collective understanding of…

  • Fitting in vs. Belonging: The Costs and Benefits of Conformity

    A while back, I wrote about Brene Brown‘s inspiring TEDxHouston talk on Wholeheartedness as connection through courage, vulnerability and authenticity. I have since read her most recent book, The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are, and was so moved by her insights that…

  • Academia Redux: Joining the Institute of Technology at the University of Washington, Tacoma

    This past Monday, I returned to the classroom after a hiatus of over two decades. While I have given occasional guest lectures and other presentations in academic settings in the intervening period, for the next six months, I will be engaging with students in classrooms at least twice a week in my new role as…