Sustainability in design: now! Challenges and opportunities for design research, education and practice in the XXI century

Copyright @ 2010 Greenleaf PublicationsLeNS project funded by the Asia Link Programme, EuropeAid, European Commission

Location-based Social Network for Cities & Neighbourhood Sustainable Development

Online Social Network (OSN) is categorized as Web 2.0 which is defined by O'Reilly in 2004, is the idea of mutually maximizing collective intelligence and added value for each participant by dynamic information sharing and creation. Current trend sbows that the next big thing in OSN is Location-based Social Networking (LBSN) which is the composite of OSN and Location-based Service (LBS). The goal of this paper is to study on Malaysian online social behaviour and to explore what are the key technologies of LBSN to support the development of neighbourhoods where residents feel a sense of connection to their local community and ability to engage in that community. Problems and opportunities identified are: I) Lack of research has been done to nnderstand Malaysian online social behavior in the context of cities & neighbourhood development, 2) Modem societies are said to lives in a condition of individualism and 3) Malaysia has strong networked community and there are a number of social Application Programming Interface (API) which provide a great opportunities for developers to create an application which can support the idea of smart, liveable and sustainable cities. The objectives of the research are: 1) To study on Malaysian social behavior in using Location-based Social Network (LBSN) , motivation for participation and pattern of use, 2) To identifY and understand key technologies of LBSN, and 3) To design an engaging LBSN which leverage on key technologies for neighbourhood and cities' sustainable development. Survey instrument is used as data collection tool to investigate the Malaysian online social behaviour and gauge their views on civil issues such as crime in their residential. Interview also is carried out to the owner of existing crime mapping system to identifY the gaps and opportunities for improvements. This research discovers that Malaysians are socially active in online community network and have strong civic conscious to make our neighbourhood works better. Govermnent shonld look forward into open data for beneficial of public. With proper neighbourhood planning, it will contribute to sustainable community which can help country's development

Kiosks 21: a new role for information kiosks?

Discusses and analyses the latest generation of information kiosks, Kiosks 21, which features information provision/promotion, interaction, transaction and relationships. In contrast to their task based predecessors, these kiosks focus on customer service delivery to ‘customers in context’. Five case studies of such kiosks located respectively in an airport, railway station, car rental base, hotel lobby, and shopping mall are analysed to demonstrate the way in which the kiosks are implemented to meet the differing requirements of customers in different contexts. Case studies are analysed in terms of kiosk design and location, user profile, information architecture, interface design, communication, and commerce. A range of areas for research and development are proposed.</p

Decentralized Information Search

abstract: Our research focuses on finding answers through decentralized search, for complex, imprecise queries (such as "Which is the best hair salon nearby?") in situations where there is a spatiotemporal constraint (say answer needs to be found within 15 minutes) associated with the query. In general, human networks are good in answering imprecise queries. We try to use the social network of a person to answer his query. Our research aims at designing a framework that exploits the user's social network in order to maximize the answers for a given query. Exploiting an user's social network has several challenges. The major challenge is that the user's immediate social circle may not possess the answer for the given query, and hence the framework designed needs to carry out the query diffusion process across the network. The next challenge involves in finding the right set of seeds to pass the query to in the user's social circle. One other challenge is to incentivize people in the social network to respond to the query and thereby maximize the quality and quantity of replies. Our proposed framework is a mobile application where an individual can either respond to the query or forward it to his friends. We simulated the query diffusion process in three types of graphs: Small World, Random and Preferential Attachment. Given a type of network and a particular query, we carried out the query diffusion by selecting seeds based on attributes of the seed. The main attributes are Topic relevance, Replying or Forwarding probability and Time to Respond. We found that there is a considerable increase in the number of replies attained, even without saturating the user's network, if we adopt an optimal seed selection process. We found the output of the optimal algorithm to be satisfactory as the number of replies received at the interrogator's end was close to three times the number of neighbors an interrogator has. We addressed the challenge of incentivizing people to respond by associating a particular amount of points for each query asked, and awarding the same to people involved in answering the query. Thus, we aim to design a mobile application based on our proposed framework so that it helps in maximizing the replies for the interrogator's query by diffusing the query across his/her social network.Dissertation/ThesisM.S. Computer Science 201

Designing in the Street: Innovation In-Situ

This paper suggests that taking the design process into the field and constantly engaging with the site to observe, intervene, brainstorm, prototype and create fosters unique forms of inspiration and innovation. How does a consideration of participation of both the designer and the user in the space change the design process? With participation comes understanding of the situation and by elaborating on possible futures with users, designers can find lucid innovations. We describe a project conducted by students from the Interaction Design course at the Royal College of Art in London which used a variety of approaches to speculate on the social and technological future of a London street. We discuss and compare the role of different techniques which enable designers to find inspiration for innovative technology in the field, or in this case the street. Keywords: Design, Prototyping, Ethno-Fiction</p

Human experience in the natural and built environment : implications for research policy and practice

22nd IAPS conference. Edited book of abstracts. 427 pp. University of Strathclyde, Sheffield and West of Scotland Publication. ISBN: 978-0-94-764988-3

Application of Web 2.0 Technologies for Integration of Land-use and Transportation System

Transportation networks are the life line of any city but only when the decision of land-use system and transportation system are integrated in smart and intelligent ways. The present paper examines the complexities of development and planning decision that are embedded in the process for finding an effective solution for integration of land-use and transportation system. The present paper also answers the question that how society democratically and effectively access to Web 2.0 technologies for spatial information and translate the virtually tested, analyzed design in the real world. In overall, the paper tries to frame a concept to use Web 2.0 technologies as a tool for establishing Intelligent Transportation System within the existing land-use system. No doubt Web 2.0 technologies in the cybernetic age is the fastest way to access, collect, analyze and transfer spatial information and providing innovative, sustainable, participatory solutions for effective government and community empowerment. However, the use of Web 2.0 technologies in transportation system is not the part of smart city model in India. Hence, the paper will act as a guiding principle and methodology for Smart City Mission in India. The paper also suggests the possible ways to establish Web 2.0 technologies applications for intelligent transport system through community base local Neighbourhood Digital Technology Center (NDTC). The establishment of NDTC will give local urban community free hand to tailored or customized Web 2.0 software as per their need and requirement and generate or manipulate their own information or spatial data rather than given answer or raised query to the predefined proposed land-use map

Mixed reality for cross-cultural integration. Using positive technology to share experiences and promote communication

The opinion article highlights some innovative resources to deal with the challenges of migrations, relying in the field of positive technologies and, more specifically, in the concept of mixed reality. In the contemporary society, migrations are a common phenomenon that rises cultural and psycho-social issues, as well as political and economic challenges. People move from their place of origin for educational or professional purposes or because they are forced to leave due to political, economic and social conditions, and also natural disasters which produce population flows. Whatever the push and pull factors are, when people move permanently or temporarily they tend to maintain close ties with their place of origin (with people, places, culture, practices etc.), while trying to develop attachment with the place of residence. Immigrants construct their identities in the context of a negotiation between old and new homes’ contexts. However, such a process is not free from issues and relevant consequences on immigrants’ well-being. Some psychosocial issues can be identified regarding identity re-negotiation while moving to a different place, and cultural integration: immigrants could experience feeling of isolation, estrangement and alienation, related to the difficulty to create strong social ties in the new place; the “acculturation stress” associated to adaptation to new culture, language and practices. Positive technologies offer innovative resources to deal with these challenges, by considering the human health and well-being as the main objective for technological advancement. In a broad sense, Positive technology may be used to structure, augment or replace user experience with digital content; also, positive devices may be used to promote positive emotions (hedonic technology), to support the user in the achievement of engaging and self-actualizing experiences (eudaimonic technology), and to enhance connectedness among individuals, groups and societies (social-interpersonal technologies). In such perspective, the mixed reality technology provides resources for intervention in that it is based on the addition of digital elements in the physical environment, instead of its substitution with an immersive experience which, in this case, may act as a palliative care for sadness but does not help to integrate oneself in a new, “real” physical environment and social context. Specifically, mixed reality based Positive technologies can help in maintaining the relation with the home country, and also in fostering the inclusion in and attachment to the receiving society, by providing users with sources of identification that stretch beyond the national and local contexts of their old and new homes. Addressing the social connectedness, the mixed reality can provide the medium to share the meanings that people attach to places, people and cultures, and creating belonging in the receiving society. Indeed, people can better approach the receiving society by understanding the cultural meanings connected with places, history and activities. The concept expressed in the opinion article is still in its infancy. However, it provides an innovative idea for positive technology (at the social-interpersonal level), which may guide the development of future devices and applications for enhancing health and well-being in the growing population looking for a new life in places distant from home