The Case for Recombinant Computing

Abstract. Interoperability among a group of devices, applications, and services is typically predicated on those entities having some degree of prior knowledge of one another. In particular, they must be written to understand the type of thing with which they will interact, including the details of communication as well as semantic knowledge such as when and how to communicate. This paper presents a case for “recombinant computing”—a set of common interaction patterns that leverage mobile code to allow rich interactions among computational entities with only limited a priori knowledge of one another. We have been experimenting with a particular embodiment of these ideas, which we call Speakeasy. It is designed to support ad hoc, end user configurations of hardware and software, and provides patterns for data exchange, user control, and contextual awareness.

Designing for Serendipity: Supporting End-User Configuration of . . .

The future world of ubiquitous computing is one in which we will be surrounded by an ever-richer set of networked devices and services. In such a world, we cannot expect to have available to us specific applications that allow us to accomplish every conceivable combination of devices that we might wish. Instead, we believe that many of our interactions will be through highly generic tools that allow end-user discovery, configuration, interconnection, and control of the devices around us. This paper presents a design study of such an environment, intended to support serendipitous, opportunistic use of discovered network resources. We present an examination of a generic browser-style application built on top of an infrastructure developed to support arbitrary recombination of devices and services, as well as a number of challenges we believe to be inherent in such settings

Using Speakeasy for Ad Hoc Peer-to-Peer Collaboration

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Speakeasy: A Platform for Interactive Public Displays

This is our vision: display and interact with any media type on any kind of device that you want to turn into an electronic public display. We desire to support all media types and devices that exist today as well as those that will exist tomorrow. To explore this vision, we developed two electronic public displays using Speakeasy, a foundational platform that supports ad hoc communication between devices and services with little or no a priori knowledge of one another. We discuss the design, implementation, and our experiences with these two electronic public displays

Designing for Serendipity: Supporting End-User Configuration of Ubiquitous Computing Environments

The future world of ubiquitous computing is one in which we will be surrounded by an ever-richer set of networked devices and services. In such a world, we cannot expect to have available to us specific applications that allow us to accomplish every conceivable combination of devices that we might wish. Instead, we believe that many of our interactions will be through highly generic tools that allow end-user discovery, configuration, interconnection, and control of the devices around us. This paper presents a design study of such an environment, intended to support serendipitous, opportunistic use of discovered network resources. We present an examination of a generic browser-style application built on top of an infrastructure developed to support arbitrary recombination of devices and services, as well as a number of challenges we believe to be inherent in such settings