4.285 Research Topics in Architecture: Citizen-Centered Design of Open Governance Systems: Class Notes

Class Notes What is the project going to be and how are the pieces going to fit together? Should everyone to participate on same project but different pieces? Stelios • Site architecture, user interface. • slashdot.com • Pros o bi-directional communication with users. o filtering capabilities • Cons o design – falls into ‘digital newspaper’ (bad) o doesn’t handle complexity well • the brain • Pros o good overall visual info o constant frame of reference • Cons o unbalanced – upper part gets too much attention o not dynamic – can’t create own links? (not true?) o limited game play factor • -source forge.net • Pros o similar – all members working on same project o something for all users – low or high tech o any user can post project idea, others join in • Cons o bad interface design – lost in information in seconds • smart money.com • Pros o global data visualization • Cons o soon lost in details – not supported • starry night • Pros o transforms info into visual patterns (constellations) o like brain – shows links globally • Cons o non-functional – cannot find information o no search capability • • • what kind of model to use? Community model or business model? is there ‘gravity’ to the conversation or just ‘talk’? sacred obligation or they do it for themselves? • • • • how many clicks can lead to chaos? how to linearize the complexity (instead of rising quickly – exponentially)? form vs. function in the design? communication scheme? Synchronous – same space but different time. • (Dan – answers to some extent depend on the specific context that software is used. Start with group that already has the ability (or obligation) to make decisions.) • • Characteristics of nodes, pts on a constellation, etc.: Position, size, color, texture, movement. • • Sawako http://www.theyrule.net o corporate managers – where the donate etc. sony bank? starry night – type of constellations – create icon for yourself and drag/drop to different groups – different colors of people for different groups • • • • • Donald think about home users – have 17” monitor – how to reduce visual clutter? (will present next week) • (Dan – different interfaces for different parts of the site?) • Class – Oct 22 – with Bill Mitchell, refine into presentation to be presented on laptop – any format – html, powerpoint, jpg, etc. Send Greg files a couple days prior – upload to a site. • • Mitch amazon.com – books to interest you. ‘Filter of reason’ – not relationship filters, but personal issues. mimesis – act of mimicry ex. Chameleon doppelganger – twinning, similar to clone simulacra – copy of a copy World Trade Center charrette (http://www.archinode.com/WTC.html)– may not be one database but draws upon the plurality of information already ‘out there’ on the web. How do you address those realms of identity in a system? • • • • • • • • Esra how are we going to answer mitch’s questions? What is being forced on people and what is being made invisible? interested in users – how info sharing processes work in physical world? What do user see themselves as? What roles? What identities? How to prepare a questionnaire? Interested in Town Meeting. Graduate Students in Housing is another possibility (Graduate Student Council). Johanne Media – potential for communication. Aesthetics – design aspect – visual aspect – wants to continue to work on Town Meeting. (will present next week) Jeremy (will present next week)