Orange Cone

At the 2005 IA Summit in Montreal last week, I presented a talk on ubiquitous computing. Here's the abstract:

Ubiquitous computing, ubicomp, is the introduction of information-processing devices into the background of people's lives. Unprecedented networking and computational power and miniaturization define a ubicomp future that presents challenges which go beyond the expertise of traditional design disciplines. These devices will be more flexible than those created by traditional industrial designers, yet more narrowly task-oriented than general-purpose computers and software. Thus, just as the definition of experience design starts to stabilize, ubicomp poses new questions about information presentation and organization.

What do "navigation" and "search" mean in environments where your personal information cloud includes not just your laptop and phone, but your running shoes, your pacemaker and the sidewalk you're jogging on?
How do we share knowledge where there are no screens or keyboards?
How do we maintain our users' ethical prerogatives of privacy and choice?

This presentation will cover issues specifically addressing the ways that information architecture is a critical component of ubicomp user experience.

The talk is available as a 700K PDF of my PowerPoint, (drop me a note and let me know if you want the actual PPT). It's mostly pictures and is missing the closing Betty Boop cartoon, but the ideas are there, if skeletal.

[Andrew reminds me: Adam's original essay, which served as impetus and original title for this talk but which is a much deeper examination of the ethical in issues ubicomp, is available on Boxes and Arrows.]