September 2005 Archives

Liz has written an excellent summary of Ubicomp 2005, warts and all. I admit there's some logrolling here, since I get namechecked in it (and, well, we live together and stuff), but I think it's a very articulate analysis of the conference and says everything I would have said. Although I had a great time at the conference, there was something missing, which Liz accurately identifies:

Especially in the systems-oriented long papers, what’s often missing is “design” – in the definition of design as a process that creates artifacts integrated into human contexts. I tend to prefer the shorter and less weighty formats such as posters and workshop papers. Paradoxically, this very lightness makes posters and workshops more immediately relevant and often more compelling. Unlike the longer papers, they don’t wear out their welcome.

I presented a short talk at the Ubicomp 2005 workshop on situated computing today. Here's the abstract:

The assumption that the goal of ubicomp is to make technology disappear stems from a Modernist ideal of purely utilitarian design that creates social invisibility. In fact, everyday design is anything from invisible, as can be seen in how furniture and cars are designed and from the hotrod and casemod cultures that modify everyday technological objects. Ubicomp design can learn to understand the design of situated technology from industrial design and from the study of technology modification cultures.

Something's up with the blog. I'm in Tokyo for the Ubicomp conference and probably won't get a chance to fix it for a couple of weeks. Damn.

All the content is still on the blog, it just renders all wrong. If you have any suggestions about how this happened, I would appreciate some insight.

(OK, I figured it out: I had it set to display the last 28 days of blog entries...and I hadn't made an entry in 28 days...now it's set for 60 days until things settle down and I get back on the blog wagon)