Plasma Visualization
Plasma is a way to represent animated tag clouds with a new aesthetic. It’s being applied as a way to get a snap shot of AIDS research.
“Plasma is an interactive network of links and tags that belongs to a on-going research on AIDS, from an integral and holistic point of view.”
|
Tags: AIDS, graph visualization, interactive visualization, visualization |
|
| Posted: 3/2/10 9:33 am UTC by djp3 Make the First Comment | |
|
GD Star Rating loading... |
|
Photo courtesy of paulworthington
Congratulations to Informatics faculty members Don Patterson and Susan Sim, and former Informatics grad student Tosin Aiyelokun on having their paper,
‘Overcoming Blind Spots in Interaction Design: A Case Study in Designing for African AIDS Orphan Care Communities’ accepted to the Journal of Information Technologies & International Development.
Abstract: “The process of designing technological systems for the developing world is a challenging task. In a project that we undertook in the summer of 2007 using an iterative design process, we attempted to develop delay-tolerant networking technology on mobile phones to support workers at AIDS orphanages in Zambia and South Africa. Despite extensive preparations and research, we found that conditions on the ground were radically different from what we had anticipated, and we had to quickly re-group and redefine our strategic goals. This experience made us realize that, for this type of design, resiliency and contingency planning were the most valuable tools in our interaction design toolbox. In response to changing conditions, we rapidly prototyped a different mobile telephony application called Nomatic*AID that provides a feedback loop among donors, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and field workers. In this paper, we reflect on the redirection of our work once we reached our field site and our resulting acceptance of design blind spots. We present lessons we learned to help practitioners meet their goals in the presence of considerable and obvious design distance.”
Get a copy of this paper here: http://itidjournal.org/itid/article/view/424/192
Congratulations Don, Susan and Tosin!
|
Tags: Africa, AIDS, children, design, Donald J. Patterson, HCI, Health Care, ICT4D, NGO, paper published, Susan Sim, telecom companies, Tosin Aiyelokun |
|
| Posted: 12/18/09 4:22 pm UTC by djp3 Make the First Comment | |
|
GD Star Rating loading... |
|
Bonnie and Don are briefly mentioned in this article in the O.C. Register:
“1. In Beijing, anthropologist and informatics Professor Bonnie Nardi sat with gamers at Internet cafés, studying how they used “World of Warcraft,” the immensely popular computer game produced by Blizzard Entertainment of Irvine. Nardi learned that the Chinese are far more likely than Americans to play the most challenging version of the game. She also says that, “People here play with brothers and sisters. But in China, people don’t have brothers and sisters, for the most part, so friend relationships are very important.” ”
“5. Informatics Professor Don Patterson visited villages in South Africa and Zambia to examine how such aid groups as the Agathos Foundation use information technology to help care for children, particularly orphans whose parents died of AIDS. He also worked on a cell phone tool that makes it easy for donors who give money for aid projects to get feedback about how their money is spent.”
|
Tags: Africa, AIDS, article, Bonnie Nardi, children, China, Creative Expression, Donald J. Patterson, fun, pervasive computing |
|
| Posted: 12/10/07 3:14 pm UTC by djp3 Add Your Comment | |
|
GD Star Rating loading... |
|
The speaker at this Friday’s Informatics Seminar will be Kane Kim. This
week’s seminar will be a joint seminar between the Department of
Informatics and the Department of Computer Science. The Informatics
Seminar this week will be held on Friday at 3pm in ICS 432, followed by
a social hour at 4pm. See you there.
Abstract:
” Emergence of ubiquitous computing societies (UCSs) means enormous
increase in both the number of computing nodes connected together and
the number of distributed computing (DC) applications. That in turn
means enormous increase in the complexity of DC occurring. Without a
new-generation DC software engineering technology, application systems
such as next-generation multi-party video-conferencing systems,
real-time virtual reality systems, systems of cooperating autonomous
ground vehicles, and next-generation secure villages and towns, cannot
be constructed with sufficient economy, efficiency, and reliability. A
major part of a new-generation DC software engineering technology should
be a new-generation software building-block (BB). A substantial
percentage of new-generation DC applications are of RT computing types
which involve actions subject to relatively high-precision timing
requirements. Therefore, desired aBBs must be effective in constructing
RT DC application systems.
The TMO (Time-triggered Message-triggered Object) programming and
specification scheme is intended to facilitate RT distributed
programming and software engineering in a form which software engineers
in the vast business software field can adapt to with relatively small
efforts. It is also aimed for enabling system engineers to produce
certifiable RT computing systems for safety-critical applications in
cost-effective and sufficiently confident manners. Its support tools
can be based on well-established OO programming languages such as C++,
C#, and JAVA and on ubiquitous commercial RT operating system kernels or
even on MS Windows. In addition, the TMO scheme facilitates an
attractively simple approach to parallel and distributed RT simulation.
Experiences have shown that undergraduate senior students can learn the
TMO tools and methodology and become reasonably proficient in networked
embedded system programming. In this seminar, the underlying design
paradigm and the essence of the scheme, the tools (including middleware
supporting reliable execution of TMOs on various platforms such as
notebook, PDA, and single-board ITX PC, associated APIs, GUI-based
design aids, and analysis tools) and application demonstrations built so
far, and remaining research issues, will be introduced.”
|
Tags: AI, AIDS, app, art, demo, design, safety, software engineering, STEM, ubiquitous computing, vehicle, video, virtual reality |
|
| Posted: 5/1/06 9:15 am UTC by djp3 Make the First Comment | |
|
GD Star Rating loading... |
|
Programming Job – AIDS – Africa - May 4th, 2007
Photo courtesy of Flickr:phitar
The following is a job announcement forwarded by a colleague of Don’s:
Do you want to put your computer skills to use helping to improve AIDS treatment in Sub-Saharan Africa?
The Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health is soliciting applications for a Programmer/Trainer. Responsibilities of the position include programming, computer training, and research study documentation in support of HIV/AIDs and TB clinical trials being conducted in collaboration with the Muhimbili University College of Health Sciences in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
This position is based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania where we have a large, dynamic team working closely with our team in Boston.
Qualifications: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. Knowledge of programming languages and database design. Experience with Basic programming, preferably Visual Basic is a plus. Willingness to learn SAS, a statistical programming language. Ability to teach Microsoft Office products and other computer skills.
Additional Qualifications: Excellent technical, computer, analytical, organizational and problem-solving skills, strong interpersonal, service and communication skills, and the ability to work independently, under supervision and as part of a team.
Please send resume, list of references, and cover letter describing your interest in working in Tanzania and any experiences you have had that prepare you for living and working in another culture.
Contact information:
Jenny Hochstadt
Data Manager
Harvard School of Public Health
Department of Nutrition
jhochsta@hsph.harvard.edu
loading...