No 11: Buildings as social networks

Very briefly, this is based on work from MIT in America. The original MIT project mapped in real time the activity of users in a city. In this case Rome.

In essence what they did was use mobile technology such as Bluetooth and GPS to turn the city into a social network site. What I am starting to work on is using the idea of a city as a social network and applying some of these ideas and theories to H Building. This is involves number of difeferent elements. Alfred Korzybsk quote that the map is not territory is perhaps key here, in that the work will be about mapping the use of the building and how people interact with building and the spaces. This ties back into work such as the design of Harry Becks London Underground Map, where distances don't matter or the work of Edward Tufte, and the visualization of information.

For example do you start to map specific areas and of the building. Routes through the building, from entering the building to the 9th Floor in H Building. Corners, corridors, lifts where people move through or places where people meet such as vending machines, lifts stairs. How do you map all these areas (hotspots) Then what do you do with these spaces when you know people are there. Can you make use of these "dead spaces"?

Initially using myself to map how I enter and walk through and use the building. Develop this to times of day when spaces are busiest, what days are busiest, what time of the year are busiest? What courses(graphics, fine art) What years are busiest?

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/wikicity-0830.html

http://senseable.mit.edu/wikicity/rome/

http://senseable.mit.edu/wikicity/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Map-territory_relation

http://realtime.waag.org/

http://senseable.mit.edu/realtimerome/

http://www.senseofthecity.nl/sotce/sotc.jsp?cmd=autoplay

http://www.mlgk.nl/

http://www.carloratti.com/projects/015.htm

http://mobile.mit.edu/component/option,com_deeppockets/task,catShow/id,32/Itemid,76/

No 10: BBC Sound Index

Edit 8/6/2008
Just seen this is being scrapped in July
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2008/06/sound_index_data.html

it's currently a public service beta and, as it was intended as a proof of concept, has an end date of mid July.

It is currently owned by BBC Switch, the new BBC offer for teens, due to the way in which teens consume and discuss music online and generate buzz about tracks and artists. There will be more functionality within the site added in the next couple of weeks, allowing more interaction and adding more value to the Index. However, we are keenly monitoring all feedback as the Sound Index trial is just as much about learning as it is about innovating - so please do leave a comment.

Beth Garrod is Producer, BBC Switch

A bit late but some notes from FutureSonic that relate to this.
One of the things BBC Radio Labs showed was a thing called Radio Pop, which is similar to Last FM but for BBC Radio stations

http://www.cookinrelaxin.com/2007/08/radio-pop.html

Radio Pop enhances your radio listening. Enabling you to create a personal record or the programmes you like, and see what your friends and everyone else is listening to.

So if you want to tap into your amigos, let your pulse spread the good vibrations, and feel the buzz from the crowd - register for Radio Pop. The radio service of tomorrow, today!

I asked about the the Sound Index which is separate from this and being developed by a different BBC team. Whats interesting is developing this, combining it with the Sound Index. Is the Sound Index a way of providing new tracks, is this a new way of charting music. So the outcome for this proposal would be a combination of both sites.







FutureSonic notes from BBC Radio Labs

bbc.backstage.co.uk
BBC online but not part of the net(see software not as tech community, spaces to be
alternatives to our content
audience
more importnt things to do
splitting time
telling their own story
expect particiaption
expect time shift
everything
expect sharing
taking note
explore beyond
have great distribution methods
content is never finished (perepetual beta)
you (audience are in control)
BBC backstage is a license similar to Creative Commons
Backstage cahnging the BBC
Ian Forrester BBC Backstage

BBC Radio Labs
Collin Murray Black Hole
Audienece participitation
ten hour take over
listener six mix
sms visualize- they need more, ambition.
Trying to visualize what is happening- sound index
MMS
Networks visulization
ownership
personal relationship
community
visualises
showing off sharing
Radio Pop
Last FM Competiton role of Radio Pop
Radio Pop API

Olinda Radio, combining web and physical
information labs
Visulaizing radio
Whats being turned up turned off
Whos listening to what
Volume
Mapping, linking, aesthetic etc

Edit 8/6/2008



Case study, redesign development of the BBC Sound Index Site use existing data from the BBC redesign the way the information is used and presented to an audience. Encourage users to find unexpected songs, music, artists. Visualize the breadth of activity across all these sites.

Nick Burcher
http://www.nickburcher.com/2008/04/bbc-sound-index-great-new-way-of.html

This BBC Sound Index is currently in Beta mode and over time the BBC aim to enhance the Sound Index by, amongst other things, developing a weighting system, "to allow the more active forms of interaction to contribute more heavily to the Sound Index."

The BBC Sound Index is yet another example of how buzz tracking tools are quickly developing and is the latest in a list of tools that can be used to track buzz and what online communities are saying. With the Sound Index the BBC has stolen a march on others (this could have sat well within Google / Yahoo! etc) and if the Sound Index is promoted / developed properly it could be a major draw to the BBC online music pages. As the Guardian says "don't bet against the enormously usable Sound Index establishing itself as the first definitive music chart for the internet age."

My reply to the above blog post

I really like this concept, how do you profile/map users and what people are searching for and listening to but it still comes down to the most popular, most viewed, most downloaded, your playlist. After a while does it become narrowed down to music and genres you know you like without finding something unexpected?
I don't know. Is there a way of doing something more experimental with this data?

I also find it fascinating that it's the BBC doing this and not someone like Google

Not sure what I mean by experimental, maybe the way it visualized. How users are finding songs, artists, bands, groups. How do you visualize these links between usesrs. Crawling, mapping, web, chains, links.
How do you visualize what is going on at this moment

This Index is made up of 25,778,447 comments, posts, plays and views

How can you show this activity? How do you show what other people are searching for, commenting on, downloading, sharing?

EDIT 28 April
Nicks response

I think it is still early days for this service as there is not a lot of info as you filter things and become more specific, but I am sure this will improve over time.

I also think this would have sat well within Google's portfolio, however there is still a great opportunity to mash this up with Google Earth!

See this is interesting, the idea of combing Google Earth visulizing in real time clusters of users. I can see this being mapped links, similar to realtime airline traffic data

No 9: Mailing list and newsletter

NOISE newsletter as a case study. Use the information from Benchmark mailing reports to redesign the Newsletter to make users visit specific areas of the NOISE website.

Visualize this through mock ups, graphs, feedback and observations

No 8: Sign up page

Edit:18/5/2008
Following on from this post
A site search tool needs relevant meta data from users, so this intail profile age becomes crucial. What needs to be thought about is the information that is being captured at this initial stage, how and where will it be used later on I what to link students work together, by common themes. By styles, interests, ideas, colours and so on. So at a later stage this can be pooled and used to link work together. What I want to try and avoid is narrowing people down to typographers, animators, graphic designers or web designers. This isn't the course philosophy, from the course website

"The course has an unusual profile recognising that once discrete disciplines with graphic arts and design have now converged.....

The diverse range of practice and process you can engage with are animation, broadcast graphics, illustration, design for print, web design, photography, art direction, advertising, traditional print and digital imaging and editing, typography, letter press and bookwork."

OK so maybe this isn't just a sign up page, it's a profile page as well. You can update your status likes dislikes ala Facebook

What needs to be done those is make people update their profile on semi-regular basis. In the case of CAGD site could this be done at the beginning of every term, after tutorials, seminars. Do you auto log people out and force them to sign in or give them the option say every six weeks?

The extreme of this would be to automatically add books you've loaned from the library and feed them onto your page so you don't have to add them. Could you auto add RSS Feeds and contacts. See MA research tool, how to eliminate that extra navigation step.

So what to collect and how to do it? One thing is to make it visual, can you upload thumbnails of your like/dislikes? Could your lists of favourite be visualised- do you take these from Google or do you start to cannibalise the site- my profile says I like Willem De Kooning paintings, do I get an image that is has been tagged De Kooning, abstract, Pollock- do you get a random image from one of these.
Or could you do what Wikipedia does and start to link to general information. For example the first sentence of the De Koonings biography on Wikipedia mentions abstract expressionism, Rotterdam and the Netherlands. Could I start to be linked and fed images relating to these terms? Hmmm....

This feeds back into the search tool. For example if I use the graph layout, my most relevant images are 1950's American Abstract expressionist but at the other end you could have Rem Koolhaas and Dutch architecture.

Edit:18/5/2008

Develop a mock up page and/or series of interactive tests that could be incorporated into a website sign up page to help profile users likes and dislikes.

Find out what tests exist at the moment (abstract, impressionists, cubist)
Developing templates form this
Options for skins
10 questions. What do you like, why do you like it?
How to tag without words
Animations, visual. Remember art and design a visual language
Testing to see what people like
Find out what tests exist at the moment (abstract, impressionists, cubist)
Set up a simple interactive test
Fine art versus design

What do you do with this information, how and why you are profiling people

Art personality
Pick a Palette
Colour Quiz

No 7: Add me to your friends

Develop ideas for users to connect with each other. How do you create collaborations with other users, avoid cliches? Friends lists,

Look at case studies such as Facebook and MySpace. Create friends lists. Genuine friends, collaborators. Anti-friends lists, people you have a an association with. How do you know people online, through others, through groups, similar ineterests, things you like/ dislike.

Again how to visualize this. Is it possibel to create work with people

eg
"Enough room for Space" a network, a loose group of people with different skills that can be called upon.


Network

* Introduction
* Artists
* Architects
* Curators
* Designers
* Exhibitionspaces
* Institutions
* Initiatives
* Residencies
* Support
* Theoreticians
* Web/Graphic designers
* Writers

No 6: NOISE enterprise section

Edit 14/7/08
This needs to be a map of some sort, a mock up of a search tool or a Google map, with NOISE specific overlays. Some reference to publishing on demand sites such as Threadless, Wooshka and Zudacomics. The importance of public rating with these sites, public ratings feedback. "Wisdom of the Crowd"

Edit 14/7/08

Development of enterprise section on the NOISE site. A way for young creatives to collaborate develop ideas and work together. Use current social networking tools and ways of networking to develop new patterns of working and ways of collaborating.
Do you work remotely or do you start mapping where users are uploading and start creating physical enterprise spaces. Are these long term or short term collaborations?

Existing networking tools. Existing social networks.


Notes from meeting with BT
BT Trade Space

http://www.bttradespace.com/

He was keen on the selling of artists work and how we were thinking of doing this. He mentioned Trade Space, at the moment this is in its early stages and BT is still developing this. Trade Space is being developed along similar lines to Amazon and Ebay but BT are looking to create a social networking or community element. They are open to new ideas about how this might develop (for example the Second Life area BT have opened) so are interested in NOISE enterprise or NOISE shop and how this might work. He liked the idea that a musician could find a graphic designer and film maker and work together via something like NOISE enterprise or a NOISE shop space. He was also keen on how we mapped users, postcodes, where work was uploaded from and so on. He also said we would able to talk to some of there technical and design team involved in Trade Space

No 5: Upload Tools

Edit 14/7/08
This stays as a case study explaining the importance of meta data. Some suggestions abut experimental upload options, what data could be cpatured

Edit 14/7/08

Case studies from YouTube and Flickr.
Develop ideas for how upload tools might work, look at meta data, tagging, algorithms. What information do I want to capture, what am I trying to archive and what do I want showcase/ curate later. How does this effect what information I capture at the upload stage.

Use YouTube and Flickr as case studies. Improvements that could be made, how theses sites already work.

No 4: DIALOGUES -approaches for a publication part 1

Edit 9/07/08
Change of plan this is quite a large section of what I'm doing at the moment. The site itself is throwing up a number of interesting questions and ideas. So part 1 is the use of current web technology as a collaberative tool. The idea of posting, virtual meeting place vs physical meting. Social loafing? The shifting role of work that is being generated. How succesful this is? How do you generate a group ethic?
How are this discussions working, using these spaces to generate work.

Graphic Arts and Design Leeds
A test space for ideas and contributions to an MA group publication and exhibition later this year.

Ideas about the notion of dialogue, audience and communication. Defining a role for myself within this project. I'm trying to avoid the obvious idea of creating a website, my role should be broader than that. What are the themes and issues of social networking, communication, how can they work across not just online but offline.

"These booklets will be like an exhibition space, a framework which is offered to each participant, culminating in a book as a publicly distributed exhibition"

The nature of the public sphere, as a place where people can congregate and meet, is changing. We need to conceive of new kinds of architecture, where a fleeting experience of city space is entangled with the folksonomies of the web.

Futuresonic plans to pull out the plug in order to take the new social spaces apart, see how they work, and put them together in new ways

Setting up an online work space. Creating network of users, collaborators. Documenting the creative process, not just the final outcome.

No 3: MA Graphic Arts Virtual Studio Space

Edit: 13/7/08
I've really left this, it's odd because this was, for a long time my idea for a final outcome. Now I'm really not sure how this is possible. At the moment I think it has to be combination of the something like the Ning space, to allow for discussion and feedback and the MA research section. Maybe a more visual version of Ning site, drooping images in virtual crits. We've done this with online discussions through the Ning site. Maybe this just needs to be a dumping ground for images. As simple as that. I think the sens of community would have to be done through the other sections of the site.
Anything you are working on can be pinned to your "wall" You simply tag the work as research, in progress or final. Users can add comments.
Just let everything pile on top of each other, there's a take down/bin option somewhere. That's it, no cheesy Flash recreations of drawing pins and masking tape. An ultra minimal image dump, that you can rifle through.
Edit: 13/7/08






8 or 9 people, only meet for a couple of hours one day a week. Varied design disciplines.
Is it possible to create an online space that recreates the atmosphere/environment of an undergraduate studio. This should be somewhere where you can upload rough work, ideas, text and so on. It should be a work in progress space. Informal where you can see what other people are working on. Creating a group, network?

No 2: NOISE Search Tool

Edit:13/7/2008


Moving this to a NOISE search tool

Currently working on these ideas with Josh Russell, who worked on AstroJam earlier in the year.
Based on the Color Pickr concept users can search work by colour. In addition this can be filtered down to categories eg graphic designers, age, postcode, rating, keyword. Basically any meta data we have on the database.
An intilal random selection of work is shown to start with, you can filter this down by selecting a colour or search term. This should give you an abstract map (ala Dopplr) of work.

This is still in it's vaporware stage but Josh is working on the code to breakdown the colours. The tricky thing from my point of view is incorporating this into a standard search format on the NOISE site. In an ideal world this would be the only way to search and find work but at the back of my mind is the nagging knowledge that I'm going to have a regular search option somewhere. Actually I think whats holding me back with this is the scale of it. In the showcase section it's to small, there need to be two variations. So a showcase search section and a larger scale section for the whole site, as shown below.
Edit:13/7/2008

Edit:15/6/2008

Visual for NOISE catalogue/search tool which incorporates a number of similar elements
Edit:15/6/2008


Edit 18/5/08: Following on from work in Manchester at NOISE, I've been looking at a lot of sites that use meta data to create visual websites. For example oSkope


It's the use of meta data that helps generate the serach results. So this comes back to the upload and site registration tool. In an ideal world what information do I need to collect store in order to buld something like this? You need information aboout work, type format, genre, style, date when work was uploaded and any tags. You also need information about the person who has uplaoded the work. What department are they from, what year are they in, what groups do the belong to.

OK so with the CAGD site at the moment you have:
Contemporary Art Practices, Fine Art, Graphic Arts and Design
BA Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, MA Level 1, Level 2 and staff
Groups
Comments. On your work and others work
Sets
Tags but these are only added after you have submitted. This would have to be done at the upload stage. See how to tag proposal as well.
The unviversity doesn't divide into seperate departments, so the upload and registration process become key in order to to capture and curate information. After that has been done then you can select how to view it.

So what else is missing?

One of my favourite parts of oSkope is it's graph function, so can you alter how work is viewed. You can also view works as grids, stacks and piles. Could I start to use the information above to do somthing similar?

Edit 18/5/08

Older:
Looking at ways of people searching and finding work on the MA space. I want a sort of anti "Amazon reccomends", so you find unexpected work but has some relevance to work you've done or looked at in the past. Not just a random selection.
For example on Amazon reccomends if you skipped the first few links of what they reccomend to you and are given the a list of things five links down the chain. Mapping what users are looking for.

Amazon.com Statistically Improbable Phrases Can this be aplied to people searching for images?

Amazon.com's Statistically Improbable Phrases, or "SIPs", are the most distinctive phrases in the text of books in the Search Inside!™ program. To identify SIPs, our computers scan the text of all books in the Search Inside! program. If they find a phrase that occurs a large number of times in a particular book relative to all Search Inside! books, that phrase is a SIP in that book.

How do you start to visualize this, Musicovery has a great interface, that would be really suited to visualizing and mapping how people are searching and viewing work.


Maybe a graph

No 1: NOISE October Showcase part 1

Edit:13/7/2008




Current reworked designs for this

Notes from email discussions

I actually really like dividing the space down the middle, it becomes more of a catalogue or book. With artists and and curators in an order on one side and then a scrapbook section on the other side.

I'm trying to work out the difference between dragging a curator and an artist. In my mind if you drag a curator it brings up all their choices, biography and video if we have it in the scrapbook. You can then drag curators choices into a magnifying tool to see a full screen image, (I think you're right about this sort of enlarge function rather than double clicking) This means you can only drag one curator at a time

You can drag as many artists as you want into the scrapbook section, these can either be from the the curators choices or from a search you've done. All that is shown thumbnails of the artists work. Again these can be dragged into a magnifying tool to blow the up to full screen.
Is this along the lines of what you suggested on Friday?

Once an image is full screen a lightbox beneath the image tells you the name of the artist, some info about the work and a link back to their portfolio on the main Joomla site. It would also tell you who picked it eg curator or public. It would be really good if you could flick through all of your scrap book choices from here, rather than having to close the window, go back and enlarge the image again.

In terms of showcased work I've decided it should just be curators, public choices and few selections from people in the NOISE office. Everything else goes in the colour picker. What would would be good if the thumbnails in the showcase section alternated between avatars and artists work, so the page isn't static.

Edit:13/7/2008









Edit:21/5/08
Intial mock ups

Edit:So this is my main focuse at NOISE at the moment, designing and working on the showcase section for September. There are basically two sections the gallery showcase and the project showcase. The gallery showcase needs to be consitent but projects showcases are split into three or four sub-sections and need to reflect the projects, the briefs and the outcomes. A couple of these projects galleries are going to be seperate proposals here.

Anyway this the current brief and some intial ideas

Key elements

Live Info Screen (featured on most of the gallery pages and elsewhere)
Showing metadata for the focused item. E.g. if the user right clicks their mouse over an image then more of the images information will appear in the info box along with thumbnails of associated images.

We need to work out what info to pull through for which items in which of the main site areas. To help avoid repetition and keep info relevant.

Galleries

1.Curators galleries, drag and drop (see Sony page www.sonyericsson.com/cws/products/mobilephones?cc=ca&lc=en)
2.Showcase (everything)
3.Public
4.Users

Each gallery should follow a similar format of dragging and dropping content but should be different enough to reflect who has selected the work (Each 5 or 6 curators compared to hundreds of user galleries)

Self curation, online Flex gallery.

Allow users to curate their own NOISE selection or a selection from the curators choice. Expand the idea of virtual festival, virtual gallery.

Allow curators to arrange their own show, export these show somewhere on the site. Revisit the idea of creating a gallery as web space, websites as architecture. Tie into Second Life, real world exhibitions.

Possible collaboration with Adobe?