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BlueSky

Page history last edited by Pablo Colapinto 15 years, 11 months ago

BlueSky Group

The BlueSky Group, begun in January 2008, is a subdivision of the Social Computing Group at UCSB. It's mandate is to brainstorm future applications of social computing.

A classified (as in "organized", not as in "secret") collection of project ideas from our initial sessions follows [See also some of our resource links at the bottom of the page].

1. IMMEDIATELY PRACTICAL SOFTWARE

Enabling Software for Current Users

Includes more practical applications: word processors that post to blogs, firefox extensions that allow easy annotation and highlighting of documents, perhaps even a new universally recognizable document format (.socx), or RDF ontology for trust metrics. Address implementations of Mpeg7 and 21 on cellphones and explore potentials of Distributed Virtual Environments (i.e. Uni-Verse platform for 3D information sharing and a social platform for multi-media content creation). How to achieve literacy for all these immediate and inevitable innovations?

2. ADVANCED SOCIALLY NETWORKED MEDIA

Communication = Computing = Cameras

What steps can we bypass for more immediate communication? For instance, "Smart cameras" are currently able to make computer-vision based calculations on the fly. Can our image-capture devices on our cell-phones talk to each other without us even having to pay attention? What could be accomplished by cutting human involvement out of the loop? This is something like imagined relationships: person A projects person B feels like X and person B projects person A feels like Y. Meanwhile, the camera footage is doing the talking . . . [see also research into situated media]

3. IDENTITY PROPAGATION

Be Many People, All at Once

Does social software have to necessarily prioritize for the groups needs over the individual's needs? For instance, we sacrifice our own privacy in order to have access to others. What happens to the power of the individual in the current model of Social Computing? How can we play with it? Can we model a Social Neworking Site where the individual's ability to more extensively manipulate his/her identity empowers a new group dynamic? (see also, http://www.nofacebook.com) How do we define "person" in our schemas: perhaps every person is just a cloud of uncertainty, or collection of desires.

4. TRUST 'R' US

Future Metrics

This project doesn't necessarily have to advance trust metrics, but rather dive into the notion that you can measure it -- 1- what are the algorithms being used? 2 - What else will we start to measure? Once credibility is "taken care of", what do we measure? How can you convolve trust / manipulate it's data points? What in the world happens?

5. SOCIAL GIRAFFES (aka "GRAPHS")

New Geometries, Please

How will visualizations evolve from the 'degrees-of-relation'/'degrees-of-depth' model to something more interactive, intuitive, tangible, real. Really, people will tire of looking at circles and lines and "connectivity". I already have, and actually never really found them as intuitive as everyone seems to claim. I think the "connectedness" model is a bit of a red herring anyway. Something that models 'believability' with projected geometry might be more apt? Dunno. [See also Manyeyes ]

6. LEARNING ACROSS DISCIPLINES

Projecting from A to B

How can we model a Social Technology that enables interdisciplinary modes of thinking, teaching, learning. Perhaps we could use our own project (the SCR project) as a base for experimentation. What interactions should we be having that technology could facilitate beyond email? What virtual document format might help? Could this very email be somehow mediated by a technology that would make it more useful to you? Perhaps it could searched, parsed, information relevant to your interests automatically highlighted for you, etc. This seems dangerous (I of course want you to read the whole thing!)

7. COMPLEXITY!

Technological Singularities and Such

Not sure this defines a project, so much as a proposition:

Being with another person extends beyond sharing a space. Readers might feel like they are with authors or even fictional characters. Lovers may feel they are with each other despite thousands of miles of separation. Friends and colleagues may share sentiments and are with each other in mind. Even death does not end such comraderie. So we must wonder, since we are with each other even when we are apart and without technology, is it really technology that is extending human relationships, or is it human relationships that are extending technology. How does the fundamental ability/capacity for humans to be with each other open up new computational channels? What channels are opened, and are any others necessarily closed (e.g. the channel of anonymity, the channel of spirituality)? Social Computing offers us a glimpse into this complex query, as harnessing the power of human relationships enables us to reduce the complexity of predicative computation. Computations change the nature of human relationships as do the relationships themselves change computational strategies.

8. FUTURE MODES and MODELS

Achieving "Ubiquitous Computing Literacy" and Computerless Social Computing; Advanced Communication of Desire (new media formats); Multi-Paradigmatic Qubit/Social Logic; The future of Terrorism on the Social net; Context-aware ("situated") everything (books, tables, chairs); Self-generating information, nano-journalism. *Note: not sure what nano-journalism would be, but micro-journalism exists in blog form so . . .

Key Elements of a Successful Social Computing Glass Cockpit

[Applicable to the development of both research strategies and technological design]

1. Let the user understand the limitations of computability

2. Let the computation 'understand' the variations of the user

3. Design Flexible Automation [Multi-Agent Systems]

4. Provide Open Feedback Channels

5. Trace (Remember) Changing Value Systems

6. Experiment with Convolutions of the Social Graph

7. Develop Social Haptics (tangible social interaces)

8. Strategize ways to avoid Complacency

Recommended Readings & Links:

Sites of Interest: