Tony Schwartz: The Myths of the Overworked Creative
"The only reserves that last are those we renew. This applies to us personally and ecologically.
Time is finite, but we act as if it were otherwise, assuming that longer hours always lead to increased productivity. But in reality our bodies are designed to pulse and pause - to expend energy and then renew it.
This is a long presentation, but it has many great insights - including the reminder that we are most effective, efficient and creative when we give absorbed attention to one thing at a time. Renewing and cultivating our personal energy is a key criteria for working at our full potential in the 21st century..."
(Nick Potter on 22 January 2012, Intersect)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Beyond Usability: Process, Outcome and Affect in human computer interactions
"Currently, our best theories are limited in terms of their applicability to design. However, we cannot retreat into the easy empiricism of current usability perspectives where everything is measured in terms of effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction. Theory building must occur if we are to have long term impact and the diversity of experiences users can have with technology are not simply reduced to these operational criteria. We need to stretch our conception of interaction beyond performance and simple likes/dislikes. I argue for a richer sense of user experience, one that allows for aesthetics as much as efficiency and the creation of community discourse forms over time as much as the measurement of effectiveness in a single task. There is much work ahead but unless we embrace these issues as part of our research agenda, then the study of HCI will forever be piecemeal and weak, and its results will find little positive reception among the many designers and consumers who could most benefit from them."
(Andrew Dillon)
Dillon, A. (2001) Beyond usability: process, outcome and affect in human-computer interactions. Canadian Journal of Library and Information Science, 26(4), 57-69.
[Dillon argues for a richer sense of what constitutes web usability and resists the easy empiricism espoused by most usability engineers.]
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Performativity involves a system logic that reduces questions of justice to questions of efficiency and has no interest in the unknown
"For Lyotard, performativity involves a system logic that reduces questions of justice to questions of efficiency and has no interest in the unknown because it falls outside the system as currently constituted. Against this he 'sketches the outline of a politics that would respect both the desire for justice and the desire for the unknown' (1984: 67). This involves turning away from performativity and towards the other possible legitimating criteria, consensus and paralogy. Lyotard argues that consensus, the criteria preferred by Habermas, is inadequate (1984: 60). It rests on a belief that it is possible to find a metalanguage that could translate all of the 'heteromorphous classes of utterance' into one another, and the assumption that it is possible for all speakers in scientific games to agree about this meta-language and that consensus is the goal of science (1984: 65). Against this, Lyotard argues that 'consensus is only a particular state of discussion, not its end. Its end, on the contrary is paralogy' (1984: 65–6)."
(Campbell Jones, p.512)
Campbell Jones (2003). "Theory after the Postmodern Condition." Organization 10(3): 503-525.
Jean-François Lyotard (1984). The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press.
Fig.1 China's Pang Qing and Tong Jian perform in the pairs short programme during the Cup of China figure skating competition in Beijing November 5. (AP Photo/Alexander F. Yuan)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
A simple abstract model of human communication
"One of the first designs of the information theory is the model of communication by Shannon and Weaver. Claude Shannon, an engineer at Bell Telephone Laboratories, worked with Warren Weaver on the classic book ‘The mathematical theory of communication’. In this work Shannon and Weaver sought to identify the quickest and most efficient way to get a message from one point to another. Their goal was to discover how communication messages could be converted into electronic signals most efficiently, and how those signals could be transmitted with a minimum of error. In studying this, Shannon and Weaver developed a mechanical and mathematical model of communication, known as the 'Shannon and Weaver model of communication'. ...
Shannon and Weaver broadly defined communication as 'all of the procedures by which one mind may affect another'. Their communication model consisted of an information source: the source’s message, a transmitter, a signal, and a receiver: the receiver’s message, and a destination. Eventually, the standard communication model featured the source or encoder, who encodes a message by translating an idea into a code in terms of bits. A code is a language or other set of symbols or signs that can be used to transmit a thought through one or more channels to elicit a response in a receiver or decoder. Shannon and Weaver also included the factor noise into the model. The study conducted by Shannon and Weaver was motivated by the desire to increase the efficiency and accuracy or fidelity of transmission and reception. Efficiency refers to the bits of information per second that can be sent and received. Accuracy is the extent to which signals of information can be understood. In this sense, accuracy refers more to clear reception than to the meaning of message. This engineering model asks quite different questions than do other approaches to human communication research."
(Communication Studies, University of Twente)
Shannon, C.E., & Weaver, W. (1949). The mathematical theory of communication. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Hawes, L.C. (1975). Pragmatics of analoguing: Theory and model construction in communication. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Fig.1 Mathematical (information) model of communication.
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Better Place Australia: zero emissions driving
"Better Place Australia is part of a global company dedicated to zero emissions driving. We will enable the mass adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) in Australia by providing the infrastructure and services that make it easy, affordable and attractive for motorists to adopt and drive electric vehicles.
The key barriers to the mass adoption of EVs in Australia, and globally, have been 'range anxiety', the cost and risk of battery purchase and the impact of EV charging on the electricity grid.
To overcome 'range anxiety' - the fear of EV drivers that their battery will run out of power - Better Place provides a personal charge spot at home, access to a network of charge spots at work and in public, access to 'instant recharge' through battery swap stations and in-car services to help drivers know when and where to recharge.
The system of battery swapping also helps overcome the cost and risk of battery purchase. The driver's subscription to Better Place covers use of a battery and the ability to swap and go at any swap station. Rather than pay upfront, drivers pay a monthly fee which covers their battery use. Better Place manages the risk and performance of the pool of batteries by tracking their capability and use through the battery swap stations.
Better Place manages the impact of EV charging on the electricity grid by using software that coordinates the charge spots so that the charging needs of customers are met within network capacity constraints. . This helps make the electricity grid more efficient and significantly reduces the need for additional generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure."
(Better Place, 2010)
CONTRIBUTOR
Lindsay QuennellSHARE
