Would you pay to get others to see your Facebook postings? May 16, 2012
Posted by Cameron Shelley in : STV202 , add a commentTechCrunch reports on a new feature in Facebook that allows users to pay to put their updates in front of eyeballs. At present, the article reports, only about 12% of friends and followers see your status updates. This level of readership exists because Facebook employs a mechanism to rate the importance of incoming posts and prioritizes those with the highest importance. Currently, importance is calculated based on how close a friend you are to the poster, and how many likes and comments the post has attracted already. The new service, Highlight, allows you to jump the queue, as it were, by paying to have the priority of your postings enhanced.
(Ja nobasu/Wikimedia commons)
This approach to prioritizing access to attention could be controversial. As Josh Constine points out in the TechCrunch article, the new setup could alter, for the worse, users’ understanding of the value of updates:
… it could erode the site’s sense of community. On Facebook, what’s supposed to matter is how interesting your posts are, not how deep your wallet is.
In the present setup, the queue of status updates visible to any user is already a form of advertising; Facebook arranges things so that people will talk most about goods and services they might like to buy or sell – advertising packaged as a subtle form of peer pressure, as Jaron Lanier has pointed out. The Highlight system would make this covert form of advertising more overt, which users may regard as overly intrusive or uncool.
The issue also brings to mind the discussion of the ethics of queues in Michael Sandel’s new book, What money can’t buy. Sandel notes that people tend to object to certain forms of queue jumping, such as paying scalpers $100s for tickets to campsites in public parks like Yosemite that are sold by the government for $20 a piece. There are basically two objections:
- The payments make the system unfair, since many campers cannot afford the scalpers’ prices.
- The payments undermine the purpose of the park. Since affluent campers can jump ahead in the queue, the less affluent are effectively barred from a resource that is meant to be universally available.
As Sandel observes, the effect is to break down the egalitarian nature of camping in public parks, which then undermines the basic sense of equality among all citizens that such public amenities are supposed to promote.
The Highlight system, if generally adopted, is vulnerable to the same sort of criticism. Allowing some posters to push their updates ahead in the queue could be regarded as unfair and as contrary to the purpose of the posting system. Of course, Facebook is a private company not a public amenity. However, users have been conditioned to view it as a free amenity and so could balk at the change anyway.
Facebook says that Highlight is merely a test, a trial balloon:
“We’re constantly testing new features across the site. This particular test is simply to gauge people’s interest in this method of sharing with their friends.”
So, it may not materialize in the end. Whatever the outcome of this test, it provides an interesting illustration of the general problem of organizing queues and how people perceive them in terms of fairness and purpose. (More material on queues and the ins and outs of their design can be found in The psychology of waiting lines by Donald Norman.)
Form follows frustration May 10, 2012
Posted by Cameron Shelley in : STV202 , add a commentNorman Ball, our director emeritus, once wrote an article entitled form follows frustration. The article related an example of how a design innovation resulted from a designer who found something that frustrated him and set out to fix it. The point of the article was twofold: (1) to note that the elimination of frustrating aspects of existing designs is a source of innovation and good design and (2) to remind us that we all too often simply learn to live with bad designs by adjusting our behavior to them.
I was reminded of the maxim that “form follows frustration” when I read an article on how a Danish designer modified trash cans in Copenhagen to deal with the mess left by disposable coffee cups. Sandra Hoj, the article reports, got fed up seeing public trash cans overflowing with the cups, creating an eyesore. To deal with the problem, she got to work and designed a tube that could be fastened to the garbage cans. The tube allows cups – minus their lids – to be dropped in and stacked up, thereby permitting them to be stored more efficiently and thus preventing the unsightly overflow. The new system seems to work, to judge from the photos posted to Sandra’s blog.
Before:
After:
Alas, the City seems to have removed the unauthorized appendages. Hopefully, they can be persuaded to adopt the new design. In any event, kudos to Sandra Hoj and let us hope that more designers can turn unnecessary frustrations into opportunities for improvement.
Stereotypes and student cultures May 8, 2012
Posted by Scott Campbell in : STV100 , comments closedC.P. Snow warned us over fifty years ago to look for common ground between students of the liberal or literary arts and those of science and engineering. A recent survey done by Higher Education Strategy Associates offers some revealing similarities and differences, particular among humanities and engineering undergrads. To summarize:
- When asked if they Agree that “Being Challenged in School is Important to Me” and if they Agree that “I Prefer to Take Courses where the Instructor is an Easy Marker”, the results were very similar. That is, more than other groups, both want to be challenged and neither find “bird” courses attractive.
- When asked if they Agree that Classes that Require Application of New Concepts and Techniques are Enjoyable or if they Agree that Courses that Require Long Hours of Work are Enjoyable, the results were quite different. Engineers were much more likely to look to apply new concepts and techniques, and much more likely to enjoy long hours of work.
Clearly, the survey is hitting on a few stereotypes, such as engineers work hard and maybe even that they love getting new gadgets. The common perception is that change seems to drive technology, and technology seems to drive engineers, so I suppose these students don’t see much choice but to knuckle down and be prepared for long hours, adapting to a continuous stream of change. Yet, outside of research and development, engineering can be a very conservative field, for good reason! Nobody is going to build a bridge with new materials or techniques until absolutely certain it will not fall down. I’ve heard of “traditional” subdisciplines of engineering such as civil, electrical, or mechanical that haven’t changed their teaching curriculum for decades. Indeed, as David Edgerton points out in The Shock of the Old, “maintenance and repair are the most widespread forms of technical expertise” (p.80), not invention or research. Most of us (including working engineers) spend more time keeping technologies going than making wholly new ones.
(Two cultures, both alike in dignity / wikiMedia Commons)
On the humanities side there’s another possible discrepancy, of students who want to be challenged yet don’t want to apply new concepts. I wonder if the roadblock is of “new concepts” or “application”. One stereotype at work here might be the long intellectual history many philosophy, history or literature students face, which could leave the impression that there isn’t much room for anything new or even a preference for the past. Many humanities arguments do seem to have an endless quality. Or maybe it’s the problem of “application”, and a view that humanities is simply not about the application of anything beyond an understanding of the human condition. To borrow from Stanley Fish, the only honest appraisal of the humanities is that they are of no use whatsoever, and any attempt to justify or apply them is to not recognize their intrinsic value: “The humanities are their own good“.
What I’d like to take from the survey is that “artsies” and engineers really aren’t all that different, a view I do try to encourage in my students (who amount to about two-thirds engineers), and to remember that we’ve all got a lot more in common than our biases, assumptions and stereotypes might have us believe. Once we recognize that, we’re better able to bridge the gap between the two cultures.
Climate change seminar May 7, 2012
Posted by Cameron Shelley in : Events , comments closedKeith Hippel is giving a seminar presentation on “Tackling Climate Change: A System of Systems Engineering Perspective”, Wednesday, May 9, 11:30 a.m., E5 6111. The presentation, I believe, makes a case for a “fee and dividend” approach to tackling climate change.
Chain link art May 3, 2012
Posted by Cameron Shelley in : STV202 , comments closedA recent article in The Atlantic: Cities shows off some unusual chain link fencing. Normally, chain link fencing is just an unpleasant fact of life in the city scene, grating and unpleasant if not hidden away. However, Dutch designers of the Rotterdam group DEMAKERSVAN have developed a way of weaving chain link into fantastic variety of patterns. The “lace fence” comes in many faunal, floral, and abstract patterns, from lions and butterflies, to flowers and frilly doily patterns.
(Lacefence.com/TheAtlanticCities.com)
The fencing is so artistic that it is on exhibit at the Pompidou Centre in Paris.
(Oh Paris/Flickr.com)
Apparently, the designer, Joep Verhoeven, was inspired when he came upon a gashed chain link fence that had been stitched back up. So, here we have another example of good design emerging from serendipity, a chance, inspirational encounter.
It is fascinating to see that chain link fencing could be considered a welcome material for outdoor and indoor uses! Whether or not you will see much of it depends, I suppose, on the price. The US distributor’s website provides a nice brochure with the technical details, but says only that pricing is available on request. I guess that means that I cannot afford it.
Where would you like to see some lace fencing?
Your robot valet is here May 2, 2012
Posted by Cameron Shelley in : STV202 , comments closedA recent column on robots in FastCompany describes a condo in Florida that will have robot valets. Well, almost. Residents in the building will drive their cars into parking bays where an automatic system will take over. The system acts like a the automated manager in a storage facility, taking the car to a slot in a set of (large) shelves within the bowels of the condo or retrieving it on command. A video explains:
The system promises some advantages for users over self-parking in a parking structure:
- Convenience: the system takes some driving time off the hands of car owners. This might especially fruitful for taking the car out of storage, since the driver can send a command remotely so that the system will have the car ready when the driver steps out.
- Efficiency: A shelving system without the need for driving lanes, ramps, etc. should be able to fit more cars into a given space than a conventional parking structure.
- Safety: Although not raised in the video, an automated parking system could improve safety. Transitioning between modes is challenging for safety in most systems, and entering or leaving a parking lot creates new opportunities for damage. An automated system might well do a better job than the manual one.
- Happiness: The valet system is undoubtedly cool and will also relieve owners of the need to enter parking structures, which tend to be unpleasant at best. So, drivers will be happy!
As ever, there are some potential challenges that remain:
- Casual access: It is not clear what access people have to their cars when they do not want to drive. Ever left a bag in the trunk by accident? It is easy and efficient to just visit your car in a parking structure and retrieve your stuff. It would be wasteful if the system had to fetch the car just so that the driver can get into the trunk.
- Entropy: At some point, the system will not match the right car with its owner. How frequently will it make such mistakes and how well will it cope with them?
- Efficiency: A car share system would be still more efficient than a bank full of idle, individually-owned vehicles. Such a system would also help to reduce the entropy problem, since the need to match cars to owners would not occur. Of course, the condo owners may not be into sharing cars.
- Security: Since the system is accessible remotely, e.g., by text message, it will make the cars available to hackers. What sort of measures will be in place to prevent tampering or theft?
The system represents an interesting idea, the transfer of storage technology to the parking garage. Still more interesting would be a real robot valet that could park your car in an existing structure, making it compatible with existing facilities. Of course, that would be even more of a challenge.
Shaping the world conference May 1, 2012
Posted by Cameron Shelley in : Events , comments closedUWaterloo’s first graduating class of International Development students is presenting talks at a conference on campus. The conference is entitled Shape the World and features talks by the students regarding their experiences from their field placements.
The conference takes place on Wed., May 2, from 9am to 5pm at St. Paul’s University College on campus. Registration is free.
Enter the nacho April 30, 2012
Posted by Cameron Shelley in : STV202 , comments closedAn short piece on NPR discusses the lucky origins of some classic, American foods. One example is nachos:
One day in 1943, the wives of ten to twelve U.S. soldiers stationed at Fort Duncan in nearby Eagle Pass were in Piedras Negras [Mexico] on a shopping trip, and arrived at the restaurant after it had closed for the day. The maître d’, Ignacio “Nacho” Anaya, invented a new snack for them with what little he had available in the kitchen: tortillas and cheese sauce. Anaya cut the tortillas into triangles, added shredded cheddar cheese, quickly heated them, added sliced jalapeño peppers and served them.
It seems that many staples in the American diet owe their modern form, in no small part, to luck.
This invention illustrates the phenomenon of unintended consequences. In the case of nachos, Ignacio Anaya intended merely to keep his customers happy. Without meaning to do so, he invented a dish that would become wildly and broadly popular. Unintended consequences in design is a frequent theme raised in this blog. Normally, the unintended consequences are negative – something bad happens and we commentators can say “tsk tsk” or “I told you so” in retrospect. It is appropriate to acknowledge that unintended consequences can result in successes as well.
Enjoy!
(chee.hong/Wikimedia commons)
Sliding injuries April 26, 2012
Posted by Cameron Shelley in : STV202 , comments closed
(Deutsche Fotothek/Wikimedia commons)
Tara Parker-Pope of the New York Times points out how children may be injured on slides because their parents go down with them. What happens is that parents sometimes use the slide with their children in their laps, either for the fun of it (admit it!) or at the request of reluctant children. Unfortunately, this configuration of sliding parent and child can have an unanticipated outcome:
But without warning, Hannah’s sneaker caught on the side of the slide. Although Ms. Dickman grabbed the leg and unstuck her daughter’s foot, by the time they reached the ground, the girl was whimpering and could not walk. A doctor’s visit later revealed a fractured tibia.
Poor kid!
The reason for the increased risk is that the impact of the child’s foot on the side of the slide is harder due to the force imparted by the weight of the parent. By themselves, children who get shoes stuck on the side can simply stop and extricate themselves.
Of course, the risk can be mitigated through technique, either by adults not sliding with children in their laps or, at least, by removing the children’s shoes and making sure their feet do not touch the sides of the slide. There might also be some possibilities in design, perhaps having a hoop at the slide entrance that is too small for adults to fit through easily so as to discourage them from using the slide. Any other ideas?
So, this little scene provides another illustration of unintended consequences or, perhaps, counterproductive safety measures. It also provides more fodder for debates over playground safety.
The photo authenticity problem – solved! April 24, 2012
Posted by Cameron Shelley in : STV302 , comments closedFrom IEEE Spectrum comes news that a company called Verifeyed (get it?) has solved the problem of inauthentic photos. In short, they claim to have a way to tell the difference between images that have been Photoshopped (or otherwise digitally altered) and those that have not.
(Specious/Wikimedia commons)
Their approach is innovative. Other companies have software that attempt to detect vagaries that are introduced into an image as a result of digital manipulation. Verifeyed, however, uses a different tactic:
[T]he company has analyzed 8000 cameras and scanners so far, with more in the pipeline, to determine each type of camera’s “footprint.” By comparing the image against the camera’s footprint, the company says it can quickly and easily spot alterations. The technology can also potentially spot the “fingerprint” of an individual camera, making it useful for enforcing laws against, for example, child pornography.
If I understand this description correctly, the Verifeyed system identifies patterns in the way that different cameras record images, and then compares a given image against those patterns. If a given image does not conform to any known pattern, then the implication is that it has been altered.
It is an interesting strategy and perhaps useful for many uploaded photos. However, it does sound as though it might be vulnerable to a man-in-the-middle style attack. That is, someone can manipulate an image (in some way) and then photograph it, thus producing a result containing a bona fide “footprint”.
In any event, I suppose it goes to show that we have not given up on authenticity, especially in digital imagery, quite yet. (See previous blog entries on fauxtography.)
