Value creation or meaning construction?

The article takes a critical approach to value creation, challenging quantitative and materialist views. The Norwegian public discourse is considered, and the conclusion supports the continuation of ambiguity. This could be seen as an extension of the linguistic turn.

What we talk about when we talk about context

The emergence of ubiquitous computing as a new design paradigm poses significant challenges for human-computer interaction (HCI) and interaction design. Traditionally, HCI has taken place within a constrained and well-understood domain of experience—single users sitting at desks and interacting with conventionally-designed computers employing screens, keyboards and mice for interaction. New opportunities have engendered considerable interest in context-aware computing—computational systems that can sense and respond to aspects of the settings in which they are used. However, considerable confusion surrounds the notion of context—what it means, what it includes and what role it plays in interactive systems. This paper suggests that the representational stance implied by conventional interpretations of context misinterprets the role of context in everyday human activity, and proposes an alternative model that suggests different directions for design.

Hierarchical entity-relationship diagrams: the model,method of creation and experimental evaluation

A bottom-up method for creating a hierarchy of entity-relationship diagrams (HERD) from a given, flat ER diagram (ERD) is proposed. The hierarchy consists of simple and interrelated diagrams—ER structures—with external relationships to other structures. The HERD-tree diagram, which provides the most general view of the conceptual schema, is located at the top of the hierarchy. The method is based on packaging operations, which group entities and relationships according to certain criteria. These operations are applied in several steps on a given (presumably large-scale) ERD. We describe the new constructs, which are added to the ER model to enable the creation of HERD, and a bottom-up method for creating HERD. We also evaluate HERD from the point of view of user comprehension and preference, based on an experimental comparison to flat ERDs.

Can regions learn? Critical assessment of regions as arenas for regional development

Summary  The article locates work on regional development, and in particular action research, within the context of debates on neo-liberalism and democracy. The learning regions approach is explored, but the scale of the challenges to overcome is emphasised.

Artefacts as designed, artefacts as used: resources for uncovering activity dynamics

This paper addresses the use of artefacts as a powerful resource for analysis, focusing on the artefact as designed as a means of eliciting the designers explicit and implicit knowledge and artefacts as used as a means of uncovering the trail left by currently inactive processes. Artefact analysis is particularly suitable in situations where direct observation is ineffective, especially in activities that occur infrequently. We demonstrate the usefulness of our technique through the analysis of artefacts within both the office and the meeting environment. This is part of a wider study aimed at understanding the nature of decisions in meetings with the view of producing a tool to aid decision management and hence reduce rework. We conclude by drawing out some general lessons from our analysis, which reaffirms the intricate role that artefacts play in maintaining activity dynamics.

DJ el Niño: expressing synthetic emotions with music

The purpose of this work is twofold: (1) to present an artistic experiment on how to use artificial intelligence to develop a different kind of DJ, and (2) to test a cognitive model on how music expresses emotions. Based on a former model conceived by the author, electronic music loops were tagged according to the type and intensity of the expressed emotion. Then, using a feedback model, an artificial personality was arranged, which was affected by the music and played the loops depending on the emotional state the artificial personality was in. The efficiency and credibility of the model was tested in a live event during the Z2000 art festival in Berlin, with encouraging results.

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Low-Rank Approximation of Integral Operators by Interpolation

A central component of the analysis of panel clustering techniques for the approximation of integral operators is the so-called -admissibility condition min {diam(),diam()} 2dist(,) that ensures that the kernel function is approximated only on those parts of the domain that are far from the singularity. Typical techniques based on a Taylor expansion of the kernel function require a subdomain to be far enough from the singularity such that the parameter has to be smaller than a given constant depending on properties of the kernel function. In this paper, we demonstrate that any is sufficient if interpolation instead of Taylor expansionisused for the kernel approximation, which paves the way for grey-box panel clustering algorithms.     

SyncTap: synchronous user operation for spontaneous network connection

This paper introduces the concept of synchronous user operation, a user interface technique for establishing spontaneous network connections between digital devices. This concept has been implemented in the SyncTap system, which allows a user to establish device connections through synchronous button operations. When the user wants to connect two devices, she synchronously presses and releases the connection buttons on both devices. Then, multicast packets containing button press and release timing information are sent through the network. By comparing this timing information with locally recorded information, the devices can correctly identify each other. This scheme is simple but scalable because it can detect and handle simultaneous overlapping connection requests. It can also be used to establish secure connections by exchanging public keys. This paper describes the principle, the protocol, and various applications in the domain of ubiquitous computing.

A taxonomy for and analysis of tangible interfaces

There have been many research efforts devoted to tangible user interfaces (TUIs), but it has proven difficult to create a definition or taxonomy that allows us to compare and contrast disparate research efforts, integrate TUIs with conventional interfaces, or suggest design principles for future efforts. To address this problem, we present a taxonomy, which uses metaphor and embodiment as its two axes. This 2D space treats tangibility as a spectrum rather than a binary quantity. The further from the origin, the more tangible a system is. We show that this spectrum-based taxonomy offers multiple advantages. It unifies previous categorizations and definitions, integrates the notion of calm computing, reveals a previously un-noticed trend in the field, and suggests design principles appropriate for different areas of the spectrum.

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Compact high-order schemes for the Euler equations

An implicit approximate factorization (AF) algorithm is constructed, which has the following characteristics.