Getting the whole story: an experience report on analyzing data elicited using the war stories procedure

When analyzing data elicited using the ??war stories?? technique, previously introduced by Lutters and Seaman (Inf Softw Technol 49(6):576?C587, 2007), we encountered unexpected challenges in applying standard qualitative analysis techniques. After reviewing the literature on stories and storytelling, we realized that a richer analysis would be possible if we accorded more respect to the data??s structure and nature as stories, rather than treating our participants?? utterances simply as textual data. We report on five lessons learned regarding how we can better analyze war stories as stories: 1) war stories tend to be about exceptional situations; 2) war stories tend to be diverse and resistant to being combined into a single grand narrative; 3) the humanities can be a valuable resource for analyzing war stories; 4) war stories are not just text, they are also performances; and 5) war stories are not just data, they are also instructive and evocative.     

Not-so-Secret Identities

The author relates stories about security and identity issues and how they relate to the Internet.     

Automatic generation of visual programming environments

We have developed the visual language compiler-compiler (VLCC) system to automatically generate visual programming environments. VLCC is a grammar based system that can support implementation of any visual language by assisting the language designer in defining the language's graphical objects, syntax, and semantics. The final result of the generation process includes an integrated environment with a visual editor and a compiler for the defined visual language. In VLCC, graphical tools define visual languages to create both graphical objects and composition rules. Visual editors enable language designers to directly and visually manipulate the syntax of these languages. To capture the widest range of visual languages, the VLCC system can be configured for a specific language class. Different language classes can be characterized depending on their graphical objects' structure and on the way they can be composed. Also, box and arrow diagrams are defined for primitive objects with attaching points and for composition rules to join boxes and arrows at those attaching points. After choosing the visual language type to create, the designer can concentrate on language definition details. VLCC uses the positional grammar model as its underlying grammar formalism     

The campfire storytelling system – automatic creation and modification of a narrative

This paper presents and evaluates a method for automatically generating a narrative that includes initial input from the listener, without forcing him/her to become an actual character in the story. More importantly, the story can be modified by the listener during the course of the story being narrated. This latter feature works without pre-defining alternative paths, thereby permitting the changes to take place at any time throughout the course of the story. This system, called the Campfire Storytelling System, employs a contextual approach to narrative generation called the Cooperating Context Method (CCM). Campfire STS was assessed for its functionality and its user acceptance. Thirty-eight human test subjects evaluated stories generated by Campfire STS. They responded to a survey stating their opinions about the generated stories, their entertainment value for adults, their creativity, and other similar issues. Furthermore, 20 of these subjects who self-reported non-trivial experience with children were additionally asked to evaluate the generated stories with respect to how much children would enjoy them. The results of these evaluations suggest that Campfire STS is able to create interesting and novel stories, as well as change them seamlessly in mid-stream while still maintaining interesting and entertaining stories.     

Graph transformations and software engineering: Success stories and lost chances

Textual as well as visual and diagrammatic notations are essential in software engineering, and are used in many different contexts. Chomsky grammars are the key tool to handle textual notations, and find many applications for textual languages. Visual and diagrammatic languages add spatial dimensions that reduce the applicability of textual grammars and call for new tools.Graph transformation systems have been studied for over 40 years and are a powerful tool to deal with syntax, semantics and transformation of diagrammatic notations. The enormous importance of visual and diagrammatic languages and the strong support that graph transformation provide to the manipulation of diagrammatic notations would suggest a big success of graph transformation in software engineering.Graph transformation systems find their application both as language generating devices and specification means for system evolution, and thus can have many applications in software engineering. In this paper we discuss the main features of graph transformation and how they can help software engineers. We look back to the many attempts to use graph transformations in software engineering in the last 15 years, identify some success stories, and discuss to what extent graph transformation succeeded, when they have not succeeded yet, what are the main causes of failures, and how they can help software engineering in the next 15 years.     

Visual Narrative Flow: Exploring Factors Shaping Data Visualization Story Reading Experiences

Many factors can shape the flow of visual data‐driven stories, and thereby the way readers experience those stories. Through the analysis of 80 existing stories found on popular websites, we systematically investigate and identify seven characteristics of these stories, which we name “flow‐factors,” and we illustrate how they feed into the broader concept of “visual narrative flow.” These flow‐factors are navigation input, level of control, navigation progress, story layout, role of visualization, story progression, and navigation feedback. We also describe a series of studies we conducted, which shed initial light on how different visual narrative flows impact the reading experience. We report on two exploratory studies, in which we gathered reactions and preferences of readers for stepper‐ vs. scroller‐driven flows. We then report on a crowdsourced study with 240 participants, in which we explore the effect of the combination of different flow‐factors on readers’ engagement. Our results indicate that visuals and navigation feedback (e.g., static vs. animated transitions) have an impact on readers’ engagement, while level of control (e.g., discrete vs. continuous) may not.     

“Telling tales”: Stories,metaphors and tacit knowledge at the fuzzy front‐end of NPD

Breakthrough ideas depend upon the generation of new knowledge, which emerge from the conversion of tacit knowledge at the fuzzy front‐end (FFE) of new product development (NPD). The occurrence of stories and metaphors has been strongly linked to tacit knowledge, however, empirical studies that examine how stories and metaphors harness tacit knowledge in the FFE are lacking. In addition, how managers can use stories and metaphors to develop breakthrough product ideas is unclear. To address these gaps, an ‘in‐situ’ empirical case study was conducted in the European subsidiary of a B2C multinational. This study investigated the role, characteristics and interplay of stories and metaphors emerging in discussions between managers and customers in a collaborative design workshop (CDW). Taking a knowledge management theoretical perspective, the data were analyzed using the well‐known SECI framework. The results clearly show that significant new knowledge was created based on the discussions in a CDW and stories and metaphors were important mechanisms for this. Importantly, it was stories related to product usage that triggered breakthrough ideas. The study extends the understanding of how breakthrough ideas emerge; it proposes a tentative conceptual framework; and it provides managers with recommendations of how to use stories and metaphors effectively during the FFE.     

Simulating the emergence of norms in different scenarios

This paper deals with EMIL-S, a software tool box which was designed during the EMIL project for the simulation of processes during which norms emerged in an agent society. This tool box implements the cognitive architecture of normative agents which was designed during the EMIL project which is also discussed in other papers in this issue. This implementation is described in necessary detail, and two examples of its application to several different scenarios are given, namely a scenario in which persons involved in micro finance are simulated and learn how to sanction free riders and how to learn from these sanctions, and a scenario in which simulated persons move through a simulated airport where they more often than not have to wait in queues and learn how to behave properly in queues.     

Sketching interfaces: toward more human interface design

Researchers at University of California, Berkeley and Carnegie Mellon University have designed, implemented, and evaluated SILK (Sketching Interfaces Like Krazy), an informal sketching tool that combines many of the benefits of paper-based sketching with the merits of current electronic tools. With SILK, designers can quickly sketch an interface using an electronic pad and stylus, and SILK recognizes widgets and other interface elements as the designer draws them. Unlike paper-based sketching, however, designers can exercise these elements in their sketchy state. For example, a sketched scroll-bar is likely to contain an elevator or thumbnail, the small rectangle a user drags with a mouse. In a paper sketch, the elevator would just sit there, but in a SILK sketch, designers can drag it up and down, which lets them test component or widget behavior. SILK also supports the creation of storyboards-the arrangement of sketches to show how design elements behave, such as how a dialog box appears when the user activates a button. Storyboards are important because they give designers a way to show colleagues, customers, or end users early on how an interface will behave     

The Use of Stories in User Experience Design

Stories capture the characteristics of the design space and audience that designers and engineers need to understand to build a complete and useful software experience. A story is a design communication tool that transcends the cultural divides of multidisciplinary teams and intertwines a technology with its user's goals. This article describes how stories are powerful tools in software design, defines the elements that make a compelling story, and presents the use of stories at IBM from the authors' experience. It also explores the benefits at each phase of the design process and how stories evolve throughout the design process.     

基于子话题分治匹配的新事件检测

新事件检测是话题检测与跟踪领域的一项重要研究,其任务是实时监控新闻报道流并从中识别新话题.现有方法将话题和报道描述为单一结构的特征向量进行匹配,造成子话题间互为噪声并形成错误语义,从而误导新话题的识别.针对这一缺陷,文中提出基于子话题分治匹配的新事件检测方法,将话题和报道划分为不同子话题,根据相关子话题的比例关系和分布关系建立新话题识别模型.实验在TDT4和TDT5中获得显著改进,最小检测错误代价为0.4061,相应漏检率为0.1859.     

Computation of the minimum destabilizing volume for interval andaffine families of polynomials

The authors study the computation of the minimum destabilizing volume for interval and polytopic families of polynomials. Roughly speaking, this is equivalent to determining the smallest box in parameter space which contains unstable polynomials. This new concept is an alternative to the robustness margin for the case when the radii of the box are unknown but only a lower bound for each of them is given. As stated, this problem requires the solution of a nonlinear optimization problem. In this paper, they show that via a proper reformulation, it can be recast as a one-dimensional optimization problem which requires checking a vertex condition at each step. It is interesting to observe that the vertices involved are artificially constructed, and they do not correspond to the vertices of the box in parameter space. Finally, they show that in the case of interval polynomials the number of vertices required is linear in the number of uncertain parameters, while in the polytopic case this number may not be polynomial in the worst case. Two examples, showing the efficacy of this new concept for interval and affine families, conclude the paper     

Interactive movie elements in a pervasive game

This paper presents our research initiatives around new user experiences in the area of pervasive mixed reality crossmedia gaming. In a prototypical game, The Epidemic Menace, we combined static and interactive story telling elements to create a mixed reality experience. As part of this research initiative we also investigated how elements of the real world and virtual worlds could produce a new environment where physical and digital objects can co-exist and interact with each other, we wanted to evaluate how linear stories could be integrated into a game flow and how they could be used to extend game experiences. A new form of interactive entertainment that is not limited to hardware based games or linear storylines but includes a truly interactive TV experience was one of our goals.     

Triggering participation: Exploring the effects of third-person and hostile media perceptions on online participation

Using a 2 × 3 mixed between-within subjects experiment (N = 102), we tested how the presence of online comments affects self-other differences and perceptions of media bias, as well as factors predicting subjects’ likelihood of commenting on an online news story. We found that (a) presence of comments lowers self-other differences and consequently attenuates the third-person effect, and (b) perceptions of media bias significantly predict likelihood of commenting. Additionally, we found that subjects were more likely to comment on stories they found biased against their position as a form of corrective action, and that subjects were more likely to share and like stories they found biased in favor of their position as a form of promotional action.     

Rating of acceptable loads: Lifting with and without handles

Rating of acceptable load (RAL) was used to determine the load-handling capacity of women (n = 54) and men (n = 49) and the effects of handles on the acceptable weight. The RAL test was administered using 30×30×30 cm boxes, one without handles and the other with handles 20 cm above the base. Subjects were asked to fill a box with the weight that they considered would be acceptable for lowering from table (72 cm) to floor and again lifting back to the table at 5-min intervals over an 8-hour working day. The tests were done in their actual place of work.

Subjects selected heavier acceptable loads for the box with handles. The overall means for women and men for the box with handles were 8.8 kg for women and 19.1 kg for men and for the box without handles 7.5 kg and 14.9 kg, respectively. The greater difference of the selected weight of two the boxes for men than for women suggests that the heavier the box more important it is to have it equipped with handles.     

Mediating effects of active and distributed instruments on narrative activities

This paper discusses the effects of introducing new distributed and active instruments on narrative activities in a school environment. We address the issue of how the Pogo instruments change children's activity when they invent stories. The results enable us to compare the way the activity is carried out, both in its conventional context and with the Pogo instruments, mainly along three main lines of investigation: the collective dimension, the use of space and the structure of the narrative. The results also show that using the instruments increase the collective or group dimension of the creative process, particularly the role diversification and participation of the children. These instruments support children's efforts to structure narratives and thereby produce richer stories.

This research was carried out within the Pogo Project by a multidisciplinary team that included interactive design and user-centered approaches within the EC I3 programme on ‘Exploring New Learning Futures for Children’.     

The NSAKEY in microsoft's crypto API: facts, fiction and speculation

At the end of August 1999, the mainstream media carried stories of how the widely deployed cryptographic subsystems of Microsoft operating systems contained a previously undisclosed back door for the US National Security Agency. The reports sprang from the revelation that a secondary validation key for cryptographic modules carries the name NSAKEY, and an entity in possession of the corresponding private key would be able to authenticate cryptographic modules additional to, or as replacements for, those in the standard product.In this article I try to describe the facts available about this module validation key, and I present some speculations about its purpose, drawing principally on material currently available on the World Wide Web.     

Discovering Event Evolution Graphs From News Corpora

Given the advance of Internet technologies, we can now easily extract hundreds or thousands of news stories of any ongoing incidents from newswires such as CNN.com, but the volume of information is too large for us to capture the blueprint. Information retrieval techniques such as topic detection and tracking are able to organize news stories as events, in a flat hierarchical structure, within a topic. However, they are incapable of presenting the complex evolution relationships between the events. We are interested to learn not only what the major events are but also how they develop within the topic. It is beneficial to identify the seminal events, the intermediary and ending events, and the evolution of these events. In this paper, we propose to utilize the event timestamp, event content similarity, temporal proximity, and document distributional proximity to model the event evolution relationships between events in an incident. An event evolution graph is constructed to present the underlying structure of events for efficient browsing and extracting of information. Case study and experiments are presented to illustrate and show the performance of our proposed technique. It is found that our proposed technique outperforms the baseline technique and other comparable techniques in previous work.     

A Characterization of Interactive Visual Data Stories With a Spatio-Temporal Context

Large-scale issues with a spatial and temporal context such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the war against Ukraine, and climate change have given visual storytelling with data a lot of attention in online journalism, confirming its high effectiveness and relevance for conveying stories. Thus, new ways have emerged that expand the space of visual storytelling techniques. However, interactive visual data stories with a spatio-temporal context have not been extensively studied yet. Particularly quantitative information about the used layout and media, the visual storytelling techniques, and the visual encoding of space-time is relevant to get a deeper understanding of how such stories are commonly built to convey complex information in a comprehensible way. Covering these three aspects, we propose a design space derived by merging and adjusting existing approaches, which we used to categorize 130 collected web-based visual data stories with a spatio-temporal context from between 2018 and 2022. An analyzis of the collected data reveals the power of large-scale issues to shape the landscape of storytelling techniques and a trend towards a simplified consumability of stories. Taken together, our findings can serve story authors as inspiration regarding which storytelling techniques to include in their own spatio-temporal data stories.