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Note: the photos below the masthead are are high resolution - this will require a lengthy download time
 
Photos and Notes on MG Taylor - AI Projects
 
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Human Interaction and Media as Augmentation Tool
 
 
 
 

The following photos and notes illustrate an approach to collaborative interaction among design team members and the augmentation of their work through the use of computer aided multimedia.

The photos are high resolution so that they may be used as presentation materials. Please contact me before such use [link: matt taylor e-mail].

The integration of media with collaborative environments and work processes has long been a focus of MG Taylor. The state of the technology and its cost has prohibited these ideas, for several decades, from coming to full utilization. Recently several projects, including improvements in technology and its reduced cost, have brought these goals much closer to realization. Our work with the World Economic Forum, IDIAP, UniCredit and other clients - and the organizations who work with them - is providing a rich environment for the development and implementation of true media augmentation. It will take the combined talents of many individuals and organizations to achieve this dream.

I stress that all media is multimedia and not just that generated with technology (in the narrow way that we have come to think of it). Further, I am not so much interested in passive presentations of caned content but rather with real time, interactive use of multimedia integrated with the collaborative design process. In this context, the content cannot be separated from the media. Content created before during and after a team design session, applied in a variety of ways, and in the control of the users themselves, is a necessary base capability for true augmentation to become a reality.

In today’s environment of rapid change and increase of complexity, we humans have to be able to grasp immensely complex issues in their many facets while producing real work. Learning can no longer be separated from doing either as a separate activity nor in a different time.

We have to be in media - not looking at it. We have to be active agents in the creation of media - not passive recipients. We have to think, collaborate, design, act and document as one seamless process - and we have to be able do all this in real time. We have to be able to move about when do this work - not be tied down to a single place. The media must follow us, we cannot be placed and organized in service to it. This requires a new way to integrate media content, work process and working space and this requires an new approach to the application of technology. Below are some examples which start along this path.

At the bottom of this document are a number of links which explore both the theory and many applications of this approach to computer and media augmentation.

 
 
 
 
 

WorkWall Graphic at the DAVOS WorkPlace for the 2007 WEF Annual Meeting

This WorkWall graphic was created by Alicia Bramlett of The Value Web at the 2007 WEF Annual Meeting. The graphic evolved over the week and incorporated information from all of the events held in the WEF WorkSpace. The method was mixed media, hand drawn, photographed and scanned then electronically distributed and printed on transparent sticky-back plastic and adhered to the WorkWalls where is was then drawn over sometimes several times.

Real time graphics such as this are often incorporated into future work products that come out of the session. The form in which an idea is captured conveys information additional to the specific content displayed. All media is multimedia and all media has unique aspects that allow understanding of something is a singular way. A spontaneous graphic can become iconic and have a life for several years. Hand graphics from the WorkSpace have ended up in several print media documents, magazine articles and web sites.

With this approach, there is no clear separation between one media type and another. Media becomes more mind-like: multidimensional, connected, changing with experience and distributed. It forms patterns and clusters - it changes. This is contrary to the idea of static knowledge. In this approach, using the knowledge changes the knowledge.

Creating Impact design session at UniCredit navCenter June 2007
WorkPlace 07 planning session at Ales Grounp NavCenter 2006
UniCredit Officers Meeting at the Unicredit navCenter 2007
UniCredit Officers Meeting at the Unicredit navCenter 2007
WorkPlace 07 planning session at Ales Grounp NavCenter 2006
One of 12 remote controlled cameras at UniCredit NavCenter

Workshop at the UNiCredit NavCenter February 2007

This work session was just braking up. As participants were leaving their work and other related content was playing on the screens. On various WorkWalls, the work that they did during the day remained as a reminder of their process and journey. Shortly a document of all their work: words, pictures, drawings, writings, will be issued. This is the first step in what we call the Ten Step Knowledge Creation process. As part of this, this contend is combined with content from other sessions and new work products are created.

WorkPlace 07 planning session at Ales Grounp NavCenter 2006
workPOD at UniCredit navCenter - sliding screens
 
posted: September 13, 2007 • revised: September 21, 2007
© Matt Taylor, 2006, 2007, 2008
|material can be used for study purposes and as otherwise agreed to in writing
certain aspects shown and described are patented and in patent pending
click on the images below to go to these topics
1982 Technology Vision
mediaPOD Concept
   
2006 IDIAP Dialog
   
   
MG Tayor Enviorments Tour