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.IF INTERACTIVE FORMATS for Enhanced, Expanded and Extended Conferences project leader CHIARA DIANA, CLAUDIO MODERINI | tutor ROBERTA TASSI, RENZO GIUSTI May,June 2010

Table of Contents what if if Framework

if Context

if Objective

if Design Scenarios

OnAir.if

On-Going.if

OnTheGo.if

if Process

Design Teams

Research

System Definition

Interface Development

Synthesis

What IF

What IF

_What .IF we could go beyond the definition of a conference as a ONE SHOT EVENT collocated in a specific time/space dimension that brings to a public a certain number of testimonials for embracing a more extensive interpretation of a conference as a CONTINUOS CONVERSATION between experts/stakeholders and a larger community?

_What .IF we exploit the opportunity of gathering people in a specific time/ space unit as an opportunity for building a KNOWLEDGE DRIVEN PLATFORM that is both situated and distributed, synchronous and asynchronous, seamless and concentrated?

_What .IF we take the opportunity to investigate the contemporary nature of a digital enhanced experience based on culture as a way for creating a participatory, LIVING KNOWLEDGE BASE?

framework

IF Framework

Recent developments in digital communications, social networking and connectedness have dramatically affected the way people manage their presence, their attention and commitment to the objects of their interest. Consequently synchronicity and contiguity seem no longer to be key preconditions to actual engagement in DISCUSSION and DEBATE.

This appears with staggering evidence for highlevel CULTURAL “PRODUCTS� (e.g. conferences, lectures, symposia, etc...), whose momentousness and resilience is less likely to fade in time.

People seem to have been greatly EMPOWERED, in the pursuit of their interests and passions, by tools and devices that are setting them free from the arbitrariness of circumstances. Notwithstanding the actual geographic position, one can direct her gaze and focus her attention on stages that are distant thousands of miles. Similarly, she can easily lend her ear to the fascination of a speech that has been staged months, or maybe even years, before the moment when is actually being listened.

The last decades of technological development in the INTERACTIVE MEDIA domain have substantially increased the ability for individuals to access content and to participate in GLOBAL CONVERSATIONS, through online conferences, blogs, podcasts, and social/collaborative tools.

Such a substantial change entails a radical impact

on the individual learning strategies and at the same time requires to UPDATE and INNOVATE the traditional “teaching” formats: from a vertical/frontal model towards richer and evolutionary LEARNING ECOLOGIES based on a combination of methods, formats and tools.

A thorough reflection is required to identify and analyse the critical aspects underlying established practices in the use of tools and formats that are currently supporting formal and informal activities —at the different scales— related to the ACCESS, EDITING, CREATION and SHARING of CULTURE-DRIVEN CONTENTS, both from final USERS and content PROVIDERS point of views.

From the combined investigation of emerging collaborative trends, media flexibility and pervasive computing, considered in the light of current habits and existing constraints, a whole new set of alternative mixed media formats should arise. Such novel formats, conceived and developed within the framework of contemporary digital communication tools, would adopt INTERACTIVITY as the driving paradigm for supporting culture-driven conversations.

context

IF Context

Partner and case study for the present investigation will be MEET THE MEDIA GURU (MTMG). MTMG is the leading initiative in digital knowledge dissemination for Milan and Northern Italy. With its conference cycles, the Event aims at bringing together prominent players in international innovation and digital culture. Every year the lectures programme is structured n order to appeal to the larger audience as well as to professionals.

Launched in 2005, MTMG has quickly become a reliable and regular appointment for promoting the debate with preeminent representatives of new media and innovation. The event is nowadays the acknowledged reference point for an ever-growing community, which is eagerly on the lookout for avant-garde solutions and fresh, authoritative visions. _MTMG is the ideal stage where ideas and designdriven thinking meet attendees attentive and sensitive to upcoming technologies and their effects across different domains. MTMG ’s Audience therefore, encompasses Communication and New Media practitioners; designers; fashion, arts and cinema professionals, as well as social networks and social innovation activists. _MTMG leads the path towards digital innovation collecting contribution and inspirations coming from: Digital Communication Emerging Models, Social Networking and New Media, Interaction Design, Fashion Design, Arts, Sciences, Entertainment, Environment, Economics and Business‌ http://www.meetthemediaguru.org

context

objective

IF objective

The seminar aims at investigating the inherent paradigm-shifting potential of a whole new breed of resources brought in by digital technologies. New media languages, networking environments, connected communities, information architecture and collaboration/ cooperation tools, will all be attentively examined in the light of their potential for enhancing, across the space and time dimensions, the experience of participating in events like lectures, conferences, roundtables and symposia.

Happenings and initiatives where the underlying fil rouge is the goal to promote, share and disseminate knowledge.

The primary objective of the seminar is to focus on conceiving visual interfaces that events attendants can tap into before, during, and after the event has concluded. Ideally all participants, the on-site as well as the remote ones, should be enabled to positively interfere with the whole ongoing experience, and make it more pervasive and resilient in terms of knowledge acquisition.

More specifically the Design Teams working to develop the themes outlined in the brief should:

analyse and thoroughly understand how is the activity

##organized, staged and performed, to identify hidden potentialities and prevent yet unforeseen flaws. how to act and modify existing event ##investigate formats. How to take action in order to empower

real-time event management and direction. What do technologies allow to do to improve —both real-time and asynchronous— information management, as well as attendees participation, customisation, and engagement in the event. and envision which tools —physical and ##determine digital— are required to provide the audience with the actual chance to act with the content and exert an influence on how it is collected and then made openly available to a larger public.

SCENARIOS PoBJS/JG

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OW M NM CO L IC E NT ST LL ED OR AB GE YT OR EL AT LI IV NG E

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design scenarios

IF

design scenarios

Starting from MTMG experience three scales of potential innovation for CULTUREDRIVEN EVENTS can be highlighted, both involving the design of innovative MEDIA FORMATS and TOOLS: ONAIR.IF | focus on REAL TIME # ENTERTAINMENT # ON-GOING.IF | focus on DYNAMIC KNOWLEDGE # ONTHEROAD.IF | focus on COLLABORATIVE STORYTELLING

ONAIR.IF | focus on REAL TIME ENTERTAINMENT Enhance the experience of PARTICIPATING LIVE to the conference, both physically or remotely, integrating back channel conversations within the official information set. The primary aims are to foster interaction in lieu of content presentation and to fully convey the richness of the augmented web/mobile experience, interweaving it into the global CHOREOGRAPHY of the event.

Rethink the event ATTENTION FLOWS, working on pitches and pits, including waiting time, in-between slots and empty interstitial moments. Solutions should enable an effective management of possible intersections between the institutional, on-site, information streams and the informal conversations circulating through the communication media.

Define the set of rules and tools required to manage and organise the event DRAMATURGY by way of multithread real-time information flows. Envision solutions for representing effectively and give salience to the different information strands interweaving on-site and through the connected media space.

pluricentric audience

information choreography

adaptive rhythm

collaborative direction

ON-GOING.IF | focus on DYNAMIC KNOWLEDGE Fill the gap between different events, building a KNOWLEDGE PLATFORM for CONTINUOUS elaboration and sharing of contents both as conference follow up or briefing of future conferences and activities. Provide tools, formats and communication channels to facilitate an ongoing discussion on relevant topics, thus promoting dynamics leading to innovative life-long learning practices.

Define and build the PALETTE OF TOOLS required to support and promote information enrichment, multifaceted collaboration, knowledge sedimentation, personalized content editing and customised content packages (i.e printed reports, slide presentatons etc‌).

Set the rules for proactive event direction, in order to minimize post-event editing, however, ensuring contents smart archival and high effectiveness of the PUBLISHING SYSTEM. Facilitate the deployment of a multitude of content access modalities and enable custom knowledge exploration patterns.

contextualized communities

situated commenting

smart reading

custom broadcasting

ONTHEROAD.IF | focus on COLLABORATIVE STORYTELLING Make the event archive an accessible platform, a dynamic and functional resources repository, not just for storing contributions, but to facilitate the PROACTIVE DISSEMINATION of “AROUND� THE EVENT contents. Identify solution and strategies to expand the life-cycle of each collected contribution.

Define an ideal matrix of ADVANCED CULTURAL PRODUCTS that could be spawned by every single contribution. Products that are meant to facilitate other activities originated or inspired by the debate around a conference or symposium themes, such as .a speech, a presentation, a lecture.

Set a proper framework of RULES AND TOOLS to augment a new products breed (similar to semi-finished goods) such as inspirational cards, support materials for workshops and training sessions. Outline original MEDIA FORMATS that allow to translate in action the insight conveyed by authoritative lecturers.Conceive a set of portable tools, a KIT, to stage ad-hoc mini conference sessions, or to animate and moderate a debate around a specific topic.

play the archive

re-experience

engaging tools

participated editing

17=3x=6+5+6 process

IF process

The Workshop will follow a multi-layered process that will wave together successive phases of divergence and convergence.

This structure will therefore promote an interplay between individual work, group tasks and collective sharing to address specific requirements and complete the FOUR planned PHASES: RESEARCH; SYSTEM DEFINITION; INTERFACE DEVELOPMENT and SYNTHESIS.

This strategy has the ultimate objective to activate a process of analysis and knowledge sharing that will lead to shaping a seamless, organic solution encompassing all three illustrated scenarios: ONAIR.IF, ON-GOING.IF and ONTHEROAD.IF. 3 TEAMS will be created by balancing members competencies and skills on the basis of three ATTITUDE PROFILES: ORGANIZER (strategic/management), VISUALIZER (visual/expressive), IMPLEMENTER (tactic/ operative).

Each team will be responsible for the management, elaboration and synthesis of one among the three proposed DESIGN SCENARIOS.

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VISUALIZER VISUAL DESIGNER

IMPLEMENTER DEVELOPER VISUAL DESIGNER

ORGANIZER VISUAL STRATEGIST DESIGNER

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name

name

name

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name

PoBJS/JG Po.HPJOH/JG

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ROADMAP

roadmap

design profiles

RESEARCH: [individual with team wrap-up] an initial moment of individual research and analysis.

At the Workshop outset Students will be asked to engage in an extensive investigation activity. In order to maximize the resources, the RESEARCH phase will be carried out individually. While collecting evidences of applications and existing best practices, students should analyse and thoroughly understand how, before, during, after and around a cultural event the activity is organized, staged and performed.

At the phase conclusion, findings will be shared and coherently mapped against a set of identified core activities.

SYSTEM DEFINITION: [team activity] “macro group� activity to outline the concept main features.

Teams will be divided into sub-teams with the objective to envision a number of different design concepts that at the end of the phase will be integrated in a unified coherent proposal.

During this stage, information sharing and cross-team communication will be playing a key role. The teams, in fact, will have to work in concert in order to devise an overall common set of system elements catering to the needs and the requirements emerging in each scenario.

Every design team, then, will arrange and orchestrate an original configurations of the system elements. The configurations conceived will enable to address specific issues and innovate established practices pertaining to each scenario.

INTERFACE DEVELOPMENT: [task-group activity] an operative phase to develop the visual interface of the proposed features.

During the INTERFACE DEVELOPMENT stage the smaller sub-teams will work autonomously addressing key issues concerning: the system elements organisation and their relation to the activities to be performed (flow definition); the actual visual language of the elements; the technological implementation and deployment of a functional solution. In order to ensure the consistency of the solution with the system devised in the previous stage (SYSTEM DEFINITION), it is of the utmost importance that the sub-teams keep constant track of the project development along its three main layers: the strategic one, the visual one and the technologic one.

Final stage SYNTHESIS: [collective] a synchronization effort to grant the overall consistency of the solution.

During the very last stage of the Workshop process, the teams will be addressing critical finalization issues.

All the concepts conceived and the solutions outlined will be considered in the light of their possible seamless integration. The SYNTHESIS stage will focus on defining each proposal as a modular element responding to specific activity needs. Consequently particular attention will be paid in ensuring that all elements are, functionally and visually, recognizable as parts of a same over-arching system architecture.

Domus Academy | Master in I-Design 2010| http://projects.domusacademy.net/IF