LiveDrop
Hello.
LiveDrop a project by Yara Al Husaini Finn Fullarton-Pegg Cong Tan Poopak Azhand
The Glasgow School of Art Mdes Design Innovation Stage one
2016
Meet the Team
Yara Al Husaini
Finn Fullarton Pegg
Poopak Azhand
Cong Tan
Interaction Design
Transformation Design
Interaction Design
Interaction Design
with a background in Industrial Design
with a background in Philosophy
with a background in Computer Engineering
with a background in Product Design
Contents
8
Introduce
14
Understand
16
01 People & Place
22
02 Technology
14
desk research
desk research
Analyse
36
01 Stakeholders
54
02 Stakeholders
60
03 Insights & Opportunities
66
04 Insights & Opportunities
78
05 Reframed Themes
82
design research
sense-making
sense-making workshop
information mapping
summarised issues
Develop
66
01 Inspiration
88
02 Idea Generation
90
03 Finalisation
through exploration
through illustrations
design detailing
Preface This booklet documents the twelve week process we took in delivering on Stage one brief of our Mdes Design Innovation Programme at the Glasgow school of Art, Creative Campus.
Who We are As a team, we are a motley crew, working under odd circumstances. Our cultural and geographical provenance spans close to the entire length of the Eurasian landmass: from the Scottish Highlands, to Palestine, Persia, and the Chinese Province of Inner Mongolia. We have four Mother Tongues: Parsi, Arabic, Mandarin, and English serving as our lingua franca. Academically, we are rooted in the disciplines of Product Design, Industrial Design, Computer Science and Philosophy. At present, we are studying two distinct but connected strands of Design Innovation - Interaction Design and Transformation Design – at a Masters level.
Where We are We operate from a Grade ‘A’ listed building: The Blair Steading on the privately owned Altyre Estate in Scotland’s Moray County. Built in the 1830s, the Italianate structure was originally used as a place to keep horses and cattle. This beautiful but isolated composition of open studio, office and workshop space was still undergoing its reincarnation as Glasgow School of Art’s Creative Campus when we arrived to study there in late September.
9
Introduce In a nutshell, the brief for our Stage 1 project tasked us with investigating Novel Digital Geographies and the potential of Blockchain technology for social innovation in Scotland’s Cairngorms National Park, directing our attention specifically to questions of ownership and presence.
11
12
Decoding To start analysing the brief, we defined three parameters; people, place, and technology. Under these parameters we defined the key aspects given by brief. We accumulated our research around these aspects to create our own definitions of what they meant within the specific context of this project
people
place
tech
Communities
Cairngorms
Blockchain
Ownership & Presence
13
Understand Throughout this project, we continuously fought and sought to clarify our understanding of the brief’s key elements, and the relationships between them: both actual and possible. The initial phase of desk research was carried out with the goal of maximum breadth in mind, providing an informational springboard into – and contextualising backdrop for - our field research, insight generation and concept development.
15
01
People & Place desk research
Total Area: Privately owned land:
75%
The Cairngorms Overview The Cairngorms National Park is a place of intense natural beauty and ecological diversity. The region’s English title is derived from the Gaelic Cairn Gorm, referring to one of the five towering mountain peaks that form the park’s central plateaux.
Wild land:
47%
Home to humans for over 10,000 years, today the Cairngorms supports around 16,000 inhabitants. Each year the park hosts an estimated 1.4 million visitors, clamouring to experience the spectacles and adventures that lie within the park’s bounds. In comparison to other European National Parks, this degree of human presence is unusual.
Largest Communities Aviemore 2,836 Popultion Density: Grantown-On-Spey 2 2,555
4.2 per Km
The Cairngorm National Park Authority (CNPA) have the difficult task of ensuring the economic and social wellbeing of the park’s inhabitants as well as prioritising ecological conservation.
Total Population:
17,000
People 16
4,528 Km2
Income:
Ballater 1,520 Kingussie 1,410
74% lower
Newtonmore 982 Braaemer 839
Housing:
Tomintoul 839
than national average income
25% more
expensive housing than the national average
Eastern Cairngorms Highland Council
Western Cairngorms Moray Council
Grantown-on-Spey Tomintoul
Aviemore
Aberdeenshire Council
Kingussie Newtonmore Ballater Braemer
Perth & Kinross Council
Angus Council 17
National Park Status In 2003, the Cairngorms area was designated a National Park, and a central authority – the CNPA – was installed to oversee the wellbeing of the park’s landscapes and inhabitants. The World Conservation Union classifies the park as a Category 5 protected landscape: an area of sustainable development.[4] This recognises the park as a place where many species and ecosystems stand in highly articulated relationships of co-dependence with human beings, and also prompts the promotion of tourism in the region.[5]
The Park Authority The CNPA is charged with the environmental conservation of the park’s landscapes and ecologies, as well as the economic and social well being of the park’s citizens. They are the ultimate arbiters on plans for conservation, business and community projects. Given that the Cairngorms has an unusually high population for a national park, balancing citizens’ interest in socially and economically valuable businesses and projects against their environmental impact is their major preoccupation.
Tourism Tourism accounts for 30% of industry and 43% of employment within the Cairngorms. In an area where the average income is just 74% of the national average, there’s immense pressure from local businesses and community groups to take advantage of the natural capital of beauty in the Cairngorms and increase tourism in the area.
18
19
Ownership & Presence Natural Significance The Cairngorms’ forests, rivers, mountains, arctic plateaux, heather moorlands, marches and lochs provide the basis for an astonishingly diverse set of special and protected ecosystems. A full quarter of these habitats are designated to be of European importance [1].They support a plethora of endangered birds, fish and animals, including red squirrels, Capercaillie grouse, and freshwater pearl mussels.
Man Presence Evidence of nomadic humans, traversing the Cairngorms in small groups, dates to 8100 BC.[2] Today, the area is home to over 16,000 citizens, residing largely in the park’s 24 townships. Yet outside of these settlements, man’s pervasive activity is etched upon the landscape: hunting estates, great forests for pinewood crops, agricultural plots, and winding trails – eroded by tourist boots and bicycle wheels – section off and criss-cross great swaths of terrain. Wilderness, in these lands that seem so wild and full of mystery, is mythical.
Owning the Earth After the Jacobite defeat at the battle of Culloden (1746), a drastic change came upon the manner in which the lands of the Cairngorms – and the rest of Highland Scotland – were owned and managed.
20
Clan System For centuries, the earth had supported communities organised into clans with Chieftains at their head, who offered protection in return for tributes and men to fight in troubled times. They acted as stewards, not landowners, and the resource of land was communal.
Highland Clearances & Private Estates Following Prince Charlie’s flight to Skye, the ground was split into great estates and owned by wealthy lords. In dramatic numbers, the original tenants were removed to make way for cheviot sheep and hunting estates. Those tenants remaining had little rights to land-use, and paid fees for the limited privileges granted them by their lords.
Land Reform Movement Scotland has the most inequitable distribution of landownership of any country in the Western world (or EU), 423 private landowners own over half of Scotland’s land. The Land of Scotland and the Common Good) Without a complete land registry, the majority of these private owners of monopolised land remain untraceable and unaccountable for barriers to community development. This situation has prevailed until the present day: 423 private landlords own over half of Scotland’s land, making the country the most inequitable in terms of land distribution within the EU. No complete registry for these private estates exists; their owners remain untraceable, and thus unaccountable for the consequent barriers to community development. A movement to reform the state of landownership in Scotland has gained pace and ground in recent years, and in 2016 a Bill was passed granting farmers the right to buy the land they tend outright, and small communities the right to apply for the ownership of local land.[3] Thus far, despite many being eligible, our research could not uncover an instance of a Cairngorm community taking advantage of their new powers. 21
02
Technology desk research
Our project was grounded in two spheres of enquiry: the natural world of the Cairngorms - its landscapes, ecologies, people and social structures - and the virtual world of Blockchain technology and Digital Geography.
22
Digital Geographies Defining Digital Geographies The oxford English Dictionary provides the following, esoteric definition of geography: “The study of the physical features of the earth and its atmosphere, and of human behaviour as it affects and is affected by these, including the distribution of populations and resources and political and economic activities.” In plainer language, geography is the study of the various relationships between man and the earth. Digital Geography, therefore, can be defined as the study of the relationships between the earth, man and the virtual.
THE EARTH
Novel Digital Geographies This definition is general, and the relationships meeting it are myriad. In this project, we focussed on those digital geographies where the virtual - as information communicated through digital media - has an impact upon people’s perception of, and behaviour within, physical spaces. How these geographies are created, the informational biases inherent in those processes, and who can be said to have ownership over them, were central questions in our investigations.
DIGITAL GEOGRAPHIES MAN
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
23
The Digital, Place and Meaning This definition is general, and the relationships meeting it are myriad. In this project, we focused on those digital geographies where the virtual - as information communicated through digital media - has an impact upon people’s perception of, and behaviour within, physical spaces. How these geographies are created, the informational biases inherent in those processes, and who can be said to have ownership over them, were central questions in our investigations.
Digital Monopolies In thinking about the digital geographies that pervade our lives, it’s important to pay attention to how our access to the virtual is mediated, and how virtual information is generated. For many, Google is the go-to place to begin an informational search for many, yet its internal architectures interact with our natural behaviour to create hidden biases in the information it feeds us. Think about how rare it is for you to check the second page of search results, and the culturally unexamined rules dictating the hierarchy of page listings.
90% of Europeans use Google as their primary interface to the Web
24
50% of Wikidata is Unsourced. Only 30% come from wikipedia
78% of indexed information about the UK comes from locals
Bottom-Up Digital Geographies Under different architectures, virtual content relating to palce can also be generated by its users: a bottomup approach. Open Street Map is an alternative to Google Maps that operates on such data, giving the real occupants of a physical space control over how it is digitally represented to others. This one interesting way in which the monopoly of large tech companies in mediating the virtual can be subverted and challenged, giving people ownership and presence in the creation of digital geographies.
Top-Down Digital Geographies Google Maps is a popular, utilitous and flexible tool for discovering nearby amenities and planning routes to take through the world. Its content is compiled by another large company, Tele Atlas, and sold to Google: a topdown approach to content generation. Interesting, and sometimes alarming, biases exist in the way it processes search requests. Try searching for ‘restaurant berlin,’ and then ‘restoran berlin’. The former German/English search generates drastically different results from the latter Turkish search. If we live in a world where physical space has been layered and blended with virtual information, could it be that Berlin’s Turkish community live in effectively different cities?
25
History
BlockChain In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, Bitcoin was launched. Its fundamental innovation was that, unlike other digital currencies that came before it, Bitcoins could be transferred peer-to-peer without the need for an for a mediating bank or middleman - just like cash - in a secure and transparent manner. Thus, Bitcoin became the world’s first cryptocurrency. Since then, Bitcoin has garnered unfavourable associations with illicit activities on the Dark Web, and competing cryptocurrencies have emerged. But the underlying technology that facilitated its security and transparency, known as Blockchain, has prevailed and undergone successive refinements into a powerful tool with exciting actual and potential applications. The details of Blockchain’s inner workings are notoriously tough to understand, but at base it is a new way of storing, sharing, recording and processing information in a distributed manner, that promises the possibility of disrupting standard decentralised systems. The hype surrounding Blockchain at the present point in time cannot be understated. Some utopian commentators claim that Blockchain will fundamentally change the operation of our societies by disrupting the way in which citizens relate to centralised authorities, like governments and financial institutions. Others view the technology as an opportunity to generate vast amounts of capital: Paul Brody of Ernst and Young recently argued that the combination of Blockchain with the Internet of Things could spark an industrial revolution in the service sector, reducing the cost of production on the same scale as that seen by the 18th and 19th Century British textile industry.
1970s Mainframe
1980s PC
1990s Internet
2000s Social Media
2010s
2020s 26
AR/VR
BlockChain
Main Features
Distributed Data Processing & Storage Blockchain protocols are distributed in the processing and storage of data. Instead of requiring an expensive set of central servers, and large companies to buy and maintain them, Blockchain runs protocols with the collective memory and processing power of all the devices in its network.
Distributed Processing & Storage
Distributed Ledger
Public Ownership of the Ledger Blockchain protocols require no central system for storing or processing data, and thus require no private party to buy and supply such a system. In this sense, they can be thought of as publically owned.
Provenance
Provenance The information carried in individual “blocks� has been cryptographically encode with an identity that cannot be altered, making it possible to track their provenance - or origin - back through time, and the hands through which they have passed. This capacity is applicable to digital and physical artefacts that have had their identity encoded.
27
Applications Mapping the Earth Concerned with a decaying rate of economic growth, the Ghanaian Government commissioned a team of researchers and designers to investigate. They identified uncertain land tenure as one of three major causes. The resulting Bitland project uses Blockchain to document land-ownership on the ground, bypassing the Governments cluttered and fallible bureaucracy.
Distributed Food Production & Supply Since the 1980s, systems of community-supported agriculture have attempted to eliminate the corporate middlemen endemic food supply chains. The US based Farmshare proposes to utilise Blockchain to connect smallscale farmers directly with their customers. Talk of using Blockchain’s capacity for tracking provenance to create transparent systems of food supply, where the origin of every ingredient within a restaurant dish.
Transparent Supply Chains Blockchain’s capacity to track provenance is being used by diamond traders to eliminate fraud and theft from the market. London startup Everledger has developed a system whereby each stone’s identity is fixed by forty data points upon its surface, and their history of sales can be viewed online.
Governance The UK Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) has announced a pilot scheme in the North of England, using blockchain to manage social welfare payments. The benefits are two-fold: Claimants receive their benefits with minimum hassle and on time, while in return they agree for DWP to monitor - and collect data on - their spending.
28
The Digital in the Cairngorms Digital Wasteland Internet access within the Cairngorms National Park is sparse and often slow, with upload and download speeds well below the national average. The subpaar digital connectivity has a negative impact on the economy: reliable access to the internet internet allows SMEs to take advantage of cheap advertising and the option to sell internationally. A 2012 survey showed that 57% of Cairngorm businesses believe the limited internet access has handicapped their ability to properly run (Bremner, 2012).
Superfast Broadband In 2010, Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) - the stewards of economic and social well being in the Highlands and Islands - bid to be one of four rural areas in the UK to dedicate themselves to bringing all their citizens NextGen Broadband by 2020. Rollout of this superfast broadband in the Cairngorms has been slow. In 2012, Community Broadband Scotland announced Tomintoul - located in the NorthWesterly region of the Cairngorms - as one of three rural communities to pilot the new scheme. Due to a lack of organisational infrastructure, the project was stalled. The Park Authority, however, are planning a detailed park-wide development plan (Watson & Ferguson, 2015).
31
Analyse In our initial phase of research, we had cast our nets wide to obtain a broad understanding of our brief. This led us to formulate a refined research question.
People & Place of the Cairngorms
BlockChain
Mediators
34
Ownership & Presence
Novel Digital Geographies
Research Question How Can BlockChain Give the people of the Cairngorms Ownership & Presence in the Creation (means of production) of Novel Digital Geographies ? 35
01
Stakeholders design research
In order to truly understand our stakeholders, their values, concerns and motivations, we needed to make contact with them in person. After conduscting desk research current institutions and the communities of the Cairngorms, and a brief scoping trip to Aviemore, the well connected and bustling tourist hub of the Cairngorms, we decided to investigate the challenges of rural living within the park.
36
Our Strategy to tackle such a complex issue we took a social stance to the project, and focused our research on community empowerment, a movement that we believe is a necessary route for designers to embrace and communicate through their work.
Institutions National Conservation Groups
Governmental Organizations Highland, Moray, Aberdeenshire, Angus, Perth&Kinross Councils
Scottish Natural Heritage John Muir trust PlantLife Scotland RSPB Scottish Wildlife Trust
Local Coservation Groups Badenoch & StarthSpey Conservation Group
Highland & Island Enterprise Forestry Commision Scotland
WWF Scotland
The Cairngorms Campaign
Community Organizations Aviemore & Vicinity Community Council Rothiemurrchus & Glenmore Community Association Marr Area Partnership Voluntary Action in Badenoch & Starthspey
CNPA Locals
Local Recreation Groups
Tumintoul & Glenlivet Development Trust
Park Tourists
Local Outdoor Acess Group
Landowners Rothiemurchus Estate Forestry Commission Scotland
Mountain Training Association
Scottish Natural Heritage Glenmore Lodge
Cairngorms Business Partnership
Scottish Ramblers
Speyside Wildlife Economy
National Recreation Groups
Highlands & Islands Enterprise
Local Business Organizations Ecological Social Economic
38
Cairngorm National Park Authroity CNPA as a Mediator: one function of the CNPA is to mediate between the
interests of other stakeholder groups in the Cairngorms. We categorised these groups as: Government Organisations; Community Organisations; Landowners; Local Business Organisations; National Recreational Groups; Local Recreational Groups; Local Conservation Groups; and National Conservation groups. Since the average citizen living and working in the park earns just 74% of the national average income, there is pressure to develop the area economically, and often this pressure manifests itself in proposals to promote tourism. Yet given the negative effects this trade can and does have on the Cairngorms’ landscapes and ecologies, a friction emerges between the interest of conservation and development. The area has a history of social strife over this issue, particularly in Aviemore. The town plays host to over a million tourists a year, and is thus ground zero for this conflict of concerns. In the mid-90s this came to a head over the proposition to build a funicular railway to the top of Cairn Gorm Mountain. Out of this flame war, the Cairngorms Rothiemurchus and Glenmore Group (CRAGG) was born. It provided a forum for effectively managing projects where the values of the various environmental and economic development groups might clash (Moreau, 2015). Since then, the groups’ original activities have been largely superseded by the CNPA. Their example has provided an alternative to viewing conservation management as necessarily opposed to economic development.
Main Events in the CNPA’s Recent History Establishment of the CNPA Officially Debate Over Conservation & what a Scottish National Park is
1928
2005 2003
The National Park’s First Partnership Development Plan
2007
CNPA awarded European Charter for Sustainable Tourism in Protected Areas
Economic & Social Health Plan
2012
2015
The National Park’s Partnership Development Plan
2017
Delivery of National Tourism Strategy
2020
39
Scoping
Aviemore When Yara and Cong visited Aviemore they discovered a busy tourist town, occupied by contented people with all the necessary resources at their fingertips.
40
Newtonmore By contrast they found the little village of Newtonmore to be relatively devoid of amenities, with just one small local food-store, an outlet for Harris Tweed, and a few hotels.
41
Ethnographic Research Tomintoul Why Tomintoul ? After our scouting trip to the Aviemore metropolis, we decided we were interested in investigating the challenges of living in the more rural settings of the Cairngorms. With a population of less than five hundred, and extremely limited public transport links to the nearby towns Dufftown and Grantown-on-Spey, the isolated village of Tomintoul looked like a promising location. In addition to its rural setting, Tomintoul intrigued us as a place to explore some of the issues that had emerged from the research we had conducted up until that point. The village had been one of three Highland Communities chosen to test pilot Highlands and Islands Enterprise’s NextGen Broadband Project (see Superfast Broadband), and so might be an interesting place to explore questions of digital connectivity.
The Facade
The settlement itself lies on the Glenlivet Estate: 5,800 acres of land owned by the British Crown. Its small population makes the community a candidate to take advantage of the “right to buy” (see Land Reform), and thus a good setting to inquire into the impact (or nonimpact) of the Scottish Land Reform movement in the Cairngorms. Tomintoul advertises itself as a jumping off point for adventure tourists in the Cairngorms. In our minds, this made the village a potentially fruitful place to investigate latent tensions between the expansion of tourist-centric projects for economic development and environmental conservation (see CNPA as Mediators). Our trip was scheduled for late-October running into early November, meaning we would visit when the tourist season would be winding down, providing the opportunity to experience this transitionary period. While we enjoyed our stay, we gathered qualitative data in three ways: An observational hike through the countryside; the use of engagement tools; and face-to-face interviews with the Park Authority (in Grantown-on-Spey), the Tomintoul and Glenlivet Development Trust, and of course the local citizens.
42
The Crown Estate Office
The Benavon Cottage
The The overgrown Whiskey Castle Banfshire Garden
The Old Firestation Tea Room
The R Hote
The Richmond Memorial Hall The Local Store and Post Office The Glen Avon Hotel
n
The Square Nia Roo The garage
Richmond el
43
44
Hike Experience We undertook a hike from Tomintoul to nearby Glenlivet Distillery. We took care to document the various uses to which the lands surrounding us were being put by man, and the phenomenological experience of moving through this landscape. Above are sketches that show our experience from the perspective of one of our team mates. They were either moments she captured through with her camera. We later used as a tool to reflect upon our sensorial experience through our hike.
45
Tomintoul
Here we saw Cairns that serve as landmarks in the landscape
Hike Observations On this Hike we went out in search of inspiration and symbols incorporated in the landscape. We drew upon our knowledge on semiotics. Above are some the of the symbols we pick up on.
46
Here we saw the Sumgglers Trail near towards the Distillery
Here we saw photoposts that are part of a scientific experiment carried put by the CNPA
The Glenlivet Distillery
Here we saw how farmers sell their extra produce to passers by Here we saw Datums that mark geographic locations
47
Engagement Tools
48
Physical Instagram
Scroll of Time
Yara created a physical instagram, designed to explore the perception that the people of Tomintoul have towards the natural and artificial landscapes around them.
Finn’s timeline-scroll asked participants to mark the major events in the community’s history, as well as those coming in the future.
Resource Chair
Spotting map
Cong’s resource chair holds removable impressions of the Cairngorms’ distinctive species as well as humans. Participants were told that there was limited room in this microcosm, and asked to decide which three they would keep.
Poopak gave participants a map of the Cairngorms and asked them to mark which presently absent amenities or public services (such as schools or hospitals) they would like to see and where.
What we gained Five days of personal engagement in Tomintoul, Glenlivet and Grantown-on-Spey left us with huge quantities of data to make sense of. Our first steps towards understanding all this information we had gathered was to create a new map of all the stakeholder groups we had encountered. From these we chose six groups we considered to be key in the social fabric of the Cairngorms, and created personas from them for use in our concept ideation phase.
Interviews Tomintoulians
Ron
Dianne
Ebeth
Ron is the head of the Kirkmichael and Tomintoul Community association. He had a multitude of anecdotes for us, casting HIE, the CNPA and Aberdeenshire Council in a negative light. His experience with settin up a business was met with many obstacles, which heavily influenced his opinions.
Dianne tends the bar in the Glen Avon hotel and is married to a gamekeeper. Our conversations with her revolved around the potentially negative impact that the Land Reform Movement might have on a community that contains many members employed by the large estates surrounding it.
Ebeth is a pensioner, who moved to Tomintoul from Edinburgh when she was ten years old. She spoke to Yara and Cong at length about the impact that the CNPA had had on local traditions, the history and mythologies of Tomintoul, and her sense of attachment to the village and its people.
“(The policies of) HIE destroy aspiration, ambition and drive in the locality… The CNPA are out of touch, and have no statutory powers.”
“It’s just folk sitting on their backside in an office in Holyrood, making the decisions.”
“In a small community, I feel that there’s a unity… as long as you are wanting to be part of the community, you will be part of the community.”
50
Ian
Margerie & Kathy
Stephen
Ian was a retired distillery worker, married to a primary school teacher. He lamented the gradual decrease of year-round local citizens, and the growing number of holiday homes that lie empty in the winter months. He also spoke about the severe lack of local jobs that meant his son had to live away from Tomintoul.
Margerie owns a bookshop called ‘Bookmark’ in Grantown-on-Spey. She had issues with the CNPA’s higher positions being occupied exclusively by people from outside the Cairngorms, and how this affected wider Cairngorm society.
Stephen owns a cafe and a whiskey shop. His business depends on tourists that pass by or stay in Tomintoul. To ensure his business works in the off-season as well, he sells and markets his products online. His business depends on selling whiskey made in the Highlands.
“These days, there’s few folk to have a good chat with… There’s more Scottish people to be found in Australia than Tomintoul.”
“They brought in outsiders to tell us what to do with our land… Community is organic and starts from the heart of where people are.”
“I am running a successful business, my wife helps me run it, and I can raise my children in a safe healthy environment.”
51
Interviews Institutions
The Tomintoul & Glenlivet Development Trust We met with Justin and Julian from the TGDT. The Trust had recently secured £3.7 million, match funded by HIE, the CNPA, Moray Council, Chivas, the RSPB, Historic Environment Scotland, and the Cairngorms Learning Partnership, amongst other institutions. Their proposed projects include renovating the local museum and visitor center, creating a path out of the village and past Osprey nests, renovating Drumin and Blairfindy Castles and commissioning installations along the East Cairngorm driving route. Their hope was that these projects would benefit the local economy by catching the interest of tourist and so enticing them to stop over for “more than a cup of tea”. “The Trust was set up by a group of business owners who thought, “There’s nothing here… We’ve got to do something… We’ve got to get people to stop [in Tomintoul].””
52
The National Park Authority Matthew and Emma, from the Park Authority’s Landscape Department, spoke to us about the Authority’s values and tactics. They viewed the ecological impact of Cairngorm citizens’ activities as vastly more harmful than those of tourists, yet hoped that through educating local residents in the importance of environmental conservation, they could create knowledge, and so appreciation of and conscientious behaviour towards the landscape.
“We are the guardians [of the Cairngorms]... Part of the job is to seek to understand the interests and values of these [rural] communities… The CNPA attempts to develop personal relationships between stakeholders with conflicting interests. The face-to-face chat is key.”
53
02
Stakeholders Sense-Making
Organizational Bodies
Stakeholder Map In constructing our stakeholder map upon gathering the research needed, we followed five steps.
Governmental Organizations Funds to help achieve Goals
Community Companies
Funds to help achieve Goals
Local Organizations Who We wrote the names of all the people we’d spoken to on post-it notes, and arranged these into the stakeholder groups they represented. What Then we thought about what relationships they had towards each other, and whether or not they were one or two way relationships. We represented this difference with different colours of wool connecting the groups, and labelled the nature of the connections.
Impose Rules & Regulations on Business owners
GOs desperatley want Youth to stay (UHI Project)
Indegin
Work Togethe
Golden Oldies Are
Parents
Why Then we took some time to think about why these relationships exist. Themes The next step was to categorise these relationships into themes, e.g. are they environmentally, socially, or economically focused. The final step was to scour the map for unusual relationships, or interesting gaps in them, e.g. older citizens rarely interact with the area’s youth.
54
Are
Work
Bring Family
Nurture
Children Family Ties Family Ties
Teach
Bring Family
Staying Youth Are
Leaving Youth
Inherited Industry
Are Are
A
Volunteers
Core Community Members
Crofters
Two Way Relationship One Way Relationship
Non-Cairngorms Stakeholders
CC try to get tourists to stay
Tourist Find Info
Tourists Economic benefits
s
Introduce the place
People Outside The Cairngorms
Exchange of Products & Sevices For Money
Other Cairngorm Communities
Provide Jobs
The Hubs of the Cairngorms Part of CNP
Similarly Sized Communities
nous Business Owners
er
Incoming Business Men
Economic Competition
k Together
E-Merchants Are
Local Artists & Crafters Are
Incoming Foreign Workers Are
Incoming Retirees
Are
Incoming Community Activists
Conservation is a challenge prodvide uniqueness, heritage, & tradtion
Other Factors
Difficulty in daily tasks Disconnectivty Physically & Virtually
Challenging Environment Conservation Efforts
Public Services PBs depend on connectivity
Economic Dependency
Nature
Natural Resources
Local Industries
Telecommunication 55
Personas Our stakeholder map revealed six major categories of stakeholder present in our field research: Park Authority Officers; Lonely Local Citizens; Local Business Owners; Tourists; Engaged Local Citizens; Community Group Members. We constructed personas from these groupings by taking the actual individuals we had spoken to that fell within these categories and thinking about the values, aspirations and issues that typified our impression of who they were during our conversations with them.
56
Values
A Story he told..
Environmental Conservation Economic and Social Welbeing of Cairngorms’ Citizens
Issues Environmental damage caused by local citizens’ & tourists’ unconscientious behaviour The Park Authority is perceived as out of touch with local values, traditions and culture, and as being comprised entirely by outsiders
Stephen38
Aspirations Bristol
Aviemore
Cairngorm National Park Authority
Achieving sustainable living in the Cairngorms Educating people to be environmentally conscientious
Values
A Story he told..
He is intensely proud of being Scottish, and of the Tomintoul community Considers himself from Banffshire, and not Moray The nature and landscape around Tomintoul; he often goes for long walks
Issues He doesn’t consider there to be enough business in Tomintoul
Donald 68
The public transport system is poor The houses around his are mostly holiday homes, and are empty in the Winter
Tomintoul
Tomintoul
Lonely Local Citizen
Aspirations He’d like to see more business and jobs locally, so his son might come back He’d like Tomintoul to be more economically prosperous
57
Values
Aspirations
To make a good living and raise their children in a safe environment To protect and build their new township
To become more involved in the local community They have a keen interest in the progress of the Land Reform Movement, since Tomintoul lies on, and is surrounded by, privately owned land. They’d like to expand their business by bringing in more tourist money, & Figuring out how to cater to local demands.
Issues Andrew& Caitlin 44&38
Grantownon-Spey
Tomintoul
Local Business Owners
Their store and café have to close in the Winter months, since without the tourist trade, there’s not enough local business to stay open They would like to expand their operations into new areas, but from experience are wary of the paperwork from the local council, CNPA, HIE and other authorities. They aren’t sure how to figure out which unfulfilled local needs are there to cater to.
Values Exploring Nature and Scottish Culture Testing herself (her English, physical ability, friend-making skills etc) in a novel situation
Issues Understanding the Scottish accent The cold (she is not prepared for Scotland or the Cairngorms in particular) She finds meeting local people tough.
Tuba 24
Aspirations To make lasting friends. To experience the mystery of the Cairngorms.
Istanbul
Tomintoul Tourist
58
A story they told..
A story she told..
Values
A Story she told..
Company, gossip and local history The future of the community Scottish culture and the natural landscape
Issues Susan sees the CNPA as fundamentally meddlesome; interfering with local traditions and practices She’s sceptical about the potentially negative impact the land-reform movement might have on the community She loathes the negative impact that tourists have on the landscape
Susan 42
Braemar
Tomintoul
Engaged Local Citizen
Aspirations To continue living peacefully in the hills For Tomintoul to remain untouched by the various winds of change that blow around it
Values
A Story he told..
Economic development of Tomintoul
Issues Richard perceives the local citizens as being incapable of organising themselves, yet suspicious of allowing people from the “outside” to represent them The village doesn’t seem to be able to keep tourists in town for “longer than a cup of tea”
Richard 35
Aspirations
Braemar
Tomintoul
Secure funding for more community projects, which will (hopefully) attract toursits to the area and have a trickle down benefit for the villages businesses and create new jobs
Community Group Member 59
03
Insights & Opportunities Sense-Making workshop Having gathered together large quantities of quantitative and qualitative data from our desk research and time visiting Aviemore, Newtonmore, Grantown-on-Spey and Tomintoul, we were in a position to start making sense of this informational galaxy.
60
Insight Workshop Our group was invited to join our Glasgow contingent in a workshop run by Iain Aitchison. The event was focussed on teaching us some of the techniques designers can use to pull insights out of raw data and thus identify design opportunities within the real-world situations represented by the information. A prerequisite for the workshop was the construction of an evidence wall: a large visualisation of the discoveries we had made until that point, including a summary of our desk research, profiles of - and key quotes from - the people we engaged with in the field, and a stakeholder map.
Hypothesis
Insights & Design Opportunities Deduction The deductive process of insight generation involved forming a hypothesis and looking for evidence to support it within our research. Hypotheses that found support could be carried forward, where those without sufficient evidence were discarded.
Evidence
Anti-Evidence Why do these groups exist ?
Group
Possible Reasons Why
Induction Induction proceeds by affinitising previously unconnected nuggets of information, and positing an explanation as to why their similarity might exist.
A B
Abduction In the abductive process, we looked for separate pieces of data that, when combined, looked paradoxical, contradictory or otherwise striking. We then brought in our experience and knowledge of the world outside of the confines of our project, to formulate explanations connecting these odd looking combinations.
62
c
Are they Relevant?
Insight 1
Evidence
Descriptiption
I saw I Heard
Reasons why
I Read
Map Existing Ideas Identify Gaps in your thinking Situate current response/ assumed solutions to issue pros cons
pros cons
pros cons
pros cons
Consciousness
Idea Mapping After having formulated groups, and produced opportunities for each insight, we quickly came up with ideas. Following this rapid generation of ideas we created scales of two opposite continuum on which we placed those ideas. Mapping the ideas allowed us to identify gaps where we had not generated ideas, and urged us to think why that is. Although we created scales for each opportunity, we could have also approached it by mapping all of the ideas on one scale, which would have allowed us to see a bigger picture.
Conscious incompetence
Conscious Competence
Competence
Unconscious incompetence
Unconscious Competence
63
Insights 01
Guardians of the Landscape
On the one hand, the CNPA see themselves as guardians of the Cairngorms’ landscapes and view the activities of Gamekeepers as environmentally harmful. On the other hand, without Gamekeepers, the artificial ecologies on hunting estates would fall into a state of disarray.
02
Design a system of engagement between Land Reform policy makers and Cairngorm Communities that enables a greater degree of understanding between these parties, and the creation of more beneficial policies.
Helping or Hindering SMEs
Community activists and local business owners recognise the need for new businesses in the Cairngorms’ rural communities, yet the policies of HIE - the stewards of economic and social well being across the entire Highlands and Islands - often prevent small businesses from getting started.
64
Create a system where Gamekeepers, the CNPA and Cairngorm Citizens recognise their respective roles in protecting and maintaining the natural and artificial landscapes of the Cairngorms.
Land Reform Won’t Work
Despite it being one of the Land Reform Movement’s goals to empower small, rural Scottish communities to manage their surrounding lands in economically and socially beneficial ways, Cairngorm Citizens view the movement out of touch with their goals and values, and as potentially harmful to their communities.
03
Opportunities
Eliminate excess and confusing paperwork from the process of setting up a new business in the Cairngorms to encourage entrepreneurship.
04
Insights & Opportunities information mapping
History
Nature
Jobs
Location
Visualising Stories As another process for insight generation, we scoured our field engagements for striking moments of understanding between us and our participants. Encoding these moments as cartoon postcards, we affinitised them and arranged the resulting groups into broader narratives.
66
Tourism
Community
67
Lan d
Park-Wide
e n m t e g ana M Effecting Value on the Landscape
Emotion A the Lands
Ownership
Community
68
Bel o ing ng
Affected by scape
Presence
Emergent Themes In these narratives, we were able to recognise two major themes of issues emerging: Land Management - as the politics surrounding the use of physical space - and Belonging - as the manner in which the character of physical space affects people emotionally. These two themes of issue were also observed to intimately intertwine both at a Community and Park-Level.
69
Land Management
Resent grow
Crofters
Impose Rules & Regulations own
Develop & Maintain Landowners
Scottish Government Keep
Manage & Conserve
Game Keepers Live & Build
Educate
CNPA
70
Other locals
Belonging Old Friend
New Friend
family Interaction
Support Tomintoulians
Support
Proud
Conserve Institutions
Attraction Support Outsiders
Businessmen Support/Attraction Tourists
Attraction
71
People Wanting to Leave
People Living there
Are Are Emotional Connected Have
Belonging Issues This map was created to examine the relationship between having monetary ownership in place and the sense of belonging to it. This map raised more questions than answers; the issue of belonging is a rather convoluted issue that can be seen through various lenses. The way we looked at it however led us to believe that belonging extends beyond monetary value, and lies in the tensions of socio-political dynamics of people and place.
72
Game Keepers
Are Are Have Economical Make Money Make Money
Interact Have Ecological Work
Crofters
Ha Econo Econo
ave omical omical
Visitors
Tourists
Governmental Organizations
Landowners
Investors
Outsiders
Ecological Attract
Economical Attract
Interact
In Town Outside Town Relationships Tensions
Ownership through the capacity for Change Emotional Ownership of Land Physical Land Ownership No-sense of Ownership
73
Low Impact Adventure Tourism
High Impact Adventure Tourism
Arts & Crafts
The Highland Brand This map was a result of us questioning what if there were other jobs in the Cairngorms, and how that might reflect on the practices in the landscape. We tried to demonstrate in this map that current practices are not sustainable in the long run, and will only have adverse effects on nature, and alternately on the economy. We turned qualitative information into an abstract quantitative diagram to magnify our findings. The tension between man and nature was prevalent in both our desk and field research. We identified five main areas under-which the Highlands brand is promoted. The categorisation of these brands comes from our own understanding of the economic activities within the Cairngorms National Park.
74
Shooting &Hunting
NATURE Castles
Whiskey
High Impact Adventure Tourism
Low Impact Adventure Tourism
Arts & Crafts
Shooting &Hunting
ECONOMY Castles
Whiskey
Negative Positive Short Term Long Term
75
Land Owners
Extraction
Stakeholder Engagement in the Landscape This visual came about organically. The story illustrations here started off as a way of visualizing significant moments of our research, and have evolved to become constant reminders for us to stay true to our evidence. The diagram explores the relationship between man and nature within the Cairngorms. The exploration was done through comparing and contrasting people’s roles in society, their daily lives, and how that affected their perceptions of the landscape. Using the stories we visualized in combination with a measurement scale helped us communicate these complex relationships at a glance.
76
Scottish Government
Engaged
GameKeepers
Tourists
CNPA
Crofters
Consevation Scottish Government Locals
*This diagram
Disengaged
is representative of our subjective conclusions only
77
05
Reframed Themes summarised issues
Community Level
The Holiday homes & Shops around me are empty in winter
I Feel Isolated..
In winter, the cafe closes.. there’s not enough business..
I feel Isolated..
Land Management
Belonging
Tomintoul has several cafes and many houses that lie empty throughout the winter, when the tourist trade begins to hibernate. This is due to the seasonality of the economy in the National Park. The community does not benefit from these spaces efficiently.
Citizens born and raised in the village say this leaves them feeling isolated, and the young people from outside the community that work in the cafes say these residents avoid the premises, making it difficult for these workers to integrate into the community.
78
Park Wide I am not from moray, Iam from Banfshire We Are the Gaurdians: Educate-knowledge-appreciation -conscientious behaviour..
They stopped Traditions
Outsiders tell us what to do with our land
I don’t really know what is going on in aviemore
They Blocked my Business Plan
CNPA Makes life different Out of Touch
Land Management
Belonging
The Park Authority is dedicated to the social and economic well-being of citizens, yet their final priority is the conservation of the Park’s landscapes and ecosystems. This commitment frequently forces the CNPA into blocking citizen’s proposals for socially and economically beneficial business and community proposals and projects.
This generates a wide-spread resentment of the CNPA across Cairngorm society. Yet despite experiencing the same, exasperating situation, we found little evidence of a distinctive Cairngorm identity emerging between Cairngorm communities living under the Park Authority.
79
Asking What if
What if citizens saw themselves as partners with the Park Authority in Pioneering a new environmentally friendly way of living ?
81
Concept Development
83
01
Inspiration through exploration
Inspiration In developing our final concept, we drew inspiration from existing designs, symbols we picked up on during our field research, and ongoing project within the National Park.
84
Beacons
Photoposts
Lit Paths
Robotics
Geocache
Open Street Map
Gates
Cairns
85
Cairns Man-made stone piles - or Cairns - have been constructed world-wide for thousands of years. Their purpose ranges from way-marking to cornering off human territories, ceremonial center points to hunting. In our project, we were interested in cairns as ways of embedding human memory in the landscape, one of their functions being to mark the burial place of important people.
Photoposts Dotted throughout the Cairngorms, the curious hiker can discover fourteen scenic photo posts. Passers by are invited to place their cameras atop, take a photo of the immediate landscape, and upload this to the Park Authority’s website. The scenes themselves have been chosen by the CNPA as sites expected to change dramatically under man’s influence in the immediate future. Together, the accumulation of photographs form a record of this transition.
86
We explored the concept of Cairns through role playing. Through the use of props we created a short video to document the experience.
Acting and Testing In arriving at our final concept, we explored several ideas in greater detail. One was an application of virtual reality technology to enable the construction of digital cairns in the landscape: users would record stories, songs or explanations, and cast these as virtual stones upon the ground in places of significance for other people to discover and explore at leisure. Another idea was to co-opt and expand the existing system of scenic photo posts in the Cairngorms, as places for the CNPA to broadcast media relating to the special significance of the sites they had chosen. Moving on from each case of concept development, we took what we perceived to be the best elements from each to carry forward into the next concept, disregarding features we thought of as facile or unhelpful.
87
02
Idea Generation through illustrations
GAte Idea Memorials Idea
PArticipatory Palnning Idea
Memorials Idea
Provenance Idea Concepts During our conceptualisation phase we decided to expand and exhaust all ideas before we settled on one to further improve. To the right are some of our doodles.
88
Provenan
robots Idea Provenance Idea
Drop Story Idea
Gate Idea
nce Idea
Beacon Idea
Cairn Idea
Recording Idea
89
03
Finalisation design detailing
Eventually we arrived at LiveDrop: an open system of bluetooth beacons that enable citizens, business owners and the CNPA to attach digital media to townships and photo posts, broadcasting information or societal and environmental concerns for others to view and comment in a manner that ensured these broadcasts were embedded in the physical spaces upon which they were commenting.
90
LiveDrop
Overview The LiveDrop system is designed to address issues surrounding the use of natural and artificial space in the Cairngorms by connecting stakeholders, that might not otherwise speak to each other, within communities and also at a park-wide level. LiveDrop assumes that each resident in the Park has been issued with a Cairngorm-Citizenship card that defines the roles they play in society: Resident; Park Authority Officer; Business Owner; Corporate Representative; Community Activist etc. Cairngorm citizens will be given the opportunity to claim “ownership” over these beacons, meaning they will be able to “broadcast” pieces of digital media that are attached to the beacons’ identity. These bits of media will be encoded with the broadcaster’s C-Citezenship ID, and addressed to specific community roles. Broadcasters also have the option to broadcast to all the beacons in the Park. LiveDrop assumes that each resident in the Park has been issued with a Cairngorm-Citizenship card that defines the roles they play in society: Resident; Park Authority Officer; Business Owner; Corporate Representative; Community Activist etc. The system operates through a distributed network of beacons: small and discrete bluetooth transmitters that communicate tiny amounts of information about their location to mobile phone applications. The beacons will be installed throughout the park.
92
Citizens passing by beacons, will be notified when there is media present relevant to their societal roles. After viewing the media they have the opportunity to “drop” a reply. By connecting citizens, business owners and members of the Park Authority in an open way, we hope that a distinctive and productive Cairngorm identity will emerge. This identity should recognise the Park as a special place of societal innovation: an area where the Park Authority imposes rules on living that ensure the environmental sustainability of man’s existence, and where the burden this imposition brings upon Citizens is recognised and celebrated as necessary in pioneering the future of humanity.
Claiming& Broadcasing The broadcaster can claim temporary ownership of a beacon that matches his/her C-citizenship ID. Broadcast ideas include sharing media posts, events, fundraising, and polls. The broadcaster can choose which passers get and alert and react to the broadcast.
Responding The receiver gets an alert as they walk past the beacon, and can react to the broadcast.
Distribution There are three Beacons, the community beacon, the nature beacon, and the business beacon. These are distributed by the authorities of the National Park.
93
Implementation The system will be installed by the Park Authority as part of a three year initiative to create a distributed system of communication, knowledge acquisition and decision making; to recognise the special trials experienced by the communities in the Cairngorms; and to nurture a distinctive Cairngorm identity. Each township will be gifted with three beacons: a community beacon, a business beacon and a nature beacon, mirroring the CNPA’s commitment to social, economic and environmental well-being. Additional nature beacons will be attached to the network of photo-posts around the Park. Residents will be issued with an C-Citizenship ID that gives them access to the beacon system.
94
LiveDrop
Bro
Broadcaster signs smart contract for use of particular beacon
Smart Contract
The System The figure to the right is a general systems map that shows how media can be paired with particular beacons, stored and processed by a blockchain protocol, and viewed by receivers. Special temporary ID available for tourists, who will only be able to view and reply to media, not start new threads. Beacons are Bluetooth devices that emita small amount of data, communicating their identity to mobile device applications. When the app detects a beacon, it relays its identity to the blockchain. C-Citizens who register with a beacon can use it to broadcast media to other citizens, specifying the issue being raised, and the receiver roles to which they broadcast. Receivers who are interested can drop new media in reply. All the information will be recorded and layered on the blockchain for C-Citizens to track as provenance.
96
BLOC
oadcaster
CKCHAIN
Beacons Sniff for App
Beacon
Beacon sends ID to app
Bro
adc
Media Broadcaster uploads media to blockchain specifying roles
aste
r&
Rece
ive
r Pe
rso n
s In
terc
Blockchain sends receiver app media relevant to receiver role(s)
han
Receiver app listens to Beacon
Beacon sends ID to App
gea
ble
Receiver
App sends blockchain beacon’s ID 97
Scenarios Organizational Levels A Donald reads about the successful Braemar hydro project. B He broadcasts on the community beacon, asking if anyone else is interested in setting up something similar in Tomintoul (4)
A
It wil w
Renewable resources project!
C-E Many Citizens view and reply with positive and negative thoughts and opinions (5). F LiveDrop recognizes the thread as hot and suggests a face-to-face meeting. G The meeting is a productive success. The minutes are uploaded to LiveDrop (5). H Over the following months, the community put together a detailed plan for their own HydroScheme. The steps in this process are broadcast to LiveDrop. (4)
B
Museum
We’d love to get involve
I-J The final plan is broadcast on the nature beacon for the CNPA to check, Its rejected.. (5) K The community is disappointed, and utilize LiveDrop’s park-wide broadcast function to all Community Beacons, asking for insight (4). In reply, they receive many similar stories from other Cairngorm communities (5). L The Tomintoul community broadcast this collection of problem-stories to the CNPA via the Nature Beacon (4). M The origin recorded on the blockchain gives them evidence of a Park-Wide problem. N CNPA replies (5). Stephen understands communities’ frustrations but reminds everyone in the Park has a responsibility to its ecologies. O He pledges to create a new task-force to help interested communities initiate eco-friendly energy projects.
98
K
It will Harm Nature!
J
F
C
ll never work!
Broadcast
Reply
L
This thread is hot! Meet face to face? Yes
No
N
D
We are concerned About this!
o ed!
We will look into this!
G
O E Great Idea! I’m In!
P
H
I
99
CAFE
SUMMER!
A
C AFE
D
Scenarios
WE WANT TO HEAR SOME SUGGESTIONS ON WHAT TO DO WITH THE SPACE IN WINTER!
Business Beacon
They broadcast to locals on LiveDrop asking for A-C Andrew and Caitlin own a Cafe that’s busy in the ggestions on how to use their space in the off season (5). summer with the tourist trade, but has to close in the winter.
D
They broadcast to locals on LiveDrop asking for suggestions on how to use their space in the off season (5)
E-K E-K) Local citizens passing by are alerted to the Broadcast (4) and drop suggestions (6). L-M Caitlin and Andrew react by asking citizens to vote for their favourite suggestions (7). A-C Andrew and Caitlin own a Cafe that’s busy in the summer with the tourist trade, but has to close in the winter.
100
CAFE
BING!
BING!
E
B
WINTER!
O
C
Thanks Everyone!
F
Game
G
P
L
CAFE Game
Welcome!
M
I
H
GAMES CRAFTS COOKING
Craft
Winter! game
K
J
GAMES COOKING
Q
cooking
N
Cooking Cooking
101
Scenarios
Nature Beacon
A
Walking Day
A There are many Photoposts in the Cairngorms, constructed by the CNPA B Stephen attached nature beacons to them all & broadcasts educational messages about the surrounding landscape (5). The drops are paired with nature beacons in nearby towns & villages (5).
B
C Any LiveDropper walking past downloads them automatically. D The annual Tomintoul-Glenlivet hike begins with a mixed crowd of local citizens and tourists. E
As LiveDroppers approach a nature beacon, their applications alert them to Stephen’s message. (4) He invited them to leave a reply.
F-H Hikers reply with their thoughts and perceptions of the landscape. I
Back in Tomintoul, Hiker’s drops upload for others to appreciate.
J
Susan walks past the same beacon and views all the drops (4).
K These different ideas about landscape, its meaning and management enliven her.
102
l
lEt
Nature Beacon
C
Message Upload
J
F I appreciate the beauty & People Here
E
look at this ecology
G I appreciate the Animals Here
t’s hear from you
H
I I know the importance of folklore here
K
it’s really good to gain perspective
That was a wondeful story to hear about the land
L
Whiskey
Oh I’ve got more to tell!
103
B
A
Scenarios
NO
Community Beacon
A
Ebeth Leaves Tomintoul in 1982 to attend University in Glasgow.
B
In 2017 her childhood home burns down.
C-D Susan places a commnity beacon close by the disaster (4). She Broadcasts for other citizens to leave kind words to the current owner (5). E
You will Always have a place to stay with us!!
Many lovely messages are dropped (5).
F-G Richard proposes a whip-around (5). H
J
Ebeth returns to Tomintoul.
K
In the pub, she asks Susan about her childhood home and Susan suggests searching for memories on the LiveDrop.
L-M Ebeth watches the videos (5), and is proud of her long lost hometown.
104
We are so sorry ..this is such a tragedy!!
As dropping subsides, LiveDrop holds a vote on whether to delete the story or save it as a memory (8). Citizens vote to keep the story (8).
Donald drops aare new photo (5). of the house E) ManyI-H lovely messages dropped being rebuilt everyday (5). Upon the house’s completion, this story is also voted into memory.
E
H Thread is Cold! Keep Discard
Keep
Discard
C
D LiveDrop
K
Fire ruined the House
F
G
L
J
M
LEts Raise Money so sad FIRE!!
I
The House Has Changed
105
Broadcaster
Temporary ow Beac
The App Overview The application facilitates the communication amongst the different stakeholders in the national park as residents are able relay problems, ideas, etc through the different functions of the applications. The messages are broadcasted and received by residents according to their roles with the community, these are specified through the app. Furthermore, This platform is made personal through the spatial information communicated through the beacons.
106
Signing-up with C-Citizenship
Receiver
Getting an a broadcast whe
wnership of con
alert for the en passing by
Choosing who can react to the broadcast
Choosing how they can react to the broadcast
Creating content through media
Viewing Current & Memory stories through beacon filters
Viewing Current Content
Responding to different types of content
Voting on whether stories turn into memories or not
107
Advanced Features
Through Broadcaster
108
Voting
Fundraising
Park-Wide Broadcast
An issue can be raised through a poll, the results can then be used to resolve the issue at hand.
The option to fund-raise can be suggested for communities to show their support.
The option to broadcast park wide is available for when advice, help, and sharing is desired with other communities
Through App Prompts Meeting
Creating a Memory
An invite to meet up and discuss a hot thread to further build upon issues discussed Online.
An invite to vote on maintaining cold thread and turning them into memories serves to build a community memorial.
109
The Interactions The service blueprint displays how the interactions in the system carry out.
1
Physical Evidence
2
Beacons,CNPA’s Website,Poster
3
Registration Confirmation
4
Tutorial
Broadcaster Action Discovers Service
Joins the System
Reciever Action
Learns how to Use the System
Posters in Cafes, link on CNPA Website, App pop-up
Back of Stage Interaction
CNPA Distributes Posters, creates videos, Launches Website and App
Getting Started
Tutorial Page
numbers that refrence back to the service blueprint
110
Set-Up Beacon Network & Marketing Scheme C-Citizenship is set-up
Requesting Ownership Alert Received
Beacons Sniff out Listening Devices C-citizen? Yes
No
CNPA creates promitional video and Demo on App
Continue Toutist ID
*The scenarios contain
Finds Beaco & Claims Ownership
Passes by Beacon
Front of Stage Interaction
Support Processes
Visible Beacon Alert Screen
Register with the system on BlockChain
Website and App maintained by CNPA
Beacons Sniff o Listening Devic
Beacons Matc C-Citizenship with Beacon I
BLE Beacons send data to t Blockchain fo approval
Nature Beaco download med
n
on
p
y
out ces
ch p ID
s the or
ons dia
5
6
Message Screen
Creates Own Message & Chooses Target Receiver Views Current Content& History & Reacts Filming, Writing, Capturing, Recording Defining Message Interaction
Matching Media with C-Citizenship & Beacon ID
Data added to BlockChain Nature Beacons wait for internet access
7
Message Board
Tracks New Changes
8
Message Screen
9
10
Alert Notification
Message Screen
Votes to keep/delete
Creates New Message
Meeting/ Voting Prompt Votes to keep/delete
Map Screen
Views all Location Specific Contributions
Decide on given options
Message is turned into memory or discarded
Filming, Writing, Capturing, Recording
A Record of Current Activites
App Pulls Updates From BlockChain
The App recognises when an issue is becoming popular
The App recognises when a thread is cold
Matching media with C-Citizenship & Beacon ID
Matching media with C-Citizenship & All Beacon IDs
BlockChain updated by broadcaster & reciever replies
Data pulled from BlockChain
Data pulled from BlockChain
Data pulled from BlockChain
Data pulled from BlockChain
Recieves Updates
111
Animation Making In order to bring our scenarios to life, we made a stop motion. The props used in the animation were made out of clay, the backdrops were drawn or painted.
112
Broadcasters can “claim ownership” of this beacon, and broadcast media which is then paired to their C-Identity and the beacon’s identity. A citizen could broadcast on all the Business Beacons to all the other Cairngorms Communities asking for help, advice and insight. To the right the person broadcasts a message for advice on utilizing his business space in the off-seasons.
Receiver’s apps also detect beacons and relay them to the blockchain, which then relays the media which has been paired with that beacon, relevant to the roles specified by their C-Identity. Receivers who are interested can drop new media in reply and they can also vote through an opinion poll function. To the right, citizens vote for their favourite suggestions.
113
Shining A Light We were lucky to bring back our research to at least one of our stakeholders. After our final presentation we were able to communicate our solution to the Cairngorm National Park Authority who were very well receiving of our proposal. Several details of the project were discussed during our meeting. The promising aspects of the proposal include the possibility of creating a platform of communication between the different stakeholders, especially as a tool to help educate about the landscape and its ecologies. The concerns that were raised include the possible misuse of such a system, data protection, and the intrusiveness of technology on the landscape. On the other hand, we were unable to take our proposal back to other stakeholders, especially the people we spoke with in Tomintoul. However, we find it critical that we do, as we see feedback as an essential tool for post design reflection and improvement.
115
The Personal Touch These challenges to working, however, were counterpointed by the efforts made by Dr George Jaramillo to provide us with excellent teaching and guidance throughout our first semester. This time was also punctuated with valuable commentary and input from other knowledgeable persons. Special thanks need be given to ZoĂŤ Prosser, Sneha Raman, Professor Irene Mcara-McWilliam, Dr Gordon Hush, Dr Emma Murphy, Fergus Fullarton-Pegg, Dr Brian Dixon, and Dr Ian Reid for their respective inputs into the project.
116
117
Bibliography ‘Cairngorms National Park Authority’ (Cairngorms.co.uk, 2016) <http://cairngorms.co.uk/> accessed 1 October 2016 Dinnie E, Blackstock K and Dilley R, ‘Landscapes Of Challenge And Change: Contested Views Of The Cairngorms National Park’ (2012) 37 Landscape Research Ford H and Graham M, ‘Provenance, Power And Place: Linked Data And Opaque Digital Geographies’ (2016) 34 Environment and Planning D: Society and Space Graham M, De Sabbata S and Zook M, ‘Towards A Study Of Information Geographies: (Im)Mutable Augmentations And A Mapping Of The Geographies Of Information’ (2015) 2 Geo: Geography and Environment ‘Hearts And Minds – Stakeholder Management In The Cairngorms’ [2016] ECOS <https://www.banc.org.uk/ wp-content/uploads/2015/05/ECOS-36-1-57-Hearts-andminds.pdf> accessed 1 October 2016 Holden A, ‘High Impact Tourism: A Suitable Component Of Sustainable Policy? The Case Of Downhill Skiing Development At Cairngorm, Scotland’ (1999) 7 Journal of Sustainable Tourism McCarthy J, Lloyd G and Illsley B, ‘National Parks In Scotland: Balancing Environment And Economy’ (2002) 10 European Planning Studies ‘Tomintoul & Glenlivet Development Trust Tomintoul & Glenlivet’ (Tomintoul & Glenlivet, 2016) <http://tgdt.org.uk/tomintoul-glenlivet-developmenttrust/> accessed 1 November 2016
118
119
The Glasgow School of Art Mdes Design Innovation Stage one