Robots as Characters

Mannequin Summit

Generalizing New Media: Frameworks for Discussion and Comparison

Exploring the Design Space for Interactive Scholarly Communication Motivation for a community developed framework for interactive scholarly communication Seven dimensions of interactive communication Previous work in the context of the seven dimensions Open research questions Conclusions/Goals

Brief timeline for improved scholarly communication 1940’s Vannevar Bush 1960’s & 1970’s Nelson, Engelbart, Licklider, van Dam 1980’s Hypertext research field coalesces 1990’s Digital libraries and interactive digital storytelling research fields coalesce

Current practices of scholarly communication Focus on text and continuance of existing methods of writing the scientific record Restructuring old media via point-to-point conversions from the static physical world to a part of the digital world that is also static The way we make the record is essentially unchanged from Vannevar Bush’s time

A new approach to scholarly communication A wide-open exploration of the design space created by new media for writing the scientific record Focus on interactive authoring tools and systems that will help scholars record the record of their ideas and scientific contributions Authoring tools for the digital libraries of tomorrow

Why new forms of scholarly communication are needed Infrastructure is available: – Internet for dissemination – Digital Libraries for archival storage Interactive faction is not keeping up with results from interactive fiction Scholarly communication is already broken Existing forms may not be the most efficient New media may be more immersive and engaging

Research agenda Design new systems for making and consulting the scientific record Evaluate and disseminate the results of interactive media studies on scholarly communication Generate and distribute new interactive media, authoring tools, and storytelling engines Improve the general framework for interactive scholarly communication

Initial framework Interactive media tend to change the relationship between the reader and the author A simple model will suffice to discuss the design space of interactive scholarly communication

Consider the ACM DL Consider a personalized news reader Consider a MMORPG

Dimensions of Interest Roles – are there separate author/reader (creator/consumer) roles or are they merged? Voices – how many voices are normal in the medium? Interaction – do users get to interact with the content? Indirection – does the reader see what the author created?

Dimensions of Interest (cont.) History – does the medium preserve the authoring process or interaction? Narrative – do normal examples bind the contents into a single (or multiple) narrative? Media – does the medium build on top of a variety of component media?

Seven dimensions of interactive communication Roles Voices Interaction Indirection Indirection History History Narrative Narrative Media Media

Prior systems Spatial hypertext (VKB) Digital Scholarship and Publishing (Synchrony) Metadocuments (Walden’s Paths) For each system: – Brief review – Locate in design space provided by the seven dimensions

VKB Spaces as media for interactive scholarly communication Publishing unit is an evolutionary space Authors construct the space over time through direct manipulation of visual representations Readers explore the space to understand its story Existing media types: text, images, music files, internal and external links Constructed media types: classes, lists, collections

VKB Spaces in the design space Multiple roles Multiple voices Moderate level of interaction Low level of indirection High level of support for history VKB spaces are most often non-narrative Low to moderate level of media use

Synchrony PADLs as media for interactive scholarly communication Publishing units: structured presentations of streaming video segments and text (transcripts, original writing, annotations) Authoring through direct manipulation Readers watch streaming video and read text Existing media types: streaming video, text Constructed media types: presentations

Synchrony PADLs in the design space Multiple roles One voice Low level of interaction Low level of indirection No history Highly narrative Moderate level of media use

Walden’s Paths as media for interactive scholarly communication Publishing unit: annotated paths Authoring via a path authoring tool Readers browse paths linearly, jump between pages of a path, or navigate off the path Existing and constructed media are those offered by the web

Walden’s Paths in the design space Separate author and user roles Multiple voices due to component pages Medium level of interaction Medium level of indirection No history Medium level of narrative Moderate level of media use

Characteristics of communication supported by ends of spectrum RolesAuthorityDiscussion Voices Consistent presentation Many perspectives InteractionImmersionEngagement Indirection Author control Applicability to diverse situations HistoryPrivacy Understanding authoring process Narrative Facts, maps, emergent relations Comprehension of complex reasoning Media Easy distribution Multiple comprehension strategies

Questions What other dimensions are important?