Phone:
+44-1524-593041; Fax: +44-1524-593608
E-mail:
chris@comp.lancs.ac.uk
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Computing
Department, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YR
Phone:
+44-1524-593041; Fax: +44-1524-593608
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Seminar Series 2000
Inhabited TV Steve Benford, Communications Research Group, Computer Science, University of Nottingham Abstract: TV combines collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) with broadcast TV so that on-line audiences can participate in TV shows within shared virtual worlds. Three early experiments with inhabited TV raised fundamental questions concerning the extent to which it is possible to establish fast-pace social interaction within a CVE and to which it is possible to produce a coherent and engaging broadcast of this action. This seminar presents a fourth more recent experiment, Out of This World that directly addressed these questions. I will describe how the formulation of inhabited TV design principles, combined with the use of dedicated production software, for constraining and directing participants' actions and for controlling virtual cameras, supported the creation a fast-moving and coherent show. I will argue that our experiments to date demonstrate the technical feasibility of inhabited TV, but that greater attention needs to be paid to developing appropriate formats and content for this new medium before it becomes truly engaging. (Joint Psychology and Computing Department seminar) Passwords, PINS and other secret codes - the consequences of the security epidemic Angela Sasse, Department of Computer Science, University College London Abstract: The proliferation of technology requiring user authentication has increased the number of passwords which users have to remember, creating a significant usability problem. The talk will present results from several surveys which document the extent of the problem, and the consequences faced by many companies - increasing cost and decreasing security. The pros and cons of other authentication mechanisms will be discussed, but the conclusion is that knowledge-based authentication is likely to remain the widely used. Thus, the challenge is to improve usability by furnishing users with effective strategy for creating and recalling passwords. Reverse Engineering of Legacy Systems - the AMBOLS Project Albert Alderson, School of Computing, Staffordshire University Prof. Alderson is Director of Research in the School of Computing at Staffordshire University and Visiting Professor in Computing at the University of Sunderland. He was previously Visiting Professor in Computing at Lancaster University. Prior to joining Staffordshire in 1996, he worked in industry for 24 years. He was a principal consultant with Software Sciences (a large systems integrator) for 18 years and technical director with IPSYS Software (a small CASE company) for 6 years. While with Software Sciences he had the pleasure of working on the very successful Alvey Eclipse project with Prof. Sommerville, Prof. Hutchinson and others from Lancaster. Abstract: The SMBPC AMBOLS project which has been running for just over two years is addressing the problem of recovering requirements from a system by observation of the system alone. The team set out to apply software engineering and semiotics-based techniques to this problem, causing in microcosm in the project team, the tensions across the business-orientated and development-orientated personnel in industry. A process has been developed and case study results are beginning to be obtained. This seminar will present the process briefly, the results being obtained, and discuss insights from the project. Generative and Component-based Approaches: Aspects in distributed Systems and Aspect Combination Elke Pulvermueller, Andreas Speck, Wilhelm Schickard Institute for Computer Science, University of Tuebingen Abstract: An important subset of generative and component-based software engineering is aspect-oriented programming (AOP). One field is the application of AOP in distributed systems. Another research area is the combination of aspects and the verification of aspect compositions. This may serve as one way to address the feature interaction problem. Moreover aspects can be used as glue mechanisms for component-based systems. Therefore aspects may be important tools in the generative software development. When Cooperation Fails: An overview of Accident and Incident Reporting Techniques for Saftety-Critical Systems Chris Johnson, Computing Science, University of Glasgow Abstract: Crew/Cockpit Resource Management (CRM) techniques have been proposed as means of reducing the opportunity for human error in aviation. A number of recommended practices have, therefore, been introduced to encourage mutual situation awareness, team-based decision making and workload management. These techniques are perceived to have been incredibly successful. UK Aeronautical Information Circular 143/1993 states that all crew must have completed an approved CRM course before January 1995. JAR OPS sub-part N, 1.945(a)(10) and 1.955(b)(6) and 1.965(e) extended similar requirements to all signatory states during 1998. This talk will provide a critical review of these measures. In particular, I will explain how computer supported analysis of accident and incident reports has for the first time thrown doubt on the perceived efficacy of CRM training techniques in Aviation. A draft paper provides some of the background. Supporting Complex Models in a Distributed VR Setting Anthony Steed, Department of Computer Science, University College London Information access based on context and history patterns Matthew Chalmers, Computing Science, University of Glasgow I'll discuss a system, Recer, that tracks ongoing activity in the web browsers and text editors of a group of people, and offers recommendations of URLs and local program files that are specific to and adaptive with that activity, and that reflect patterns of earlier activity within the community of use. Recer's approach to representation, formalisation and interpretation lets it interweave types of information usually analysed separately, tools generally treated in isolation and individuals often treated as working alone. A higher level aim is system design practice in accord with contemporary theory, seeing them as mutually informative and mutually dependent. We wish to explore design where we put activity at the centre of information rather than at the periphery, and so work in a way that matches contemporary semiology's and philosophical hermeneutics' treatment of human language. We wish to deliberately de-emphasise static notions of 'metadata' and hierarchical abstraction in favour of flat, contextual and subjective models, and see the traditional systems and approaches of informatics as powerful but narrowly-applicable tools -powerful exactly because they are narrowly focused and objectifying - and as elements of a single unifying medium. Object Orientation Revealed Dr Ashley Aitken, School of Information Systems, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Western Australia Abstract:
Still trying to invent the future... Mik Lamming, Xerox Research Centre Europe, Cambridge Laboratory Abstract:
Designing for ludic values Bill Gaver, Computer Related Design, Royal College of Art Intention Based Modelling of Organisational Change Peri Loucopoulos, Department of Computation, UMIST Abstract:
Forthcoming:
Designing for
ludic values
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