Slides from talks about the research aspects of my walk around Wales given at Birmingham, Brunel, Southampton, Nottingham and Aberdeen in February 2103. For more see: http://alandix.com/alanwalkswales/

1. Treading out Technology
theory meets praxis during a
thousand mile walk round Wales
Alan Dix
Talis& University of Birmingham
http://alandix.com/alanwalkswales/

2. University of
Birmingham
Tiree
Tiree Tech Wave Talis
14-18 March ’13 (full!)
next Oct’13

3. today I am not talking about …
• intelligent internet interfaces
• visualisation and sampling
• situated displays, eCampus,
small device – large display interactions
• fun and games, virtual crackers,
artistic performance, slow time
• physicality and product design
• creativity and Bad Ideas
• modelling dreams and regret

4. … or even lots of lights
http:/www.hcibook.com/alan/projects/firefly/

5. … let alone
http://hcicourse.com/

6. what I will talk about ...
... Alan Walks Wales ...
context
vision
inspirations
baseline
challenges
invitation

7. context
Wales coast path

8. Welsh Coast Path
opened May 2012
linking existing paths
a single way marked route
with Offa’s Dyke encircles Wales
two full traversals in 2012 (one running)

9. vision – the walk
Alan Walks Wales
why and what for

10. Alan Walks Wales
18th April – 28th July 2012
complete periplus
with IT focus

11. vision
personal
encircling, encompassing, pilgrimage, homecoming,
practical
IT for the walker & IT for local communities
philosophical
reflections on walking and space, locality and identity
research
personal agenda and living lab

13. inspirations
Tiree
the amazing cycling programmer
a childhood globe

14. About Tiree
750 residents
20,000 summer visitors
poor mobile
phone
coverage

15. Tiree
at the edges ...
750 people, 20 square miles, 4 hour ferry
Tiree Tech Wave
for the attendee and for the community
making a difference
Tiree Mobile Heritage App.
Tiree Connect

16. the amazing cycling
programmer
at TTW 3 after
10 months on the road
sorry no piccies

17. and my childhood globe

19. baseline
paths and patches
marginality and the electronic village shop
mobile connectivity and data synchronisation

20. paths and patches
links between:
• spatial cognition
and concept formation
• stories and journeys
• boundaries and thresholds
• trans-articulation

21. at the margins
social marginality:
poor, old, rural
information marginality:
poor connectivity, old devices
IT deepens the divide
... but can IT help in the margins?

22. IT in the margins
lessons from the developing world
hole in the wall,
simple SMS
www.hole-in-the-wall.com
an old dream ... the electronic village shop
what now?

23. connectivity & synchronisation

25. challenges
technical
interactional
social

26. maps
reclaiming the local map within technological space
mapping never easier ... so long as it is ‘standard’
“Post-Renaissance maps cover the surface of the
world with an homogeneous Cartesian grip”
Barbara Bender
local maps – local concerns

27. linear maps too

28. linear maps too

29. maps – issues
coordinate transforms – rubber sheeting
transitions – morph or discontinuous
linking trails and localities
authoring and data

30. always connected?
mobile signal
absent or weak
broadband ...
not so broad
=> offline access
and synchronisation
https://explore.ee.co.uk/coverage-checker

31. data synchronisation
well studied in early 1990s
for disconnected operation and synchronous editing
... but still poorly implemented
e.g. Apple iOS
almost always items are:
homogeneous
independent

32. syncing heterogeneous data
problem of lossiness
one solution – create the über format :-/
f
exploit neo-Galois connections
fogof = f
gofog = g
g

33. data integraton
mashups, APIs, RDF,
linked data, schema.org
https://developers.google.com/maps/visualize
ingest ...
or relate?
... heterogeneity

34. P.S. is Welsh coast fractal ...
coast length
(log miles)
ruler length (log miles)

35. P.S. is Welsh coast fractal ...
oops!

37. invitation
community connections
walk with me
living lab