Piero MussioDICO- Università di Milano

mussio@dico.unimi.it

Meta design: approcci al progetto collaborativo di sistemi interattivi da

parte degli utenti per gli utenti

1. Il contesto: produsage

2. Il brodo primordiale dell’evoluzione: la comunicazione digitale

3. Un caso: il museo Virtuale Tarchna

4. L’utente come progettista: strumenti ed architetture

Scaletta

Il punto di vista di uno studioso della scienza dei calcolatori attivo nel campo dell’interazione persona-macchina

1- Il contesto: produsage

“Meta-design characterizes objectives, techniques, and processes for creating new media and environments allowing ‘owners of problems’ (that is, end users) to act as designers”

[Fischer et al. 2004, CACM]

HCI and web technologies evolution makes user to evolve from content and data consumer

to content and data producer(produsers)[Bruns 2006]

Co-evolution of users and systems

Produsage emerges from a co-evolution process

materialization

interpration materialization

interpretation

Users’ appropriation of the artifacts evolves their practice

culture

cycle 1

artifacts

The user culture and the artifacts evolve

social & organizational

context

technology

cycle 2

Social organizations & technologies evolve Toward user-led content Wikipedia: “ any one can edit”Produsage: collaborative, continuous building and extending

of existing content in pursuit of further improvement

2.Il brodo primordiale dell’evoluzione: la comunicazione digitale

Comunicazione tra umani [after Tondl 81]

channelcod-decod

methods

subjective

worldcod-decod

methods

subjective

world

I(II)

SA I ( II ): State of affairs referred to by message as perceived by comunicant

Phenomena to which the conversation relates

3 3

1

2

2

1

communicant I communicant II

BSA I

SA II

2: refers to

3: stands for

1: perceives

: messaggio

A

Comprensione (valutabile sperimentalmente)

EquivocoGap comunicazionaleSemantizzazione progressiva

Due interpretazioni per ogni messaggio(modello Ogden-Richards: il triangolo cibernetico)

Il messaggio digitale ha una forma interna ed una esterna

Forme esterne(percepibili

dall’umano)

Forma interna

(Contenuto)

Programma 1 Programma2 Programma 3

0100000101010101011000 1101011010101010101010 1111100101010101010110 010101010101010101011011001110011001100110011

videostampa

suono

-il supporto di memorizzazione è diverso dal supporto che rende il messaggio percepibile

-la materializzazione del messaggio è mediata dai programmi che localmente traducono forma interna in esterna

La comunicazione digitale

Novità rispetto ai messaggi orali e scritti.

• La forma esterna è determinata dal programma che la genera• permane fintantoché il programma la fa permanere• dipende dal programma ( e quindi dall’autore del programma)• il sistema ricevente può adattarla all’utente ed al contesto

Il contenuto è persistente ma la forma esterna è labile

• il messaggio è interattivo e pro-attivo (non tace come il libro)• interazione e pro-attività dipendono da programmi (e quindi dai loro

autori )

• l’autore crede di produrre un segnale in forma esterna ma produce una forma interna che solo un programma può interpretare. L’autore:- non può garantire la forma esterna - non può garantire l’accessibilità della forma interna

Comunicazione tra persona e sistema

Designer

Designer's SA

User

User's SA

Mondo percepito dal singolo

Il programma ha un ruolo attivo nella

comunicazione che nessuno strumento ha mai avuto. Codifica e de-codifca secondo

criteri programmati dal progettista

Ma l’uomo interpreta la forma esterna ed il programma quella interna

Il sistema interattivo è un messaggio attivo ():

Un messaggio pro-attivo che il progettista invia all’utente.

Un messaggio che genera e interpreta altri messaggi (a): un meta messaggio

che si comporta come è programmato a fare

La comunicazione…Il sistema è un proxy del progettista (de Souza 2006)

Designer

Designer's SA

User

User's SA

Nuove possibilitàL’utente come produuser: può generare nuovi contenuti- ad esempio

mediante sistemi di annotazione.

Documento

Annotazione creata dall’utente

Archivio Documenti

Utente

1 .Richiesta documento

3 studia il documento e l’annota

2. Il documento ritrovato viene mostrato

4. Decide di salvare l’annotazione

5. l’annotazione viene archiviata, e diviene un documento gestibile

In caratteri Agency: azioni che l’utente fa usando il sistema come strumento (ricordare i 4 ruoli)

In caratteri tahoma: azioni che il sistema esegue come secondo agente nella conversazione

SCHERMO

Utente:da consumatore a produttore di conoscenza

Armour: il software è un nuovo medium di conoscenza (Comm.Acm, 2003)

Sfruttare le opportunità, superare i trabocchetti

Riconoscere l’utente come “owner of the problem”

l’utente come co-autore della forma esterna,

interazione, e organizzazione dei contenuti

(progettazione partecipativa)

Riconoscere i nuovi problemi

i gap comunicazionali

tra utenti e progettisti

tra diverse comunità di utenti

2- Un caso: il museo Virtuale Tarchna e l’emersione di un nuovo medium di

conoscenza

The T.Arc.H.N.A. project

Problem: findings, monuments and documents are dispersed throughout European museums.

Visitors can see them, but cannot understand their context of production, employment and role in the Etruscan life.

Etruscan era: 1200 BC- 100 BC

The UE funded T.Arc.H.N.A. project is aimed at making Etruscan Cultural Heritage accessible, understandable and attractive to large public (and remunerative for Museums and Archeological sites)

Archeologist foreseen strategy

Reconstruction of the unity of the Etruscan Cultural Heritage by creating an hypertext (T.Arc.H.N.A. system)..

T.Arc.H.N.A. reconstructs contexts by linking electronic documents describing the monuments and different findings which constitute it.

Each finding is associated to several meaningsA crater is built to contain

liquids…..

…but also used as a funerary container as explained by the context in which is discovered

..but it can assume different functions and play different roles

used in aristocratic

banquets and symposia

..contains wine in a cerimony. A symbol of life, joy and amusement

...contains ashes and bones,A symbol of death and sorrow

Archeologist foreseen strategy

Archeologists need to• associate each finding to its practical and symbolic meanings studying its roles and functions in different contexts of the Etruscan life•reconstruct the spatial context in which it was found and functional and anthropological contexts in which it was plausibly used. •describe the different functions and roles the finding played in in different life situations, from the use in everyday life to the use in rituals.• create texts (narrations) which introduce the different cultural issues connecting findings and documents.

Information scientists foreseen strategyCreate the an hypertext presenting the Etruscan Cultural

Heritage as unified whole (T.Arc.H.N.A. system).

Archeologists

Visitors

Archives of 7 EuropeanMuseums

Derive T.Arc.H.N.A. ontology from

CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model* ontology

Use T-ontology to federate existing European archives.

*The CIDOC CRM is official ISO 21127:2006 standard

ontology for Cultural Heritage

The start: a clash between the two cultures

Different views on reality, different ways of reasoning and teaching

- abstraction, observation, measurement, evaluationmodel based vs analogy basedalgorithmic vs. heuristic

-knowledge representation, organization and diffusioncomputer based vs paper basedexplicit information vs implicit information

- communicating, teaching and learning : formalization based vs practical observationdifferent balance between explicit and tacit knowledge

An observed phenomenon

Communicational and reasoning gaps

- Same word used with different meaning

- Different naming techniques (use of synonymy and context)

- use of tacit knowledge in the development and interpretation of documents leads to misunderstandings and equivoques

To overcome the gaps

Both Archeologists and Computer Scientists

• admitted that dealing with such a complex achievement, they had to accept to teach and instruct each other. (simmetry of ignorance)

• recognized the Need of performing a progressive semantization process to create a common language as a common field of interaction and not only a common terminology

The progressive semantization process

Started from CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model ontology used as a boundary object for reaching a common understanding

Based on the development of incremental prototypes used to externalize stakeholders’ tacit knowledge and as boundary objects

Results:1. A portal “Virtual Museum”2. The emergence of the new digital communication media

“Narration”

1° risultato : un Museo Virtuale

Il museo Virtuale è costituito da un sistema interattivo (Tarchna System o T-system)

T-system permette agli archeologi di creare narrazioni digitalidi che descrivono aspetti della civiltà etrusca.

T-system è capace di interpretare queste narrazioni, e presentarle ai visitatori dei musei

T-system permette ai visitatori di esplorare la civiltà etrusca interagendo con le narrazioni.

2° Result: emergence of a new communication media

A NARRATION appears to visitors as a narrativeTEXT (A) and a set of documents (B) which contextualize the issue in its anthropological and historical context (CS-CONTEXT )

Narration creation (1)

First step: an Archeologist interacts with T-system in domain

oriented languages to define• TEXT • CS-CONTEXT DESCRIPTION.

CS-CONTEXT DESCRIPTION defines which documents may

be of interest

T-system supports archeologists authoring TEXT and CONTEXT DESCRIPTION •makes available scientific abstracts created from narration texts and literature •providing a well suited internal form of TEXT and CONTEXT

A two step activity

A Narration Builder was designed in which interaction occurs according to archeologist mental models and languages allowing them to exploit their tacit knowledge in defining CONTEXT DESCRIPTION without becoming acquainted in computer science.

Music had a great

importance in the Etruscan

society

TEXT

Select all instruments made

of bronze material

CONTEXT Description

Archeologist defines indirect narration

Narration creation (2)

Second step: On user demand, T-system• interprets the CS-CONTEXT DESCRIPTION,• retrieves the documents in the web, • creates on the fly the NARRATION displaying TEXT and

CSCONTEXT (the set of documents).

Observations: CS-CONTEXT DESCRIPTION is a program T-system federates the db of the museums to create the CSCONTEXT on the fly

T-system support usersOn demand, selects a narration, interpret it, creates the contexts, present the result to visitors

An overview of the Tarchna system

Narration Builder: T-system support archeologists and organizes a narration archives

ArcheologistCreates narrations

Visitor

Narration archives

Narration features

A narration cannot be predicted in advance: the TEXT (A) is permanent as defined by the text author.

The CONTEXT (set of documents B) is built on the fly: it depends on the number and current state of the data bases available in the web

New roles for Archeologists, Systems and Visitors

A NARRATION is the result of:

Visitors become active builder of their experience

- social activity the of community of archeologists, in the creation of TEXT, CONTEXT DESCRIPTION and of the documents in the federated data bases.

- T-SYSTEM mediation: T-system interprets CS-CONTEXT DESCRIPTION to create CONTEXT. T-system as a proxy of Archeologits who create it

Archeologists as produsers

In content creation:

•Shift from dedicated individuals and team as producer to a distributed generation of content.

•Fluid roles in production: fluid movements as leaders, participant and users

•Artifact generated are no longer products in traditional sense: continually under development

(evolutionary, iterative)

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La lezione (confermata da molte esperienze)

Il progetto di dì sistemi che supportano processi di interazione così complessi richiede• l’esperienza di diversi specialisti (un approccio partecipativo)• che operino alla pari ( simmetria dell’ignoranza (Rittel))

Each stakeholder’s knowledge complements the ignorance of the others

• una adeguata infrastruttura digitale di supporto

3- una generalizzazione: la metodologia Software Shaping Workshops

Meta-design

Our view:A design paradigm that includes end users as active

members of the design team and provides all stakeholders in the team with suitable languages and tools to foster their personal and common reasoning about the development of interactive software systems that support end users’ work.

Two-phase process– the first devoted to design the design environment– the second one to design applications using the

design environment

Our meta-design approach

A design methodology (SSW methodology) aimed at designing interactive infrastructures that address the needs of different communities of end users and allow them to design their tools

A software infrastructure is composed by software environments,

and communication channels Each software environment is devoted to a specific community

of stakeholders, organized as virtual workshops, called Software Shaping Workshops (SSW)

A metaphor for conceptual design: artisan workshop(Not workshop as a people meeting)

37

reasoning on the activities to be performed

expressing her/his own view of the interaction process

The software infrastructure

PROVIDES LANGUAGES to support each stakeholder inPROVIDES LANGUAGES to support each stakeholder in

during all the stages of the design & development &use during all the stages of the design & development &use

processprocess

PROVIDES channels to support each stakeholder inPROVIDES channels to support each stakeholder in

communicating her/his view with the others

W-SE

W-RReprX W-HCI

W-ReprY W-ReprZ

…W-EU-Y2

…

W-EU-W2

high

low high

low

Usa

bili

ty f

or

en

d u

sers

Co

mp

uta

tion

al p

ow

er

W-EU-Y1 W-EU-W1…

W-EU-X1 W-EU-Z1…

…

…W-EU-X2 W-EU-Z2…

To Use level

To Use level

Meta-DesignMeta-DesignLevelLevel

Design LevelDesign Level

Use LevelUse Level

Interactive system as SSW network

W-ReprX W-ReprW

Each SSW provides only the tools to perform the desired activities

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Turing Tar Pit

Turing Tar Pit: “Beware of the Turing Tar Pit, in which everything is possible, but nothing of interest is easy.”

Inverse of Turing Tar Pit: “Beware of the over-specialized systems, where operations are easy, but little of interest is possible.”

[G. Fischer 2006]

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Case study

A web application to support the CIDD activities

CIDD (Consorzio Italiano Distribuzione Dolciaria) is a consortium of Italian companies operating in confectionery field

The application provides the consortium companies with several services

– price lists– order management– discounts ….– to exchange information and cooperate through the Web

First release of the application did not satisfy the CIDD manager

He wanted to be more powerful, to shape companies Web pages

Next release was developed with SSW methodology, to allow end users to be co-designers of their tools

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Three types of end users

Power user: sales manager (and his secretary)– To visualize, insert, modify and delete workshop contents– To define access rules – To design workshops

Associated companies: companies representatives– To access contracts, catalogues, promotions, competitions – To make orders – To design workshops for their customers

Registered guests: company customers, partners – To access to specific contents

Each type of user has different interests, responsibilities and skills, and performs different activities

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SE

SalesManager HCI

AssocRep1 AssocRepN

…CustN.1

…

CustN.K

high

low high

low

Usa

bili

ty f

or

en

d u

sers

Co

mp

uta

tion

al p

ow

er

Partner1 PartnerN…

Assoc1 AssocN…

…

…Cust1.1 Cust1.H …

To Use level

To Use level

Meta-DesignMeta-DesignLevelLevel

Design LevelDesign Level

Use LevelUse Level

The SSW network in the CIDD case study

43

SalesManager workshop

The sales manager designs the workshop for representatives of an associated company,

providing it with some services. He selects the company from a list, a service from

another lists and clicks on the association button to associate the service to that company

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Workshop for associated company representatives

Services for the workshop users are on the left

The company representative is creating the catalogue for a customer, that will appear in

the customer workshop.

He selects companies that provide products to the customer, indicating prices, % of

revenues, etc.

Communication area for exchanging

messages in the network

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SSWs permit to design and evolve a system through collaborative negotiations

The negotiation is based on the exchange along the SSW network of two types of messages:– executable specifications of workshops (XML-based

documents)– annotations about these workshops

A stakeholder designs or updates a workshop (e.g. sales manager) by using a domain specific language. His actions modify the executable specification that, when interpreted by the browser, generates the new workshop

SSWs permit to design and evolve a system through collaborative negotiations

The negotiation is based on the exchange along the SSW network of two types of messages:– executable specifications of workshops (XML-based

documents)– annotations about these workshops

A stakeholder designs or updates a workshop (e.g. sales manager) by using a domain specific language. His actions modify the executable specification that, when interpreted by the browser, generates the new workshop

Communication paths in the network

Exchange paths: – among the workshops at the

same levelRequest paths:

– concerned with the communications going from low levels to higher levels

– trigger the co-evolution process, carrying on the feedback from end users (requests for workshop modification or extension)

Generation paths: – represent the activity of using workshops at a

high level to generate, modify or extend workshops to be used at the lower level

– new or evolved workshops are made available to lower levels along such generation paths

Communication path along which the exchanges of data and programs occur

Communication paths in the network

Exchange paths: – among the workshops at the same level

Request paths: – concerned with the communications

going from low levels to higher levels

– trigger the co-evolution process, carrying on the feedback from end users (requests for workshop modification or extension)

Generation paths: – represent the activity of using workshops at a high

level to generate, modify or extend workshops to be used at the lower level

– new or evolved workshops are made available to lower levels along such generation paths

Communication paths in the network

Exchange paths: among the workshops at the same level

Request paths: – concerned with the communications going from low

levels to higher levels– trigger the co-evolution process, carrying on the

feedback from end users (requests for workshop modification or extension)

Generation paths: – represent the activity of using

system workshops at a high level to generate, modify or extend workshops to be used at the lower level

– new or evolved workshops are made available to lower levels along such generation paths

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Una possibile realizzazione

Un sistema SSW può essere realizzato con diverse architetture: qui ne vediamo una sviluppata da una collaborazione Milano-Bari nell’ambito PCL.

L’architettura richiede la definizione di tre linguaagi e viene istanziata interpretando un insieme di documenti scritti nei tre linguaggi che definiscono il profilo dell’utente, del suo ruolo nell’interazione e della piattaforma usata.

http(s) transportHTTP

requestXML data

Server-sidesystems

Browserclient

User

Per creare un’infrastruttura

dalle caratteristiche volute: architettura

comune ai singoli ambienti

Knowledge Management Engine Basato su ontologia di dominio.

Espone servizi

db1 db2 dbn

Client ricco, con interazione grafica, possibilità di annotazione ricorsiva, indicizzazione di annotazione e documenti

Gestisce l’ inizializzazione del processo, la gestione dell’interazione e della base di conoscenza

SO

AP

In

terf

ace

52

Descrivere il sistema a diversi livelli di astrazione

L’architettura comune

http(s) transportHTTP

requestXML data

Server-sidesystems

Browserclient

BANCO client-side application

BANCO engine BANCO configuration specification

ECMAScript call DOM

Vieweruser interface

User

Web Server

BANCO server-side application

IM2L TLLML

Instantiation and Interaction

Libraries (ECMAScript)

XSLT Processor

XSL rules

54

Il processo di materializzazione

Localized Template

IM2L document

SVG Full DOM tree

XSLT

Transformation Rules

Transformation Rules

XSL TemplateXSL Template

XSLT

55

Il processo di localizzazione

LML document

TL document

Localized Template

XSLT

Transformation Rules

Transformation Rules

XSL Localization

XSL Localization

XSLT

56

Future scenario for Software

Recent projects describe a future scenario for software systems– Software will increasingly be part of integrated, heterogeneous,

and continuously developing infrastructures– End users will actively change the tools they work with and

orchestrate different services as building blocks to provide the functionality they need

– In cases where the required functionality cannot be obtained by simple tailoring, they will communicate and cooperate with local and other professional designers who in turn might call upon a network of peers or developers of the base products and frameworks used

New languages and new architectures are arising to respond to this evolution

References Arias E. et al. (2000), Transcending the Individual Human Mind—Creating Shared Understanding through

Collaborative Design-, ACM TOCHI, Vol. 7, No. 1, March 2000, Pages 84–113.

Bagnasco 2002: Bagnasco Gianni, G. (ed.) Cerveteri. Importazioni e contesti nelle necropoli, Quaderni di Acme, 52. Bologna 2002

Bonghi Jovino, M. (ed.). Tarchna series, I-III, L’Erma di Bretschneider (Roma) 1997-2002.

Mussio P. et al.,, Visual Interactive Systems for End-User Development: a Model-based Design Methodology,. to appear IEEE TSMC, available TR LACAM 02.10.2005

Rittel, H. 1984. Second generation design methods. In Developments in Design Methodology John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, NY, 317–327.

Schŏn, D. 1992. Designing as reflective conversation with the materials of a design situation. Knowl.-Based Syst. J. 5, 1, 3–14.

Shneiderman, B. (2002). Leonardo's Laptop: Human Needs and the New Computing Technologies, MIT Press.

Snow, C. P. 1993. The Two Cultures. C. P. Cambridge University Press, New York, NY.Wulf,W., Panel position, Bridging Art and Science with creativity support tools,CC2007, June 13,

Washington.Bruns, A., Blogs, wikipedia, second life, and beyond: from production to produsage ,Peter Lang, New York,

2008

Costabile, M.F., Fogli, D., Fresta, G., Mussio, P., Piccinno, A. Computer Environments for Improving End-User Accessibility. LNCS, Volume 2615, Springer-Verlag, pp. 129-140, 200

M.F. Costabile, D. Fogli, P. Mussio, A. Piccinno. End-User Development: the Software Shaping Workshop Approach. In H. Lieberman, F. Paternò, V. Wulf (Eds), “End User Development”, Springer, 2006. pp. 183-205

M.F. Costabile, D. Fogli, P. Mussio, A. Piccinno. Visual Interactive Systems for End-User Development: a Model-based Design Methodology”, IEEE Trans. SMC - Part A: Systems and Humans, Volume 37, No. 6, 2007, pp. 1020-1046.